LIBRARY 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 
 RIVERSIDE
 
 ON THE INDIAN HILLS.
 
 a 3
 
 ON THE INDIAN HILLS 
 
 OR, 
 
 COFFEE-PLANTING IN SOUTHERN INDIA 
 
 BY 
 
 EDWIN LESTER ARNOLD 
 
 AUTHOR OF 
 
 'THE WOJfDERFUL ADVENTURES OF FHRA THE PH<ESICIAN, 
 "A SUMMER HOLIDAY IX SrANDISAVIA," ETC., ETC. 
 
 A NEW EDITION, WITH ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 LONDON: 
 SAMPSON LOW, MAESTON & COMPANY 
 
 LIMITED, 
 
 FETTER LANE, FLEET STREET, B.C. 
 1893. 
 
 [All rights rei-eed.]
 
 T) s Y 
 - 16 
 
 LONDON : 
 
 PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED, 
 STAMFORD STREET AND CHARING CROSS.
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 I COMMEND these sketches of adventurous life in a 
 little-known corner of India with more confidence 
 because they bring out in a simple but picturesque 
 fashion the natural variety and woodland features 
 of a great region, whose immense resources for 
 forestry, plantations, and hunting are even now 
 hardly comprehended by Indian authorities. My 
 son, who has put these pages together from long-ago- 
 collected material of notes made in all the novelty 
 and rough experiences of pioneering in the southern 
 jungles of Hindostan, has, happily I think for his 
 book, nothing to say of the beaten tracks of Indian 
 travel; and it is for this reason, because he breaks 
 fresh ground, and because he describes with the 
 pleasant simplicity of letters written for home read- 
 ing strange and curious phases of jungle-life in these 
 vast and half-explored woodlands of the Madras 
 peninsula, that I am emboldened to express my own 
 pleasure in reperusing his book, and glad to commend 
 it to all who love the East and enjoy plain tales 
 of the Asiatic hills excellently told. 
 
 EDWIN ARNOLD.
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER PACK 
 
 I. OUTWARD BOOST* ... ... ... ... 1 
 
 II. THE THRESHOLD OF THE EAST ... ... 7 
 
 III. ON SINBAD'S SEA ... ... ... 26 
 
 IV. CEYLON AND ITS PEOPLE ... ... ... 55 
 
 V. A MOUNTAIN CITY ... ... ... ... 71 
 
 VI. UP THE COAST ... ... ... ... 86 
 
 VII. ON THE ROAD TO THE JUNGLE ... ... ... 103 
 
 VIII. AT WORK ... ... ... ... ill 
 
 IX. JUNGLE DAYS ... ... ... ... 160 
 
 X. "UNDER THE SUN" ... ... ... 179 
 
 XL A FEEBLE FOLK ... ... ... 190 
 
 XII. BUILDING TABEBNACLE:- ... ... ... 202 
 
 XIII. THE TRACKLESS WOODS ... ... ... ... 216 
 
 XIV. JUNGLE SOCIETY ... ... ... ... 231 
 
 XV. HARD AT WORK ... ... ... ... 244 
 
 XVI. BIRDS, BEASTS, AND SAVAGES ... ... 252 
 
 XVII. THE FEVER-FIEND ... ... ... ... 266 
 
 XVIII. JUNGLE FESTIVITIES ... ... ... ... 278 
 
 XIX. DEATH AND BRIGHT LIFE ... ... ... 291 
 
 XX. ROAD-MAKING ... ... ... ... 301 
 
 XXI. THROUGH WATER AND FIRE ... ... ... 321 
 
 XXII. VANQUISHED BY FEVER ... ... ... 327 
 
 XXIII. HOMEWARD BOUND ... ... ... ... 337
 
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 A COFFEE ESTATE ... ... ... ... Frontispiece 
 
 "HE WEARS THE LlVEKY OF SlN WITHOUT A BLUSH" ... 59 
 
 A MOONLIGHT FORD ... ... ... ... ... 115 
 
 THE SAMEE TREE ... ... ... ... ... 195 
 
 THE SUNDAY KENDEZVOUS ... ... ... ... 274 
 
 AN ANXIOUS MOMENT ... ... . 319
 
 ON THE INDIAN HILLS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 OUTWAED BOUND. 
 
 THERE is so much strange and curious in these 
 chapters which I have put together, albeit they deal 
 with districts under aegis of the British flag, and 
 within less than two weeks' direct steaming of the 
 English shores, that I shall no doubt be excused for 
 passing lightly over the familiar preliminaries. Every 
 one knows of an outward bound passage down the 
 Thames, of the last sight of one's native shores that 
 moment dedicated in silence to an infinitely delicate 
 sorrow, of the rugged coast of Portugal, and then 
 the Straits. 
 
 It is only when well into the Mediterranean that 
 you get the first breath of the East in the sea- wind, 
 and a sight of things which tell you you have at last 
 stepped out of the old new world into a sphere more 
 full of novelty and wonder than any conceived by the 
 wildest dreams of ancient geographers. 
 
