CHAPTER XYI. 



THE SECOND YEAR OF THE MADRAS FAMINE. 



Sickness in the Jungle. — Temporary Absence from the Hills. — A Starving 

 Waif.— The Spectre of Famine. — Famine-stricken Natives. — Cause and 

 Effects of the Famine. — The Relief Camp at Animallai. — A Review of the 

 Hungry. — The Government and the Famine. — "Money Doles." — Mortal- 

 ity.—" Be ye Warmed and Fed ! "—End of the Drought. 



Toward tlie end of September, my supplies of all kinds were quite 

 exhausted, and having a huge jDile of skins, rough skeletons and 

 skulls to care for, I determined to go down from the hills for a 

 few weeks, pack up my collection for safe-keeping, and see if a 

 change of air, water, and diet would not benefit my health, I would 

 have quitted the hills then for good, had I not felt in duty bound 

 to bring away the skin of a really large elephant. 



During my three months on the Animallais, I had nine sepa- 

 rate attacks of fever, and all the time there were from five to ten raw 

 ulcers on each of my ankles, which I had to dress daily with court- 

 plaster and cotton before I could wear my hunting shoes. Many 

 times I had to stuff cotton in my shoes all around my ankles, so that 

 I could make out to walk without severe pain. Those ulcers re- 

 mained unhealed as long as I stayed in Southern India, and did not 

 get well until I had been some time in Ceylon. 



At this time Professor Ward kept waiting to me, " Take great care 

 of your health, and run no risk of losing life or limb. If you are 

 attacked by fever, leave that country at once." But I was not go- 

 ing to be beaten by a little fever. What I constantly dreaded was 

 dysentery, for an attack of that would perhaps have forced me to 

 abandon my enterprise. I was told it is almost impossible for a 

 European to recover from a severe attack of it without taking a 

 long sea-voyage, or going to England. 



Early in July, Mr. Theobald, who was thoroughly fever-proof, was 

 attacked by it, and in a week he was reduced to a gaunt, colorless, 

 hollow-eyed ghost of his former self. I feared he would never re- 



