J COOLIE PARADE. 45 



wonder if I felt like Wordsworth after his talk with the old 

 leech-iratherer ? 



G" 



"And when he ended, 

 I could have laughed myself to scorn to find 

 In that decrepit mar. so firm a mind ; 

 God, said I, he my help and stay secure, 

 I'll think of thee, leech-gatherer, on the lonely moor," 



On the Monday morning there was a great parade. All 

 the Coolies were to come np to see the Governor ; and after 

 breakfast a long line of dark people arrived up the lawn, the 

 women in their gaudiest muslins, and some of them in cotton 

 velvet jackets of the richest colours. The Oriental instinct 

 for harmonious hues, and those at once rich and sober, such 

 as may be seen in Indian shawls, is very observable even in 

 these Coolies, low-caste as most of them are. There were 

 bangles and jewels among them in plenty; and as it was a 

 high day and a holiday, the women had taken out the little 

 gold or silver stoppers in their pierced nostrils, and put in 

 their place the great gold ring which hangs down over the 

 mouth, and is considered by them, as learned men tell us it 

 was by Eebekah at the well, a special ornament. The men 

 stood by themselves ; the women by themselves ; the chil- 

 dren grouped in front ; and a merrier, healthier, shrewder- 

 looking party I have seldom seen. Complaints there were 

 none. All seemed to look on the Squire as a father, and 

 each face brightened when he spoke to them by name. But 



