BOMBAY. 27 



crocodiles, since he was acquainted with Kurrachee and the sacred 

 crocodiles of Mugger Peer. He was talking at a great rate, and I 

 was busily jotting down notes, when he suddenly stopped and 

 asked, "Sir, why do you require to know about these animals?" 

 " Why, I wish to find them." " Why do you require to find them ? 

 Do you wish to shoot them, to kill them?" "Exactly, for their 

 skins and skeletons." "Ah," said he, dropping my map, "then I 

 cannot inform you where any animals are ; I do not wish any thing 

 to be killed, and if I tell you where you can find any animals I shall 

 do a great wrong." 



" Did you never kill an animal ? " said I. 



" Never sir, never ; not purposely, it would be a great sin for 

 me." 



He then went on to tell me of a certain caste of Hindoos, the 

 members of which are so conscientious about taking the life of any 

 living thing that they always eat before sunset to avoid making a 

 light which might be the death of some moth or gnat. They do 

 not kill even mosquitoes, fleas, or lice, and if a man finds a louse 

 upon himself, he either allows it to feed comfortably, or else he 

 puts it carefully upon his next neighbor. What a paradise for in- 

 sects their homes must be ! 



This morbid Hindoo prejudice against taking life has developed 

 in the Jain sect into an institution which is perhaps the only one 

 of its kind in existence. I refer to the hospital for animals, not far 

 from the Mombadevi Temple. In a spacious enclosure, divided 

 into yards, sheds, stables, kennels, cages, etc., are gathered to- 

 gether hundreds of diseased, worn out or starving horses, bullocks, 

 cows, sheep, cats, and monkeys ; cranes, crows, chickens, ducks, 

 and pan'ots — in short, a perfect zoological garden of the most woe- 

 begone description. Domestic animals that have been t/arned out 

 by heartless owners to perish miserably of starvation and disease ; 

 wild birds whose wings or legs have been broken by sportsmen ; 

 kittens, " left in the road," to die of starvation, just as tender- 

 hearted Christian people serve them in America, are all gathered 

 up by the agents of this Jain institution, and cared for in every 

 possible way. Many animals, whose festering sores, broken legs, 

 and incurable diseases make life a burden to them, need far more 

 to have their miseries ended by a speedy, painless death, than to 

 have their suflferings prolonged a single day, even with the best 

 intentions. As I looked at some of those miserable animals which 

 were slowly dying by inches and siiffering intensely, I thought oi 



