202 AT MINNIKOY 



and showing a respect for sanitary ordinances that is 

 extremely rare in the East. The leper village was at 

 the extreme northerly point of the island, and when I 

 visited it on the 8th December 1891, I found there a 

 few squalid huts, a well of drinking-water, and thirteen 

 miserable human beings, who, when they saw me, pros- 

 trated themselves on the ground with the most piteous 

 gestures of supplication. Eight of them were women, 

 of whom none were old and one was a comely girl of 

 about eighteen years, four were young men, and one 

 was a small boy of about ten : most of them were 

 suffering from the anaesthetic form in its mutilating 

 phase, but two had the typical tuberous form. One 

 young man, who was spokesman for the rest, said 

 that they were all starving, and that they had been 

 sent there only to die ; but it must be confessed that 

 neither his own nor his unfortunate companions' 

 appearance vindicated this statement, and he admitted 

 that a supply of food was deposited periodically on a 

 certain ominous boundary - stone, and that the reefs 

 hard by were full of crabs and fish and trepang. 

 There was no guard anywhere near the village, and 

 no sort of watch seemed to be set upon the lepers, and 

 yet by the working of some unseen but well-under- 

 stood restraint the poor wretches were kept in their 

 place as securely as if they had been bound. I 

 questioned them on this point, but could get no 

 satisfactory answers from them, though they were all 



