there were britons who had sold their passports , now trying to work out a way of staying alive ; italians who had been wandering about in a bubble of dope until it was finished , leaving them crazed and desperate ; a guy who had picked up headlice and had had a hole bored in his skull , people who had lived in india for years , never combing their hair and going around like indian sadhus with great tangled balls in their hair , infested with insects .