A LEPER. 
209 
several yards, and the whole anatomical development 
was so singularly conspicuous, that he seemed to 
stand before me a living skeleton. He did not at first 
venture to approach within several yards of me. I 
advanced, but he gently retreated, beseeching me to 
give a miserable man a few pice to save him from 
death, as he was an object of universal scorn, and an 
outcast from his tribe. His supplication was piteously 
imploring. He bid me not come near him, as he was 
a polluted creature, against whom the hand of every 
one was raised, and for whom there was no pity. By 
speaking kindly to him, I in a short time obtained his 
confidence when he stood still and allowed me to stand 
close beside him. I asked him the reason of his ex- 
traordinary appearance. He told me that he had been 
for years a martyr to the leprosy, which, though at 
length cured, had left upon him the brand of irre- 
mediable pollution. The very hue of his skin had 
changed from a deep brown to a cadaverous and 
sickly white, and no one could mistake that he had 
been a leper. 
In India lepers are held to be accursed of the 
Deity ; they are in consequence universally shunned, 
and many yearly die in an abject state of destitution 
truly deplorable, from the universal abandonment to 
which their dreadful visitation exposes them. Though 
this poor man was of the lowest caste, none of the 
members of his tribe would hold intercourse with him, 
and he was cast forth a wanderer, where he could 
find none but such as were labouring under a similar 
infliction who felt any sympathy in his wretchedness. 
Nothing can be more melancholy than the thought 
t 3 
