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After our adventurous tour of Australasia, we sailed for India, arriving in Madras on December 3, 1870.

Here we found an enormous tent formed of the leaves of a native tree which had been built by a company of Portuguese for circus performances. This we procured, but as it required a week to make it available for out use, we went meanwhile to Bangalur, two hundred and sixteen miles inland, in the Province of Mysore, and performed for three days. Returning to Madras, we gave our performances to large audiences of Europeans and wealthy natives. On the fourteenth, we received a visit from His Royal Highness, the Maharaja of Vizianagram, and suite, he having previously signified his intention of calling. He was dressed in French military costume, but wore a close fitting cap embroidered with gold and sparkling with jewels. After a pleasant interview, he departed, leaving with us a souvenir of his visit.

Among our callers was a Roman Catholic priest, who possessed the complexion and characteristic features of a native, and whom we received as such. Our surprise was almost consternation when he spoke, to hear a rich brogue that would have done credit to Tipperary. Minnie couldn't master her wonder, but stood and gazed at his dark face and hands while he talked to the General with the unmistakable Irish brogue, as if she could not solve the riddle. We are accustomed to the effects of intermarriages as developing in complexion or feature, but here was a case where the mixture of blood found no expression save in the tongue, and from our American knowledge of the antagonism between Irishmen and Negroes, the effect of a pronounced Irish brogue from the lips of a black man was startling.

We received many invitations in Madras, among them one from a wealthy native merchant, to be at his residence on the occasion of the celebration of the first anniversary of his grandson's birth. coupled with the invitation was the information that the most celebrated nautch girls would be present. At eleven P.M. we went to his residence, three miles from the city. Passing through an avenue of rare plants, we alighted at the center of a long piazza. This piazza was covered with rich rugs, so arranged as to leave an avenue a yard wide the entire length. At one end stood a band with tom-toms, small "jals" or gongs, and an instrument resembling a guitar.

We were welcomed by the host, a fine looking portly man in rich Oriental costume. Two magnificent diamonds sparkled in his ears, and his fingers were covered with jewels. There were a dozen European men and women, residents of Madras, present. A servant presented each of us with a nosegay, and a second brought refreshments. The host at intervals approached and sprinkled us from a gold vessel with perfumed water. We were introduced to a number of his distinguished guests, Prince Oomduth-ood Dowlah-Kahn-Baha-doo: His Highness the Prince of Arcot; His Highness Corela Vurmah, brother of the Maharaja of Travancore, who was also present; His Highness Wudayer-Reve-Nabee-yah-lung, Maharaja of Mysore, etc. It is needless to say that we bowed without attempting the names.

Presently the music played and a nautch girl advanced in to the avenue and began her peculiar but graceful movements. She was a star in her profession, receiving two hundred rupees for her service, which she expended almost entirely in procuring jewels to adorn her person. Her costume certainly astonished us. Upon her head she wore a circular crowned cap of gold tissue, in which diamonds, rubies, sapphires and pearls were ingeniously and thickly placed. Her hair was braided, and fell in thick plaits down her back, the ends fringed with gold thread, upon which were strung beads of Oriental pearls.

The upper part of her person was covered with a waist of blue silk, fitting tight to the body, over which was a crimson cloth jacket such as now could be called an Eton jacket, and from which the present style is modeled, both waist and jacket heavily embroidered with gold thread. From her waist hung a blue silk skirt reaching to the knee, embroidered in stripes representing a running vine; beneath was a pair of Turkish trousers of gold tissue. Her ankles were encircled with silver bells, and upon her feet were Oriental slippers, with a large emerald surrounded by brilliants upon each instep. Her arms were naked to the shoulder, with a broad armlet set with jewels above each elbow. In her left nostril was a gold hoop of such diameter that it reached to the chin. A broad crescent upon the hoop was set with diamonds, rubies, and emeralds. Long jeweled pendants hung from her ears, and drooping across her forehead and temples was a golden fringe strung with pearls. Her waist was encircled with a broad gold band with a cluster of emeralds and diamonds in the center. Upon every finger she wore one or more jewels. Her age I was told was sixteen.

Advancing with a step similar to the minuet de la cour, the bells tinkling at every movement, she stopped at every three or four steps, twisted her arms and body, and rolled her eyes, expressing in pantomime the passions of love, anger, fear, sorrow. etc., the actions combined forming a little romance.