JAUNTS IN THE JUNGLE. 1 19 



rows, and bread-and-butter had tumbled down the 

 well would be trifling indeed in comparison ! 



In the former case one might jump out of window, 

 and inflict his agreeable companionship on the neigh- 

 bour that was lucky enough to live nearest to him ; 

 whilst in the latter case he might, if of a philosophic 

 turn of mind, console himself with the reflection that she 

 the sposa ought to have " let well alone ;" but 

 however great a philosopher he may be, I doubt if any 

 quantity or quality of his stock-in-trade would ever 

 satisfactorily incorporate an imaginary dinner. 



My own stock of the commodity never would, but 

 invariably sent me out in a most unenviable plight, 

 and trying to twist into a tune old Horace's 



Jam satis terris nivis atque dirae, &c., 



by way of keeping my spirits up. 



Every diminutive rivulet, that yesterday a bird of 

 Paradise might have walked across without holding 

 up its tail, is now a roaring, boiling torrent! every 

 mountain ravine, delivering its flood of water into the 

 valley beneath, seems to indicate the inevitability of a 

 second destruction of the world ! whilst every symptom 

 of life appears to have become suddenly extinct; until, 

 possibly, a poor half-drowned missionary is spied, strol- 

 ling along the banks of some flooded nullah, evidently 

 on the same errand as myself, namely, that of obtain- 

 ing the luxury of a dinner under difficulties ; when 

 plunging into the flood, and making way against it as 



