26 
SCENES IN INDIA. 
horror, plunged it through,, withdrawing it several 
times, and repeating the plunge with all the blind 
ferocity of an excited demon. By this time his coun- 
tenance exhibited an expression fearfully indicative of 
the most frantic of human passions. The shrieks of the 
child were so real and distracting, that they almost 
curdled for a few moments the whole mass of my 
blood : my first impulse was to rush upon the mon- 
ster and fell him to the earth ; but he was armed, 
and I defenceless. I looked at my companions — 
they appeared to be pale and paralyzed with terror ; 
and yet these feelings were somewhat neutralized by 
the consciousness that the man could not dare to 
commit a deliberate murder in the broad eye of day, 
and before so many witnesses ; still the whole thing 
was appalling. The blood ran in streams from the 
basket ; the child was heard to struggle under it ; her 
groans fell horridly upon the ear ; her struggles smote 
painfully upon the heart. The former were gradu- 
ally subdued into a faint moan, and the latter into a 
slight rustling sound ,* we seemed to hear the last con- 
vulsive gasp which was to set her innocent soul free 
from the gored body, when, to our inexpressible 
astonishment and relief, after muttering a few caba- 
listic words, the juggler took up the basket ,* but no 
child was to be seen. The spot was indeed died with 
blood ; but there were no mortal remains, and, after 
a few moments of undissembled wonder, we per- 
ceived the little object of our alarm coming towards 
us from among the crowd. She advanced and saluted 
us, holding out her hand for our donations, which we 
bestowed with hearty good-will ; she received them 
