30
RANCHEE CIRCLE.
7. Owing to the slow progress of their work in November, the party under native
superintendent Elahi Bux was removed from Baloomath thannah altogether and sent to
the north of Lohardugga. Here, among the Ooraon Coles, work flourished in December,
but one village lying close in Munkah refused to be vaccinated. The village lies at the
foot of a ghât five miles long, and the worst I ever crossed ; but this had not prevented its
being visited, for a village close to it had been vaccinated. I had explained to the men
the importance of visiting all outlying villages and tolahs.
Mahomed Ishak's
party.
8. To take the three parties separately, the party under native superintendent
Mahomed Ishak consisted of six vaccinators, but two of them were detained for a month
in the beginning of the season on account of a case in Court, and two had to be sent into
Hazareebaugh district in February on account of small-pox appearing. At first, there was
a great deal of trouble experienced in convincing the people, and some villages held out
till the end of the season, particularly one village I visited, where the ' unsuccessful' would
not have the operation repeated'.
Attitude of the peo-
ple
9. On the whole, I think it would be unjust to this party to say that they did not do
about their best during the season, for the people are very shy and jungly, and fled into
the woods sometimes on the approach of the vaccinators. They were only to be got at
slowly and by much painstaking. The zemindars, too, not only gave us no assistance at
first, but active opposition was threatened in a few instances, it was supposed, at the prompt-
ing of the head men. One vaccinator of another party was actually assaulted in a village,
which had all the children vaccinated shortly after. By the month of January this party
had got as far north as Baloomath village, and in the end of February they had reached
Hirhra, 12 miles north-west of Baloomath.
10. In the end of February the villages around Quitta were entered upon, from
which, as will presently be told, we had been shut out at an earlier date, but there was
no time to do all of them.
Work done by this
party
The number of villages in which this party worked is 200; the number of vaccinations
—3,471, and the successful cases 3,239, giving-94.26 per cent. of success. The average to
each vaccinator is 867.75, which I think a fair result under the circumstances.
Mukhunlall's party.
Difficulties encoun-
tered.
11. Native superintendent Mukhunlall, with his party of six vaccinators, went to
the work of Choria thannah in the beginning of November, as has been stated above. He
says there are still a few villages in Choria thannah, where vaccination is declined, and
they remain unvaccinated. From Choria the party went to Chandwa. Discouraging as
were results on the east side of the Chuttra and Lohardugga road, those on the west side
proved more so. Things seemed to have come to the worst, when, on the 3rd December,
fifteen Rajpoot zemindars met at the house of Madhoori Sing, zemindar of Quitta, a
village on the Toree and Munkah border, whither I had moved my camp. The zemindars
met to consider whether vaccination should be accepted by them. They were informed
that the people of Toreenuggur had been vaccinated; that the operation was approved
of and practised by Hindoos of the highest caste; that Brahmin inoculators could be had
to vaccinate them and much persuasion was used to no avail.
They said that inoculation had never been practised in their families, a statement in
the face of evidence to the contrary there and then, and that they would not have vac-
cination.
12. Native superintendent Mukhunlall was, therefore, directed to leave the villages
of these men alone, and to prosecute his work in the country round about them in Baloo-
math and Munkah. Lohardugga on the south isolated them in that direction. It was pro-
bably only a question of time when they would give in. I mentioned the circumstances
to Mr. Oliphant, the Deputy Commissioner, whom I met on his way to Quitta, and with his
assistance the scruples of the zemindars were overcome, and they became eager for vaccina-
tors to visit them. Men went in the end of the season as has been said before.
13. This party having worked around Quitta entered Munkah thannah of Palamow
sub-division in the middle of December. In this thannah some desultory work had been
done in former years, chiefly when small-pox appeared, and it was thought that the people
would have become acquainted to some extent with vaccination, and would receive us.
The native superintendent, however, took little trouble about this thannah. Passing rapidly
through Munkah he detached two vaccinators to go where they pleased, and he never saw
the work of these men. He himself with four men proceeded, contrary to my orders, to
thannah Bareysar, which lies south of Munkah and west of Lohardugga.