BATTLE WITH A SHARK. 
15 
when my two friends and I began to prepare for a 
journey down the Coromandel coast. I purchased a 
young Arab horse., that I might have the advantage 
of seeing the country on our route, providing myself 
at the same time with a commodious palankeen, in 
order to have the additional advantage of a more 
easy conveyance whenever I might find it too hot 
or otherwise inconvenient to ride. My fellow-travel- 
lers determined to make use only of their palankeens, 
so that we were each suited precisely to our respective 
tastes, and ready to start towards the beginning of a 
year, which we had made up our minds to devote 
exclusively to the enjoyments of travelling. Before 
we left Madras, however, a circumstance occurred 
which I deem to be worth recording. Though sharks, 
as I have already stated, are seldom found in the surf, 
they are very numerous beyond it ; but they some- 
times do venture within the swell, in expectation pro- 
bably of picking up a meal from an overturned Mas- 
soolah boat. 
One morning a little boy, about eight years old, 
happened to be washed from a catamaran which was 
managed by his father, who was thus early initiating 
him into the hardships of that mode of life which he 
intended him to pursue, and, before he could be res- 
cued from the turbulent waters, a shark drew him 
under, and he was seen no more. The father lost not 
a moment, but calmly rose, and placing between his 
teeth a large knife which he carried sheathed in his 
cummerbund, plunged beneath the lashing waves. 
He disappeared for some time, but after a while was 
occasionally seen to rise and then dive under the 
