ROUGHING IT IN SOUTHERN INDIA 283 



concerned us as nearly as it did them, his munthrams would 

 be as efficacious as any used by their priests. Every face 

 cleared at this assurance, and the men listened trustfully, 

 nothing doubting, a shadow of awe creeping over each, 

 while F. slowly chanted several verses of nursery rhymes, 

 accompanying them with appropriate gestures. Thus was 

 a serious dilemma — for serious it was to our easily grieved, 

 if easily comforted, people — met and turned by adroit 

 handling. But if I shocked these very punctilious people 

 on that occasion, so did they me on another, when I saw 

 one of them pressing the contents of the entrails of some 

 animal yard by yard into the cooking-pot a-simmer on the 

 fire, yet throwing away the mere enveloping membrane 

 as something unclean which might not enter their food ; 

 while the others sat round watching, and raising no 

 objection ! 



One evening the ' bag ' was a live bison calf, covered 

 with soft and longish red-brown hair ; a pretty little creature, 

 which a man carried on his shoulder. Led by its piteous 

 cries, they had traced it to a native trap — a deep pit, with 

 boughs laid lightly over the mouth. What had become of 

 its mother we never found out. She would never have left 

 it of her own accord, for it was very young ; and perhaps 

 it fretted for her, as it soon died, though it seemed to thrive 

 well on the goats' milk we gave it. With another, which 

 was destined for the ' Zoo,' we succeeded better, and it was 

 shipped comfortably, with all planned for its well-being ; 

 however, we heard afterwards that it had succumbed to 

 sea-sickness. 



Yet another catch was a baby elephant that from first 

 to last was nothing but a credit to his keepers. He, too, 

 was traced by his squeals, and found in just such another 

 pit as that into which the bison calf had fallen. These pits 

 are a source of annoyance, though not exactly dangerous, 

 to men, who can clamber out of them with some trouble. 