 The morning of the 25th of August found us off 
 the coast of Africa, steaming along against a fresh 
 head wind. When we first came up after breakfast 
 the land was a misty purple line on the horizon, but 
 as time went on our course took us nearer and 
 nearer, and the mountains and hollows unfolded before 
 
 E
 
 2 ON THE INDIAN SILLS. 
 
 us a rich and varied panorama, which we watched as 
 it rolled slowly along. We looked hard for a glimpse 
 of Algeria, that " diamond set in an emerald frame," 
 as the poetic Arabs call their steep town of white 
 houses and green woods, but when the ship's bearings 
 were taken about mid-day we were sorry to find that 
 we lay a long way to the eastward, and must have 
 passed the town soon after daybreak. However, the 
 coast was beautiful a long, serrated range of dark 
 mountains sloping right down into the sea, and broken 
 up and crossed in all directions by deep forest-covered 
 ravines and gullies. Here and there we passed open 
 clearings, where the bright green of waving corn crops 
 could be seen amongst the olive trees and quiet little 
 homesteads, more Dutch than Algerian in appearance, 
 peeping out from the terraces on the steep mountain 
 sides. 
 
 A few land birds fluttered to the ship during the 
 day, mostly grey wagtails and shore larks ; but they 
 seemed to come from the northward, and were all 
 tired when they first reached us, perching on the 
 rigging or shrouds, whence they could hardly be 
 frightened off. After a time they rapidly recovered 
 their strength, and ran about the deck, searching for 
 insects amongst the ropes and lumber, with very few 
 signs of fear. Fresh water seemed to be what they 
 needed most, some of them even venturing into the 
 hen-coops in order to obtain a drop of the precious 
 liquid. Curiously enough, they would not leave the 
 ship, although the land was plainly in sight about a 
 league away to the southward. Several times I 
 frightened them up, in the hope of starting them for 
 the shore while it was still near ; but they preferred to 
 cling to the vessel as a harbour of refuge, and only 
 flew round and round, with their musical call-notes, 
 settling again in some other part of the rigging. 
 Besides the land birds, there were here a good many
 
 OUTWARD BOUND. 3 
 
 large brown sea-gulls flying over the steamer dull, 
 heavy-winged birds of sombre hue, always sailing 
 mournfully about, rising above the crests of the waves 
 and skimming down the hollows, every now and then 
 plunging after a fish, and once more following in our 
 wake to pick up the refuse thrown overboard by the 
 cook. 
 
 After Cape Bougiarone we lost sight of land for a 
 time, but enjoyed a beautiful starlight night in pass- 
 ing across the mouth of the deep Gulf of Stora, on 
 which the harbour of Constantino is situated. I 
 believe the only streams in Algeria where trout are to 
 be found flow into the bay close to the town of Collo. 
 Here, too, the most lovely and valuable kinds of red 
 coral are dredged, the rights of fishing for which have 
 caused much bloodshed. 
 
 Beyond Tunis the coast loses a great deal of its 
 rugged grandeur, and the hills become more undulat- 
 ing, with larger surfaces of cultivated ground ; the 
 cork and olive woods that clothe the uplands about 
 Algeria growing scarcer. I noticed some palm-trees 
 on the sky line at one time, which interested me 
 considerably as the first sign of approaching the 
 veritable East. 
 
 Then for the next three days we had to amuse 
 ourselves as best we could in the usual indolent 
 fashion of steamboat travelling, as we were out of 
 sight of land the whole time, with nothing to be seen 
 but the blue arch of the sky overhead and the darker 
 blue of the sea below. It is a strange feeling to be 
 in the centre of a great waste of waters for a long 
 time. It seems as though the ship were the whole 
 world, and the merest trifles in the way of novelty 
 are eagerly welcomed. The ladies appeared to get on 
 better than the men: they are more accustomed to 
 laborious idleness, and their nimble fingers were always 
 suitably employed in working crewels of extraordinary 7
 
 4 ON TEE INDIAN HILLS. 
 
 flowers for their Indian homes, or on that mysterious 
 open-work embroidery which they manufacture by 
 the yard, but which always vanishes directly it is 
 ready to be worn. As for our less ready hands, we 
 employed them for a greater part of the time in 
 writing voluminous diaries and letters for posting on 
 the first opportunity from Port Said or Suez to friends 
 and relations in England, or by taking part in an 
 occasional game of tennis or quoits. 
 
 Amongst the incidents which our solitude magnified 
 into excitements were the passing birds that came to 
 the ship. One of these was a hoopoe. It was dis- 
 covered circling round and round with a short jerky 
 flight, every now and then giving a plaintive whistle 
 bearing some resemblance to its English name, but 
 pronounced in a very low, musical tone. Being 
 considered an authority on birds and their names, I 
 was called up to identify it, in which I had no trouble, 
 as it would not be easy to mistake the lovely orange 
 crest of gracefully curved feathers, the delicate banded 
 plumage of soft black and white, and the long slender 
 bill of glossy black. We tried to persuade the strange 
 visitor to settle, so that we might observe him more 
 closely, but though tired he was wonderfully shy, 
 flying round the vessel with nervous wings ; at one 
 minute hovering with drooping feet over the bulwarks, 
 and almost making up his mind to perch, but never 
 quite screwing his courage to the sticking point our 
 least movement causing the bird to utter his plaintive 
 whistle and sail away for a couple of hundred yards, 
 whence, however, he soon came back to hover over us. 
 He followed us for twenty or thirty miles without 
 once venturing to rest, and then disappeared as 
 suddenly as he had arrived. 
 
