THE SECOND YEAR OF THE MADRAS FAMINE. 175 



cover from it without going to England ; but he did. To my sur- 

 prise and admiration he cured himself, with a little advice from an- 

 other doctor, and that, too, while the Deputy Conservator, who had 

 occupied the Animallai post with him, was on his way to England 

 to get rid of the same disease. 



Mr. Theobald used to doctor the natives very successfully, curing 

 their fevers and other ailments, one after another, I never saw a 

 man more universally liked by all the natives who knew him than 

 was he. He was particularly kind and charitable to the Mulcers 

 and Karders, poor wretches to whom a powerful friend in the Gov- 

 ernment service was a perfect godsend. He treated them like so 

 many children, and they in return would have done and endured 

 anything to serve him. 



When the time came for me to leave the hills, I sent for about 

 thirty coolies from Animallai, to carry my collection down to the 

 foot of the ghaut, where some bandies were waiting to take it the 

 remaining ten miles, to Animallai. Theobald gave me his horse to 

 ride, but at the top of the pass I dismounted and gave him in 

 charge of the syce, while I started to make the descent on foot. 

 The weather was simply perfect, and a more glorious afternoon I 

 never saw. From the winding road which leads down the steep 

 mountain side, one catches occasional views of the plain, which 

 stretches out from the base of the mountain, mile after mile, a vast 

 sea of bare, brown earth dotted with green fields, clumps of trees, 

 and red-tiled villages as far as the eye can reach, until in the dis- 

 tance all are blended together. From my cool eyrie, I could easily 

 trace the course of the Animallai River by the fringe of green trees 

 along its banks, and before me, at the end of a long stretch of 

 straight road, lay the village of Animallai. An hour later I was 

 trudging along that dusty highway, with the sun beating down upon 

 me and the perspiration pouring off my face like rain. 



Two mUes from Animallai there is another village, and as I ap- 

 proached it, my attention was arrested by a little child about fouf 

 years old, entirely naked, of course, hobbhng slowly about in the 

 sandy bed of a dried-up pond. Its feet and legs were swollen with 

 "famine dropsy," as if they had elephantiasis, the ankles being as 

 large as the thighs, and the miserable little thing could step only a 

 few inches at a time. Its sunken cheeks, hollow eyes, and protrud- 

 ing ribs told of starvation, and it was plain to be seen the helpless 

 waif would soon die, unless cared for. I told my boy to take up 

 the child and carry it to the village, or else find some one else to 



