ROUGHING IT IN SOUTHERN INDIA 51 



as currants with the blood of their victims ; the fuller they 

 are the more tightly they stick on. Our people, beaters, 

 coolies — all would be dotted over with them, hanging on in 

 bunches ; they had enough to do getting them off them- 

 selves and each other, let alone the animals. 



Unlike the leeches, dry weather suits ticks as well as 

 wet, so in all seasons there was generally something of 

 the kind to contend with. 



However fond people may be of animals, insects, life in 

 every shape — as we certainly were — it does not seem 

 possible for them to look upon ticks and leeches as any- 

 thing but unmitigated pests ; their ways oblige one so 

 to regard them. Existing in myriads, they must consti- 

 tute a vast aggregate of happiness in the mere joy of 

 living and breathing, which clothes itself in so many 

 forms ; but what useful purpose these unpleasant entities 

 fulfil in the scheme of Nature is not apparent on the 

 surface. 



There is a certain caterpillar that for its disagreeableness 

 might be classed under the same head as the ticks and 

 leeches ; a truly venomous little beast it was — as I can 

 testify from personal experience — not harmless like the 

 ' woollybear ' of our June gardens, which it much resembles 

 in appearance. The fine hairs of this caterpillar are poison- 

 ous, judging by their power of causing blistering sores if 

 they get into, and work under, the skin. Once there these 

 hairs are too fine to be pulled out, and if they are broken 

 off, with the least mite left behind, it only makes matters 

 worse, so that however much irritation their presence 

 produces, you dare not rub, or you would rub the broken 

 bits farther in. 



It happened that F. and I were stopping for the day at 

 an abandoned coffee estate at Billikul, near Ootacamund 

 (commonly called Ooty), where stood a ruinous crib that 

 served us for a pied-a-terre. It was morning, and we were 