 About 6 p.m. on August 30 we were delighted to 
 notice the deep blue-black of the sea giving way to 
 water of the most beautifully delicate pale green tint,
 
 OUTWARD SOUND. 5 
 
 with the crests of the small waves, raised by a gentle 
 south-west wind, looking golden in the low sunlight. 
 The greenness of the water is a sure sign of being in 
 soundings, and so shallow is it all along this Egyptian 
 coast that large ships often cannot approach within 
 twelve miles. The bottom is gradually but surely 
 rising, probably by deposits of mud and sand brought 
 down by the mighty Nile from the interior of the 
 continent of Africa, and some day it may be possible 
 to annex it from the kingdom of Neptune and turn it 
 into fresh fields for the Fellaheen of Egypt. 
 
 We had seen, for a long time before getting into 
 shallow water, a far-extending low bank of white 
 clouds stretching along the southern horizon, flat and 
 straight beneath, and broken and rough on the upper 
 surface. These were the invariable signals of land, 
 never to be noticed anywhere but over a coast; so 
 we " unbuttoned " our eyes to the utmost, and shortly 
 before the sun went down clearly made out some tall 
 palm trees, and then the long low line of the sandy 
 Egyptian coast. In one place we perceived against 
 the brilliant evening sky what seemed to be a large 
 clump of bamboos, but on passing nearer we made 
 them out to be a fleet of feluccas, with their black 
 hulls hidden under the dark bank. Just as we were 
 going down to dinner, somebody who had been look- 
 ing in the right direction exclaimed that he made out 
 Port Sa'id lighthouse. All eyes were soon turned to 
 the point indicated, and there we could just discern 
 a fine slender needle rising from the sea about fifteen 
 miles ahead. An officer assured us we should be at 
 anchor very shortly after dinner, and we went below 
 with the delightful prospect of getting a run on shore 
 and stretching our cramped legs. Lycurgus told the 
 Spartans there was nothing like hunger and fatigue 
 for seasoning their black broth, and, to adapt the 
 stern lawmaker's words, there is nothing that makes
 
 6 ON THE INDIAN HILLS. 
 
 land so pleasant as a couple of weeks on the sea ; for, 
 though charming enough for a time, one comes to 
 know every plank and nail of the ship much too well, 
 and a promenade of a couple of hundred times up 
 and down the deck becomes monotonous beyond a 
 limited number of days. 
 
 About eight o'clock we were off the twinkling 
 lamps of Port Said, with the magnificent electric beam 
 in the lighthouse shining in the darkness like a huge 
 firefly ; and after our patience had been sorely tried 
 while waiting for a pilot to take us into the harbour, 
 we entered, to drop anchor into the mud of Egypt. 
 
 A long avenue of red and green lanterns, fixed to 
 floating buoys on the right and left, marked out the 
 deep channel leading up to the anchorage, but it was 
 so narrow that we could almost touch each lantern in 
 turn, and we had to proceed with the utmost care. 
 Above us the light threw out its brilliant rays, and 
 quite entered into rivalry with the moon, which was 
 shining in the opposite quarter of the heavens. Ahead 
 of us lay the flat sandy Egyptian shore, with a few 
 scattered palms and then a crowded town of miscel- 
 laneous buildings, with innumerable lights burning, 
 dimly visible minarets, and the masts of fifty great 
 merchant ships all crowded together. The night was 
 very quiet, and as we stole softly on, almost the 
 most sound was the water lapping against the pilot's 
 boat, which we were dragging along; but occa- 
 sionally a scrap of a sailor-song in some foreign 
 language, or the barking of wandering clogs, reached 
 us, and the voices grew louder as we neared the 
 town. We passed a silent Turkish ironclad, look- 
 ing very grim in the moonlight, moored so as to 
 sweep the approaches to the canal with its heavy 
 guns, and then about eleven o'clock we reached our 
 anchorage, and came to rest within twenty yards of 
 the long landing-place in front of the esplanade.
 
 THE THRESHOLD OF THE EAST. 7 
 
 Soon thirteen of us, all embryo coffee planters, 
 were stowed somehow in a single fragile native 
 boat, which had besides two remarkably dirty Italian 
 rowers. Luckily, the basin was as calm as a mill- 
 pond ; for our gunwale dipped within a couple of 
 inches of the water, and a slight tip to either side 
 would have swamped us and made some vacancies in 
 the various companies we had the honour to represent. 
 As it was, we arrived safely at the landing-place, and 
 after some fourteen days afloat were once more on 
 dry land. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE THRESHOLD OF THE EAST. 
 
 THE first thing I noticed was the sand. We plunged 
 in ankle-deep before we had made half a dozen steps. 
 Toiling through it anyhow, we gained a long well- 
 lit boulevard with innumerable cafe's and taverns 
 all about. We visited one where some French women 
 on a stage were singing and playing both very badly 
 and tried some lager beer, which tasted much like 
 the rinsing of old ale barrels, and for which we paid 
 something like a shilling a glass. After listening to 
 two or three songs, we went out and up the principal 
 street in the town to make some purchases, for which 
 purpose we accepted the services of a very diminutive 
 Arab boy with a very large reed basket, who offered 
 to carry our things. 
 
