erpent, though not the fabulous
monster so often written about, and yet whose existence cannot be
disproved. The sea-serpent's tail is flattened.

At Calcutta I visited a tea firm, who sent me up to Cachar to help at
one of the gardens till a vacancy should occur. Calcutta, by the way, is
or was overrun by jackals at night. They are the scavengers of the town
and hunt in packs through the streets, their wolfish yelling being a
little disconcerting to a stranger.

It was a long twelve days, but again a very interesting journey, in a
native river boat, four rowers (or towers), to my destination. I had a
servant with me, who proved a good, efficient cook and attendant. It was
rather trying to the "griffin" to notice, floating in the river, corpses
of natives, frequently perched upon by hungry vultures.

The tea-garden selected for me was Narainpore, successfully managed by a
fellow-countryman, who proved to be a capital chap and who made my stay
with him very pleasant. Narainpore was one of the oldest gardens, on
teelah (hilly) land and quite healthy. There I gave what little help I
could, picked up some of the lingo, and learned a good deal about the
planting, growth and manufacture of tea. Neighbours were plentiful and
life quite sociable. Twice a week in the cold weather we played polo,
sometimes with Munipoories, a hill tribe whose national game it is, and
who were then the undoubted champions. The Regent Senaputti was a keen
player, and very picturesque in his costume of green velvet zouave
jacket, salmon-pink silk dhotee and pink silk turban. In Munipoor even
the children have their weekly polo matches. They breed ponies specially
for the game, and use them for nothing else, nor would they sell their
best. Still, we rode Munipoor "tats" costing us from 50 rupees to 100.
They were exceedingly small, averaging not eleven hands high, but wiry,
active, speedy, full of grit, and seemed to love the game. As the game
was there played, seven formed a side, the field was twice as large as
now and there were no goals. The ball had to be simply driven over the
end line to count a score.

It may be remarked here that the great Akbar was so fond of polo, but
otherwise so busy, that he played the game at night with luminous balls.

These Munipoories were a very fine race of people, much lighter of
colour than their neighbouring tribes, very stately and dignified in
their bearing, and thorough sportsmen. Many of their women wer