The record-union., 1895-06-10
PESTS OF LIFE IN INDIA.
Heat, Insects, Snakes, Rats That
Torture the Resident.
Many Dfscomforts Suffered by Euro
peans Living In a Tropical
Climate.

"You may have any kind of weather il
India that you choose to SEEK" said a re
turned East Indian to Now York .Su1
writer, because all the coast cities occu
pied by Europeans are within easy reaci
of high mountains. where the season
varies from that of an English spring t.
one of perpetual snow. From Simla, thu
summer Capital, you can see the snow OF
! the tops of the mountains, and Bonn bay il
only few hours from the region OF milo
summer weather.
"There are but three comparatively
cool months on the coast-part Of Novem
Der. all of December and January ane
part of February. During that time yor
have the summer weather of the temper
ate zone, with relief from the high hui
mildly of the East Indian summer. After
| the LIST of February the heat begins to in
crease, aud it is soon intense, for the
| monsoon breaks at Bombay about the
middle of May. Then comes six weeks
OF continuous rain, followed by intense
heat aud moisture. lasting well into DC
tober. 1t is still hot until the month OF
November. The only relief Is the sea
breeze after sunset, when there is con.
! siderable fall in the temperature. l could
not undertake to give readings of the
thermometer, but l should say at a ven
ture that by o'clock in the morning
during the hot season the temperature
must reach 800 in the shade and it must
| be pretty well above 1OOO between ii and
o'clock.
"The nights are beset with the danger
of the almost poisonous land breeze, and
! to guard against it ones landWar0
| jalousies must be closed when one goes
TO bed. The man who neglects this may
wake to find the land breeze blowing
! over him and his face curiously cOntOrteu
as the result of its touch. One sleeps In
| silk pajamas upon skeleton bed and
thin, hard mattrass, more like heavy
quilt than anything else. On many
nights the silk pajamas. always worn by
Europeans, become saturated with
perspiration, and draught of air may
suddenly cool the body as one sleeps
without bed covering. unless it is single
! light sheet. Many persons preach fian-
! mel for East India wear, but l found the
prickly heat that 1t induced intolerable.
Every body, however. ought to wear the
flannel cholera belt, which American
naval officers usually bring home from
the tropics.
AlOQR VIII Zig lut0uSo uc6t tucIo IL
many varieties of nOxiouS insects. The
mosquitoes swarm the year round. Every
bed is covered with a tent of mosquito
netting, and it is the business of your boy,
after having made the bed in the morn
ing, to scare out all lingering mosquitoes
and then draw the gauze curtains close
and tuck them under the mattress. On
going to bed you make a little hole in the
| tent, get in quickly, and draw 1t tight
again. House flies are constant NUS
ance and there are great flying cock
reaches. two inches long, which some
times bite, and at certain seasons leave
their great wings lying about tue house.
They eat ones patent leather shoes. Fly
ing ants, great black creatures, come in
swarms and also leave their wings over
everything. The centipede, an inch and
halflong. and more venomous than that
of this country, gets into the house and
often crawls upon the sleeper. So long as
one keeps still there is no danger; but the
creature, if one moves. is likely to dig his
claw into the flesh and make an unpleas-
ant sore. Scorpions abound. They come
out OF old woodwork, and you find them
in books that have long lain unused.
Their bite is poisonous. and sometimes
fatal.
along with the insects come the SER
penis. The cobra is the most dangerous.
reason, though my small sister slept
upon pile Of mats under which Sleep
ing cobra was afterward found. The
cobra, however, comes into the COM
pound, and often bites the natives. Euro
peans are seldom bitten by the cobra or
other snakes. because the European goes
about in boots that give the serpent no.
tice of his coming, and also perhaps pro-
tect him from the bite. AS matter OF
70 y of ir,f md IN
not voluntarily 60 after human prey. but
are probably more afraid of man than
man of them. A barefooted native, tread
ing noiselessly, gives the serpent no no.
tice of his approach. and may uncon-
sciously step upon him, and then the
creature bites in selt-deiense. | knew a
native gardener TO be bitten by cobra.
He filled himself with whisky and
walked to keep himself awake. An Eng
lishman whom l knew was bitten by a
cobra, and his friends promptly applied
the same remedies. They walked him
all night against his drowsy protests and
his earnest prayer that he be permitted to
sleep. His lite was saved, but he never
really recovered from the shock, though
tie lived many years after.
''The bracelet snake is q familiar and
venomous little wretch that takes pleas
ure in coiiing up in ones boot during the
garments. One soon learns to shake
ones boots before putting them on. The
natives have q curious aversion to killing
snakes, and they have superstition,
shared by some Europeans, that if a
cobra be slain its mate will come TO
ayenge the act Of course there is no
foundation for ii, save perhaps that a
widowed cobra comes in search of her
mate. and incidentally meets the slayer
.sRaf, ohoI,n1 in India md rot ipto
houses and swarm aboard a ship. One
great Indian rat, the bandicoot, with
snout like & pig, visits ones bed at night
aud chews the ends OF ones hair. I
knew q red-headod fellow OH board ship
who used to grease his hair with oil or
bears grease. He was visited one night
by bandicoot, and came upon deck next
morning with the oldest evidence OF the
bandlcoot's barbering. The muskrat
swarms i'll INDIA, gets into the houses, as
all sorts of wild creatures do, since the
doors are merely Enclosed openings.
His smell is something tremendous and
when he merely crosses the cork of a
soda water bottle he seems to scent the
contents.
1.-The bite Of an insect. even though
slight, or small sore OF any kind that
would soon heal in temperate climate,
may hang eli for days or weeks in the
heat OF India, aud u slight illness greatly
weakens one. Europeans luckily seldom
take the native diseases. and, though
cholera is constantly present in India, it
is only in cases of peculiarly widespread
epidelnics that it reaches tie European
population. There is no yellow lever
there, but smallpox ravages the natives.
Ii is amazing TO see how many natives
are pock-markei. The natives have
small faith in European doctors. but they
always take The European cholera mix
ture. Ofcourse no European submits
himself to . native doctor. Ahscess of
tue liver IL the great terror OF the Euro
pean, though the land breaze CONES
laden with all sorts of horrible poss. bill-
ties. @