of the Old World. 113 



that e'en the much lauded beauty of your own loved 

 though far-distant land was cold and tame compared 

 to hers. But I am wandering, and bygone scenes 

 and happy days passed long ago in those fair lands 

 "flit o'er my mind like blissful summer's dreams," 

 and as my thoughts veer back to days of yore and 

 long-lost friends, I feel those bright recollections 

 stealing vividly back to memory like sunny spots and 

 pleasant oases in my varied life's career. 



Mais revenons a nos moutons. The ordinary 

 dancing of the kunchnees (or dancing-girls) consists 

 more of different changes of position than any defined 

 step or figure; and in the elegant attitudes and 

 graceful postures with which they advance and retire, 

 the arms, hands, feet, neck, and eyes, moving in uni- 

 son with the music ; and I think they ought rather to 

 be called singing than dancing girls, for it has always 

 appeared to me that their dancing is only a graceful 

 and expletic accompaniment to their songs, which, 

 treating, as they generally do, of love, often assume 

 rather a lascivious character. The interior edges of 

 the eyelids are darkened with "soormah," a prepara- 

 tion of antimony, which heightens their beauty, and 

 gives them a peculiarly fascinating and bewitching 

 appearance. 



The nautch has charms which possess a powerful 

 and almost irresistible influence on the affections and 

 passions of the inhabitants of the East, and forms the 



