And hopes to-night you'll sup like princes, and that none will go home sober.

If policeman K arrests you, let not that your spirits damp: Break his head, and shave his whiskers, and suspend him to the lamp.1

This advice was taken only too literally. The officer in question, on the night of the First Trinity boat-supper, ventured within the gates of the college, and was there maltreated in a manner that led, if the author's recollection serves, to the incarceration of some of the offenders. The prosecutor commented with much severity upon the concluding lines of the "Dionysia."

THE DAWK BUNGALOW;

OR, "IS HIS APPOINTMENT PUCKA?"

HIS play takes its name from the comfortless hostelries of India: in which the larder consists of a live fowl, and the accommodation of three rooms on the groundfloor, less than half-furnished even according to Oriental notions of furniture: the traveller being supposed to bring with him bread, beer, and bedding. The leading character is a lady of the old school, full of the ideas which that school is vaguely supposed to entertain :-the rivalry between the judicial and the administrative, or "revenue,' lines of the Service :-the contempt for non-official people, whom she classes indiscriminately as "interlopers"-and a strong preference, (amounting in her case almost to a monomania,) for a permanent over an acting appointment. In Civilian parlance an employé who does vicarious duty for another is "cutcha," unless he be 'confirmed" in his position, when he rises to the dignity of being "pucka," a word which denotes generally the perfect and the mature. Sucking Competition Wallahs may acquire from these pages some foretaste of Anglo-Indian slang; but they must be careful to bear in mind that the author is anything but a purist in Hindoostanee. The Dawk Bungalow was first acted at the residence of the Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal, before an audience nine-tenths of which held either pucka or cutcha appointments.

66

DRAMATIS PERSONÆ.

Mr. JUDKINS, Commissioner of Budgemahal.

The Hon. Mr. HORACE CHOLMONDELEY, M.P., a Gentleman travelling in search of facts.

Lieut. MARSDEN, of the B.N.I., Acting-Assistant-Sub-Deputy-Inspector of Bridges in the Public Works Department.

ABDOOL, a Madras Boy in the service of Mr. CHOLMONDELEY.

The KHANSAUMAUN or STEWARD of the Dawk Bungalow at Muckapore Bikra.

Mrs. SMART, Wife of the Judge of Budgemahal.

Miss FANNY SMART, her Daughter.

SUSAN THACKER, her European Lady's-maid.

АСТ І.

The Centre Room in the Dawk Bungalow at Muckapore Bikra.

A Bedstead and Table on opposite sides of the Apartment.

Enter CHOLMONDELEY and ABDOOL.

C.—Hi, there! Landlord! Landlord!

A.-Ho! Khansaumaun!

K.-Salaam, Sahib.

[Enter KHANSaumaun.

C.-Why didn't you come before, you lazy old rascal? Abdool, tell him to bring some soda-water.

A.-Ho, Khansaumaun

shrub!

Belattee pawnee, brandy

C.-Abdool, let the landlord know that he had better make me comfortable. Tell him that I am an English gentleman of good family. Tell him, too, that I am related to the first Lord of the Admiralty.

A.-Ho, Khansaumaun! Sahib Burra Mahngee ke Bhai hai. Sahib Belattee koolin brahmin hai.'

K.-Bah Wah!

C. Now I flatter myself that I have impressed him sufficiently. Abdool, ask him whether there are any letters for Mr. Cholmondeley.

A. Chulmungular Sahib ke wasti chittee hi?

[KHANSAUMAUN gives a letter. C.-Here is a hand I ought to know. Why, it's from my old school-fellow Tom Blake, the Junior Secretary in the Home Department. Let me see what he says. [Reads.]

1 “Ho, Khansaumaun! the Sahib is the brother of the great bargee. The Sahib is an English high-caste Brahmin."