SS2

LIFJS ON THE MISSISSIPPI.

One even becomes reconciled to the cistern presently; this is a
mighty cask, painted green, and sometimes a couple of stories high,
which is propped against the house-corner on stilts. There is a
mansion-and-brewery suggestion about the combination which seems
very incongruous at first. But the people cannot have wells, and
so they take rain-water. Neither can they conveniently have cellars,
or graves;l the town being built upon * made' ground; so they
do without both, and few of the living complain, and none of the
others.
1 The Israelites are buried in graves—by permission, I take it, not require-
ment ; but none else, esce.pt the destitute, who are buried at public expense.
The graves are but three or four feet deep.