11
greatly assisted in his work by Shaikh Kodrut Ali, the Malguzar of Cheri.
On the 20th, left Cheri, inspected the villages of Komdari, Deori, and Thaori,
and encamped at Kharsara; Syed Hossein has worked very successfully here.
21st, left Kharsara, visited Ramkheri, Baragor and Patun and encamped at Tali.
Shaikh Munnoo's work in these villages is very satisfactory. 22nd, left Tali, visited
Kalupatha, Koorsepar, and Sujahwulpar and encamped at Nidhani; here
again I had an opportunity of inspecting Shaikh Munnoo's work. 23rd, left
Nidhani, visited Sahajpuri, Kappa, Ghutkhera, Kuropar, Mohagaon, Manegaon,
Amhakho, Chingaon and Undia, and encamped at Kiddarpore. Abdul Wahab
and Syed Hossein were the workers in these places ; the work seen was very
satisfactory. 24th, halted at Kiddarpore and visited the villages of Umarwarra
and Jamunpani. 25th, left Kiddarpore, visited Bareli, Gokul Than, Binori and
Bundum and encamped at Pahari. Abdul Wahab and Shaikh Munnoo have
done good work here. 26th, left Paharee, visited Keolari, Ghunsore. Balpur,
Thunsawur, Maitha, Darot Kalam and Deoree, and encamped at Kahanee.
The Vaccinators who laboured here, viz. Kurreem Bux, Kadir Bux, Jaikrishna
Pant and Ramsaroof, have done good work. 27th left Kahanee, visited Ka-
mareea, Mulkhera, Sesna, Chuga, Sehora, Budwani and Konsepar and encamped
at Lakhnadon. Kadir Bux, Jaikrishni Punt, Abajia, and Native Superintendent
Bapudeo Misser have worked very well in these villages. 28th, left Lakhnadon,
visited Sumnapur, Bameri and Goongwara, and encamped at Ganeshgunj. Maho-
med Ali and Abaji were the workers in these places. 29th, left Ganeshgunj,
visited Kuhia, Goonyee and Deogaon and encamped at Chapara. Kadir Bux,
and Mahomed Ali have as usual done well in these villages also. I returned
to Seoni on the 30 th March.
The only taluqs I could not find time to visit were those of Doomah,
Dhuryadu and Patun. Native Superintendent Bassudeo Misser, however,
reports that the work has been well done in these places.
The plan I adopted to verify the amount of work done, was to compare the
number and names of the children brought for inspection with the entries in
the village forms.
6. The attitude of the people is simply passive; the Sirkar they say is
their Ma-Bap and what the Sirkar does must therefore be right. Of course
in some villages the people required more persuasion than in others ; but on no
occasion was there anything like decided hostility, while at Undia, in the Kiddar-
pur taluq, I fell in with an intelligent old man, the" religious ceremony master,"
if I may call him so, of the village. He informed me that the reason why
many villages feared or suspected vaccination was , that they had heard from "some-
where" and from " somebody" that the Sirkar collected the blood of the children
vaccinated as a propitiatory offering for the "railway god." He explained to
such of the villagers as were present the absurdity of the story, and concluded
with the following rather personal remark :—"of such matters you say you know
nothing, but when you have to do with rupees, you are very wise." I wish I could
point to more instances of this kind; when the religious teachers of a people
are our allies we need fear little from the opposition of the people themselves, for
" Tantum religio potuit suadere malorum." The question I had most frequently
to reply to was, why does the Sirkar take all this trouble? There is not one
native village perhaps, in which we do not find some man, woman or child,
hideously scarred by small-pox; or worse, perhaps with one or both eyes destroy-
ed by that disease : to these cases I pointed therefore, and asked whether they
would like their children to be disfigured like this, or blind like that This
direct appeal to the evidence of their own eyes never failed to satisfy them.
Again comes the question, will vaccination prevent small-pox. " Honesty is the
best policy" under all circumstances; so while admitting that vaccination did