ROUGHING IT IN SOUTHERN INDIA 185 



knew that only a few of the servants were about there ; 

 neither could they see the fire on account of an intervening 

 hillock. There was no time to be lost, so we raced thither 

 and set to work. Every one knew exactly what to do, and 

 all worked as one man, with one definite object — to defeat 

 the enemy. Fine sweeps they looked when all was done, 

 F. being as black as the rest. A little feast had been well 

 earned by the men, and they got it — extra dried fish and 

 tobacco and grog. 



On one such occasion there was some added merriment 

 in jeering at the cook for his share in the work. He had so 

 lost his head as to pick up a flaming bunch of grass and throw 

 it upon the thatch of the hut I was standing in, watching 

 the scene. He was advised to get away and hide, but he 

 pulled himself together and did yeoman's service afterwards. 

 Beyond the hole burnt in the thatch no damage was done 

 anywhere ; nor did we ever suffer serious loss from this cause 

 at any time, so smartly and judiciously were things managed. 



That tours should be undertaken for special purposes was 

 natural and a matter of course, shikar being merely inci- 

 dental. The object was generally to start some new project 

 or produce, or to gather in some established one, of which, 

 as usual, Government held the monopoly. One tour, how- 

 ever, was made for the express and only purpose — we being 

 on leave, and spending it on our favourite Brahmagiris — 

 of collecting what even Government did not claim, nor, as 

 far as I know, any one ever want up to then, namely, 

 caterpillars, F. having discovered a particularly large hairy 

 sort, the intestines of which were especially adapted for the 

 making of fishing-lines. Collected they were by basketfuls, 

 and several men's loads (of about fifty pounds weight each) 

 were brought in and killed instantaneously by being dropped 

 into boiling vinegar. This was the process : when cold the 

 bodies were cut open and the intestinal canal — a mere 

 thread — removed, washed, and afterwards stretched and 



