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should state his sad case to the authorities and apply for him to be allowed to pay taxes in the regular manner, he burst into tears and said : 'Atlas! sir, you would take away my means of livelihood altogether. The misery of this state is as nothing .‘ when compared with the misery of that. Formerly, under the ordinary ’ conditions of life, we suffered greatly; but fox* the past three generations we have been settled in this district, • now some sixty years since. During that period my fellow villagers have become more and more impoverished Their substance has been devoured and in beggary they have gone weeping and wailing away. Exposed to the inclemency of wind and raid, enduring heat and cold, they have fled from the cruel scourge; in most cases to die. Of those families which were here in my grandfather's time there remains not more than one in ten; of those here in my father's .time, Hot more than two or three; and of those •till here in my own time, not more than four or five. They are all dead or gone elsewhere; while we, the snake-catchers, alone survive.
'“Harsh tyrants sweep down upon us and throw everybody and everything, even to the brute beasts, into paroxysms of terror and disorder. But I get up in the morning and look into the jar where my snakes are kept; and if they are still there, I lie down at night in peace. At the appointed time I take care that they are fit to he handed in; and when that is done I retire to enjoy the produce of
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