The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1875-02-11

smells, Any one doubling this fact has
only to dine in India during the rains 70
be convinced of its veracity. He will
be sure to get one or two in his beer,
soup or mutton, the flavor OF which viii
remain on his palate for the whole night
afterwards.
Hardly less irritating are the flying
ants, which arrive in company, and
leaving their wings where they fall,
crawl over the plates and dishes. re-
minding one of the insect plaques OF
Egypt.
The true bug is, l need hardly say as
common in Indian bedsteads as in sea-
side mattresses. Even with the precau-
ton of iron cots, they swarm on the bed
clothes, and, though one grows in some
sort accustomed to their presence, they
are one ofthe most disgusting plaques OF
the country. Your mosquito, if he bites
you, does so like a gentleman at least,
and there is nothing odorous or repellant
about him, except the blood he extracts
from your corpus; but bug is the very
essence Of vulgarity, and to be bitten by
one is to be degraded.
1t is almost tdle to say that white ants
are a pest of Indian existence, for every
one knows it, and yet they make life
very wretched to those possessed OF val
uables they can swallow. Thought that
there was no getting rid of them, but a
friend assures me that it is possible to
physic them out of existence. He told
me that once he was i'll with curious
complaint for month or more, during
which his medical attendant prescribed
good store of poticary's stuff for him
daily, and often twice and three times a
day. This physic-the property of the
Stzte-he himself studiously avoided
taking, but he thought no harm to water
the posts of his verandah with draughts
and notions, or to blister them wherever
the termites had erected their clay-cov-
cred ways in abundance. The effect
was precisely what he expected. The
ants either died or fed; "and, contin-
ued my friend, "the most extraordinary
parts of the story has to come; the posts
one and all, withered away, and came
down with the last prescrip-
tion." Drugs with the power of telling a
tree mightindeed make away with white
ants; but nothing much short of reme-
dies of that description could be expect
ed effectualIy to tackle an insect that will
devour everything almost except metal.
Fleas, and flies too, are frightfui
plaques of life in India, and some bun
galows are so infested with the former
that there is really nothing to do under
the affliction but to evacuate the premi-
ses. | recollect once, at Bengalore,
renting a house for month, like green
horn as was, without due inquiry into
its character. | sent in my furniture,
and took possession myself, in pair of
white trousers and other garments, as
matter Of course. In half an hour these
habiliments were spreckled all over with
dots, that soon felt were Aeas while
an unfortunate dog of mine was so har-
assed by the enemy that he howled dis
mally while trying to tear his skin with
his claws. Sooner than give up sixty
rupees house rent without a struggle /
slept all night in the house; but such
night as and that dog had! Every
thing-furniture, mats, bed clothes, cur
tains and all-seemed skipping with
the hosts of feas on them; and towards
morning we fairly fed from the house,
leaving the sixty rupees with the land
lord. This same bungalow, and many
others also, was full of small ticks, too
which were to be seen creeping over the
walls in every direction. These last are
very disgusting, but not so irritating as
the eye fly. a little wretch that is contin-
ually getting into ones optics, and at
certain seasons if really excessively trou-
blesome. The common house fly too,
as well as the carpenter Ay,which fills up
keys, and all small things hollow, with
clay and maggots, is an intolerable nui-
sance, and many time would | gladly
compound for the absence Of these tor
ments by the presence of snakes, or
something large and extinguishable, such
as our friends at home credit us with as
Indian society.
Inever, however, remember to have
seen a snake inside house but once,
and that was a harmless rock snake about
mir feet long, which | shot in my office,
whittier he had doubtless gone in search
of the rats that were fond Of digesting
official papers. This snake, however,
though not venemous, had to be shot
for when he found himself shut up in a
small room, and unable to escape, ne
turned fercely on my servants, darling
at their naked shiRs with such vigor that
he cleared the room of them all in few
seconds.
Other snakes Of a harmless character
1 have seen gliding among creeping
plants and climbing oververandahs; but
the cobra is stranger to me-inside a
house least. In the last bungalow !
1;.,ad -, khaye yvasa cornnound or gar