A few days since, a Siamese came into the yard, and desired to exhibit some dancing snakes; he uncovered a basket, and drew out with his naked hand several of a large size, and of the most venomous kind known in India, the cobra de capello--they were full six feet in length, and large in proportion; he had eight in the basket, and took out three or four at a time, and suffered them to run about: he would then touch one slightly on the body, as he was retreating, which caused him instantly to turn his head backward toward the tail. The head, from being round and small in proportion to the body, was quickly expanded to the width of full three, and probably five inches in length, showing a crown or circle in the centre; the head was nearly flat, his forked tongue was thrust out with great rapidity, and he kept vibrating from side to side, and his keen fiery eye shot forth most terrific glances; but he made a most noble and graceful, although frightful appearance. The exhibitor kept a cloth moving, a short distance in front of his eyes, and the snake, in endeavouring to elude it, so that he might spring upon his adversary, kept in a dancing motion. Having tied two or three of the largest round his neck, and put the head of one of them in his mouth, the exhibition ended. Being satisfied that the fangs were extracted, or otherwise they could not be handled with impunity, I suffered two of them to run between my feet, but they did not offer to molest me or any one else. The water used for domestic purposes is taken, with all its impurities, from the river, in water-tight buckets, neatly and strongly woven; it is put into unglazed earthen jars of thirty or forty gallons, and is suffered to settle in the best way it can, without any foreign aid. The filth of half a million of people, which is all emptied into the river, renders it most impure, and dead bodies are frequently thrown in to save the expense of burning. In a family, where no garments are mended--in which there is no baking or ironing of clothes; no stocking nor shoes worn, and the washing and drying of their simple garments, done at the river, does not occupy a month in a year--no books read, and no writing done--a large portion of the time of the females must, of course, be spent in sleep and idleness. This is the life led by the Siamese women of a good condition, they having in fact no occupation--this must be the true “dolce farniente” of the Italians, and a sorry one it is.