but it was very fortunate for me, on this occasion, that cotton goods are sold exceedingly cheap at _Puduceri_. One of the finest shirts, ready made, costs no more than five Roman paoli, or a rupee[16], according to the course of exchange in that settlement. I therefore clothed myself anew from head to foot, and with articles made of cotton. One evening, a few days after, I had entered into a conversation with M. Jallabert on the religious ceremonies of the Heathens, and the properest means of converting them to the Christian faith; while his two servants had thrown themselves down on mats, spread out in the fore hall, in order to sleep. All of a sudden one of them began to scream out dreadfully; to beat his forehead; to stamp on the floor, and to roar and writhe his body like a madman. On asking him what was the matter, he pointed to one of his ears. We found on examination that a centipede had got into it; and the animal not being able to find its way out, kept pushing itself forwards, and gnawed the interior part of the ear. M. Jallabert immediately made the poor fellow lie down, and poured into his ear a spoonful of bitter drops (_droga amara_). The insect was dead in a moment; the patient’s pain and terror ceased, and, as soon as a little water was poured into his other ear, the centipede dropped out. These bitter drops are prepared in the following manner. You take mastic, resin or colophonium, myrrh, aloes, male incense, and calamba root, and pound them very fine when the weather is dry, that is to say when the north wind blows, which, in other parts of the world, supplies the place of what is here called the _Caracatta_. If you wish, therefore, to make a quantity of this medicine equal to 24 pints, you must take 24 ounces of resin or colophonium, 12 ounces of incense, 4 ounces of mastic, 4 ounces of aloes, 4 ounces of myrrh, and a like quantity of calamba root. Put all these ingredients into a jar filled with strong brandy, and keep it for a month in the sun during dry weather. If the brandy is sufficiently impregnated, it assumes a red colour, and the mass is deposited at the bottom. You then draw off the brandy very slowly, and bottle it up for use. One or two spoonfuls is the usual dose administered to sick persons. This medicine is of excellent service in cases of indigestion, colic, cramp in the stomach, and of difficult parturition; also for wounds and ulcers; against worms, and in scorbutic and other diseases which arise from corrupted juices. It is the best and most effectual remedy used by the missionaries during their travels. It is prepared in the apothecary’s shop of the ex-jesuits at _Puduceri_; at _Verapoli_ by the barefooted Carmelites; and at _Surat_ by the Capuchins. I myself cured with these drops a young man who was almost totally deaf. After pouring two spoonfuls of them into his ear, a cylindric piece of a hard yellow substance came from it, and the patient immediately recovered the perfect use of his hearing.