The people's journal. (Pickens, S.C.) 1891-1903, 1895-05-16
THE PESTS OF INDIA,
1nse cts That Render the Lives OF
Europeans Miserable.


Rodents That Browao Upon one's Hair
and Reptiles That Arc Numerous
and Sooiabla-An Undesirable
PIaoo to Live.
Along with the intense heat" saws q
returned East India traveller to a New
York Sun man, "thero go many varieties
of noxious insects. Tho mosquitoes
swarm the year round. Every bed Is
covered with tent of mosquito net
ting, and 1t is the business of your boy,
after having made tho bed In the morn
inQNto scare out I'LL lingering mosqui-
toes and then draw the gauze curtains
close and tuck them under tho mat
!!tress. On going to bed you make a lit
tie hole in tho tent, get in quickly and
draw 1T tight again. House flies are q
constant nuisance, and there are great
lying coclroaches, 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
toreatures, come in swarms and also
leave their wings over everything. The
icentipede, an inch and q half long, and
more venomous than that of this coun-
try, 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 make
an unpleasant sore. Scorpions abound.
'Ihey como out of old woodwork. and
you find them In books that have lonr
lain unused. Their bite is poisonous'
and sometimes fatal.
Along with the insects come tho
serpents. The cobra is the most dan.
gerous. 1t seldom comes into the
houses Tor some reason, though my
smau sister slept upon a pile of mats
nnder which sleeping cobra, was aft
erward found. The cobra, however,
comes into the compound and often
ip1tes the natives. Europeans are sell
dom bitten by the cobra or other
snakes, because the European goep
ABOUT In boots that give the serpent
NOTICE or his coming, and also pernapa
protect him from the bite. As q natter
Iof fact serpents commonly met in India
do not voluntarily 60 after hnman
prey, but are probably more afraid Of
man than man of them. A barefooted
native, treading noiselessly, gives the
serpent no notice of his approach, and
may unconsciously step upon him, and
then the creature bites in self-defense,
Z knew native gardener to be bitten
by cobra. He filled himself with
whisky and walked to keep himself
awake. An Englishman whom 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 life
svas saved, but he never really recov-
lered from the shock, though he lived
mac years after. The bracelet snake
Us familiar and venomous little wretch
that 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
snakes, and they have superstition,
shared by some Europeans, that If a
cobra 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
ID,
great Indian rat, the bandicoot, with a
snout like pig, visits ones bed at night
and chews the ends Of ones hair.
lnew o red-headed fellow on board
ship who used to grease his hair with
oil or bears grease. He was visited one
night by n bandicoot, and came upon
deck next morning with the oldest evil
,dence of the bandicoot's barberin0.
The muskrat swarms in India, gets into
thJl .Iouses as all sorts of wild creatures
do, since the doors are merely unclosed
openings. His smell Is something ire.
mendous, and when he merely crosses
the cork OF soda water bottle he
lseems to scent the contents.
'The bite of an insect, even though
slight, or q small sore of any kind that
would soon heal In temperate cli-
mate, may hang on for days or weeks
in tho heat Of India, and q slight ILL
ness greatly wealrens one. Europeans
luckily seldom take the native diseases,
and, though cholera Is constantly pres
.ent in. India, it IS only In cases of Pc
culiarly widespread epidemics that It
ireaches the European population. There
Iis no yellow fever there, but smallpox
ravages the natives. It is amazing
to see how many natives are poclr-
marked. The natives have small faith
in European doctors, but they alwaya
take the European cholera mixture. OF
course no European submits himself to
q native doctor. Abscess OF tho liver
rs the great terror of tho European,
though the land breeze comes laden
with all sorts of horrible possibilities.
"The change Of climate as one goes
from the coast into tho mountains Is
like magic. On the journey up from
Bombay to Materan one starts with
q pocketful Of Indian cigars, trichinopo.
lis, cheap long rolls of tobacco with n
straw through thom that they NAV
draw. This Is because thoyy; tire AZ al.
tremely wet, but when one reacI, 10
Materan he finds his trichipiopolis nd
dry rs punk. The thin ntmosphere
OF the ;heights has sucked them dry Of
oil their moisture" 80 =
Vie yVss 200 Crltlosa.
Everybody Is familiar with the nd
verso Critipiana nocoI H.,