292 
WANDERINGS IN CHINA. 
Chap. XIX. 
charms which are used to keep him away. A priest is 
often brought in the boat, whose duty it is to land on 
the spot where the wood is to be cut, and to go through 
certain forms which are supposed to act as a spell upon 
the tigers. This, however, is frequently of little use, as 
the following anecdote will show. A short time since 
a small river steamer, in passing through the Sunder- 
bunds, was in want of fuel. Her chief officer boarded 
one of these wood-boats in order to get some wood to 
enable her to proceed to the nearest coaling station. 
The poor woodman begged and prayed to be allowed to 
keep the wood which he had been some weeks in pro- 
curing, and in obtaining which he had lost six of his crew, 
who had been all carried off by tigers. " How is that V 
said the officer ; " had you no priest with you to charm 
the tigers ? " Alas ! that was of no use,'^ replied the 
woodman, " for the priest was the first man the tigers 
took away.'' 
As we steamed along through these narrow passages, 
numerous herds of deer were observed quietly feeding 
on the edges of the jungle. They appeared very tame, 
and often allowed us to get quite close to them before 
they took any notice of the steamer. 
On the fifth day after leaving Calcutta we entered the 
main stream of the Ganges. All the towns on its banks 
have already been frequently described in accounts of 
India. I may, therefore, simply state that we passed in 
succession the large towns of Patna, Dinapoor, Ghaze- 
poor, Benares, and Mirzapoor, and reached Allahabad 
on the 14th of April. Here the river Jumna joins the 
Ganges, neither of which is navigable for steamers above 
