BOMBAY. 23 



are a complete success. The distances would seem very great 

 without them. Taking a car at Watson's Hotel, we rolled smoothly 

 along a broad, shady street at the side of a spacious esplanade, at 

 the farther end of which stand the splendid new buildings of the 

 University, High Court, Secretariat, and Post Office. A ride of 

 about a mile and a half brought us to the Grand Market, which 

 was to me the most interesting sight of the city. Standing so as 

 to foi-m a triangle, are three buildings, long and wide, witli roofs 

 of corrugated iron supported upon iron pillars, and in the centre 

 of the triangle is a fine fountain with flowering shmbs and trees. 

 The best American housewife cannot show a pantry cleaner or 

 more perfectly arranged than this vast market. Fifty-six thousand 

 square feet of space are divided into sections for the sale of flowers, 

 fruits, vegetables, grains, sj)ices, fish, and meats, and these are sub- 

 di\-ided into hundreds of stalls where native men and women squat 

 upon the sloping platform and serve the passers-by. 



In the flower mai'ket was a scene that would liave made the 

 i-eputation of any artist wlio could fairly depict it. Seated upon 

 the raised platform, and suiTounded by gTeat heaps of fresh-blown 

 roses, marigolds, jessamines, and brilliant tropical flowers of many 

 kinds, was a group of dark-skinned Hindoo men and women tying 

 the blossoms up into bouquets and long garlands while they laughed 

 and chatted. The huge, snow-white turbans and loose jackets of 

 the men, the raven-black hair of the women, the massive silver 

 ornaments around their arms, ankles, and toes, and their gaudily 

 colored robes in the midst of such brilliant flowers, made up a pict- 

 ure which, if seen once, could never be foi-gotten. Tlje air was 

 lieavy with sweet pei-fume. 



The vast space occupied by the fniits and vegetables seemed 

 more like the display at an agricultural fair than a simple market 

 for the sale of daily food. There were piles of oranges, bananas, 

 grapes — both purple and white — pomegranates, pummeloes, and 

 many other kinds entii-ely new to me. 



But what interested me most was the fish market. Besides a 

 fine assortment of common edible species, such as are most abundant 

 in the Ai-abian Sea, there were a number of sharks, shark-rays {Rhino- 

 hati), and skates, which were of special interest. My first visit oc- 

 curred so late in the morning that the kinds I wanted had all been 

 chopped up, and I found that, in order to catch large rays or rhyno- 

 bates before they were cut up, I would have to be on hand before 

 daybreak. 



