HINDOO OATHS. 
109 
measuring ninety-five feet might well despatch a 
buffalo. 
From Patna we passed on to Dinapoor, and thence 
to the conflux of the Soane with the Ganges, which 
is truly a magnificent spectacle. Here we were again 
obliged to cross the river, and to encounter the danger 
of the high banks, in order to avoid the shallows 
which every now and then, as before, impeded our 
progress on the southern side. This was a necessity 
we had hoped to have escaped, and were by no 
means well pleased to submit to, as the earth still 
continued to detach itself at intervals in huge masses, 
sufficiently large to have overwhelmed our boat had 
they fallen upon it. The boatmen were occasionally a 
good deal perplexed in consequence of these unsolicited 
intrusions of another element, so that our boat was 
tossed about most disagreeably, and our progress re- 
markably tedious. The dandies however manifested 
no symptoms of impatience, except occasionally when 
they were called upon for any extra exertion, and 
then their execrations were loud and bitter. They 
swear with prodigious fervour, and perhaps there is 
no race of people upon the face of the earth that has 
such a large vocabulary of oaths as the Hindoos. Their 
women, almost without exception, are prodigal in the 
use of them, even beyond the most extravagant con- 
ception of the greatest blackguard in Europe. They 
swear in tropes as fervid as the clime which gives 
them birth, and as varied as that clime in the pleni- 
tude of its luxuriance. 
Both wind and current were now against us, so 
that the day after we entered within the confluence 
L 
