S SKETCHES OF INDIA. RECOLLECTIONS OF THE HOT SEASON. BY HENRY MOSES, M.D. [Continued from page 441.] NAKES are not very common in the island of Bombay. I only saw two or three during my residence there, though I often hunted for them in the old cactus hedges. The study of animated nature always afforded me the greatest pleasure; and India, where all to me was novel and strange, opened a tempting field for its pursuit. The Molly, or gardener, well knowing the haunts of these reptiles, would bring them down early in the morning, while, rather torpid after the cold night, they lay coiled up under the shrubs. The natives are very expert in killing the most venomous snakes, and really seem to be more terrified by the sight of some of them than even strangers are. As the Coolies and many of the poor people go barefooted, they travel over the waste lands with great caution; and practice has given them great quickness of eye in detecting snakes on the ground. As they creep out of their holes after dark and ramble about, no one thinks of going out without a lantern, and an attendant with a stout stick, who walks before and carefully marks the road. This of course is only necessary in country places. An officer on sick-leave who was residing in one of the government bungalows at Colabah close to the Fort of Bombay, was walking up and down one morning under the verandah in a pair of thin slippers, and accidentally trod upon a small snake that was winding itself out of a hole in his path. Within a few minutes afterwards he was seized by the most violent pain in his foot, which soon changed colour, and swelled enormously up to the knee. Sickness, with the usual symptoms of having been poisoned, set in, and medical aid was immediately resorted to; but nothing could arrest the progress of the fatal virus. Castor-oil and other native remedies were useless here, and the poor gentleman expired in dreadful agonies twenty-four hours after he had been bitten. The fangs of the snake, as it is unnecessary to say, had penetrated the flimsy slipper; thus showing the danger of going out in India with a thin covering over the feet. This officer died from the bite of a very small snake, known as the carpet snake, from the circumstance of its often creeping into rooms and hiding under the matting. It is, I believe, one of the most poisonous reptiles found in the jungle, and very difficult to detect in the dried grasses. The centipede is a very common and troublesome insect in India; and in some parts of the country centipedes are so numerous that the inhabitants are obliged to put the feet of their bed-posts in water to prevent these loathsome creatures from lodging themselves in the mattress; a place in which they are fond of breeding. They inflict a painful, and to young children, a most dangerous wound. A labourer the bone. once allowed me to examine his index finger that had been stung by a centipede while he was removing some old timber; and the flesh of which had shrivelled up and appeared like dry parchment stretched over He had ligamentous anchylosis of the first and second joints. The whole finger was of course useless to him, and ought to have been removed; but the poor fellow could never make up his mind to the operation. The first centipede which I saw, was in rather a strange place. It fell from the bottom of a dinner-plate that was handed to me at table, but was crushed and dead. As the servants will place everything on the floor in the cooking-house, though they have tables provided, it was easy to account for the unwelcome presence of this horrid insect. The centipede grows to five or six inches in length, and having fifteen legs on each side of its body, it is enabled to move very quickly. The inferior inhabitants of the fields and woods in India appear to shun the heat of the mid-day sun, as much as man does. It is seldom that you see a bird flying about at this hour, unless it be the large kite held sacred by the Hindoos, and protected and encouraged by the English as the natural scavenger of the town and country. He cares little about the heat; for he can keep his thinly feathered body cool by the fanning of his powerful wings. These kites are very tame, and will often sit close to your cook while he is preparing your dinner; and watch anxiously for any stray morsels which that functionary may be pleased to bestow upon them; appearing, from the regularity of their hours of attendance, to have a very good idea of time. They usually announce their arrival by half a dozen loud and shrill notes. Your Portuguese servants, if not prevented, often amuse themselves by baiting a rat-trap with a piece of meat, which is soon pounced upon by these unconscious birds, who find themselves caught by the leg between the teeth of this cruel instrument. The Portuguese domestics sometimes annoy some Hindoo servant to whom they owe a grudge, and upon whom they wish to revenge themselves, by thus destroying the birds which the Hindoos venerate. Shoot them, they dare not; since the report of the gun would draw the attention of the police, who would immediately have the offenders punished. In every town thronghout the East you meet with these useful birds; indeed they have evidently been wisely created for the benefit of mankind in that country. Were it not for their services, the air in that hot climate would be constantly tainted by the decaying of animal matter, so injurious to human health; and their keen eyes and fine sense of smell enable them to discover at a great distance the dead animals on which they feed. I have counted more than twenty of these kites at a time, upon the body of a kid, at the distance of several miles from any village. The jackals, however, had first had their share. The woods, at this season, are alive with the smaller birds, which keep up an incessant din with their chattering and squabbling; but excepting the cooing of the doves, and the occasional familiar note of the Indian cuckoo, which is more sonorous than our migratory bird, there is nothing to remind us of the sweet songsters of our own English groves. Nature, however, in this respect, may be said to distribute her favours and gifts equally; since the richness of plumage which distinguishes many of these tropical birds compensates in a great measure for the loss of a musical voice. Splendid indeed is the apparel of numbers of them; but the various species most remarkable for brilliancy of plumage