drawing a flame from his body, which they should see, and which would continue burning and consuming him, unless he arose from the earth. My brother officers listened with nearly as much attention as the natives.

I sent my Dubash, Punnapa, to enjoin silence to the multitude, as a miracle was going to be performed by an European Bramin, which he assured them I was, (knowing I had officiated as chaplain).

Ordering my travelling escritoir to be brought, I placed it near the man's head, and took from it a wax taper, a small match, and lit tle bottle, articles I carried for the convenience of getting a light when wanted; I also took out a bit of sealing wax, wrapped within a piece of white paper; I then directed all to be silent while the ceremony was performing, under pain of their being struck with death. Having had this explained by Punnapa to the chiefs, and by them again to the people, I was well satisfied the dead man heard and understood the whole, by slight involuntary twitchings I saw in his muscles.

When all was quiet, I began by walking slowly round the extended body four times, laying one of the four articles each time at his feet, uttering with a solemn loud voice the following five words, that hap. pened to occur, "Omne bene non

sine e pæna." I believe that the fall of a pin might have been heard while I was performing this mummery. Having managed with tolerable seriousness, I took up all the articles, stood across the man, and raising both my arms as high as I could reach, called aloud, "silence!" Then, bending over the body, I

held the match in my right hand, the wax taper in my left, and, drawing the cork from the bottle of phosphorus, just above his navel, at the moment I applied the match to light it, as it were, from his body, I began to sing "God save great George our King;" but the instant the flame was seen, there was such a yell of "Ah, paw, swaamee! Ah, paw, swaamee !" as completely drowned all my fine singing. Lighting my taper, I proceeded with my work, by melting the sealing wax and dropping it hot close above his navel; but the poor fellow had not patience to stay for more than two or three good drops of my miraculous wax, before he jumped up and ran away, bellowing and clawing his belly, without stopping to thank me for his cure, or answering the calls of others, until he got within the village.

That the fellow had heard and understood what passed, with my declaration that I possessed a power to draw forth a flame from his body, was evident; and I depended on the sudden attack of the burning wax on so tender a part, heightened by his own imagination, to overthrow all the obstinacy of trick, and produce some such effect

as

would satisfy us he was not dead; what his particular aim was, it might be difficult to make out."

RAJAH'S PALACE AT CANDY.

The town of Candy is a poor miserable place, about two miles long, and consists of one principal street, terminated by the palace at the upper end. There are many lesser streets branching off, but of no great length. The palace is built with a sort of chunam or ce

ment, perfectly white, with stone gateways. It contains a great many rooms, painted in a grotesque manner, and many of the walls covered with pier glasses. The The houses of the town are mean and low, but their foundations are raised in such a manner, or rather the street is so sunk, that they seem lofty to passengers. The lace consists of two enclosed squares, one within the other; and in the inner are the royal apartments, where the court is held, and audiences given.

pa

White cement for the walls, and tiles for the roofs, are luxuries, it appears, reserved for the royal palaces in Candy alone. The following account of the palace abovementioned, is contained in an extract of a letter, dated at Candy. Extract of a Letter dated Candy,

14th February 1815. His Excellency crossed the river at Gonaruah yesterday, slept at the King's Granary, near that place, and this day entered Candy: he occupies an octagon pavilion, in a palace not unworthy of a Malabar prince.

My post is the haram, below which it communicates by a private stair-case and trap-door, with the pavilion over head, which formerly was the king's apartment, and a very beautiful one it is.-The prospect from it is an amphitheatre of hills, quite close,—a spacious tank, with a summer-house in the middle, and two other royal residences on the opposite side, in one of which (and not this where we are), the king has lately resided.

The palace is a structure of considerable magnificence, according to the native taste, that is massiness of all, and extent of area. The interior is an endless labyrinth

of apartments great and small, excessively filthy at present, and in many places in decay. Remains of splendour, however, are every where to be found in massy gilded brass ornaments, the manufacture and workmanship of some place where the arts are in a more flourishing condition, than I apprehend they have ever been in Candy Here, however, I must give you Adikar Molligoode's history of the placehe was gentleman-usher showing the lions. The centre apartment, he says, is built on the very spot which an ancient king first pitched upon, and laid the foundation stone, not only of the palace, but what is now Candy. He was, it seems, the king of some distant province (where the place, or when the time, I hope you will not inquire nor exact any proofs of the story) and having in a hunting-match been led (as King James unto the Trossacks) to this spot, he found a rats tan-bush of several (I think four) sprigs, one leaning towards the ferry of Cattoogastotte, one towards Gonaruah, one toward Hey. welle, and one to some other quarter. The hounds pursued a hare into this bush which was her pa lace; and when she got there, she shewed them it was also her castle, for she turned and made battle and kept her open mouthed pursuers at bay, till the king came up, and from the singularity of the circumstance, he chose this spot for his capital. Here ends the legend. I dare say there are many current that are equally flimsy, but few I apprehend can be more so. At all events the successors of his Ma jesty have lost the moral of the tra dition, and forgotten that the capital of their kingdom was founded in memorial of a brave defence.

