Mr. Angas saw one which was carried by a little girl ten years of age. Like “Little Nell,” she was in attendance upon an old and infirm grandfather, and devoted her little life to him. In nothing was the difference of human customs shown more plainly than in the use of the mother’s skull as a drinking vessel--an act which we should consider as the acme of heathen brutality, but with these aborigines is held to be a duty owed by the child to the parent. Perhaps my classical readers will remember a chapter in Herodotus which bears on this very subject. He finds fault with Cambyses for breaking into the temples of the Cabeiri, burning their idols, and so hurting the religious feelings of the people; and remarks that he was wary in offending against any religious sentiment, however absurd it might appear to himself. He then proceeds to tell an anecdote of Darius, who had at his court some “Indians called Callatians,” and some Greeks. He asked the Greeks (who always burned their dead, as the Hindoos do now), what bribe would induce them to eat the bodies of their dead parents, and they naturally replied that for no bribe could they perform so horrible a deed. Then, in the presence of the Greeks, he asked the Callatians, who ate their dead (as several savage nations do now), for what sum they would consent to burn the bodies of their dead. They, as it appears from the style of their answer, were even more shocked than the Greeks at the idea of such horrible sacrilege, and would not deign to give a direct answer, but begged Darius to “speak words of good omen.” (See _Thalia_, xxxvii. 8.) A somewhat similar proceeding is narrated in the life of Nussir-er-deen, the late king of Oude. His native ministers, jealous of the influence exercised over him by some of his European friends, complained that the English guests treated the monarch with disrespect, by retaining their shoes in his royal presence. The king, who, enervated as he was by vanity, dissipation, self-indulgence, and flattery, was no fool, immediately proposed a compromise. “Listen to me, nawab; and you, general, listen to me. The King of England is my master, and these gentlemen would go into his presence with their shoes on. Shall they not come into mine, then? Do they come before me with their hats on? Answer me, your excellency.” “They do not, your majesty.” “No, that is _their_ way of showing respect. _They_ take off their hats, and _you_ take off your shoes. But come now, let us have a bargain. Wallah! but I will get them to take off their shoes and leave them without, as you do, if you will take off your turban and leave it without, as they do.” (See Knighton’s “Private Life of an Eastern King.”)