 Port Said is strong in shops where tobacco, cigars, 
 jewellery, and photographs of the neighbourhood 
 are sold. These are generally kept by Frenchmen, 
 who did not appear to be overflowing with super- 
 abundant respectability. The tobacco sold is usually
 
 8 ON TEE INDIAN HILLS. 
 
 Turkish and fairly good, though much better can be 
 got in London ; it is, however, cheaper, as there is no 
 duty or very little. The photographs of the Canal 
 with which every "shop is stored being very novel and 
 interesting, nearly every one buys some to send back 
 to England. But much cannot be said for the sham 
 Turkish jewellery ; it is, first of all, remarkably ugly 
 in design, never made of the material it lays claim 
 to be, and more expensive than that which can be 
 bought any day in Regent Street. 
 
 Two of us, myself and a huge Scotchman from the 
 very far north, started off into the native quarters in 
 search of Arab curiosities. 
 
 Luckily the moon was shining brightly and bath- 
 ing the upper parts of the whitewashed houses in 
 silvery light, though it made the narrow streets below 
 even more dark by comparison. As we went along- 
 through the deserted roads ankle-deep in sand, we 
 disturbed innumerable dogs disgusting animals, 
 employing themselves in eating all the day's refuse 
 and garbage of the town. They seemed to have a 
 particular hatred of " pale faces," and snarled or 
 howled as we went by in an unpleasant manner. 
 One gaunt mangy animal came slouching after us for 
 a long way, slinking along in the shadows behind, 
 and barking when we stopped. The houses in the 
 poorer parts seemed very nondescript, partly French, 
 partly Italian, with Turkish arabesques in places ; 
 their open raised courts and circling balconies remind- 
 ing one a little of Moorish villas. They were nearly 
 all two storied, painted grey or drab to the top of the 
 door, and the rest whitewashed. 
 
 We found a few native shops, but, as we might 
 have guessed, they were chiefly food stores for the 
 poorer classes, who seemed to have little superfluous 
 cash, or inclination to spend it on ornaments or fine 
 raiment.
 
 THE THRESHOLD OF THE EASI. 9 
 
 These shops were nothing more than recesses under 
 the houses, with counters across them ; and upon 
 innumerable shelves, nails, etc., on the walls, were 
 dried fish, tomatoes, melons, and artichokes, stored or 
 hung, in great profusion. In one of these we spied 
 some particularly fine water-melons hanging on a 
 peg beautiful great fruits with cool pale-green rinds, 
 striped with darker green. Unfortunately, although 
 the shop was quite open, there was no one to be seen 
 in it; but when we thought of the flaring sands of 
 the Canal to-morrow, and then of a week of roasting 
 in the Red Sea, we determined to have some at any 
 cost ; so we went boldly in, and we were just arranging 
 
 that W should climb up and get them down, after 
 
 which we would leave some change on the counter, 
 when we caught sight of something wrapped up in 
 a blue bournous with a faint resemblance to the 
 human form, tying under a table in the corner. I 
 gave it a poke with my stick, and it promptly started 
 up, showing the black face of a curly-headed Nubian. 
 The fellow had perhaps been dreaming of the bastinado, 
 and thought we were the Khedive's officers come for 
 him ; at all events, he rubbed his eyes and took a 
 long time to wake up and understand what we were 
 there for. When we left the shop with half a dozen 
 melons on a stick, he came out and stood to watch 
 us down the moonlit street, as though he still doubted 
 our purposes. 
 
 We obtained a good idea of the town, and from the 
 number of doubtful houses and low drinking shops, 
 came to the conclusion that it was just the sort of 
 spot which might be expected from a place grown 
 up in half a dozen years, and populated by a great 
 concourse of French and Italians, backed by the 
 Egyptian and Turkish labourers employed on the 
 construction of the Canal. 
 
 Arriving at the outskirts of the town, where the
 
 10 ON TEE INDIAN HILLS. 
 
 open maidan country commenced, and nothing 
 to be discerned but sandy wastes in front, dotted with 
 scrubby bushes, we saw a group of dogs gnawing the 
 white bones of a dead buffalo, and I was just telling 
 
