I4 2 ZOOLOGICAL SKETCHES. 



with so sacred a creature ; foreigners who wish to do- 

 mesticate a honuman must treat him as a guest rather 

 than a pet. Near the mahakhund of Khunar in the 

 Nilgiri Hills there is a hygienic hotel where the gar- 

 rison-officers of the Madras Presidency use to spend the 

 hot summer months, and Dr. V. gave me an amusing 

 account of the precautions by which the dhevadar tries 

 to protect his saints from the irreverent tricks of the un- 

 believers. He feeds them early in the morning, before 

 the luxurious Britishers have left their beds, and again 

 at the very hottest hour of the afternoon, when sanitary 

 considerations keep the foreigners within doors, and con- 

 jures them with prayers and lectures to shun the pre- 

 cincts of the hotel. His mom, however, is rather ascetic, 

 while the heretics luxuriate in all the delicacies of the 

 Madras market ; and even saints have a foible for such 

 dainties as pineapple jelly and preserved mangosteens. 

 Dinner is at five p.m., and soon after the second gong 

 the honumans put in an appearance, generally at the 

 east side of the hotel, where a plantation of young 

 myrtle- trees screens them from the observation of the 

 dhevadar. The Semnopitliccus eniellus is naturally a 

 frugal feeder, but the influence of an evil example is 

 almost incalculable, and during the absence of the waiters 

 (all Hindoos, though of doubtful orthodoxy) it appears 

 that the favorites of Brahm were often induced to par- 

 take of flesh-food, and, as the dhevadar mentioned with 

 bated breath, also of alcoholic beverages. The matter 



