296 AN AMUSING INCIDENT. 



anchorage, and, finally, getting under weigh, ■u'lien a 

 longer stay in the roadstead would prove dangerous. 



At 8 o'clock in the evening we heard the report 

 of the evening gun which enjoins all keepers of public 

 houses, and other places of business, to close their 

 doors ; a heavy penalty being imposed upon any per- 

 son transacting business of whatever kind after gun 

 fire. At 5 o'clock A. M. the morning gun is fired, 

 when all are at liberty to open their doors, and 

 resume their respective avocations. 



On the 25th we thoroughly washed our ship, send- 

 ing ashore several times during the day. When the 

 first boat came off Avith provisions, comprising meat 

 and vegetables, a boy, who constituted one of the 

 crew, was exploding with suppressed laughter, which 

 occasionally would escape him notwithstanding his 

 utmost efitbrts. On being questioned as to the cause 

 of his mirth, he proceeded in a very naive and 

 humorous vein to describe his trip to the market for 

 meat. After selecting what was wanted for the ship's 

 consumption, a Lascar backed it, which was all very 

 well ; but no sooner had he started, than another of 

 the same race jumped up from his squatting posture, 

 and, by a series of thumps and rib ticklings, forced 

 the one who acted as pack-horse into quite a nimble 

 pace for an indolent Asiatic. The thumps and rib 

 ticklings, which seemed a grave matter of busi- 

 ness between the contracting parties, excited the 

 fancy of our Yankee boy, who had never seen or 

 heard of such a man-persuading operation ; hence 

 his violent merriment. 



The meat which we procured is known by two 

 sobriquets, being called indifferently, "buffalo" and 



