74 the Indian cottage, @ tale. Sept. 1l~ 
THE INDIAN COTTAGE, 
A TALE. 
Continued from page 38. 
When the Englifhman had done eating, the paria presented him 
With a coal to light his pipe, and having also lighted his own, he 
made a sign to his wife who,brought, and set upon the mat, two cups 
made of the fhell of the cocoa nut, and a large calabafh full of punch, 
which fhe had made duying supper, of water, arrack, and the juice of 
the sugar cane. 
While they smoaked and drank alternately, sdys the doctor to the 
Indian, ‘ I believe you are one of the happiest men I have ever met, 
and consequently one of the wisest. Permit me to ask you some 
gnestiohs. How are you so calm in the midst of such a terrible storm? 
You are fheltered only by a tree,: and trees attract lightening.’ ‘* New 
ver, replied the Indian, has the lightening struck the banian fig tree.’? 
‘ That is very curious, replied the doctor ; the reason must be, that 
this tree, like the laurel, is pofsefsed of negative electricity.’ “ I do not 
understand you, rejoined the paria; but my wife believes it is because 
the God Brahma ‘one day fheitered himself under its foliage: for my 
part, [think that God having given the banian fig tree in these stormy 
climes, a very close foliage, and arched branches to fhelter the hu- 
nan species from the tempest, he does not permit them to be struck 
with lightening under its covert.” * Your answer is very pious, re~ 
plied the doctor; thus it is your trust in God that gives you tranquillity 
af mind: A good conscience gives more courage and calmneis of mind 
than the most extensive views of science. Tell me, I pray you, of what 
cast are you; for you are not of any of those of the Indians, since no 
Indian will have any intercourse with you. In my list of the learned 
casts that I was to consult on my route, I never observed that of the 
parias. In what district of India is your pagoda?? “ Every where 
replied the paria: my pagado is the universe. Zadore its author at 
the rising of the sun, ard I blefs him at its setting. Instructed by mis- " 
fortune, I never refuse my alsistance to any one more unhappy than 
myself, Lendeavour to render happy my ‘wile acd child, and even my 