SIR,-You will much oblige many of the friends of Major-General Gillespie, by inserting in your Journal the following verses, composed and sung ex tempore in a favourite room which the General had erected at Bangalore, by a Lady who had lately visited the beautiful but fatal valley of Doon.-It was sung to the old National Air. N.

Ye banks and braes of bonny Doon, How late your scenes so peaceful smiled; How sweetly bloomed your mountainrose,*

In spotless white so soft and mild !
But now, ensanguined be thy flower,
And fatal be thy banks, fair vale!
While sad, amid thy blooming braes,
Resounds the soldier's mournful wail!
How lately burned our hero's soul
In Glory's fatal, bright career!
Ah, Doon, thy bosom now entombs
The heart that never knew a fear!
Ye banks and braes of bloody Doon,
Ah, woe the while, ye're Rollo's tomb !
But, with his sacred blood embrued,
Your glens shall know immortal bloom!

MEDITATIONS AT WELTEVREDEN.

THE evening gun proclaims the close of day,

The nightly picquets to their post retire, And sternly challenge all who pass their way,

Or roam unlicenced till the morning's fire.
But still, in yonder hut together met,
Upon the fatness of the land to dine,
A jovial band their thirsty whistles wet,
And drown each care in bowls of rosy wine.
While the gay song and sounds of lively
glee,
[smile,
At which e'en Cynics are compelled to
And social wit, from envious satire free,
With harmless mirth the tedious hours
beguile.

* The valley is literally overrun with wild white roses.

Till, hark! the sentries walk their midnight round,

The waning moon a feeble lustre throws, And all is hushed, except the pleasing sound, [rushing flows.

Where the deep stream through sluices

The sleeping youth now calmly finds repose,

Forgets the drill--that pleasant social place, Hears not musquitoes buzzing round his nose,

Nor heeds their feeding on his chubby face. Unconscious he of passion's mad career, And careless of ambition's anxious roam, His memory, true to those he held most dear,

In fancy leads him to the scenes of home. Delightful dreams--the best and only friend Of those who suffer from misfortune's blow,

Ye soothe the heart by misery o'erwhelm'd, And form its greatest, fairest hope below! But ah-no home, nor haunts of youthful days,

Delight the wanderer on Java's shore,

He treads no longer o'er the broom clad braes,

And tastes the happiness of home no more.

No more the cold, reviving air of dawn, Renews with ruddy health his pallid face; No more the loud and joy inspiring horn, Invites him to the pleasures of the chace.

Nor can he now, at winter eve, retire, While rages loud the pelting storm abroad, To join the happy circle round the fire, That graced his first and best beloved abode.

Yet, e'en in Java, we possess some joys, Unknown to those who dwell in happier climes; [cloys, And amid scenes where every pleasure Can find a listless idle hour for rhimes. Placed above want, we spurn the anxious [soul;

care,

That checks the generous feelings of the And, scorning pelf, we wander free as air; Devoted to the sex and to the bowl.

To us no matter how the coffee sells, If Grey or Wellesley hold the helm of state;

We canvass only for the smiles of belles, And scorn alike contention and debate. Away, then, melancholy thoughts, away, Your threat'ning prospects but as bugbears prove;

I will be chearful as the summer's-day, To meet the smiles of friendship and of A. C. love.

A MALAY PASTORAL. THE eye * of day his burning orb declines, [shines, And veil'd in clouds in milder splendour Perennial odours load the passing gale, And balmy sweets from every shrub exhale. The tall Pinang + her crowded head displays, [gaze;

While ripening clusters mock my idle Queen of the palmy race, Kulapa ‡ see, Extend her branched arms and court the breeze.

From yonder Durean what sweet perfume Exhales around, what flowers unnumbered bloom!

