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with the leaves of the palmyra; and although as sacred to chastity 

 as the speculum Diana?, or the gardens of Susanna, it neither at- 

 tracted an Acteon, nor an elder of Babylon. It certainly did attract 

 another visitor, equally unexpected and disagreeable; for one 

 morning the young lady, in the state of Musidora, was alarmed by 

 a rustling among the palmyra leaves which covered the bath; and 

 looking up, beheld one of the garden genii, with brilliant eyes 

 under the expanded hood of a large cobra de capello, pushing 

 through the thatch, and ready to dart on the fountain. Pure and 

 unadorned as Eve when her reflected beauties first met her eye, 

 the lady and her hand-maids made a precipitate retreat through 

 the grove, and gained her chamber, heedless of gazers, whether 

 in the form of gardeners, snakes, or monkeys. 



I have mentioned the ordeal trials, and the practices of diviners 

 in India: whatever may be our opinion of such things, we are 

 often, from various motives, under the necessity of acquiescing in 

 them. Residing in a family at Surat with the same English lady, 

 she lost a gold watch on which she set a particular value. Seve- 

 ral modes of divination were practised to discover the thief; one 

 was similar to that used among the ancient Chaldeans and Egyp- 

 tians, and perhaps not unlike the cup of divination belonging to 

 the viceroy of Egypt found among the shepherds of Canaan. On 

 this occasion the name of every person in the house was placed in 

 a separate ball of paste or wax, and thrown into a vessel of water: 

 one only swam on the surface; the rest fell to the bottom, and 

 there remained. On opening the floating ball, it contained the 

 name of an unsuspected female, who immediately confessed she 

 had stolen and secreted the watch. Supposing this to be like other 



