PURDASEE, THE DOM. 157 



scrupulous as to how the fowls were come by. 

 I asked him one day how he managed to catch 

 the fowls without noise. He said he drugged 

 them with rice which he kept in his mouth all 

 night. It fermented there and became very in- 

 toxicating. The fowls eating this rice became 

 drunk and stupid, and were easily caught. 



Poor Purdasee ! He fell a victim to his devotion 

 to me. I was out fowling one day and had shot a 

 couple of duck in a tank (pond), but found that they 

 were too far out and the water too deep to recover 

 them by wading. I sent Purdasee to see if he could 

 find a villager who could swim, but all of them said 

 they could not. I turned away disappointed, and 

 was wending my way home when a villager ran 

 up and said that Purdasee had gone into the 

 tank after the duck and had not returned. We 

 instituted a most careful search, and constructing 

 a couple of rafts, I had the tank carefully dragged 

 in the direction where he was last seen, but with- 

 out result. His body was not recovered till two 

 days later. Poor Purdasee ! 



