Accidents > Dangers of the deep, or, Narratives of shipwreck and adventure at sea

198 SUFfERINGS AMONG THE INDIANS,
served among them, called the elephantiasis
or swelling of the legs.*
CHAPTER IX.
SUFFEBISGS AMONG THU INDIANS.
I continued to enjoy the protection of my
two good Indian women, who made me their
guest here as before ; the first regaled me with
sea-eggs, and then went out upon another
kind of fishery by the means of dogs and
nets. These dogs are a cur-like looking ani¬
mal, hut very sagacious, and easily trained
to this business. Though in appearance an
uncomfortable sort of sport, yet they engage
in it readily, seem to enjoy it much, and ex-
* There are two very different disorders incident to the ho.
man body, which hear the same name, derived from some
resemblance they hold with different parts of the animal so
well known in the countries to which these disorders are pe¬
culiar. That which was first so named is the leprosy, which
brings a scurf on the skin not unlike the hide of an elephant.
The other affecu the patient with such enormous swellings of
the legs and feet, that they give the idea of those shapeless
pillars which support that creature: and therefore this dis¬
ease has also been called elephantiasis by the Arabian physi¬
cians ; who, together with the Malabarlans, among whom it
is endemial, attribute it to the drinking bad waters, and the
too sudden transitions from heat to cold