97 
but could not recollect whether he had taken it otY when he washed 
his hands after supper: the strictest search was immediately made 
for it without success: it was not merely the loss of the ring which 
now troubled the owner; he annexed certain ideas to the event, 
which I shall not attempt to explain; and, notwithstanding the 
urgency of the embassy, and the implied necessity of being at the 
Mahratta durbar on the auspicious hour already mentioned, he 
remained the next day at the encampment, in search of this pre- 
cious gem, and offered a large reward for its discovery; but in 
vain: and the following morning he proceeded on his journey, 
under very unpleasant sensations. The embassy continued about 
thirteen months; at which period, during the ensuing rainy season, 
the gentleman and his suite returned to Bombay. 
The advantage of shade and water induced them to occupy 
the ground of their former little encampments, and the tents 
were again pitched upon the same spot where the ambassador 
had lost his ring: it had rained hard in the day, but the evening 
was remarkably fine, and the moon at the full: while sitting at his 
tent-door after supper, reviewing his late negociations at Poonah, 
and by an association of ideas, reverting to the loss of his ring 
in that very place, he perceived the dark side of the grove illu- 
minated by thousands of fire-flies, flitting among the branches, 
with a brilliancy, of which the faint light of the European glow- 
worm gives but little idea. Those who have travelled in Italy 
during the summer months, and have there seen the lampyris, or 
lucciola, although not so numerous as in the Asiatic woods, can 
easily conceive the nocturnal splendour of these insects in the 
torrid zone. I have seen them produce a fine effect in the dark 
o 
