82 TRAVEL, ADVENTURE, AND SPORT. 



they had found nothing to complain of in the water. 

 It is very unpleasant when suspicions of this kind 

 arise, because it is almost impossible to disprove 

 them ; and yet one feels that the harbouring of them 

 may be doing cruel injustice to worthy men. But, 

 some time before, I had become convinced, from a 

 variety of circumstances, that drugging, which the 

 people of India have always had a good deal of 

 recourse to among themselves, is now brought to bear 

 occasionally upon Anglo-Indians also, when there is 

 any motive for its use, and where covering circum- 

 stances exist. It may seem easy to people who have 

 never tried it, and have never had any reason to do 

 so, to determine whether or not poisonous drugs have 

 been administered to them ; but they will find that 

 just as difficult as to dismount from a horse when it 

 is going over a precipice. Such is the fact even 

 where the poison is one which can be detected, but 

 that is not always the case ; and, in particular, there 

 is a plant which grows in almost every compound in 

 India, a decoction of the seeds of one variety of which 

 will produce delirium and death without leaving any 

 trace of its presence behind. The pounded seeds 

 themselves are sometimes given in curry with similar 

 effect, but these can be detected, and it is a decoction 

 from them which is specially dangerous. Entertain- 

 ing such views, it appeared to me quite possible that 

 some of the people about me might be disposed not so 

 much to poison me as to arrest my journey by means 



