LAMENTABLE EFFECTS OF FAMINE. 
67 
loose skill, through which every bone was hideously 
prominent. It hung in folds upon her almost fleshless 
body. At her breast an infant clung trying to draw 
the nutriment which nature no longer provided. The 
poor babe was likewise macerated nearly to a sha- 
dow ; still it cried with anguish when her bosom re- 
fused the maternal supply. I took in mine the hand 
of the dying mother. I put my finger to her wrist : 
the pulse was like the agitation of a thread just stirred 
to the gentlest vibration. She could not speak. In 
a moment the lips slightly quivered, the mouth be- 
came fixed; and the soul was no longer associated 
with the form on which I gazed. I took the child in 
my arms and carried it to my tent. The poor infant 
had evidently partaken of the severe sufferings of the 
parent. Whether the person to whose charge I con- 
fided it treated it properly, I know not; — but it died in 
the course of the day. I would have given anything 
I possessed to save that child. I saw it die without 
a groan. The mother became a prey to the jackals 
and vultures. In that village near which she died 
many perished on the same day. The vulture; the 
adjutant; the kite, and the Pariah dog here held a 
horrid carnival. A miserable half-starved Hindoo at- 
tempted to scare them from their banquet. 
And he saw the lean dogs beneath the wall, 
Hold o’er the dead their carnival, 
Gorging and growling o’er carcass and limb, 
They were too busy to bark at him. 
I cannot forbear recording another circumstance; of 
which I was a melancholy witness, as it will show 
how stubborn the prejudices of caste are, and that 
