the great rivers,and the railway will soon run the steamers off the Ganges; for, contrary to all expectation, the natives have shown the utmost partiality for all transit by rad. The schoolmaster is abroad in our universities; our colleges, our city academies,and our village schools;a taste is sprung up for European literature and science, and young Bengal is adopting the costume, the manners and customs of the governing classes.
11. HOUSES.—Native houses are in general very humble dwellings, though of great variety. The Malays build their houses of thatch and bamboo, upon stakes driven into the sand; with the tide flowing under them, approaching them by a boat and mounting them by a ladder. Nothing could be more airy and more cleanly than such an edifice.
The Burmese also build their houses upon large timbers, let into the ground, with an open space below the planked floor, where they generally keep their cattle. The walls are planked, and the roofs either planked or thatched. The Burmese houses are more capacious and more comfortable than those of any native race in India.
The Bengali budds his house on a terrace of mud two or three feet high, the fabric being constructed of bamboos and thatch. The floor is of mud, and is frequently washed over with cow-dung and water, and when dry ornamented with
