chap. xii. HOSPITABLE RECEPTION AT BEFORANA. 315 presented me with a bunch of native bananas, remarkably fine fruit. Each banana was nearly eighteen inches long, and curled like a bullock’s horn. The only cooking-place was the house in which I sat. The fuel was wet, and the grass roof not admitting the escape of the smoke, the atmosphere proved exceedingly painful to my eyes. I tried to stand out of doors when it did not rain, but there was only a yard or two that was not some inches deep in water and clay, worked up into stiff mud by the passing to and fro of the people and the cattle. The inhabitants of the villages do not seem to have advanced in civilisation so far as drainage; and from the state of the villages themselves, as well as the swampy wet grounds around, they seemed as unhealthy places as it was possible to imagine. After a couple of hours’ rest, and many expressions of kind ness from the people, we resumed our journey. Great part of the way was through a thick forest, over steep and slippery paths and through narrow passes, along which it seemed im possible to carry a palanquin; while the heavy rain which fell during great part of the time, rendered our progress still more difficult. During this afternoon’s journey we crossed four rivers swollen with the rain; and about five o’clock reached Beforana, a tolerably large village, situated in a swampy hollow, surrounded by woody hills. My quarters were not uncomfortable, but I felt shivery and cold. The chiefs brought in the customary present, and shortly afterwards the owner of the house came, accompanied by his wife and chil dren, bringing a small basket of very white rice, with a duck and a fowl, as a present. He said Messrs. Johns, and others, had always stopped at his house when travelling to and from the capital; that he was glad to see me there, and had brought the small present as a token of his good will. I thanked the kind family for their present, and expressed my deep sense of the hospitality manifested in every place. After