Page:Letters from India Vol 1.djvu/104

 the door with his spectacles on, just as I left him squatting there.

I hope we shall be here at least four days of every week. We have only Captain Grey and some of the midshipmen here, and what the mosquitoes have left of us is very comfortable. Sir C. Metcalfe, who has been here for thirty years, says they bite him, now, as much as they did the first day ; and many people seem to be confined for months after they first arrive, from the inflammation of their bites. Emily and I are going to take a quiet airing on an elephant this afternoon.

There are myriads of fireflies and paroquets here—beautiful! Jackals noisy and bad.

Believe me, dear, yours most affectionately, 1em

Thursday, March 10. Got up with half a headache for want of sleep; the Brahminee kites and the crows and the pariah dogs all croaked and cawed and howled all night. George held a durbar, which means in common sensible parlance, that the native princes and noblesse came to see him. They bring him offerings—some of them he