 W how a young Englishman had been stabbed 
 
 in the back a couple of weeks before, somewhere in 
 this neighbourhood, when three slouching ruffians, 
 armed with sticks, stepped out of the shadow of a 
 tumble-down Moorish house, and came towards us. 
 We walked on, and, luckily perhaps for us, matters 
 did not come to blows ; but we were rather near it, 
 for one of the men had already ranged up alongside 
 of the hot-tempered Scotchman, and said something 
 which was quite unintelligible, but evidently aggres- 
 sive. Somebody would have had a broken head in 
 another minute ; but just at the right time a diversion 
 appeared in the persons of two of the ship's officers, 
 who came towards us, and the rascals, seeing the odds 
 against them, disappeared in the shadows. The officers 
 told us it was rash to go about the town at night, 
 except in considerable parties, and the outskirts were 
 especially to be avoided, as they were infested with 
 ruffians of every nationality who had very small 
 scruples about cutting any one's throat if there was 
 a chance of " swag," and then tucking him away in 
 a hole in the sandy desert. A considerable number 
 of people had mysteriously vanished lately, and 
 nothing was ever heard of them again. When we 
 eventually reached the more civilized localities under 
 
 the pilotage of the officers, W said that if we 
 
 had only been going to stay here another night, 
 we might have made up a party to rout out some of 
 the thieves, and have a fight on the maidan. Even- 
 tually we fell in with the rest of our friends, who had 
 been shopping busily, their little Egyptian boy with 
 the big basket having nearly as much as he could 
 carry. This poor little lad nearly fell into the talons
 
 TEE THRESHOLD OF THE EAST. 11 
 
 of "justice;" for, while we were all in a shop pur- 
 chasing various articles, two zaptiehs came along, and 
 seeing him sitting on a doorstep close by, with a 
 basket full of valuables by him, jumped at the con- 
 clusion that he had stolen them, and proceeded to 
 "run him in." In vain the frightened lad explained 
 that he was carrying them for " the Franks ; " the 
 policemen, probably with an eye to sharing the spoil 
 between them, wanted to march him off, and if one 
 of us had not happened to come out of the shop and 
 to see the trio vanishing down a by-street, we should 
 have been minus all our purchases. As it was, we 
 quickly rescued Mustapha, and recompensed him 
 liberally for his fright and services. 
 
 These Egyptian gendarmes are decidedly imposing 
 to look at. Their uniform is pale sky-blue ; their 
 trousers are white on the first day of the week, but 
 drab for the rest. They wear French military caps 
 with peaks in front, and sword bayonets at their 
 sides. In the daytime they stand expectorating and 
 smoking at the street corners, and at night they 
 collect in the open police stations, where a dozen of 
 them may be seen with their feet on the backs of 
 neighbouring chairs, smoking bad cigarettes and, if 
 they can afford it, drinking absinthe. Occasionally 
 a couple of them sally out and make a tour of the 
 quietest and best-lit streets, but on the whole their 
 conduct is considerably like that of Dogberry and 
 his watch. If they meet a thief they bid him stand, 
 and if he won't stand, they let him go. 
 
 It was past 2 a.m. when we came to the conclusion 
 that there was nothing more to be seen or bought on 
 shore, and went down to the landing-place, where our 
 boat was waiting for us with the men asleep in the 
 stern sheets. We were soon on board the Almora, 
 and found that the unwonted exertion of three hours 
 on land after a fortnight of idleness had told on us
 
 12 ON TEE INDIAN HILLS. 
 
 heavily. We were as sleepy as possible, and our 
 mattresses were quickly on deck, each occupied by 
 its owner in the usual light flannel sleeping-suits of 
 hot countries. 
 
 Before turning in, I went forward to see the coal 
 for the engines brought on board. It was a most 
 curious and fantastic scene. Close alongside were 
 moored half a dozen large open lighters, each piled 
 with a mountain of fuel. On these boats scores of 
 dusky forms were hard at work filling baskets, which 
 a continuous string of Arabs and Egyptians carried 
 up one sloping board, emptied down into the coal 
 bunkers, and immediately returned by another sloping 
 board for a fresh load. The moon shone brightly on 
 the men at work in the barges, and made them look 
 like gnomes toiling in a mine. As they came on 
 deck the yellower light of the lanterns glittered on 
 their naked bodies ; none of them wore more than a 
 waist- cloth, and the perspiration streaming down them 
 cut channels in the glittering coal dust, with which 
 their skins were thickly covered. Everything was 
 densely sprinkled with this dust ; ropes, coops, deck, 
 were all alike jetty black, but the afterpart of the 
 ship was protected by canvas screens, which kept 
 the passengers from the general griminess. The coolies 
 seemed to be working hard, though no task-masters 
 were visible ; so probably they were doing piece-work, 
 i.e. getting paid by the job always the best arrange- 
 ment with Asiatics when possible, as they exert 
 themselves to get through their allotted share, which 
 tells both in favour of themselves and of their masters. 
 I stood at a respectful distance, watching these stream- 
 ing black figures toiling up and down the ship's sides 
 with their heavy burdens, until at last, like Lot's 
 wife, I was turning into a solid pillar, not of salt, but 
 of Welsh coal, becoming in fact rapidly jet black from 
 the crown of my fez to the soles of my boots ; so I
 
 TEE THRESHOLD OF THE EAST. 13 
 
 beat a retreat, and soon afterwards was stretched on 
 my mattress on the saloon skylight, sleepily listening 
 to the howling of the jackals and dogs, who kept 
 up rival choruses until the moon went down, and 
 the sky began to grow grey in the east with the first 
 touch of dawn. 
 
