144 ROUGHING IT IN SOUTHERN INDIA 



as it had taken years to attain its present shape and size, 

 and he did not suffer pain. Nervous, fanciful people might 

 have objected to such a servant, and to the sight of his 

 foot, or rather to the little bit of it that was visible 

 under the closely-setting white petticoat worn by household 

 servants and some other classes in Malabar (where we then 

 were), their dress consisting of a straight piece of muslin 

 wound several times round the waist and reaching to the 

 ankle, with a white calico jacket above. The man was a 

 native of the west coast, where elephantiasis is fearfully 

 common. 



A poor woman whom we saw most days squatting over 

 her baskets of fruit in the bazaar had an arm affected in 

 the same way. As far as it is possible for an arm to be like 

 a leg, hers was like an elephant's. This poor creature had a 

 double weight to carry, for to get along at all without falling 

 over she was obliged to be balanced on the other side. 

 The awful growth and dark discoloration began from her 

 shoulder, which was unaffected. The joint of the elbow 

 could be bent slightly, like those of the leg and ankle I have 

 mentioned. The bones are not touched by the disease, 

 which is entirely in the skin and immediately beneath it. 



Sometimes the face is the part affected. Though the 

 disease does not of itself destroy the eyesight or the organs 

 of smell, hearing, speech, etc., yet the skin grows and thickens 

 round them in such a way as to produce much the same 

 result. Though the afflicted person's eyes are uninjured 

 he cannot use them, for the lids become so thick as to be 

 almost fixed, the cheek below meeting them, it may be on 

 one side only, it may be on both. So, too, with the ears, 

 nose, mouth — all are rendered useless, so overlaid is each 

 feature with this unspeakably dreadful growth. His speech 

 is unintelligible ; to take nourishment, except in liquid 

 form, is sometimes impossible to him from inability to move 

 the jaws sufficiently to masticate ; he is well-nigh helpless. 



