THE PERPETUAL FOUNTAIN.
A bonze of indescribable holiness, who loved to offer up his prayers in the high places of earth, climbed the mountain one day in order to make his devotions on its lofty summit. Despite his sanctity, however, he was human; and as the mountain was of great elevation and equal barrenness, he soon grew faint with hunger, but more particularly with thirst. Disdainful, like all sages, of purely physical needs, he had not taken the precaution of providing himself with these precious necessaries of food and drink, which are the first thought of ordinary mortals. What was he to do? He began to pray; and lo! as he prayed, an enormous rock, which reared its dark front before him, was suddenly cleft open, and revealed to his delighted gaze a crystal spring falling into a basin of stone. From that time the well has never ceased to pour out abundant waters, which heal all the diseases of humanity;—though, strange to say, men, women, and children still die in Cochin-China!
Ten minutes’ climbing brought Dr. Morice face to face with this perpetual marvel. His companions hastened to drink copious draughts of the fresh cold water; but Dr. Morice, rejecting the legend, and having less confidence than he ought to have had in temperance principles, resorted to his pocket flask, poured out a glass of French wine, and drank to the majesty of the glorious mountain.
SCENE AT TAYNINH.
On another occasion Dr. Morice took part in an exciting adventure, which had a painful issue. A tiger, whose depredations had become intolerable, having carried off the best dog of one of the best hunters of the country, it was decided that he must undergo immediate and condign punishment.
The tiger is not often hunted in Cochin-China, where the elephant, that living fortress, does not place at the disposal of the European its high shoulders and formidable tusks. The inhabitants generally resort to snares.
TIGER-HUNTING.