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[CHAP. VIL
subordinates, Police Patels, Village Police, Vartamias, Dheds and Bhangis were employed near
their own homes on a small remuneration to patrol the whole of the frontier and to keep watch at
"Nákas" or observation posts. "It must not be imagined," says the Collector," that a 'Náká'
was an elaborate expensive structure. Two or three village watchmen encamped under a tree,
with a thorn hedge round a space which was kept clean for cooking and sleeping, and a lantern
hung from a bough to give light during the night, constituted a 'Naka.' " Lectures on
plague were delivered, pamphlets distributed, and children educated on the subject in schools.
This was done with the double object of lessening the people's fear of, and of stimulating
them, to ward off, and, if necessary, combat, the disease. The Collector was unwilling to
indent on the District Police except when absolutely necessary ; and had recourse to Bailiffs of
the Civil Courts, where work was then slack. Subordinates on plague duty were dis-
tinguished by a red rosette conspicuously worn. Meanwhile, every effort was made to avoid
impeding trade and business.
Ankleshvar Town.
Population—10,692.
First Epidemic. (April 1898—April 1899). By this means the District was most
efficiently protected until April 1898, when indigenous plague
appeared in Ankleshvar Town. The disease originated among
the Ghánchis, a very dirty class, but how they caught the infection
could not be discovered. Three successive deaths in one house within three days attracted
notice, as mortality statistics were being registered with scrupulous accuracy throughout
the District. The whole street in which these deaths occurred was at once inspected,
and this resulted in the discovery of 2 more cases, which were at once removed to a
Hospital. The inmates of neighbouring houses were sent to a Segregation Camp, the
street disinfected, and the names of the inhabitants noted down, and they were medically
examined twice a day. As a result, the progress of the epidemic was arrested, and from
the beginning of April to the end of July 1898 only 4 more sporadic cases were registered.
But the people were by no means willing to acquiesce in these measures, and raised
loud protests. Mr. Candy, the Collector, however, was equal to the occasion. He visited
Ankleshvar, and calling a meeting of the Municipal Commissioners, he placed Khán Bahadur
Sorábsháh Hormasji, District Deputy Collector, in the chair, while he himself addressed the
meeting to such good purpose, that a determination to carry out plague measures
spontaneously was immediately expressed. He thence visited the Hindu Segregation
Camp, and, finding the inmates sullen and dissatisfied, he offered to have a Brahmin brought
for the purpose of reading the Shástrás to them, and to have a 'Tulsi' plant erected for
their worship. The offer was gratefully accepted, and the people were happy and
contented. The Mahomedans, too, were provided with a Mullah, who read the Koran to
them. Nor were the children forgotten : for Mr. Candy presented them with various
articles of amusement.
At length, however, in July 1898, plague again showed itself at Ankleshvar, and
soon assumed epidemic form. The first victim was a Bania boy, who was attacked on the
13th of July ; but the origin of the outbreak again eluded discovery. To quote the Collector's
words—
"It is quite impossible to say how the plague microbe was introduced again ; but as
precautions were more or less relaxed owing to the rainy season, it is most probable that some
one must have gone to an infected area and returned bringing the germs of the disease, or
perhaps it is due to the vitality of germs which have lain dormant since April within
Ankleshvar itself."
Prompt steps were taken to check the epidemic. As soon as the existence of plague
was confirmed, 3 Hospitals were opened, for Hindus, Mahomedans, and Pársis respectively,
and an Observation Camp for contacts in a Dharamshála maintained by local funds Search