20 TWO YEARS IlSr THE JUNGLE. 



Mohammedans believe that this burnt-up place was once the Gar- 

 den of Eden, but we know that it is about sixty degrees F, from 

 that now. It has been very truly spoken of as a cinder, for it is 

 composed of rugged black mountains of lava, piled high up, with- 

 out a single tx-ee, bush, or blade of grass visible to the naked eye. 

 It was once a cluster of volcanoes that poured lava down their 

 steep sides into the sea, but now they are extinct, and the town of 

 Aden is located in the crater of the largest. It is surrounded 

 by high walls and ridges of lava, and has but two outlets, the road 

 to the west, and a tunnel, a mile and a quarter long, to the north. 

 Aden is said to be the hottest place in the world, and yet it boasts 

 21,500 inhabitants. 



The first Parsee (fire- worshipper) I ever saw was a wealthy and 

 apparently respectable merchant, but when the chance offered he 

 could not resist the temptation to tell me a He and cheat m^ out of 

 a rupee, just as a hackman would do. At Steamer Point I stepped 

 into the store of Messrs. Swindle] ee & Co., and after making a lit- 

 tle purchase, handed a sovereign in payment. I asked how much a 

 sovereign was worth in rupees, and he assured me only ten. Trust- 

 ing to his honor as a respectable merchant I made no further in- 

 quiry, and he gave me my change on the basis of ten rupees. As 

 soon as I left the place I was fairly beset by a mob of ragged little 

 Arab money changers who had got wind of the transaction and 

 wanted to give me ten and a half rupees for all the sovereigns I 

 had. Diu'ing the day I had occasion to change several, for each of 

 which I received eleven rupees without any trouble. I shall never 

 forget my introduction to the Parsees. 



I obtained a fine lot of ostrich eggs, and a few fine feathers also 

 which had been brought across the Gulf of Aden from the African 

 coast, but, finding nothing else there worth taking, the Memfi 

 weighed anchor and proceeded on her course across the Arabian Sea. 



Taken altogether, I think that voyage from Port Said to Bom- 

 bay was the most agreeable I ever made. It was the poetry of life 

 at sea, a sort of lotus-eaters' voyage. The sea was smooth, the 

 weather was clear and balmy, the officers were as kind and court- 

 eous as ofiicers could possibly be, and my fellow-passengers in the 

 cabin seemed to have been selected especially for me. The ship was 

 clean, roomy, and comfortable, and the devotions of the deck-load 

 of Hadjis afforded a pleasing diversion. But it had to end at last. 



We sighted the Bombay Hght just before midnight of January 

 16th, and tln-ee hours after were at anchor in the harbor. 



