230 
SCENES IN INDIA. 
spreads over them the rich glow of buoyant and 
elastic health. Fully impressed with the belief 
that their day of visitation is noted down in the 
vast volume of fate,, and that they therefore cannot 
be called upon to relinquish this world until their 
time is come, they look with perfect indifference 
upon those appalling circumstances which would ex- 
cite the most active terror in the bosoms of men 
whose lot has been cast under equally sunny but less 
turbulent skies. 
Among the various troubles to which these 
hardy highlanders are subject, in addition to the 
dangers that constantly beset them, may be num- 
bered a small venomous fly which, at particular 
seasons, so infests their houses, as completely to dis- 
turb their domestic quiet. It is something like the 
musquito, though differing from it in many particu- 
lars, resembling it more in character than in form. 
Like that annoying insect, it is furnished with a 
proboscis, which it plunges into the pores of the skin, 
and draws blood without at first causing pain, the 
person attacked not being conscious of the puncture 
until the insidious enemy has been some time at its 
work. When gorged with blood, it takes flight, leav- 
ing upon the wounded part a small black blister full 
of extravasated and infected blood. This tumour 
gradually enlarges, becomes highly inflamed, and 
causes the most distressing irritation. If scratched, 
an ulcer is frequently produced, and sometimes very 
serious consequences ensue ; though the temperate 
lives of the natives generally secure them from an 
issue to which Europeans would be extremely liable. 
