Page:Wanderings of a Pilgrim Vol 1.djvu/325

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at Allahabad: the comfort of holding a fixed situation is great, and we rejoice exceedingly.

Our great Bengal Lion Rajah Rammohun Roy appears to have created no small sensation on the other side of the water. He is one of the few well-educated natives we possess, and is, decidedly, a very remarkable person. He holds his title of Rajah from the king of Delhi, the great Mogul, whose ambassador he is to the British Court in a suit versus John Company.


Extract from a homeward-bound letter.

"The Mem sāhiba's present fureur, for she always has one darling passion for the time, is making a collection of butterflies and coleopteræ, she is deeply read in taxidermy, and we have, besides, many other prepared subjects, such as tigers, and hyenas' skulls, alligator's skeleton whole; a delightful little pet in spirits of wine, a young crocodile, skin and all. Then there is 'The Bottle of Horrors!' containing cobra de capello, scorpions, lizards, millepieds, centpieds, grillus monstrosus, and I know not what. Mephistopheles himself would be affrighted; and I, the Faust of this Margaret, am sitting in a quiet unconcern, smoking my cigar, as happy as if I was one of the party in the bottle, the daily object of admiration!"


NARRATIVE OF OOMEID THUG.—(August 10th, 1832.)

The following is a narrative of the Thugs, translated from the 'Indian Gazette,' and the 'Agra Ukbar,' dated 10th October, 1832.

"In the month of Koar, I do not recollect the year, I, with five others, went to Lochun Singh, jamadar in Muoza Seeapore, Purguna Bethoor. This village was about twelve cos from Kusooapore, the place where we lived. Having assembled a gang of thirty-one men, including the jamadar, we set off towards Lucnow. The braying of an ass and the sound of a peacock necessarily arresting our ears, we took them for good omens, and breakfasted under a tree. On the same day we fell in with three travellers of the Rajpoot caste, proceeding from Lucnow to Etawa. We put up for the night together, agreeing