184. TWO YOUNG NATURALISTS. 



dripping-pan and burning fat ; its bowling-places with 

 their grotesque announcements ; the dealers in sweets, 

 arrayed in the guise of Turks, and continually tintin- 

 abulating their little bells ; lotteries where children 

 always gain prizes of indigestible gingerbread, and 

 their parents, occasionally, of glassware and knicknacks 

 of a nature supposed to be artistic, that might well 

 arouse the cupidity of the negroes in Africa. 



Still farther on, side by side with the caravans 

 painted in yellow, and doing double duty as dwelling- 

 places and as temples of the travelling fortune-tellers, 

 conjurors, intelligent mesmerics, all sorts of other 

 exhibitions were drawn up : deformed dwarfs, very 

 ugly giants, with huge painted canvases, explanatory 

 announcements, and occasionally a chained monkey, 

 rickety, angry, and grimacing at the door. 



Uncle Bob cast glances right and left in search of 

 some respectable entertainment where they could 

 decently await the cessation of the rain, and soon per- 

 ceived a large canvas structure. On the front of this 

 edifice appeared an inscription some twenty feet in 

 length 



" GRAND ASIATIC MENAGEEIE." 



They entered immediately, the only delay being 

 caused by Black, to whom the odour of lions appeared 

 to be but doubtfully attractive. 



The menagerie was arranged, like others of the sort, 



