A PLAYFUL CIIABACTEK. 423 



Mr. Manuel de Souza was the individual who had 

 the honour of being present on this occasion. 



"Are you not glad, Manuel, that we are at last 

 going back ? " the Mussulman asked of his fellow 

 " bootlair " (the native term in the Bombay Presi- 

 dency by which the head functionary in an estab- 

 lishment is known). " I shall be very pleased to get 

 home and out of these wild jungles. There will 

 then be ease and comfort. I prefer a town ' bhag ' 

 (garden) to a jungle 'bagh' (tiger)." 



There was some doubt if the play on the words 

 was really intended ; for certainly the dignified 

 Mussulman's greatest enemy could never have 

 accused him of being habitually given to such light 

 trifling. Still there may have existed under the 

 outward stolidity of demeanour, and unperceived 

 by ordinary mortals, a vein of subtle wit which, as 

 being but rarely indulged in, was on that account 

 the more remarkable. 



Manuel looked for some time at his companion as 

 if hardly crediting the evidence of his senses, and 

 repeated the expression made use of. Then, as it 

 fully dawned on him that, whether designedly or 

 not, Sheik Hussein had positively there and then, 

 before him, been guilty of an attempt at wit, he 

 laughed loudly, and complimented him on the light 

 and playful nature of his character. 



