ROUGHING IT IN SOUTHERN INDIA ; ; ' \ }$£ 



our men that had been boiled and baked in hot ashes, and, 

 relishing the novelty, soon learned the knack of doing the 

 same. They fed on grubs, too, which I suppose would not 

 stand cooking, industriously digging them out of the earth 

 and cutting them out of decayed wood ; bee-grubs, too, 

 when they had the luck to find a young comb ; but the 

 great delicacy was a queen white ant in the grub stage, 

 about the size of one's little finger, very unpleasant to our 

 eyes, but just right to theirs. Seeing these creatures 

 hunted for, found, and popped into the mouth with gusto 

 was simply nauseating. The queens were rare, but the 

 smaller grubs were gobbled up greedily too. These they 

 collected on a leaf, sitting down to the feast as we might 

 to enjoy cherries or other fruit after we had gathered it. 

 One would not willingly watch such a repast, but one could 

 not help seeing it. 



The dress of the little men was as simple and as easily 

 come by as their food ; it consisted merely of a basket for 

 the waist and loins, ingeniously fashioned in two pieces, 

 and fitting their persons well. Of building construction, 

 however, they seem to have little idea, living in natural 

 holes and caves. 



A flat stone outside the boundary was the only market- 

 place allowed by other communities to these little outcasts, 

 whose touch is regarded as contamination. On it they 

 must place their money or baskets in exchange for the salt, 

 raggi, jaggheri, plantains, fish, axes, knives, or whatever it 

 was they wanted. 



The women were the oddest little beings ever seen, and 

 indeed, except for their human faces, were like nothing but 

 animals, either in appearance or behaviour. What ideas 

 they might have I could not discover — I wished I could. 

 The first I saw of these tiny women was once when I was 

 sitting in camp, and noticed some dark objects darting in 

 and out from behind a rock some distance off, peeping over 



