about us when Sturt desired that the peasant should receive ten rupees
as compensation for the damage done to his crops.

Loud were the praises bestowed upon our _extraordinary_ justice; and
Mahommed Ali Beg, forgetting the line of conduct he had but a moment
before advocated, delivered the following expression of his reformed
opinion in a loud pompous tone, whilst his followers listened,
open-mouthed, to the eloquence of their now scrupulous chief:
"Although the Feringhis have invaded our country they never commit any
act of injustice;" then, having delivered himself of this inconsistent
speech, he lifted a straw from the ground, and turning round to his
audience, continued: "they don't rob us even of the value of
_that_; they pay for every thing, even for the damage done by their
followers." Corporal Trim's hat falling to the ground was nothing to
the effect produced by the comparison of the straw; but, alas for
human nature! I had but too strong grounds for suspecting that, of
the ten rupees awarded to the peasant, seven were claimed by Ali for
having induced the Feringhis to listen to the claim!!

The surrounding hills have here as at Surruk Durrah the appearance of
ruined castles, with donjon or keep and tower; they forcibly reminded
me of the "Castle of St. John," in Scott's Bridal of Triermain, but my
visions of Merlin and fair maidens awoken from their charmed slumbers
were destroyed by the sight of a little purling brook which promised
me a few hours angling. Nor was I disappointed; for in a short time I
(being unprovided with my fishing basket) filled two towels full of
fish, and congratulated myself on my sport; however, to use an old
phrase, "the proof of the pudding is in the eating," and so we found
it, for when brought to table "my catch" fell far short of our
epicurean anticipations, and I almost regretted that I had not