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A NATURALIST ON THE PROWL , . 
here there are no children of nature, no hill tribes or 
aboriginal races, and the ordinary Hindoo peasant has 
his eyes and ears closed against everything which has 
not some direct bearing on his necessities or comforts. 
He knows many of the trees or plants. One is an anti- 
dote for snake-bites, another cures hydrophobia, a third 
is essential in ceremonies for casting out the devil or 
appeasing the goddess of small-pox, a fourth allays pain 
in the stomach, a fifth corrects heat in the blood, a sixth 
expels wind from the joints, a seventh reduces bile when 
it has mounted into the head, an eighth is a good plaster 
for boils, a ninth should be rubbed on the soles of the 
feet to strengthen weak eyes. In fact, the whole jungle 
is to him a vast box of Holloway’s pills and ointment, 
offering a panacea for every ill to which flesh is heir and 
many to which it is not. 
He also knows many flowers which serve as offerings 
to his gods, and his wife well knows as many which look 
very nice in her hair, but neither he nor his wife seems to see 
the butterflies or hear the birds. And their children do not 
string birds’ eggs, nor run after butterflies with their caps. 
Nevertheless we once determined, a friend and I, to see 
what could be done with them, and we met with some 
