482 A CHAPTER ON ANNUALS. 



than the palaces of our kings. How poor and mean, and low and 

 dwarfish, are the boasted marvels of European tower and dome, and 

 tomb and temple, when measured by the Babel-like piles of Asia ! 

 How stunted even is our vegetation ; what mere shrubberies are our 

 " primeval forests old," when compared with the cedar and the pine- 

 woods of that prolific region ! The more we read, and the more we 

 hear of the wonders of that world, the less we think of our own cold, 

 sterile clime. But our lot is cast here, and we must be content. We 

 may, however, look around us for more glorious scenes, and here we 

 find them in 



THE ORIENTAL, ANNUAL. 



One word composes all we can say, in criticism, of its numberless 

 beauties beauties which, if we were to particularize them point by 

 point, and print by print, would take up half our Magazine. The 

 work reviews itself, and says more in self-commendation than we 

 could in its favour, if every word were a page. It is magnificent ! 



So much can we honestly assert of its pictorial excellencies, it 

 would be difficult for any pen, however gifted, to embody a narration 

 of equal interest Mr. Gaunter has, nevertheless, succeeded in pro- 

 ducing a work highly amusing, descriptive, and instructive. Having 

 had the advantage of a residence in India, he has been enabled to go 

 hand-in-hand with the artist, and describe those gorgeous scenes 

 which the pencil has so faithfully placed before us. From the nar- 

 rative style of the work, it is difficult to give a spice of its quality ; 

 but here is a short tale which exactly squares with our space, and by 

 which our readers will form an opinion of its merits. 

 A MAHOMEDAN'S STORY. 



Before we reached Ghazipoor, as we were taking our tiffin* in the budge- 

 row, the conversation happened to turn upon the superstitious veneration in 

 which the Hindoos hold the sanctity of their respective castes. This, indeed, 

 is so great as to baffle, except in a few instances, the efforts of the mission- 

 aries to turn them from their idolatries to the light of Christianity ; and at all 

 times their conversion, when it does take place, is extremely equivocal. la 

 the course of our conversation I remarked, that the occasions were rare 

 where Hindoo women had attached themselves to persons of a different 

 caste, except the most abandoned among them, who lived by prostitution ; 

 and that their detestation of Mahomedans especially, was so nationally 

 rooted, as to render it doubtful whether a single instance could be cited, in ^ 

 which a Hindoo woman had allied herself to a worshipper of the Arabian 

 impostor. 



" Pardon your slave, sahib/' said a Mahomedan servant whom I hap- 

 pened to have at this moment behind me, " but I can prove in my own 

 person that such a circumstance has occurred, as my wife was a Hindoo, 

 who has both relinquished her caste and her religion, and we have lived in 

 the greatest harmony for the last twelve years. She has abjured the creed 

 of Brama, and now cleaves to that of Mahomet with the devotion of the 

 most zealous among the faithful ; she will yet be a houri in Paradise." 



" How," said I, " did you manage to overcome the prejudices and win the 

 affections of this gentle Hindoo ?" 



" Master shall hear," replied the man ; and he immediately related the 

 following story, which I shall beg leave to present to the reader in my own 



* An Indian luncheon. 



