rooms, I occasionally spent an idle hour, in looking over the various and beautiful articles which are here gathered together from all parts of the world; which bad speculations, and over-crowded markets, have caused to fall under the auctioneer's hands; and which he sells at prices ruinous to their owners. I remember seeing here a state-bedstead, which was said to have belonged to George the Fourth, at the Pavilion at Brighton. It had been sent out, in the hope that its costly gilding and ornaments, might tempt some of the wealthy natives to purchase it, but I suspect it has never been sold. The adventures of that bedstead, if one could have investigated them, must have been rather curious. There was a moral conveyed in its history, on the instability of all human greatness. "Sic transit gloria mundi."- -The bazaars are distinguished by name, as the Borahs, the China, and the Parsee. They are in confined streets, and are redolent of sandal-wood, cocoa-nut oil, and garlic. The china bazaar is filled with goods manufactured in that country. Here you may purchase the beautiful feather-screens, punkahs in endless variety, carved ivory-work in chessmen, backgammon boxes, netting-cases, and boxes, grass cloth kerchiefs, rich silks and satins, and the familiar little cups and saucers, and teapots, so highly valued by china-loving ladies. Camphorwood trunks, to preserve furs and valuable clothing from insects, and in particular from the white ants, so destructive in the country, are sold here. In the Parsees you meet with London, French, and American goods, and all those nicknacks which ladies require, besides articles of Bombay workmanship, particularly the richly inlaid workboxes, card-cases and desks, which are so justly admired by Europeans; Kincob,* or gold cloth, so much worn by the rich native children; and the exquisite Indian muslins. The Borah bazaar is occupied by a class of men who attend all public or private sales. They resemble the second-hand furniture brokers in London, and their shops display the same endless variety of odds and ends, new and old. I shall have occasion, as I proceed in my Sketches, to allude again to these men in the character of travelling hawkers. There are one or two good markets for the sale of butcher's meat, fish, vegetables, and poultry. Oysters are found in great numbers upon the coast, as well as prawns, and other marine delicacies. Everything in the shape of food is very cheap, and with care, a single man may live most comfortably on £100 a-year. A dreadful system of extravagant rivalry is, however, carried on amongst the residents at Bombay,

Kincob, cloth of gold; manufactured at Ahmedabad, and sold by weight. Fine gold thread or wire is woven with the silk. An inferior kind is often made with gilt tinsel wrought in with the silk; and this kind is sold by measure.

many of whom are thus led into the wretched folly of living beyond their means. The young cadets and writers are gradually affected by the prevailing epidemic; and many become so seriously involved in debt and difficulties, as to be unable to leave the country which has been their ruin, or ever to get out of the clutches of the money-lending natives, who, by-the-bye, knowing that our government is a good paymaster, are ever ready to advance considerable sums to young officers, being quite sure of repayment. As the Hindoo invariably follows the profession of his forefathers;* which profession has been handed down to him, but little changed by modern improvements, from one generation to another, they have no secrets in their trade. The tools with which they work are few, and extremely simple in their design and construction; and they always sit in the well-known Oriental posture; their feet being educated to assist their hands in almost every labour which they undertake. I have often gained both amusement and instruction, from observing the important offices which Hindoo feet perform. The joiner seizes the plank between the soles of his feet, and there holds it firmly till he has planed it so as to make it suit his purpose. A Hindoo workman has two sets of fingers, and such a command has he over those of the feet, that he can lift up from the ground, and bring towards the hands, almost any articles of a light nature. Practice has given the natives of the East a control which we do not possess over these muscles generally; and the freedom with which their articulations work, surprises the stiff-made European. The hands of the Hindoo are small and beautifully formed.

Some of the streets in Bombay are exclusively inhabited by castes who work at the same trade. In one, may be seen the workers in brass and copper; which department of trade generally embraces the manufacture of tripod lamps, drinking vessels, and cooking-pans, for all these things are made of copper in India, and hammered out to the proper shape and size by manual labour. The design of the chattees for holding water, and lifting it out of the deep tanks, reminded me of the earthern and bronze vases found at Pompeii and Herculaneum: the mode of drinking among the Hindoos is curious; they never allow the vessel to touch the lips, but, holding the head back, they pour the liquor from a moderate height into the open mouth; and this, practice has enabled them to do with perfect ease and convenience. For my own part, I never attempted to perform the same feat, without imminent danger of choking. I was often surprised that they should drink in this way, as they are To do this is regarded by the Hindoos as a religious duty,

usually very cautious about opening their mouths wide, lest the evil one should enter. The most ordinary actions of this singular people are, with them, religious rites; it would be vain to attempt to describe one half of the ceremonies which they practise during every waking hour

of their lives.

