xii INTRODUCTION 



Naturalist on the Prowl, I ventured to write to him 

 on the subject of rats and their habits, and asked 

 him whether he could not throw some light on 

 the problem of plague and its spread, from the 

 naturalist's point of view. 



In response to this appeal he wrote a most in- 

 forming and characteristic article for The Times of 

 India (July 19, 1899), which threw a flood of light 

 on the subject of the habits and characteristics of 

 the Indian rat as found in town and country. He 

 was the first to show that Mus rattus, the old 

 English black rat, which is the common house rat 

 of India outside the large seaports, has become, 

 through centuries of contact with the Indian people, 

 a domestic animal like the cat in Britain. When 

 one realises the fact that this same rat is responsible 

 for the spread of plague in India, and that every 

 house is full of them, the value of this naturalist's 

 observation is plain. Thus began an intimacy 

 which lasted till Eha's death in 1909. 



The first time I met Mr. Aitken was at a meeting 

 of the Free Church of Scotland Literary Society in 

 1899, when he read a paper on the early experiences 

 of the English in Bombay. The minute he entered 

 the room I recognised him from the caricatures of 

 himself in the Tribes. The long, thin, erect, bearded 

 man was unmistakable, with a typically Scots face 

 lit up with the humorous twinkle one came to 

 know so well. Many a time in after-years has that 

 look been seen as he discoursed, as only he could, 



