104 ROUGHING IT IN SOUTHERN INDIA 



was enough to scare them for the moment, when they took 

 to their hands and feet immediately, though it became 

 only make-believe as their timidity wore off. Soon familiar 

 and inquisitive were not the words to describe their be- 

 haviour ! They attended me in troops, never tired of 

 touching my clothes, and especially my shoes, which at 

 first they thought grew on me. This is no exaggeration : 

 they defied me (I was told) to remove them ! I did so, 

 to amuse myself by watching their faces the while. 



In the end, having proved myself to be harmless, I was 

 delighted to see them go away, to bring back their babies 

 to show me — fat, brown balls, quite as big as other babies, 

 which was somewhat surprising considering the diminutive 

 size of their parents, none of their mothers being even four 

 feet high. 



In health there could not be a merrier or more happy- 

 tempered set of little people than this, but if the scourge 

 of smallpox appeared amongst them, the lot of the one 

 attacked was appalling indeed. Such a one was con- 

 veyed into the jungle — the very heart of it — some sort of 

 thatch shelter was built up about him, and there he was 

 left with a supply of food and drink. After that, far from 

 being waited on, or even inquired after, or the supply of 

 food replenished, his very neighbourhood was shunned. 

 A large pot of water and coarse bread for a fortnight was 

 — so I was told — considered all that was needful. At the 

 end of that time the sick person must be either dead or 

 better ; if better he could walk back to his family. Thus 

 they would argue, if, indeed, they did anything but follow 

 immemorial custom. That some did survive this regimen 

 their scarred faces testified. 



It is also their habit to carry the very old and feeble folk 

 away to some distant, solitary spot, where they are ex- 

 pected to die, and leave them with a merely complimentary 

 supply of sustenance. 