Broad is the eye-the Senna-tree unfolds
Her beauteous arms and blossoms into gold.
Arise, my fair, beneath yon Mangusteen,
Blest with perpetual verdure, ever green,
Inhale the coffee's aromatic fume,
And view of nature the perennial bloom.
There will we sit, and mark, devoid of

Malayan tongues shall long repeat their

name,

Malayan songs perpetuate their fame. So, when yon northern star extends sublime,

His pallid beam on Europe's chilly clime; In northern isles, to beauty's beam unknown,

When rigid nature hardens into stone; Then, where 'tis said the stream forgets to flow, [blow;

Nor verdure decks the plain, nor flowrets Far happier we enjoy the smiling day, And charm with cheering drug life's cares away.

But, see, in sable dress athwart the sky,
Yon rising cloud foretels the tempest nigh;
Bright is the flash from heaven, a sem-
blance fair,

To drive away the demon of the air;
The moon half-seen displays her paler fire,
And evening shades compel us to retire.
G. P.
♦ Opium.

DULNESS IN INDIA.
(From Calcutta, a Poem.†)

A. Some, fixed to business, scarce a res-
pite catch
[patch;

From laboured periods of the long disBut those unfettered by official chains Might find an endless feast for curious

brains;

[search And though not equal to such deep reAs should leave studious Colebrooke + in

the lurch,

+ Calcutta is said to be the production of Captain Majendie, son of the estimable Bishop of Bangor, and late Aide-de-camp to the Commander of the Forces in Bengal. This poem was printed in London a short time since; but its circulation has been chiefly confined to Calcutta, where its descriptions and allusions more forcibly strike its readers. It is, however, distinguished by ease and sprightliness of manner, local information, and a habit of observing, such as entirely removes the author out of the class of dullards, so well described in the extract above, and evinces the justice of his assertion, in an early part of the poem, that "we have poets in the East;" though we persuade ourselves that the remainder of the couplet will not be applicable to Captain Majendie :

Poets we have, or amateurs at least,
Who sing unheard, and wither in the East.

Ed.

A gentleman highly distinguished for his learned and indefatigable investigation of that most obscure subject, Hindoo Mythology,-and author of a valuable work on the husbandry of Bengal. Mr. Colebrooke's talents and integrity have placed him in the honourable and important situation of Member of the Supreme Council.

A grain of prudence in conversion's rage, Mock the vain hope, that reason will prevail

With rapid magic o'er th'established tale, Nor yield assent to miracles performed By tongues and brains with inspiration warmed;

On prodigies enthusiasts may descantLet sense and time be substitutes for rant! B. Some worthy men, estranged from serious thought, [brought : Scarce carry home the knowledge that they As he, who, urged to exercise his pen On Eastern lore, on manners and on men, Illumed his sire with many a precious hint, And stole from Guthrie* what we read in print. [lend A. 'T is no small treat to see a circle Its ears and credence to a prating friend, On each long tale with mute attention hang, [harangueBlind thro' the wanderings of the wise When he from whom th' untravelled party Ideas so just of Asiatic scenes, [gleans Has seen, perhaps, how wondrous in his [change,

range!

At midway house his smoking cattle When posting up to peep at Barrackpore,+ Just sixteen miles of Asia, and no more! Here too, (and what's more likely ?)

damp and dark

December's fogs may settle o'er the park, Shut the dull prospect, and obtusely hide The spiret that rises o'er the muddy tide.

A young man, on his arrival at Madras, has the credit for this very diffident act. If he could not instruct, he was at least cautious not to mis. lead.

+ A station for a brigade of native troops, and the seat of the Governor General's country residence. The park, as interesting as good taste could make it in so flat and unvaried a country, is embellished with some fine and curious trees, and well situated on the bank of the Hoogley.

The church of Serampore, once a Danish settlement, stands upon the opposite bank, and

Of Eastern life, of Moslems, and Hindoos, May cry in raptured ign'rance, "Far he

strayed, [veyed !" Their manners noted, and their states surMore favoured he! whose pilgrimage we track [tack;

From western Sutledge to remote Cut-
Who, blind to all that rationally spurs
To taste the sweets that travelling confers,
Stage after stage, through jungle, or o'er
[mane,

plain, His eyes fixed constant on his horse's To new ideas all access denies, Or sees new customs only to despise : Alike to him all places and all men, He marches, eats, and sleeps-and off again :

may be seen to particular advantage, from a bench in the park, upon which it opens through a long vista.

Theatricals have long been the rage of Barrackpore; and some very spirited and correct performers belonging to corps stationed there, have at various times attracted full audiences from Calcutta, to a small but tastefully decorated theatre.

† Mr. T. will excuse this allusion to his excellent prologue to the play of the Minor, performed December 1809.

A province, bounded by the Bay of Bengal, and the most southern district under the presidency of Calcutta.