1 889-90-] ^ District in the Himalayas. 307 



The neighbours had told us that this woman had buried all the 

 other inhabitants of her house — her husband, her mother, and 

 her sister. Last of all, she herself had sickened and died. We 

 buried her on the spot where she was lying. As before, no 

 villager from any other place would go with us nearer than 

 about a mile from the house. 



I was told that at a village called Bait there were sixty- 

 four inhabitants when the disease broke out, — that of these, 

 sixty died, three recovered, and one was supposed to have 

 remained unaffected. I believe this account to be substan- 

 tially true, but I did not visit Bait till a long time after 

 the epidemic was over. In another smaller village I found 

 that of the whole population, only one man and one woman 

 had survived. The man had lost his wife and children, 

 the woman her husband and children. In the other houses 

 in the village, all had died — men, women, and children. 

 One more story to conclude with. When I was returning 

 home, after the epidemic was practically over, and was 

 marching down the bank of the great river, a native 

 pointed out a cave to me, and told me that two little girls, 

 about ten and eight years of age, had taken refuge there. 

 Their parents had died of the plague. !N"o village would 

 allow these children to enter it, for fear of their bringing 

 infection ; but the neighbouring villagers daily carried food to 

 a place near the cave, where these children could find it. I 

 walked to a large village near, where I purchased blankets, 

 carried them up to the cave, and gave them to the girls. I 

 then went to a rich native gentleman who lived near, and 

 asked him to see that the children continued to get food reg- 

 ularly. I afterwards heard that the children survived their 

 life in the cave, and were taken back to village Hfe again. 

 All the neighbours told me they were girls of good family, 

 and rich. I mention this to show that it was not a case of 

 poverty. It was terror of infection, and that alone, which 

 kept these children out of the shelter of a house, and forced 

 them to take refuge in a cave. 



