Page:Life in India or Madras, the Neilgherries, and Calcutta.djvu/98

78 peering through the curtains. Next you will see a fat goldsmith seated on a little affair, the size of a wheelbarrow, drawn by a single red bullock no bigger than a Newfoundland dog; and then a wagon crowded with five or six lank bearded Musselmans, and a driver in front urging on a miserable starved pony with merciless blows.

Nor is the variety of riders much less: army officers and gentlemen on blooded horses from England, Australia, or the Cape of Good Hope; Mohammedans, on ambling ponies; Arabs, on spirited steeds from their native land; Hindu body-guardsmen, in their splendid uniform; young cadets, with the fresh blood of England blooming red in their cheeks,–pass in quick succession; while now and then a camel, with its long, swinging gait, or an elephant loaded with camp equipage, add to the novelty of the scene.

As you get farther from the city, the throng diminishes, and you have leisure to turn your eyes from the wayfarers to the many handsome dwellings that skirt the road. They commonly stand in large parks, surrounded by a wall or a cactus hedge, and planted with palms, mango-trees, margosas, and tamarinds, or with the