FILLI CHARMS. 



91 



no help, no remedy for all this. Well, Sir, you speak of the omni- 

 potence of English science as being able to send news by an iron 

 rod thousands of miles in a few minutes, to make carriages loaded 

 witli 70 or 100 cart-loads of goods move at the rate of 30 or 40 

 miles an hour merely by the agency of fire and smoke, without the 

 help of bullocks or horses. You speak of English medicine as 

 being superior to our medicine. But do you know, Sir, that none 

 of these sciences or arts originally belonged to the Englishman 

 himself. They all belonged formerly to Brahmins, and the English 

 or some other Europeans have somehow or other met with their 

 books; and, because they are men of sense and thought, they have 

 been able to apply the rules laid down in those books to something 

 practical, by which they may advance their interests. The Brah- 

 mins may not perhaps have those books with them now; but even 

 if they have, they neither possess the opportunities, nor the means, 

 nor even the energy and grasp of mind, necessary to derive any 

 practical benefit from them, like the English." He went on in this 

 manner for a full hour, and then continued, "To remove then every 

 doubt from your mind respecting Filli, I will tell you what hap- 

 pened once under my own eye. One day about 25 years ago, my 

 eldest brother had a quarrel about some charm-books with a native 

 of the Matura district, who was then a guest at the house of a 

 neighbour. Of course, after the quarrel, which was confined only 

 to words, we thought no more of it. About 12 o'clock the follow- 

 ing night, there came into the Verandah of my brother's house, 

 where I happened to be that night, a hen with a large brood of 

 chickens. I was awake, though my brother was fast asleep. Of 

 course to my mind there was nothing extraordinary in the matter, 

 but the next moment my brother awoke, exclaiming in a very loud 

 voice f Chee! Chee, ! ' and then told me in* a hurried manner to 

 bring him a few grains of rice. Though I was surprised both by 

 his exclamation and by his excited manner, I obeyed and immedi- 



* Chee is an Interjection expressive of disgust or contempt, and is nearly 

 equivalent to the English. Pshaw. 



