The star. (Reynoldsville, Pa.) 1892-1946, 1895-03-20
PESTS OF INDIA.
Horrible Realities and Possibilities
That Torture One.
"A Rat Which Eats Your Hair at
Night.

Every bed is covered with tent of
mosquito netting, and it is the busi-
ness of your boy, after having made
the bed in the morning, to scare out
all lingering mosquitoes and then
draw the gauze curtains close and tuck
them under the mattresses. On GO
ing to bed You make n little hole in
the tent, get in quickly and draw it
tight again.
House flies are constant nuisance,
and there are great flying cockroaches
two inches long, which sometimes bite,
and at certain seasons leave their great
wings lying about the house. They
eat ones patent leather shoes. Flying
ants, great black creatures, come in
swarms and also leave their great
wings over everything.
The centipede, an inch and half
long 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 claws into the flesh,
and makes an unpleasant sore. Scor-
pions 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
serpents The cobra is the most dan
gerous. 1t seldom comes into the
houses for some reason, though my
small sister slept upon a pile OF mats
under which sleeping cobra was
afterwards found. The cobra, how
over, comes into the compound and
often bites the natives. Europeans
are seldom bitten by the cobra or
other snakes, because the European
goes about in boots that give the SER
pent notice of his coming, and also
perhaps protect him from the bite.
AS a matter of fact serpents common
ly met in India do not voluntarily go
after human prey, but are probably
more afraid of man than man of them.
A barefooted native, treading noise
lessly, gives the serpent no notice Of
his approach, and may unconsciously
step upon him, and then the creature
bites in self-defence. I knew ma.
tive gardener to be bitten by q
cobra. He filed himself with whiskey
and walked to keep himself awake. An
Englishman whom l knew was bitten
by q cobra, and his friend 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 life was
saved, but he never really recovered
from the shock, though he lived many
years after. The bracelet snake is a
familiar and venomous little wretch
Shat takes pleasure in coiling up in
ones boot during the night or in get
ting into the holes of ones garments
One soon learns to shake ones boots
before putting them on. The natives
have q curious aversion to killing
suakes, and they have superstition,
shared by some Europeans, that if O
,cobrn be slain its mate will come to
'avenge the act. OF course, there is
no foundation for it, save perhaps that
"a widowed cobra comes in search of
her mate and incidentally meets the
slayer.
''Rats abound in India and get into
houses and swarm aboard a ship. One
great Indian rat, the bandicoot, with
a snout like pig, visits ones bed at
night and chews the ends of ones
hair. knew red-headed fellow on
board ship whe 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 bandicoot's 8
barbering. The muskrat swarms in
India, gets into the houses, as all sorts
of wild creatures do, since the doors
are. merely unclosed openings His
smell is something tremendous, and
when he merely crosses the cork of q
soda water bottle he seems to scent
the contents.
"The bite of an insect, even though
slight, or small sore of any kind
that would soon heal in temperate
climate, may hang on for days or
weeks in the heat of India, and slight
illness greatly weakens one. Europeans
luckily seldom take the native diseases,
and, though cholera is constantly
present in India, it is on'y in
,casee of noculiarly videsnread on;