276 MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 



intended for your journal, as a rather more highly coloured illus- 

 tration than that paper is, that I sought and obtained the per- 

 mission of the writer to do so. 



The portion of the letter referred to is as follows : — 



" You remember the tract of land which is still wholly unin- 

 habited above our plantation, a little below the edge of the forest 

 that covers the Malabar ; where wo breakfasted a couple of years 

 ago with our guests H. and 0. under a clump of bamboos, which 

 served as a tent from the sun ? Early in the morning it looked 

 somewhat less sunny and gay than when we made a little fire to 

 boil the water for our coffee ; when seats were placed in a circle 

 round a camp table, and the ladies of our company unpacked 

 boxes rich in promise : and when there was such merry chat and 

 laughter, whilst all eyes feasted themselves on the prospect over 

 the sunny expanse of Bandjaran. 



" In the early morning of 2nd February, 1875, it was wet and 

 cold, it had rained the whole night, and thick clouds, from which 

 still fell steadily a fine chill drizzle, hung gray and chill and 

 heavy over the erstwhile charming landscape. 



" On an open patch between the belts lay a dead karbouiv, 

 fearfully torn and mangled, and a group of thirty living buffaloes 

 stood in melancholy, pensive attitude. What was going on in 

 the buffalo-heads could be gathered by the glance of an eye. The 

 silent beasts were thinking of their deadly enemy, the tiger, who 

 the night before had fallen upon and killed one of their brethren, 

 and who had come back that night to feast on his prey. An old, 

 melancholy, staring buffalo cow, perhaps mother or aunt of the 

 one so cruelly slain, sniffled in Buffalese to the bull standing near- 

 est to her : ' Hodie mihi, eras tibi !' and the bull shook his terrible 

 horns angrily, as if he would say : ' I would that he would try 

 conclusions with me for once !' 



"But see! there comes more life in the misty sombre land- 

 scape. Horses are heard splashing through a stream (you know 

 the stream into which H. let his shoes fall when he was wading 

 barefoot through the water, so as not to spoil the patent leather), 

 and out of the fog a hunting train appears : in front is the djoera- 



