ssured them that, from the
symptoms he had observed, their daughter had not many minutes to live!
Her parents in their turn grew alarmed, as also did the girl herself--
for the skill of a great Sahib doctor was not to be doubted. The priest
was sent for, but before he could arrive the young girl _actually died_.

Now it was from _fear_ that the poor girl had died, and it was the
doctor who had _frightened_ her to death! but neither parents, nor
priest, nor the doctor himself, knew this at the time. The doctor still
believed the girl had died of blood-spitting, and the others remained in
ignorance that it was upon this he had founded his prognosis.

The report of such a skilful physician soon spread abroad. Patients
flocked to him, and he was in a fair way of rapidly accumulating a
fortune. But ere long he had observed other people with symptoms of the
same complaint which had caused the death of the poor girl, and had
learnt also that these symptoms proceeded from chewing the betel-nut.
Had he been discreet he would have kept his secret to himself; but,
unluckily for his good fortune he was a talker, and could not help
telling his companions the whole affair. He related it rather as a good
joke--for, sad to say, the life of a poor native is held but too lightly
by Europeans.

In the end, however, it proved no joke to the doctor. The parents of
the girl came to understand the matter, as well as the public at large,
and vengeance was vowed against him by the friends of the deceased. His
patients deserted him as rapidly as they had come; and to get rid of the
scandal, as well as to get out of the danger that surrounded him, he was
but too glad to take passage home in the same ship that had brought him
out.

CHAPTER FIVE.

THE FISHING-BIRDS.

Our travellers were following up one of the tributaries of the
Burrampooter, which, rising in the Himalayas, and running southward
joins the latter near its great bend. The plant-hunter designed to
penetrate the Bholan Himalaya, because it had not yet been visited by
any botanist, and its flora was reported to be very rich and varied.
They were still passing through a settled part of the country, where
fields of rice and sugar-cane, with groves of bananas, and various
species of palm, were cultivated; some of the latter, as the cocoa-palm
and betel, for their nuts, while others, as the large-leaved _Caryota_,
for the wine which they produce.

The opium-poppy was al