have been nearly exterminated on the Island of Bombay by the English, and their unerring Joe-Mantons. This s greatly to be lamented, as hundreds of beautiful birds are annually most wantonly destroyed for the sake of a few bright feathers; though seldom, I fear, to enrich the cabinet of the true naturalist, or effectively to further the study of ornithology. It would be a difficult task to convey to the reader a correct idea of the prostrating effect of some of the dreadfully hot days which, during an Indian sojourn, you have but too often to endure, with what share of patience and resignation you may be blessed withal. It has indeed been asserted, that in a year or two, you become accustomed, and in fact acclimatized to the heated temperature, and care but little about the burning seasons as they roll; but I must say, that many of the old Anglo-Indians, whom I had the pleasure of knowing during my short residence amongst them (some of them of twenty years standing in the country,) one and all asserted, that so far from becoming accustomed to the heat by degrees, they felt that every year brought fresh trials to the constitution, until at last, though perhaps not suffering from any organic disease, they were compelled to seek a change of air either at the Cape of Good Hope or in their own native country. This change of air is looked upon as absolutely necessary every four or five years, in order to ensure to a European resident in India even a moderate share of health. The effect of a sea voyage as a restorative in cases of general debility, is wonderful; so marvellously does the enfeebled system begin to revive as the ship enters into cooler regions, and draws near to the lofty mountains that look down upon Table Bay; particularly if the voyage take place about June or July; about which time the winter-quarter sets in there.* Children born in India are, generally speaking, poor, puny, sickly little things. Hundreds of them languish and die during the first or second year of their brief existence. Some, indeed, through extraordinary care, and good nursing, outlive the period of infancy; but unless they are sent home before they have arrived at the age of seven or eight years, their lives are rarely prolonged to old age; it is not solely with a view to their education that Indian-born children are separated at an early age from their parents, and sent to England. This separation is a dreadful trial to the poor parents. Mothers, in particular, appear to love, with an affection doubly ardent, the children, who, in a foreign clime, are the solace of their often weary exile. It is marvellous how soon children pick up from their Ayeh, or other native servants, the language of the country; and as soon as they have learned to speak it fluently, they become little interpreters to their parents. Every morning, long before sunrise, the picturesque sea-shores are crowded by a motley company of visitors in search of health and exercise. As this is the only portion of the day in which in India you can really walk with any comfort or advantage, every one who can, avails himself of it for an hour or two's stroll before breakfast, either on foot or on horseback; and an improved appetite, and greater willingness to * Sick officers were formerly allowed to proceed to the Cape to recruit their health, when they would not have been permitted to return home. Now, however, the regulations are, I believe, altered; as it would take nearly twice the time to go to the Cape by ship, that would be required to reach England by the present overland route. £140 is the usual cost overland from Bombay to Southampton, To the Cape, in a London ship, £50 to £90. undertake the ordinary duties of the day, bear witness to the beneficial effects of the practice. By following out the custom regularly, you certainly avoid much of that dreadful lassitude and sense of weariness which oppresses those of your less resolute English neighbours, who pass in their beds, those delightful hours which they ought to spend in the bracing morning-air. Were early out-of-door exercise more practised than it is, we should see but few wasting upon couches the best portion of their lives in listless inactivity; and giving way to that infectious indolence, which, as the parent of one half of our diseases, cannot be too resolutely resisted; and which grows so imperceptibly by indulgence. May we not learn from the page of history, to trace the misery and slavery which have been entailed on India, to the careless, sensual, and effeminate habits of its original possessors? Aurungzebe, indeed, when he invaded it, at once understood the character of the aborigines; and by constant watchfulness guarded his followers during a period of thirty years from the seductive though fatal influence of climate and example; but his successors soon fell an easy prey to indolence and luxury; their splendour and power passed away from them; and these Mohammedan conquerors, sank, if possible, lower in the scale of humanity than even their Hindoo subjects. It has been thought, that the approach of death is contemplated with less terror by the natives of India than by those of any other country in the world. This may possibly arise from the Hindoo belief, that a state of perfect tranquillity is the summit of happiness; and that to deaden the everliving principle of life within us--that living principle that animated the dust of the earth when God breathed into Adam's nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul-must be the great desire of all. "It is better to sleep than to be active," say they ; "but death is the best state of all; for then the daily care of the body ceases to trouble us, and the future shall be to us an endless sleep; a vacuum where no sound disturbs." This theory, would seem, in India, to be practically followed up by the rich; who may in truth be said to sleep away a third part of their short lives; and who resort to a thousand plans in order to bring about this desirable end. As I have already observed, they chew opium; their rooms are darkened, and the softest and most luxurious couches are distributed about the apartment, as if to court sleep. With the poor, however, who fortunately have to labour for their daily food, it is otherwise. They are all early risers, and at peep of day you may see swarms of them collected around the large tanks taking their baths, and otherwise refreshing themselves in |