In another street you see the palanquin-builders, in another the common house-joiners and cabinet makers, and so on. Indeed, if a person felt disposed to extend his knowledge of such arts, he might here obtain cheap lessons in the making of gold and silver ornaments, and in inlaying, carving, gilding, dying, and embroidery, in all their branches. The Chinese in my opinion cannot surpass the Hindoos in the art of inlaying. In this work they proceed as follows-they first, with great neatness, make the box of scented sandal-wood, which grows on the Malabar coast, and which is very expensive, and bought by so much the tola. The pieces before they are put together, are sawn with a fine instrument, exactly to fit each into its place; as, the wood being very brittle, it cannot well be planed; silver hinges and a silver lock are then put on, as steel in that country rusts so as to be unfit for use: even keys here, worn in the pocket, rust. Having so far proceeded in their work, they cut or saw out, from stained pieces of ivory of all colours, a number of minute pieces in the shape of octagons, triangles, &c. ; and nearly an equal number from their plates of virgin silver. They then sketch on the box the design intended to be worked; and having everything in readiness, they cover a small portion of the wood with a strong kind of glue, which does not dry quickly, but hardens by degrees; the little pieces are taken up from a tray with fine pliers, and laid on the box, side by side, very quickly; the colours and silver plates being disposed as the pattern may direct. So small are some of the pieces, that three or four hundred would lie on a square inch: when the work is quite finished, and the glue sufficiently dry, they level the whole with fine glass-paper, and afterwards polish it; the necessary holes in the sandalwood are pierced by means of a strong pricker, as this hard wood would fly to pieces if pierced in any other way. Equally expert are some of the natives in carving and chasing in wood beautiful figures of birds, beasts, and flowers; using a rude little instrument about two inches long, not unlike a common iron nail. I am not aware that they arve in ivory.

The Shroffs, or money-changers, take up their position at the corner the streets, with their little tables before them, ready to transact business at a moment's notice. These men act sometimes in the capacity

of pawnbrokers, by lending small sums of money upon the gold and silver ornaments, which all possess in a greater or lesser degree; for she must be a wretchedly poor woman indeed, that cannot show a silver bangle or anklet upon the arm or leg. The money-lenders purchase all sorts of foreign coin; and for the few sovereigns that I found at the bottom of my purse, upon landing in India, I received in change from one of these men, eleven rupees each, equal to twenty-two shillings of our money. I was only sorry I had not more sovereigns to exchange, as I very soon discovered that money is obtained with as much difficulty at Bombay as in England; and that people work for it quite as hard there as here. The golden expectations of youth are but too often disappointed in India. There is no country in which you sooner become acquainted with the sad realities of life; even in that rich land, man must eat bread by the sweat of his brow. If you want small change for a rupee, you have often to go to the shroff for it; and if the applicant be a foreigner, he takes pretty good care to deduct three or four pice for the accommodation.

The shroff of the street is not a trusty man to deal with; he will impose upon you whenever opportunity offers; a few days before I left Bombay for England, I was rather anxious to bring home with me some of the native ornaments, and gave their weight in rupees, for what I was told was pure silver. Upon my arrival in England, I was much annoyed to find the rings, bangles, and anklets were only tubes of silver, into which lead had been run to increase their weight. I had indeed paid pretty dear for my whistle. The shroff is furnished with an inkstand; pens and paper, for writing out hoondies, or money-orders; acids for testing the coin; and generally a pair of old-fashioned spectacles; for the shroff is commonly an old man, and cannot depend implicitly upon his own eyes.

The Opium seller has also his little table in the street, with his boxes and scales upon it, and tempting samples of the dreamy drug; one glance at the man will convince you that he is one of his own best customers; the soiled and disorderly turban and dress, show you that he is

• Bangles and anklets are the chief ornaments of the Hindoo women. They are clasped round the arm or leg in early youth, and never removed. Many of them are soldered on; and instances have occurred in which the parties wearing them have been murdered, with the purpose of gaining possession of these ornaments. A silver ring is also commonly worn on the great toe; and the nose and ears are pierced for the insertion of similar ornaments. Those who are too poor

to purchase silver bangles, &c., wear hoops of coloured glass, which make a curious jingling as they walk.

not himself. As a poisoner, who shuns the broad day, he comes creeping out of some narrow, dark alley just when

"Morn her rosy steps in the Eastern clime,

Advancing, sows the earth with orient pearl,"

and man is tempted to breathe the cool atmosphere, and gaze upon the landscape still glittering with the dews of night. This is his hour for business; for the effects of the last night's dose are worn off, and the wretched victims who surround his table, are eager to purchase the day's allowance of the slow poison which he offers, to tranquillize the wandering and disturbed brain of each. Alas! what a fearful group is here, youth with the sunken eye and languid frame; old age, extreme old age, tottering on two bamboos, in ragged and neglected garments. Each palsied hand scatters down the few annas demanded in payment, and then the purchaser, as if he dreaded the detecting eye of his happier and more resolute fellow-creatures, skulks feebly back to his home, to enjoy an artificial state of existence, too dearly purchased by a premature and unlamented death, and by the destruction of every natural feeling implanted in him. This fearful species of intoxication is more generally practised among the inhabitants of British India than has been commonly supposed. The Mahometans in particular are much addicted to its use. I am not surprised that the Emperor of China fought hard to prevent the importation of opium into his dominions by the East India Company. Well might that monarch regard that potent drug as a curse to a nation which had already begun to suffer from its dangerous seduction, and which showed for it a decided taste.

East-Indian opium, which is inferior to that of Turkey, is generally grown in Malwa, Bahar, and Benares, the great seat of Brahminical learning. In Malwa, it is stated, 360,000 pounds are annually produced; but it is often adulterated with decayed leaves, and other impurities. Morewood has calculated, that 16,500lbs. annually find their way into Great Britain; but of course a large portion of this must be exported to the colonies, as it cannot be consumed as a medicine in such quantities. The Arabian perambulates the street with his country wares and produce. The curious-shaped bottles strung round his neck, are filled with delicious rose-water, of which the Hindoos and Parsees are passionately fond, and which they sprinkle over their apartments and

The College of Benares, which is very ancient, appears to have been founded for the instruction of the Hindoos in Sanscrit or pure Hindostanee Literature and Hindoo law. It has also a department for the study of the Persian language.