Page:Wanderings of a Pilgrim Vol 1.djvu/364

 CHAPTER XXV.

THE CHOLERA.

"IT WAS HAMMERED UPON MY FOREHEAD ."

i.e. It was my destiny.

"WHERE IS THE USE OF TAKING PRECAUTIONS, SINCE WHAT HAS BEEN PRE-ORDAINED MUST HAPPEN ?"

Hindoo Method of frightening away the Cholera recommended to the Faculty—Death of the Darzee—Necromancy—The New Moon—A Bull laden with the Pestilence—Terror of the Natives—The Patān—An Earthquake—Sola Hats—Importation of Ice from America—Flight of Locusts—Steam Navigation—The Civil Service Annuity Fund—The Bāghsira—Rajpūt Encampment—Hail Storm—Delights of the Cold Weather.

1833. Aug. 8th.—The same terrible weather continues, the thermometer 90° and 91° all day; not a drop of rain! They prophesy sickness and famine; the air is unwholesome; the Europeans are all suffering with fever and ague and rheumatism. The natives, in a dreadful state, are dying in numbers daily of cholera; two days ago, seventy-six natives in Allahabad were seized with cholera—of these, forty-eight died that day! The illness is so severe that half an hour after the first attack the man generally dies; if he survive one hour it is reckoned a length of time.

A brickmaker, living near our gates, buried four of his family from cholera in one day! Is not this dreadful? The poor people, terror-stricken, are afraid of eating their food, as they say the disease follows a full meal. Since our arrival in India we have never before experienced such severely hot winds, or such unhealthy rains.