to let me go, but he good-naturedly suggested that
I might as well try to live a little longer, and therefore advised me
to shut my eyes, and let him lift my feet from step to step. I was
obliged to comply, and thus, to the great amusement of the party
beneath, we made our tedious way down the hillside. If any of my
readers have ever felt the kind of panic I have tried to describe,
they will understand and sympathise with me on the occasion. The
precipice below was really very alarming, and there was nothing on the
bare side of the mountain that could soothe the imagination with the
hope of something to clutch at. Still, I felt more ridiculous than I
had ever thought I could be, when, on reaching the foot, I received
the bantering congratulations of the others; and my assistant, with a
bow, assured me 'that we had effected our descent with the agility and
grace of two antelopes!'

We returned to the principal cave to have coffee, and then,
re-entering our palanquins, were soon again in the depth of the
jungle. I was tired--one soon wearies in that climate; the light was
dim and solemn; and the chant of the bearers, by its monotony, helped
to lull me into a sound slumber, for which the palanquin is always an
agreeable cradle; and thus, in deep sleep, I was borne onwards, till
the halt, to which my bearers at last came, roused me; and with a very
dim recollection of where I was, I started and awoke. For a single
instant, I thought myself still dreaming, however, for an unexpected
and surprising vision was before me.

The palanquin had stopped in a large garden, or rather grove, which
was brilliantly illuminated with coloured lamps; even the lofty
cocoa-nut trees were not without a crown of rainbow tinted light. As I
was assisted in my exit from the palanquin, two young Parsee boys, in
flowing white robes, girt with a scarlet shawl round the waist,
advanced and presented me, the one with a large bouquet of roses,
tied, after their usual fashion, round a slender stick, and dripping
with rose-water; the other, with a thin long chip of sandal-wood,
having at the end a small piece of white cotton, steeped in delicious
attar of roses. After receiving their gifts, I was conducted by them
to the house, where the owner, a Parsee merchant, met and welcomed me
with the ordinary salutation, pressing his hand to his head and heart,
and then offering it to me. My palanquin had arrived last, and I found
all the rest of the party seat