 It seemed I had hardly fallen asleep, when my arm 
 was lightly touched by a white-turbaned " boy " with 
 a cup of coffee and some biscuits. "Chota hazri, 
 sahib," he said, and added he had woke me by order 
 of some of the other sahibs, who were going ashore 
 again before the ship started. It was a lovely, cool, 
 fresh morning, with the sun just coming up over the 
 far-stretching sand wastes on the Arabian shore. To 
 the northward lay the limitless blue-grey sea we had 
 so lately crossed, with a few white sails dotted about. 
 Nearer to us was the picturesque but untidy Port 
 Said on the one side, and a miniature forest of tall 
 masts in its harbour ; while beyond spread the tawny, 
 monotonous desert, where nothing grows but stunted 
 thorn bushes, and nothing breaks the level expanse 
 but the white bones of camels or buffaloes that have 
 been turned out and left to die. From amongst these 
 shelters now and then village dogs crawled. They 
 seemed to have been sleeping after their disgusting- 
 meals, and the increasing light disturbed them, for 
 they came slowly forth, and, sniffing the air once or 
 twice, slunk away with a sidelong trot, keeping by 
 instinct in the hollows and shadows. 
 
 In the town animation returned rapidly. First, a 
 tall Arab, in a long flowing blue bournous, came down 
 to a strip of sand close to our moorings, and proceeded 
 to make careful ablutions, regardless of foreign eyes. 
 Then, having washed and dressed, he spread a small 
 bit of gaily coloured carpet, and kneeling down on it, 
 proceeded to say his morning prayer. He was careful 
 to turn his face towards the spot where he supposed
 
 14 ON TEE INDIAN HILLS. 
 
 Mecca and the shrine of his prophet to be, but if he 
 faced two or three points too much to the northward, 
 let us hope it did not mar the effectiveness of his 
 worship. Squatting on his heels, with his hands 
 clasped in front of him, he seemed for a moment 
 buried in thought; then, placing his hands on the 
 sand in front of him, he bent down and touched the 
 ground three times with his forehead. Then came a 
 few more minutes of what appeared to be profound 
 meditation, though doubtless the votary was repeating 
 prayers to himself, after which he slowly turned his 
 head to the right and to the left; a little more 
 meditation, another deep bow to the sand, and he had 
 finished, and jumping up, shook the dust from his 
 carpet, and strode away over the maidan to his hut 
 and breakfast of maize or water-melon. 
 
 Soon afterwards came a long string of camels, 
 starting for some distant journey. Emerging from 
 the outskirts of the town with their turtle-like heads 
 high in the air, and their elastic step, they crossed the 
 plain and disappeared among the sandhills. Then, as 
 the sun rose higher in the sky, the brown children 
 came out of the houses to play and squabble, waking 
 up with their noise the mongrel dogs curled up in 
 out-of-the-way corners, and the Egyptian soldiers who 
 had been on duty all night ; while women in blue 
 gowns and men of all nationalities poured down to 
 the harbour, or filled the narrow streets with a 
 strangely mixed Eastern crowd; for the day's work 
 had fairly begun. 
 
 Finishing my coffee and biscuits, I joined a small 
 party of passengers bound for fresh adventure, with 
 whom I soon reached the landing-place, and we 
 became the cynosure of a score of natives, who wanted 
 to do anything or everything for me and backshish. 
 Selecting a little Egyptian girl in a blue chemise 
 but nothing else, with a pretty face and bright
 
 TEE THRESHOLD OF THE EAST. 15 
 
 eyes, I made her show me the way to the post- 
 office. 
 
 Of all things at Port Said, these little Egyptian 
 girls are the nicest and prettiest. They wear simple 
 blue gowns like the older women, but no face-covering. 
 They have gentle, quiet manners, to strangers at least, 
 and never make rude remarks about " foreign devils," 
 as their brothers do, but are, nevertheless, fulJy alive 
 to the value of money, and always ask for four or five 
 times as much as they expect to get. You beckon to 
 a small damsel and request her to carry you a melon 
 to the ship. She jumps at the prospect of the back- 
 shish, but with an eye to getting as much as possible, 
 says, " Yes, sar, s'pose you give me five shillings." 
 Then if you look stern and offer her twopence, she 
 says, " Yery well, sar," and up goes the melon on to 
 her head (they carry everything there, no matter how 
 heavy or fragile), and giving her robe a hitch up 
 under her scarlet girdle, she steps out over the soft 
 hot sand in a way that puts the heavier " Britisher " 
 on his mettle to keep pace with his little guide. It 
 is a pleasure to see her walk ; she holds herself as 
 straight as an arrow, and treads as lightly as a gazelle. 
 The small Egyptian boys are also often bright and 
 pretty, but regular little rogues, and both girls and 
 boys lose their good looks only too quickly. 
 
 About nine o'clock the sun was powerful, and I 
 was beginning to feel so much interest in breakfast, 
 that my little Egyptian girl was dismissed with a 
 gift which put an extra sparkle into her eyes, and I 
 rowed off to the Altiiora. 
 
