50 ROUGHING IT IN SOUTHERN INDIA 



Wild animals suffer cruelly from leeches, and avoid the 

 forests all they can during the months when they abound, 

 keeping to the grasslands in the open, preferring to brave 

 the tempest of cold rain, all unprotected from its driving 

 blasts, rather than be bled to death by these creatures. 

 Natives, too, will go miles out of their way in order to keep 

 clear of the leech-infested areas, which are confined to the 

 wooded tracts. 



Though it was an easy matter to take these blood-suckers 

 off the bodies of our horses, dogs, and other animals, it was 

 not so when they got them into their noses whilst drinking 

 — the streams being full of leeches. The poor beasts got 

 no rest for trying to rid themselves of their tormentors. 

 Syringing with salt and water would not always dislodge 

 them, so tenaciously do they stick on ; the best plan was 

 to keep the animal from water entirely, by most stringent 

 and hard-hearted watching, until it should be very thirsty ; 

 then a pan of water held under the nose would bring down 

 the leeches, thirsty too now, and instinctively seeking their 

 natural element. What leeches do in other seasons I 

 do not know, though there must be moisture enough in 

 mountain streams to keep them alive ; at any rate no one 

 ever knew the leech crop to fail. 



On this special occasion we lingered in the forest no 

 longer than was absolutely necessary. F. hurried up with 

 his work and returned later on to finish. 



Ticks are another and equally distressing source of 

 trouble to the animals and the scantily clothed people. 

 These pests adhere so firmly to the skin that getting them 

 off brings a bit of skin away also. I remember an occasion 

 when one of the dogs, a shaggy one, was in such a state that 

 he had to be clipped, not to say shaved, and rubbed with 

 kerosene before he could be relieved — the oil loosening 

 their hold — and this at the end of a single day's outing ! 

 These ticks, small to begin with, get as large and round 



