﻿OF HINZUAN, OR JOHANNA. 87 



We received no answer from Salim ; nor, indeed, 

 expected one ; since we took for granted that he 

 could not but approve our intention of visiting his 

 father; and we went on shore before sun-rise, in full 

 expectation of a pleasant excursion to Domoni : but 

 we were happily disappointed. The servants, at the 

 prince's door, told us coolly, that their master was in- 

 disposed, and, as they believed, asleep; that he had 

 given them no orders concerning his palanquins, and 

 that they durst not disturb him. Ahu soon came to 

 pay us his compliments, and was followed by his 

 eldest son, Ahmed , with whom we walked to the gar- 

 dens of the two princes SaJim and Hatndullah; the 

 situation was naturally good, but wild and desolate ; 

 and, in Salmis garden, which we entered through a 

 miserable hovel, we saw a convenient bathing place, 

 well-built with stone, but then in great disorder, and 

 a shed, by way of summer-house, like that under 

 which we dined at the Governor's, but smaller and 

 less neat. On the ground there lay a kind of cradle, 

 about six feet long, and a little more than one foot in 

 breadth, made of cords twisted in a sort of clumsy 

 net-work, with a long thick bambu fixed to each side 

 of it : this, we heard with surprize, was a royal pa- 

 lanquin, and one of the vehicles in which we were 

 intended to have been rocked on mens shoulders 

 over the mountains. I had much conversation with 

 Ahmed) whom I found intelligent and communica- 

 tive : he told me that several of his countrymen com- 

 posed songs and tunes ; that he was himself a passion- 

 ate lover of poetry and music ; and that, if we would 

 dine at his house, he would play and sing to us. We 

 declined his invitation to dinner, as we had made a 

 conditional promise, if ever we passed a day at Mai- 

 samndO) to eat our curry with Bana Gifru, an honest 

 man, of whom we purchased egg? and vegetables, and 

 to whom some Englishman had given the title of Lord x 

 which made him extremely vain. ; we could therefore 



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