advanced towards noon, and the sun having come out with great brilliancy, made elephant-riding hard work, so that, with the prospect before us of a six-mile ride. back, we determined to make for the plantation.

We were somewhat disappointed with the result of our stalk, so we made a bee-line through the jungle towards home, and, defying the malaria with tobacco smoke, further soothed our feelings of disappointment by knocking over a few black pheasants which, under the skilful preparation of mine host's chef de cuisine, duly appeared at dinner in the evening. As we rode homewards, I could not help congratulating my companion on the possession of two such splendidly-trained elephants, and, in return, he told me of an instance of the prowess of the female khoonkie which he rode.

On one occasion, when his hunters returned from a successful elephant hunt, in which this khoonkie had been used, the mahout reported that the party, while in hot pursuit of the wild herd of elephants, had come upon a herd of mhitton, consisting of an old bull and two or three cows. The bull, indignant at being disturbed in the privacy of his harem, charged the leading khoonkie most savagely. She, however, without flinching, received the charge again and again, and at last twisted her trunk over the mhitton's neck, and got him under in the struggle that followed. She then deliberately knelt down on him, and held him pinned till the mahout cut his throat. As soon as she perceived that the bull was dead, she, unbidden, rose to her feet, and trumpeted forth her exultation at the victory.

On our way home through the forest, we repeatedly came across the marks of what had formerly been homesteads, mounds of earth showing the spot where it had been heaped up round the mat walls of the houses to keep out the wet, while the almost obliterated beds of tiny artificial canals leading from field to field showed, by their straight course and regular occurrence, that man had once been busy in the neighbourhood. Small tanks were also to be seen near the sites of these old habitations, and groves of peach, mangoe, and jack trees marked the spots of what had once been little gardens belonging to the houses. All these signs appeared in the very heart of the forest, and mighty trees now reared their gigantic trunks all round and amidst the ruins of villages.

Here were unmistakeable evidences of a former population in a district which is now, perhaps, one of the wildest in Northern Assam; and, as we pursued our course through the silent forest, it was painful to reflect that the hand of man was no longer there to clothe the rich soil with luxuriant crops, nor the voice of man to cheer the lonely silence, which is now unbroken, save by the voice of wild animals, which are now the undisturbed denizens of these vast solitudes.

My visit, however pleasant, began to be disturbed by anxiety about the two boys, who had been left behind in Debrughur. Accordingly, the morning after our buffalo hunt, bidding adieu to my host, I found myself soon after dawn once more jolting along through the jungle, and reached Debrughur in the afternoon to find my boy Lowtzang down with fever.

96

CHAPTER VIII.

THE ASSAMESE.

Fever-Bosser Fishing-The Assamese People-Habits-Houses-DressReligion-Morals-Opium-Difficulties of Repressing Opium Traffic— Experiences in China-Popular Mistakes-Preparations for a Start. LOWTZANG'S fever caused me great anxiety, although he had proved so far very useless. If he should succumb to it, and be rendered unable to proceed, it would thoroughly dishearten the boy Masu, upon whose services I in some measure depended as a means of communication with the Thibetans. Even the brave little Philip might be daunted in the face of sickness, though he had often proved that the ordinary dangers of the road did not affect him. This same danger of sickness began to seem disagreeably near. I was beginning to feel a strange feeling of lassitude, a depression creeping over me, with dull, heavy pains in all my limbs, while the least exertion brought on great exhaustion. I resolved to try a change of air, by a trip on the river, thinking perhaps that these unpleasant symptoms were caused by the excessive heat. An opportunity was soon offered by a boat which was going down to the mouth of the Dehing river, and I embarked

early one morning, about two days after my return from the tea plantation.

The cool air of the river, though very refreshing, failed to remove the distressing languor, but a liberal dose of quinine staved off, for a few hours, the attack of fever, which now appeared inevitable. Towards midday we arrived at the mouth of the Dehing, where, feeling very ill, shivering with a violent ague, I went on shore to the house of the manager of the Dehing Steam Saw-mill Company, and in less than two hours was unconscious. This unconsciousness was brought on by an overdose of quinine while the fever was on me, the consequences of which might have been serious-for I had been given by mistake nearly twenty grains-but for the relief of a copious bleeding at the nose. I, nevertheless, did not recover consciousness until the following morning, and was unable to return for Debrughur for nearly a week.

During this attack I missed the kind attentions and care of little Philip, who had remained behind to look after Lowtzang, and felt really glad when I got back to him. Though still very weak, I soon forgot my own illness, for I found Philip also down with the fever, and very ill. ill. Poor fellow, when I arrived, he and Lowtzang were in a bad way, and had, for a day or two, been taking large doses of quinine while the fever was upon them, thus making matters worse. The Thibetan boy, Masu, fortunately was quite well, and between us we managed to change the clothes of the invalids, and get them to the hospital.

Philip was all right in a day or two, but Lowtzang

H

recovered but slowly; in fact, in his case, the fever had scarcely left him before another attack came on, so that, at last, I determined to take him with me for a trip up the river in the Government steamer; a passage in which had been offered me by the courtesy of Colonel Agnew, the Commissioner.

The steamer was going to take the Commissioner to Sudiya, on his tour of inspection; but, after a day or two's steaming, the water proved too low to permit her passage, and we returned to Debrughur, after spending a night and part of a day aground on a sandbank.

The change had done Lowtzang much good, but the lad was far from well, and, indeed, for months he never so far recovered from it as to be well enough to do any work; while Philip and myself, though we had a bad attack regularly every month, were otherwise well, and amused ourselves by reading, riding the mules, and fishing in the Debru, which ran in front of our quarters, scarcely a stone's throw from the door.

We managed in these excursions to catch a few eels and bosser, a fine-shaped little fish, about the size of a large herring, and shaped somewhat like it, but with a bright silvery skin like the whiting. These little fish. afford excellent sport. They ascend the rivers falling into the Bramapootra in the autumn, as soon as the water begins to fall, in immense shoals. While thus making their way from the deep waters of the great river, towards the clear inland streams, they feed very greedily, and take the fly most ravenously. In the summer months, during the floods, but few are found