146

EARTHEN CORN-JARS.

stalked through this double-harvest-bearing land. The rice, upon which a third part of the vast population is fed, has perished for want of water, or has been devoured by the locusts; and the cattle and the labourer have expired together.

Among the most desolating famines in India, of which history has furnished us with accounts, that which occurred in Bengal, in 1770, is the most harassing to contemplate; several millions of human beings are said to have perished in it. Another famine, that thinned the north-west provinces, proved almost as fatal; and had not the hand of charity in a great measure averted the calamity, by relieving daily 80,000 individuals at Agra, it would have been impossible to have calculated the amount of deaths.

Such disastrous occurrences are, however, rarer than they were formerly-the Indian husbandman having been taught the necessity of providing against the future, by storing up his corn in the seasons of plenty.*

* Corn in Guzerat is often stored up near the farmer's house, in large earthern jars, capable of holding the contents of three or four of our ordinary sacks. These jars are secured by a close-fitting lid, fastened down with clay or chunam, to prevent the ingress of the destructive white ants. Those which I first saw were arranged side by side under a shed, close by the owner's residence, and puzzled me much, before I could find out their use. The Arabian story of Ali Baba, or the

THE NORTH-EAST MONSOON,

147

The rains are always variable and uncertain; some districts in the interior being flooded, while others are barely visited by passing showers. In Bombay, rain to the depth of thirty-two inches has been known to fall, during the first twelve days of the south-west monsoon; this being the average fall of a whole year in England. The consequence is, on such occasions, that every road and field is flooded, and that the new town, from its low, swampy situation, suffers severely.

The reader will perceive that I have not confined my description entirely to the Island of Bombay. Agricultural farming is carried on on a very small scale here, the land being poor, and naturally producing little, excepting cocoa-nut trees, and some trifling articles of fruit. The inhabitants are chiefly supplied with vegetables, poultry, sheep, &c., from Salsette; and the teeming plains of Guzerat furnish them with corn, which is conveyed by sea, as all land carriage is very expensive and slow, on account of the wretched roads, and the miserable mode of conveyance adopted in India.

The cool and agreeable north-east monsoon, that succeeds that of the south-west, or rainy wind, continues to blow steadily to the end of February. Dry and fair weather is now certain throughout this great

Forty Thieves, occurred to me, for each jar might easily have contained one, if not two, tall robbers.

peninsula, though the north-east monsoon brings with it rain on the eastern side of the Coromandel coast, from October to December. To March the northeast winds prevail, in which month they gradually cease altogether, and irregular veering winds, attended by hot blasts and excessive and relaxing days may be expected until the commencement of May or June. We will now return to our recollections of this hot season in Bombay, and of matters therewith connected.

The scene has changed: the sun, so long obscured during the rainy months, or only peeping out between the dark masses of electric clouds, now bursts forth with redoubled power; and man begins to devise plans to meet the coming hot season, and to shade his dwelling as much as possible from its scorching rays. 'Tis early morn-day has just broken over the high eastern ghauts, and the welcome streak of light spreads rapidly over the lofty canopy above us. You have taken your bath, and feel a longing desire to go forth into the open air, to ramble through the compound, or, in fact, to escape, in whatever direction, from your confined bungalow, the walls of which have scarcely thrown off the heat of the past day. If early abroad, it is no uncommon thing to find everything enveloped in a hot steaming vapour, that strongly recalls to the memory the

artificial atmosphere of a close green-house, when the sun is full upon it. Such mornings in Bombay are called muggy, and are always the forerunners of extreme heat. You are prepared for this unhealthy evaporation, which is often very dense towards the close of this season, by putting on a flannel jacket; having the fear of rheumatism, or country-ague, before your eyes; disorders from which, in consequence of imprudent exposure to the many atmospheric changes that assail the European in India, all, more or less, suffer severely.

There is an indescribable sweetness in the morning at this hour (six o'clock). It is as if every leaf and flower, nay, the very earth itself, were exhaling some delicious perfume wherewith to refresh you, and offering up an early tribute to the Giver of all good for the past night's refreshing dews, which still glitter in diamond globules around you. Vegetation does rejoice, for it has been revived and nourished ; and the pores of its leaves are freed from dust by these gentle distillations, that fall from heaven unseen by man.

Night dews on this island are very heavy; and I have often been surprised upon returning home between nine and ten of an evening, to find my clothes wet and uncomfortable from this cause, though the atmosphere at the time was clear and serene.

150

THE TREE-LIZARD.

With the breaking forth of the sun the mist vanishes, and the loveliest of all hours bursts upon the world. Soon, however, the leaves of many of the trees and shrubs begin gradually to droop, so as to offer as small a surface as possible to his withering rays I was often struck with this singular phenomenon, which we cannot look upon but as a beautiful provision for the protection of plants at mid-day. During these comparatively cool hours, there blossom numbers of garden and wild flowers, whose beauty before noon has faded and gone.

Butterflies, and a host of minor honey-sucking insects, are now on the wing, seeking, while the calyx that offers it yet lives, their morning's repast, and flitting about like bright meteors; till, having satisfied their wants, they retire to the shade of some thick grove, there to slumber till the sun sinks low, and fresh blossoms open to them their evening nectaries. Now may be seen the large tree-lizard, remarkable for the curious pouch under his head, very busy and alert, springing from branch to branch, and pouncing upon the poor flies driven into his domain by the ascending sun; his hour has now arrived, and he must breakfast while opportunity offers.

There is another pretty saurian, which also claims our attention; and which has often afforded me amusement of a morning from seven o'clock until