54 
SCENES IN INDIA. 
of strong stimulants, drink it to excess, and it is so 
extremely cheap, that for the merest trifle they are 
able to satisfy their utmost longings. About two- 
pence will enable a man to reduce himself to a state 
of the most unenviable unconsciousness, and advan- 
tage is taken of this facility of indulgence, to a degree 
which will be readily conceived by such as have a 
similar propensity, but never can by such as have 
not. 
Before we reached Ramanadporum, we witnessed 
a most awful scene, exhibiting the dreadful con- 
sequence of this brutal indulgence. At a short dis- 
tance from the town we discovered the dead body 
of a man lying upon the road, literally covered with 
black ants. It presented a shocking spectacle; it 
was not stiff, and therefore life could not have been 
long extinct ; the nostrils, ears, and eyes, were com- 
pletely filled with these voracious insects. It was 
ascertained that the man had become intoxicated by 
too copious an indulgence in the juice of the toddy- 
tree, and had laid himself down to sleep by the road 
side. In this situation, reduced to a state of utter 
helplessness, he was assailed by the ants, which ab- 
solutely destroyed him while he was either asleep or 
unable to rouse himself. They had literally made 
their way through his nostrils and ears into the brain. 
This is by no means an uncommon occurrence. When 
the skulls of such as have died under similar circum- 
stances have been opened, ants have been found in 
the different chambers, and portions of the brain 
have been actually consumed. 
We halted at Ramanadporum for one night, where 
