294 AROUND THE WORLD VIA INDIA. 



for a time his vanity when the sun is in a position to 

 send down on poor India its most scorching rays. He 

 folds and hangs his gaudy tail and sneaks away into the 

 shade of a clump of shrubs or cactus hedge and lowers 

 his microcephalic head with half closed eyes in obedience 

 to his majesty of the day. India swarms with turtle 

 doves and the telegraph wires are their favorite perch. 

 In many stretches of the country from one to a dozen of 

 these tidy, innocent birds can be seen perched on a wire 

 between two telegraph post.s as the train rushes by. 

 When the temperature rises to 130 F. and more, Lhe 

 wires become too hot for their tiny red feet and they 

 are driven by the heat to find protection in the shade. 



Man appears to possess the greatest resisting power 

 against heat. The coolie, bareheaded or with a few 

 yards of cotton cloth wrapped about his head in the 

 form of a turban, can be seen at work any time of the 

 day, no matter what the thermometer may say. From 

 early morning until late at night he toils in the ileitis, 

 plowing, sowing, harvesting, or dipping water, as the 

 case may be, to earn his scanty livelihood. In many 

 parts of India the month of September is the most try- 

 ing one. My guide at Delhi called it the "sickness 

 month," and informed me that during this month few 

 escaped fever, which would last from one to several 

 days. I presume a mild form of malaria. 



The insects were not so troublesome as I expected. 

 At Jaipur the flies were numerous and aggressive. In 

 the hotel at Calcutta I found my bed screened with mos- 

 quito bar. As the evening was extremely sultry and 

 as I heard no mosquito music, I removed it. Next 

 morning I found the uncovered part of my body check- 

 ered with ugly mosquito bites, the noiseless minute 

 mosquito had deceived me and wrought the mischief 

 during the few snatches of sleep that came to me that 

 awful night. I am glad that I have seen India at its 

 worst, so far as the climate is concerned, and that I 

 have escaped with my life, and my health unimpaired, 



