BOMBAY BUOK.^* 
iSj to have the pumpkin well mashed up, arid served in 
th@ dish, thick, perhaps of about the consistency of thin 
porridge, in fact what the Americans would call 
pumpkin squash,” and if you have to eat along the 
some well prepared “ sam?bal,” a piece of toasted fish, as 
already described, or a Bombay duck, you have a dinner 
you can’t get in the old country. ^ 
But talking about Bombay ducks puts us in mind 
of a funny thing which happened to Mr. Green, long 
ago. Mr. Green usually visited his periya durai’s, 
on a Sunday morning, and spent the day at his biin- 
galoWj where of course he enjoyed the good fare, 
which was the peculiar speciality of periya dnrais 
in the e times, and the periya dnrai knov/ing that 
Mr. Green was rather hard-iip For food during the 
week,, would be particularly attentive to him on his 
visits. “ Mr. Green,” says he one Sunday morning, 
■^‘what would yon like for breakfast to-day? There 
is beef, mutton, tinned meats. I suppose you don’t 
-care about rice and curry.” Mo, no,” says Mr. Green, 
never mind.” “ And there is Bombay duck.” Mr. 
Green had never heard these two words before as 
applied to anything to eat ; his mouth began to water, 
visions of roasted duck floated before his mind’s eye. 
He said he would take the Bombay duck. “What, 
«ays his P. B. a hungry fellow like yon to break- 
fast on Bombay duck. Nonsense, you are not ill, are 
you ?” Mr. Green replied^., that, so Far from being ill, 
he was very well, and particularly hungry, and thought 
he conld .make a duck look foolish. The P. D. now 
began to “ twig,” and resolved to cxrry on the joke. 
So he asked if one Bombay cluck would be enough . 
Quite enough,” says Mr. Green, “ more than enough, 
and no need for anything else : no rice and curry.” 
Mr. Green’s breakfast, in exact accordanco with his 
wishes, was served up, the cover was removed, and dis- 
closed a very small fish, or rather piece of a fish ! 
about as long as one’s forefinger, o ly very thin. It 
'was toasted crisp, and the whole was not a good 
mouthful, and certainly hardly two small ones, and 
this was Mr. Green’s breakfast, on his own choice 
nothing more. His P. D. had a good laugh, and gave 
him a piece of advice, Don’t rashly accept anything, 
which you don’t understand, and which may perhaps 
‘•with intent convey a double meaning, so that you 
can’t lay hold or claim on the giver or seller.” After 
this, a good breakfast was made, on various good 
* We once ate part of a pumpkin which had been 
allowed to ripen to the colour of the tiles on which it 
rested, and the flavour of that pumpkin was what the 
Yankees would call ^‘some pumpkins.”— Ed. 