 Many tourists and travellers to say nothing of all 
 the outward and homeward-bound Anglo-Indians 
 have long ago seen and traversed the great ditch 
 whereby M. de Lesseps has made Africa an island. 
 That short cut has become more important to the 
 commerce and influence of Great Britain than any
 
 16 ON THE INDIAN HILLS. 
 
 piece of water in the world, and at least seven-tenths 
 of the shipping going from Port Sa'id to the Red Sea 
 flies the white or red ensign of England. It was 
 high noon when we again felt the gentle tremor sent 
 by the revolving screw through our ship as we slowly 
 passed inward from Port Sa'id. Getting clear of the 
 wharf, a little plot of ground, with two or three mud 
 shanties on it, was pointed out as boasting the proud 
 title of British soil. This bit of land, when the Canal 
 was in course of construction, stood valued at 800, 
 but so little was thought of the undertaking that the 
 patch was not bought until the Canal became a 
 success, and then the land had so much risen in value 
 that it was finally taken by our Government for 
 20,000. We crept past this and some large new 
 buildings, where the French tricolor was gaily flutter- 
 ing in the sea-breeze, and entered the mouth of the 
 Canal. The harbour gradually narrows as the steamer 
 passes down between the town and a long line of 
 ships in dock on the port side, until almost imper- 
 ceptibly the vessel is in a narrow lane of water, with 
 open country on both hands. On the left stretches a 
 well-nigh boundless plain of drab level mud not a 
 stone or a blade of grass breaking the vast expanse ; 
 all is of one dull unbroken colour, excepting some 
 scattered patches of grey salt, left when the sea last 
 subsided. On the right opens a great expanse of 
 shallow water, connected with the Mediterranean. 
 Along the margins and sandbanks in the centre stood 
 long lines of flamingoes and pelicans. At first it was 
 difficult to believe those could be birds which remained 
 so still and were in such vast numbers. They looked 
 more like the scattered white fragments of some 
 broken sea-wall, but through a telescope we could 
 make out each tall bird, standing on one leg, with his 
 head turned aside, watching, no doubt, the shoals of 
 little fish swimming about in the neighbourhood. At
 
 THE THRESHOLD OF THE EAST. 17 
 
 a rough guess there must have been about six or 
 seven thousand of these huge white waders in sight 
 at once, and our sportsmen burned to make closer 
 acquaintance with them. On the surface of the lake 
 there were also many other kinds of water-fowl; 
 among them the ubiquitous curlew as wide awake 
 and shy as his kindred are everywhere and the 
 lesser stint, flying along the margins in little packs of 
 seven or eight, but vanishing the moment they settled, 
 their brown and grey plumage harmonizing so exactly 
 with the mud and sand. 
 
 The first five miles of the Great Ditch are as 
 straight as an arrow the narrow ribbon of steel-blue 
 water stretching away over the hot brown plain like 
 a band of iron upon a cotton bale. The banks on 
 both sides lie very low, while the Canal itself is so 
 narrow that to catch sight of any water at all from a 
 ship's deck it is necessary to lean over the bulwarks, 
 and then one perceives a few yards of liquid on either 
 side. What impresses the mind most is the terrible 
 ease with which the channel could be blocked by any 
 nation that might desire it. Imagine a mutiny in 
 India or an effective jehad stirring up the Moham- 
 medans of Afghanistan and the Northern Provinces ! 
 It would then be of the utmost importance for us to 
 command free and rapid means of transit through the 
 Canal ; but if Russia wished to put a spoke in our 
 wheels, what would be easier than for her to send a 
 merchant steamer with a cargo of anything con- 
 veniently heavy, and have her sunk by accident, of 
 course in a narrow part ? It would stop the whole 
 traffic for a week or more, for even an English steamer 
 lightly aground at the bows has several times blocked 
 the way for a couple of days. 
 
 The width of the Canal ought to be doubled, and 
 will be some day ; it must & Iso be lined with stone or 
 concrete right through for the whole eighty miles. 
 
 C
 
 18 ON THE INDIAN HILLS. 
 
 Its present section is curiously shaped. The bottom 
 is seventy feet wide, or should be, though I suspect 
 the sand drifts in considerably. On either side the 
 banks slope up sharply for twenty feet, and then 
 shelve off at an angle. The central channel is thus 
 about twenty-six feet deep in the centre, with ten or 
 twelve feet of very shallow water on either side. The 
 effect of each steamer passing through is certainly 
 damaging. As the vessel glides along, nearly filling 
 up the deeper parts, her bows seem to force a body of 
 water ahead, and the element rushes down from the 
 shallow shelves on either side, uncovering a narrow 
 muddy beach, where the pebbles roll over and over as 
 they are left behind, and numerous astonished little 
 fishes kick and splash in a vain endeavour to regain 
 their native sphere. Then, when the ship has passed, 
 turgid waves come tumbling after her, scouring along 
 under the banks, and sweeping fishes, sticks, and 
 stones pell-mell into deep water. The fretting of the 
 banks is thus constant, most of the loose material 
 getting into the channel, whence it has to be laboriously 
 removed by steam-dredgers. Although there is a 
 nominal depth of twenty-six feet everywhere, it is 
 found in practice that a ship drawing more than 
 twenty-four feet is liable to come to grief. Some 
 little time ago a large steamer with telegraph cable 
 on board ran the gauntlet with a draught aft of 
 twenty-four feet seven inches, but she had to steam 
 at full speed and scraped her keel nearly the whole 
 way through. There would have been great delay if 
 she had stuck, as she would have had to discharge 
 half her cargo before she could go ahead or astern. 
 When the Canal is widened and paved with stone the 
 exact depth will be always known, and the authorities 
 will be able to refuse a passage to all craft exceeding 
 the limits. 
 
