38 Cincinnati Society of Xatural History. 



says: " These simple children of nature, the ' Kandhs," a few 

 years ago used to buy slaves from the low country and sacri- 

 fice them on the altar, for the benefit of the next year's crop ; 

 an old chief informed me that since this practice had been 

 stopped, they had ne\-er had as good crops. I had established 

 myself at a camp by the roadside, eleven miles from Sunki, 

 and had there a rather serious experience. While working 

 successfully this zoologically unknown country, the cholera 

 broke out with great force, and every body deserted that 

 could. I managed to keep my old cook, by not paying her all 

 of her wages (the great secret of keeping servants in this 

 country) ; even the dresser or surgeon ran away, leaving the 

 sick to their fate. There were more than thirty people left in 

 the camp, many of them in a half dying state, though some 

 had passed the crisis of the disease; they were all huddled 

 into two or three huts to escape the tigers, which they seemed 

 to fear more than fresh contagion. The only well people in 

 the camp were myself and Mushaludi, my cook, and her 

 daughter. (Mushaludi was a great thief; the fowls she cooked 

 for me always lacked their full complement of legs and wings). 

 I took a sort of grim pleasure in this aflfair so far, and made a 

 trip to the top of the highest mountain in this country and 

 got some new insects near the summit. On my way home 

 from this trip I passed a burned village, the poor people 

 mourning over the ashes, and grubbing up their scant stock 

 of "Paddy" from the ruins. Many of them died of hunger 

 and cold. I made a trip to a neighboring village, to try and 

 get help for the sick, but I found the people not much con- 

 cerned with the aff"airs of this world. They were dying like 

 flies! On January 14th I was taken sick; the same evening 

 I met a leopard in the cam]), but he ran awaw I went into 

 my hut that night, I heard the hyenas shrieking all night, and 

 .some one sneaked in and stole m\" rice. I dosed myself with 

 chlorodyne ; that stopped the disease, but left me almost in- 

 sensible. When I recovered, and, though very weak, I went 

 out; no one was alive in the camp. I saw one man's body 

 lialf eaten up by wild beasts, and a girl that I thought was 

 getting better was dead, and teeth marks showed the cau.se of 

 her death. About thirty people are supjiosed to have died in 

 and around this camp." From this pestilential country 

 Doherty went to the Island of Ceylon, August iith, working 



