Page:"Round the world." - Letters from Japan, China, India, and Egypt (IA roundworldletter00fogg 0).pdf/180

 and wien mornivg came, and I tried to as certain cur whereabouts, if was quite im- poseible to understand the names of the sta- tions aa shouted by the attendant porter, who yellscot in a barbaric manner come uch euphonious name as Chandaragore, or Dildaranuggur, meanwhile clanging his bell to anncunes the spproach of the train. Ag the day grew hot a weter-eartier witha Well-filled ekin upon hig beck appeared at covery station and van alongside the native cars inangwer to the universal sheus of ‘ah! ah! Beestiel? Tha dusiand glare waa almost intolerable, but I had been warned nof to partake of this ‘cholera mixture,” al- though sn cceasionsl abluticy taken al fresco at the carriage deo*, with a towel, soap and ancnge from my traveling bag, was quite a Juzury,

The scene when we stopped for dinner was unique. The station-master and the spar~ rows alone ware English—everything else looked Eastern. Black Sepoy soldiers ruched frantically among the ecreaming natives who were crowding info the train, exch hugging a big bundle, sometimes containing household stuff and scmetimes bables—pal- kees and doolies—palanquing and secans, as we should call them—waited at the back door of the station—nstives were crowded around the “hooking office” for tickets, where the Baboo in ettendance was coolly smoking bis water-pipe—en ibis waa drink: ing at the engine tank; 2 sacred cow leoking over the cactud hedges a tame elephant reaching up with bis trunk et the telegraph wire, on which was perched a bird with bright plumage, while an Indlan vulture crowned ths iron telegraph post. I was 60 much amused af watching these strange nights that I quits forgat mp dinner, and when the starting bell rang I made a rush +o the dining room and seized a corplo of sandwiches, for which I peid arupre, aud, without stopping for the change, jumpsdon board the train, which was already in mo- tion.

In the broad culfivaicd plain through which we pass there are no detached houses to be seen, but we frequsatly rush past mud Villages which contain quite a colony of people, aud ere tke most wretched and filthy imagivable. A moat full of black looking water surrounds each, which an- swers the double purpose of keeping off snakes and wild animals, and of breeding mosquitoesespecially the latter. The thatched roofs and mud walls have a tumble