heir houses or
_bungalows_ are large and handsome. Their adoration of light tends
greatly to the embellishment of their dwellings, as to every upper
panel of the wainscoting they attach a branch for wax-candles, which
are lighted every night, and give to the building the appearance of
being illuminated. These 'children of the light' are a fine race, very
handsome and intelligent. The upper servants at Parell were all
Parsees; one, named Argiesia was an especial favourite with us all,
having always a shrewd and amusing answer for every question put to
him. We remember on the occasion of a total eclipse of the sun, which
took place during our stay in Bombay, asking him why the people of the
village near the house made such a noise with their tom-toms. His
reply was:

'Because ignorant people, Ma'am Sahib, think great serpent is
swallowing the sun, and they try to frighten him away with big noise.'

'And what do you think the shadow is, Argiesia?' we asked. He looked
grave for a minute--one never sees an Oriental look puzzled!--and then
answered:

'Sun angry men are so wicked. In anger, him hide his face.' This
ready-witted and poetical Ghebir met his death, not long after, in one
of his own sacred elements, being drowned in the Mahr River, 'where
ford there is none.' He once expressed great surprise to me that a
nation possessing Regent Street--a description of which he had
received from his father--'should come to live in India.'

It was night when we reached Parell after our day's pleasuring; and we
all agreed that the climate of India, during the winter months, is of
all others the best adapted for picnics, which are so often marred in
England by ill-timed showers or gloom; and yet, certain memories came
back half reproachfully as we spoke, painting to our mental vision the
pretty lanes and fresh green dells and dingles of England, the soft
cool breeze, the varied and flitting shadows, the open-air enjoyment
of many a past summer-day, when in our own merry island we

'Went a gipsying a long time ago,'

and we gave an involuntary sigh for the country of our birth.

FOOTNOTES:

[4] Residence of the governor of the Bombay presidency.

THE LONDON PRISONS OF THE LAST CENTURY.

In the year 1728, an opinion was entertained that much cruelty and
rapacity were exercised by the keepers of the great prisons in London.
It was known that they had almost unlimited power in their hands, that
they were not s