INDIAN CATTLE DISEASES. 247 



Natives assert that tigers, and the Felidce generally, eat this earth. I have 

 never myself seen traces of their doing so, though I think it probable, as 

 my dogs would frequently eat it. I do not know of any of these salt-licks 

 existing at a great elevation in hill-ranges ; they appear to be found chiefly, 

 if not entirely, in the low-country jungles, below 3000 feet. 



It is whilst in the low country that bison sometimes suffer from cattle 

 diseases through feeding in jungles used by infected domestic cattle. These 

 epidemics are exceedingly fatal. The three most dreaded are called in 

 Canarese : Dod-rdga — The great sickness; Kei-hy-rdga — Foot-and-mouth 

 disease; Cheppay-rdga — Shoulder-blade disease. The following are the 

 symptoms of each : — 



Dod-rdga. — The beast coughs once, the ears immediately droop, it 

 stands listless, and will not graze. The coat becomes staring, violent purg- 

 ing commences, the evacuations being mixed with bloody mucus ; there is 

 much running at the nose and mouth, and the beast drinks to excess. Flies 

 deposit their eggs about the mouth, eyes, and ears. It becomes rapidly 

 weak and staggers. In from two to four days death generally ensues : 

 some may live for a week. No effectual remedy is known. Of beasts 

 attacked not more than about ten per cent recover ; those in best con- 

 dition are the chief sufferers ; old and poor cattle occasionally survive an 

 attack. Beasts that have once been attacked are said never to have the 

 disease again. It is highly infectious. Calves drinking infected beasts' 

 milk die. The stench from infected cattle is intolerable. The lowest 

 castes of Hindoos (Holoyas and Madigas), and also wild hogs, eat the flesh 

 of the dead cattle, without any ill effects ; but tigers will not touch it, or 

 even, it is said, kill beasts suffering from the disease. Infected herds are 

 frequently driven into jungles where tigers are known to be, as it is super- 

 stitiously believed by the natives that if the tiger can be got to kill a beast 

 the disease Avill leave the rest. It is probable that the disease is on the 

 wane when the tiger recommences killing amongst them. The tiger, doubt- 

 less, discriminates between infected herds and those not infected by the 

 stench of the former. 



Tliis disease prevailed among the bison in the Billiga-rungun hills in 

 1867, and the Sholagas estimate that it killed two-thirds of them. I saw 

 many of their remains when I first shot in the hills in 1869. Just as I 

 was leaving India — in April 1877 — it again broke out amongst them, 

 and I have no doubt has decimated them. It was introduced, on the 

 latter occasion, by the famine-stricken cattle driven to the jungles for 

 pasture when there was none elsewhere. 



Kei-by-r6ga. — In this disease the mouth of the infected animal becomes 



