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The brief but devastating storms, denominated in India North-Westers, are of frequent occurrence during the rainy season, and commit dreadful ravages in the course of their rapid progress, as they sweep over the plains, or lash the waters of the Ganges into temporary madness: they come on suddenly without any previous intimation. The one described took place in the vicinity of Moorshedabad, the residence of the Nizam of Bengal, and it dispersed a splendid flotilla of boats belonging to that prince.

"and fling O'er Ganges' wave each flowery offering."

The Hoogly is one of the mouths of the Ganges, from which it branches a short distance above Moorshedabad: it is esteemed equally sacred, and every wave brings down the lotus or beautiful white or deep crimson flowers consigned by the natives to its silvery tides in honour of the deity of the stream. At night it is also illuminated by lamps burning in fairy shallops of cocoa-nut shells, from which the Hindoos of either sex read the augury of their future fortunes.