372 KARA'S FOOT. 



six feet of us. Soondargowry (the elephant) was brought hock from camp 

 after she had deposited the three bears, and we soon had this one padded. 

 The first herd of elephants that had come down the hills after the hot sea- 

 son were close at hand, encouraged by the rain and cool weather in the 

 low country, and they wen; very noisy, feeding and disporting themselves, as 

 we passed. We accompanied Soondargowry in a body in case we met any 

 of the wild ones, who might have frightened her. I took care after dinner 

 to provide the men with all the requisites for making a merry night after 

 our successful day. It rained in torrents, but they were under snug shelter; 

 and from the sounds of merriment that went on, I think they enjoyed 

 themselves none the less for the weather without. 



The Shologa Kara whom 1 have mentioned was an excellent and patient 

 tracker, but he frequently fell lame from a deeply-seated ulcer on the inner 

 side of his right foot, just where the sole of a boot is joined by the " uppers." 

 I imagined a thorn to be the cause of the mischief, as all natives of the 

 lower classes in India go barefooted, and wounds from thorns and stones 

 are not uncommon. It did not yield to common treatment, however. The 

 wound, though two inches deep, had an orifice that would barely admit a 

 straw. One day, during a halt at noon in the jungles, I saw Kara and two 

 of his brother Sholagas doing something to the wound, and found they had 

 introduced a leech — the small Indian jungle-leech — into it, in the belief 

 that it would eat away the gangrenous flesh ! This I found Kara had been 

 doing at intervals for months, keeping the leeches plugged in for some 

 hours ! Kara was only a lad of nineteen ; he had suffered from the ulcer 

 t'i ir two years ; and as it appeared likely to cause him incessant trouble, I 

 determined to send him to Nunjengode, twenty-eight miles from Morlay, 

 where a Government dispensary had recently been opened. Of course it 

 would not have done to let him know of my benevolent intentions. He 

 would have been as little likely as a bison to appreciate any plan involving a 

 journey into open country, amongst the dwellers in towns, and would speedily 

 have been non est. So I sent a tracker for him to come to Morlay, and 

 when he arrived Jaffer marched him off to Nunjengode with a letter to 

 the dresser. I sent a quantity of ragi to his wife, and an explanation 

 of what had become of Kara ; but I believe, before he returned after an 

 absence of twelve days, his disconsolate spouse had fully settled in her own 

 mind that we had sacrificed him to evoke success in hunting ! The use of 

 the knife upon Kara had, however, been confined to his foot, and the wound 

 healed rapidly. He has lived to be thankful that his views were not con- 

 sulted in the matter. 



I shot several bears in 1872-73 at a place called Sakrapatam in the 



