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KABOB-ANTELOPES.

Abraham, and the ancient patriarchs. I often partook with my Arabs of a dish common in Arabia called kabob, or kab-ab, which is meat cut into small pieces and placed on thin skewers, alternately between slices of onion and green ginger, seasoned with pepper, salt, and kian, fried in ghee, or clarified butter, to be ate with rice and dholl, a sort of split-pea, boiled with the rice. This is a savoury dish, generally liked by the English, and sometimes, as a great delicacy, we roasted a lamb or kid whole, stuffed with almonds, raisins, and spices; or pistachio nuts only, highly seasoned.

Many of these Arabs and Scindians had tame deer, antelopes, and ichneumons, which followed the byrac, and, with their dogs and horses, shared in all the variety of their wandering life. A tame antelope is a very pleasant companion; I kept one a considerable time; as also another beautiful species of deer, which I brought up from a fawn; it became perfectly familiar, and partook of every food congenial to its palate, which had not touched the lips, or been breathed upon by any of the family. The antelopes are said to have an ear for music; I do not assert it from my own experience, but it is generally believed in India: and, in confirmation, Sir Charles Malet favoured me with the following account of an entertainment given by the Mahratta sovereign, at one of his parks near Poonah, in 1792.

"The peshwa having invited me to a novel spectacle, at his runma, or park, about four miles from Poonah, I proceeded thither about two o'clock in the afternoon, with the gentlemen of my party; where we found a tent pitched for the purpose, and were received at the door by some of the principal nobles.

The peshwa arrived soon after; and when we were all conveniently seated on carpets, agreeably to oriental costume, four black buck antelopes, of noble mien and elegant form, made their appearance at some distance, moving gracefully before a party of cavalry, who forming a semicircle, gently followed their pace, each horseman holding a long pole, with a red cloth at the end. On approaching the tent, a band of music struck up in loud notes, and three of the antelopes entered in a stately manner. Two swings, commonly used by the Indians, being suspended for the purpose, an antelope ascended on each swing, and couched in the most graceful attitude; the third reclined on the carpet in a similar posture. On the loud music ceasing, a set of dancing-girls entered, and danced to softer strains before the antelopes; who, chewing the cud, lay in a state of sweet tranquillity and satisfaction. At this time the fourth antelope, who had hitherto appeared more shy than his comrades, came into the tent and laid himself upon the carpet in the same manner. An attendant then put one of the swings in motion, and swung the antelope for some time, without his being at all disturbed. The amusement having continued as long as the peshwa thought proper, it was closed by the game-keeper placing a garland of flowers over the horns of the principal antelope, on which he rose, and the four animals went off together.

"The peshwa informed me, that seven months had been employed to bring the antelopes to this degree of familiarity, without the smallest constraint, as they wandered at their pleasure, during the whole time, amongst large herds of deer in the runma; which, although I have mentioned as a park, is not enclosed,

nor has it any kind of fence. I was also assured these animals were not impelled by appetite, no grain or food of any kind having been given them: on this I am somewhat of a sceptic. The peshwa was persuaded they were thus attracted by the power of music; aided, perhaps, by some particular ingenuity of the men who profess the art of familiarizing this beautiful and harmless animal. The peshwa seemed to be much pleased with the amusement; which in innocence is suited to the tenets of the Brahmins, if not to their present character."

While the mischievous monkey, as well as the innocent dove, found an asylum within the walls of Dhuboy, the adjacent country was infested by tigers and savage beasts; who, in defiance of Pythagorean systems and Brahminical tenets, waged perpetual war on the antelopes and innocent animals near the villages; even the monkeys with all their wily craftiness could not escape them. The peasants in the wilds of Bhaderpoor confirmed the stratagem used by the tiger to effect his purpose, as mentioned by Dr. Fryer. "The woodmen assert, that when the tiger intends to prey upon the monkies, he uses this stratagem: the monkies, at his first approach, give warning by their confused chattering, and immediately betake themselves to the highest and smallest twigs of the trees; when the tiger, seeing them out of his reach, and sensible of their fright, lies couchant under the tree, and then falls a roaring; at which they, trembling, let go their hold, and tumbling down, he picks them up to satisfy his hunger."

As I did not always travel with the Arabs and Scindians lately mentioned, I found it necessary to be

escorted, in the distant parts of my purgunnas, by a little troop of cavalry, and a number of armed peons; not so much from the fear of tigers and wild beasts, as of the Bheels and Gracias, a savage race of men who inhabit the hills and woodlands near Bhadepoor and Chandode. The protection I afforded the vil lages against their cruel depredations, irritated these savages against me; and by experience I found that the severity of the Mahratta government was more efficacious in controlling these people than British lenity. Not long after my arrival at Dhuboy, sitting at dinner with a young gentleman lately arrived from England, the chopdar introduced some peasants bearing a dish covered with a napkin, which, supposing it to contain a peacock, or part of an antelope, I desired might be put on the table. I attempt not to describe our horror and astonishment when, on lifting up the cloth, we beheld a man's head just decollated. It was the head of a savage Gracia killed during the preceding night by the vertunnees, or armed men of a village, where a party of them had made a descent to commit robbery and murder.

Nothing shocks humanity more than to read of Marc Antony's delight at seeing the heads of Cicero and the noble Romans he had proscribed, except the idea of the two princesses in Palestine, a mother and a daughter, the one presenting, and the other receiving, the head of the Baptist in a charger. True it is, that the Persian monarchs heaped up pyramids of heads at their palace gates, and a king of Israel received them in baskets; in the same manner as Hyder Ally and his son Tippoo were regaled at breakfast with a vesselful of the cars and noses of our poor

sepoys who fell into their hands. My young friend and myself were so disgusted by the sight of a single head, and so much did it militate against British feeling, that I immediately issued the most public orders to prohibit such transactions in future. With concern I found this did not prove an act of mercy to the villages, who, in consequence, became more exposed to the atrocity of these cruel banditti.

Cruelty was not peculiar to the Gracias, or the less civilized parts of Guzerat; I met with frequent instances, in various ranks of society, inconsistent with the mild tenets of Hinduism, or with common humanity. I shall mention one only, which occurred during an excursion to the confines of the Brodera purgunna, in a village contiguous to my encampment; where the women, assembling, as usual, at day-break to draw water for their families and cattle, found the body of a beautiful young woman, richly dressed, in the public well. Two strangers on horseback arrived at the country late in the preceding evening, and desired permission from the tandar, (an officer who has the care of a certain number of villages) to pass the night there, as travellers. They were both armed, and one of them had a large bag tied behind him: no further notice was taken of them, and before morning they departed. From subsequent inquiries I had every reason to suppose this young girl was one of the ladies in Futty Sihng's haram; and having incurred the displeasure of a jealous tyrant, was, by his order, thrown alive into the well; a fate similar to that of the unfortunate female mentioned in Ragobah's haram during the Mahratta campaign. I preserved a bracelet, composed of alternate beads of embossed gold and