malaria is the origin of goitre and cretinism, even if the
experiment which has been tried at Interlacken, of building a hospital on
the hills, above the influence of the infectious atmosphere in the
valley, had not proved completely successful.

The camp which was destined to be our headquarters during a few days'
shooting was pitched in the plain near the village of Bisoleah, distant
about two miles from the borders of the grand jungle. Its appearance was
totally different from those already described; two more regiments were
here in attendance upon the Minister; the men were all comfortably lodged
in grass huts got up for the occasion, and the innumerable host of camp
followers, who on the march had been contented with wrapping themselves
up in their thick cloths, and sleeping in groups round the various fires,
were now engaged in erecting like temporary habitations, forming by these
means a grass village of considerable extent.

Horses, oxen, camels, elephants, were tethered in every direction, or
wandering in search of sweeter tufts of grass. The village itself was
close and dirty; the largest house, which stood near a temple, was
occupied by some half-dozen wives of the Minister, who had come to the
borders of their country to welcome home their lord and master.

Our tents were pitched between the camp and a small clump of trees, near
which upwards of 300 elephants were tethered; a stream divided us from
them, the banks of which presented a continual scene of confusion, as men
and animals, at all hours, passed along in crowds, while the motley
groups, collecting as the Minister moved about to inspect various parts
of his establishment, indicated the whereabouts of that great personage.
The scene struck us as particularly novel and attractive when we arrived
from Hirsede about mid-day; as we approached from one direction, the
Minister Sahib arrived from another, mounted in a handsome howdah, the
trophy of the morning being a tiger which he had just killed, and which
was lashed on to the elephant following him, while a hundred more hustled
one another up the steep bank and through the crowded street, greatly to
the inconvenience of his dutiful subjects, who were salaaming
vociferously.

We immediately started in quest of like game, and commenced beating the
heavy jungle, by which the plain was bounded as by a wall, but fortune
did not smile upon our efforts, and we only succeeded in killing a deer
and a pig.