, 1869-08-06

have been exhausted in the vaio hope Of dis,
covering some check to the progress of the
disease. Its first symptoms are almost in.
PercePtible; it is therefore difficult to prO>
nounee upon some of them. To avoid errors.
Temporary retreat is established at Homo,
lulu, called
THE KAHILt ASYLUM.
Here all doubtful cases are attended 10.
ana the patient has nothing further to do but
wait for further Developments, such a. a
thickening of the lobe Of the ear, swelling of
the hands and feet, paralysis fthe arms and
nngers, liberation, DC There is q deadly
look in the eye which can hardly Be mist,t.
en-. With all these dreadful signals of doom
there is no pain. The senses are beuumbed
aud most fortunately so. AS soon as it be.
comes certain that the patient is really a
leper, he is sent at once, and forever, to the
asylum at Molokia, where be is housed and
served with a fair allowance of eatables per
DAY while all his little grievances are attend
cd to in gentle though firm way.
THE CHAMBER OF HORRORS.
We enter the room. Mats spread on all
sides are covered by about dozen or fifteen
recumbent figures, among the worst of the
cases. A fetid ordor, faint but preceptible
preVades the apartment. We heard hard,
hoarse breathing, harsh whispers and deep
sigbs from those who can never again sneak
with their old voices. The decay of the vo-
cal organs is almost the last stage of the
plague, and seems the most terrible Of ALL
The patient is usually by this time one mass
OF corruption. What faces are turned to us
as we grope among the half conscious suffer.
ers faces that look just as though they had
been hacked twenty times across with broad
ak, and each cash healing had left horrid
seam. Ears swollen to twice their natural
size, raw>IookiDg aud bloody, while the enor.
nous lobes, hanging nearly to the shoulder,
ooze with sickening pus. There are those
with nOstrils slowly witheriug away, some
with no nasal at all only an ulcerous cavity
remains, too atominable to be thought of for
moment. Fingers grow sharp at the ends,
slOughing the skin, shedding the joints. one
by one. This man can lay hold Of and re-
move toe without any sensation. What is
it that so paralyzes the sensibiities! Moth.
ing but death itself, graspiDg the vitAls. They
are but half alive, these lepes, and carry
their own infectious corpse about with them.
One old man, sitting in a malo, a narrow strip
of cloth about the loins, is covered from head
to foot with large, hard sWellings. There is
not vacancy enough between his thousands
and-one Aeshy hillocks to lay the tip of your
finger. Yet he is unconscious of any pain
whatever. He turns ghastly grin upon US,
as be exhibits new mound Just making its
appearance on one side of him, which is like
ly to crowd out few of the older ones. The
poor wretch looks more like a horned toad,
polished down a little, than a man and
brother.
THE DANCE oP DEATH.
1t is proof enough of their indifference Of
the future as well as their contentmeut with
the present, to find that once upon time
these decaying remnants of humanity delib-
erately gave q grand ball at the hospital.
There was a general cleaning out of disabled
patients and brushing up of fnery, while
the ball itself was the great topic of conversa-
ton. Two or three young fellows who had
few fingers left began to pick up tune or
two on native flutes made of bamboo. Though
rather melancholy in tone, they were certain
ly not inappropriate to the occasion. The
old, young and middle aged took few quick
turns in dark corner, getting their stifened
joints timber again, and so familiarizing their
ungraceful forms with the hollow mockery of
the waltz. Night came at last; the lamps
famed in the death chamber of the lazar
house. The wheeling voices, no longer mus
ical, the shutting of half'paralyzed limbs over
the bare floor, the wild sea moaning in the
night, all tended to make the scene most un.
earthly. The flutes began their shrill dolor-
GUS piping; there was rushing to and fro
of wild figures. A bleeding, balf-blind leper
seized on another Of the accursed beings,
her, as it we're, from her grave, in
all her loathsome clay, he dragged her into
the intoxicating whirl of the dance. Natur(
ally excitabe, heated with exertion, intoxi-
Gated with the very Odors of death that pre-
vaded the ball of the revelers, the mad crowd
swayed and reeled through the unholy hours.
Finally satisfied with the very bitterness of
their unnatural Joy. they called for the grand
natural Huld>huLd as a fitting clOsej IN tns
thick atmosphere of smoking and half'exs
tinguished lamps, they fed on the voluptuous
abandonment of the maddened dance, till
passion itself tainted with exhaustion. Was
it not the dance Of death HAoLI.