Mr. L. preached in the afternoon, and in the evening the Christians again met, when he addressed them a discourse in the midst of a tremendous thunderstorm.
RETURN TO CUTTACK.
When we rose the next morning at four o'clock we found that the rain had been so heavy during the night that we could get no fuel to make a fire: our provisions, having been neglected, were all spoiled by the rain, excepting a small piece of thick pie-crust; our beer we had exhausted the evening before; so after a scanty meal we started on our way home. We shot a peacock and fowl upon the road along with three snipes, and arrived at Cuttack about half-past eight on Friday morning.
COMET.
I have just witnessed a magnificent sight; during the last month we have had such weather as the oldest inhabitant cannot recollect ever to have seen before at this time of the year. It is generally in February and March very hot and very dry. For the last month we have had almost incessant rain, with violent thunderstorms. The days are comparatively cool, and at night I am glad of two blankets. Rumours of an approaching famine began to float abroad, but at length the mystery was solved. About half-past six I thought I observed a curiously shaped long cloud, and as the sun went down and the twilight deepened it did not alter its appearance, but at about a quarter to seven proved to be a magnificent comet. The nucleus was plainly visible even with the naked eye, and equal in brightness to a small star. The tail was at least 45° in length, and inclined from W.S.W. to E.S.E. Had it been perpendicular it would have reached from the horizon half way up over our heads, the whole distance from the horizon to the zenith being 90°. The breadth of the extremity of the tail was about 2½°, and the posterior half was divided longitudinally by a dark line. The colour was that of a pale moonlight, but it would no doubt have appeared much more red if the moon had not been shining brightly at the time. There has been no comet equal to this in brilliancy and the length of the tail since the year 1759. I have hardly any books to refer to, but my idea is, that it is the same comet which appeared in 1264 and 1556, and was expected back in 1848. If so, its period of revolution is nearly 300 years. Its light was intense, being almost equal to the moon in brilliancy. The natives say it will burn the earth; they call it "jherra tarn," or "burnt star."
The weather is most remarkable. We have incessant rain, with thunder and lightning every evening, and the clouds are too heavy to allow us to see the comet. The houses require fresh thatching every year. The lightning we have here I have never seen equalled in England; each flash spreads over one quarter of the visible heavens, whilst the roaring, or rather the deafening rattle, of the thunder is incessant. The comet re-appeared last night, though hardly so brilliant as it was a week ago.
I was calling upon the judge of Cuttack the other day, and his wife told me that a few nights before she went up stairs at twelve o'clock to see her little girl, who had not been quite well. On the floor of the room she saw what she thought was a piece of ribbon, and stooped to pick it up, when a cobra raised its head and expanded its hood and hissed at her in anger. She called the servants with their bamboos, and they soon killed it, but it was a great mercy that she had not touched it.
[Cuttack, April 13, 1843.]
The other evening the mhator came to ask me for the key to unlock the fowl-house door, as one of the hens was loose. I told him to bring a light, and then went across the compound. The padlock with which the door is fastened passes through a chain and eye at the top of the door. I raised my hand to unlock it, when the mhator, who had the lantern, called out, "Sahib, sahib, samp!" (Sir, sir, a snake!) I looked, and on the very chain which I was on the point of touching was a snake. I immediately called the men to bring bamboos, and they soon killed it. On examining it we found it to be one of that sort whose bite is always fatal, so that the person bitten never lives more than half an hour, and there would be no time for the doctor to come. How thankful I should be to God for my escape! I suspect that the snake was the cobra manilla, but am not sure. It was about two feet and a half long, small head, back dark green or nearly black, with all the way along it transverse yellow stripes.