186 ROUGHING IT IN SOUTHERN INDIA 



dried. Dyed they were, too, for use in waters of varying 

 colour, the lengths being most neatly joined. 



That much I was told, but it never occurred to me to 

 inquire where or in what vessels the boiling was done. I 

 did not want to see it, the thought of it was horrid enough, 

 but it so happened one day that I did see accidentally, and, 



horror ! on several fires in the kitchen were as many 

 saucepans and pots all a-simmer with caterpillars stewing 

 in vinegar — the saucepans and pots used for cooking our 

 food in ! I said at once that I never could or should have 

 them used for food again, and then learned that this was not 

 the first time it had been done ; therefore I had already eaten 

 several dinners cooked in the pots after the caterpillars. 



1 was told, moreover, that I had been none the worse for 

 it ; the saucepans, being of tin-lined copper or iron, all 

 could be easily scoured out. In fact, there was nothing 

 that any one need mind about it ; the vinegar not being 

 allowed to stand in the pots and pans, they took no harm. 

 That that was a very material point, I knew. As to my 

 objection to the use they had been put to, F. thought it 

 was only fussy. Fortunately it chanced that we were 

 expecting people to stay with us who were more likely to 

 side with me than with him, so a fresh set was procured. 



Altogether, I thought dead caterpillars were trouble 

 enough, but a time was at hand when living ones were to 

 become the one engrossing subject, filling up every moment 

 of my days, and also almost literally filling every crevice and 

 chink in the house ; invading my very clothes even if 

 they were left to hang for two days together uninspected. 



Inventors are generally dreadful trials to their families, 

 and so sometimes are naturalists — as such. F/s idea was 

 to naturalise, or acclimatise, valuable silk-moths in The 

 Wynad, so establishing a new industry, and eventually a 

 source of revenue. Cocoons of the Eria moth from Assam, 

 the silk from which is of rare strength and beauty ; the 