 About five miles after leaving Port Said we come
 
 THE THEESHOLD OF THE EAST. 19 
 
 to the first station. On one bank there is a huge 
 
 o 
 
 board with " Gare, limite nord " printed in long black 
 letters, and a quarter of a mile away stands another 
 board, on which is inscribed " Gare, limite sud." Be- 
 tween them the Canal runs of double width, and 
 there appear numerous mooring-posts and buoys. 
 The traffic is worked on the block system, as upon 
 a well-conducted English railway. At each of these 
 fjares a small cottage stands for the Canal guard, 
 connected by telegraph with the other stations up 
 and down the line. When a ship is reported to be 
 coming up from the next station, the caution signals 
 two black balls one above the other are hoisted 
 on the neighbouring flagstaff, and any ship that 
 arrives downwards is obliged to stop and haul into 
 the siding until the one approaching from the opposite 
 direction has passed. This is, of course, a tedious 
 affair, especially to the captains of steamers who have 
 an eye to economizing the coal, half the value saved 
 under a certain amount allowed by their company 
 being their perquisite, the other half going to the 
 chief engineer. But it is the only plan by which the 
 Canal could be worked at all, as two ships cannot 
 pass in any part excepting at the Bitter Lakes. 
 Passengers seldom object, as it gives them an oppor- 
 tunity for some fishing over the sides, and longer 
 time for recovery among the victims of the mal de 
 mer. We, however, were not detained at all, but 
 went straight through several gares, where large 
 Indian mail and troop ships lay waiting to see us 
 pass. As we glided slowly by, our bulwarks only a 
 few feet from those of the other ships, of course we 
 all crowded to the side, and the homeward-bounds 
 doing the same we had a curious transient glance 
 at each other, giving and taking flying messages, 
 etc., amid cheery badinage and bits of home or foreign 
 news.
 
 20 ON TEE INDIAN SILLS. 
 
 As we still steamed along, the banks grew higher 
 on both sides until the surrounding country was 
 hidden from view, and then it became really hot. 
 The sun was high overhead, and flared down till the 
 pitch between the planks of the deck turned soft and 
 bubbly. The water of the Canal shone like brass, for 
 the vessel moved between steep bare brown banks of 
 baked mud, which reflected the heat in a way that 
 was decidedly trying. Every now and then we 
 passed a gap in the banks, and felt for a moment 
 a breath of wind. But such a wind ! It came pant- 
 ing and red-hot across the burning desert like a blast 
 from the gates of the lower regions, bringing with it, 
 too, a blinding storm of hot sand, that beat against 
 our faces, drying them into the semblance of parch- 
 ment. Nearly all our passengers effected a retreat to 
 their cabins, where they spent the time till the sun 
 went down, lying in their berths, as lightly clad as 
 possible, fanning themselves and drinking iced claret. 
 But the sun is not deadly to the temperate, and, seen 
 in its natural blaze of Egyptian light, the Canal was 
 still a thing of immense interest ; for though certainly 
 not beautiful, it represents a splendid enterprise, and 
 now that it is achieved it is difficult to think how the 
 world can have got on so well without it. Fancy 
 ever again jolting over the desert from Alexandria 
 to Suez in an omnibus under such a sun as this T 
 Yet that is how we used to get to the Red Sea. 
 
 At tiffin nobody could eat much. Nothing was 
 heard but sighs and languidly toned requests for 
 "iced pawnee," while the punkah creaked and 
 flapped overhead, keeping the parboiled sufferers- 
 just in existence. A slice of water-melon seemed 
 truly a prodigious meal, and we got back on deck 
 to find the steamer passing the station at Kantara. 
 At this spot there is a really pretty little building on 
 the right-hand side amongst tall palms, half-hidden
 
 THE THBESHOLD OF THE EAST. 21 
 
 in creeping vegetation and vines. It is an oasis in 
 the desert, and at the same point an old Syrian road 
 once the great highway between Egypt and Palestine 
 is crossed by the Canal. The road is still used to 
 some extent by the natives, picturesque groups of 
 whom may be seen standing on the bank, waiting to 
 be ferried over on a railed-in platform drawn from 
 bank to bank by ropes. 
 
 Here ancient and modern modes of travelling are 
 seen working side by side. A cluster of motionless 
 grey camels, with burdens of outlandish goods, tower 
 up amongst burnoused and turbaned Arabs, who lean 
 on their long staves and watch from under their 
 bushy eyebrows the big black ship of the " Franks," 
 with her tall masts and mazy cordage, pass silently 
 along, moved by some invisible and magic power, 
 coming from lands outside the orthodox world, the 
 haunts of fog and mist, and going to the equally 
 unknown land whence Solomon the dread king 
 obtained his ivory and peacocks. 
 
 We were not detained at Kantara, but steaming 
 still forwards soon passed one of the larger Arab 
 villages on the left bank. At a little distance it was 
 impossible to say with certainty whether the dull 
 brown heap in a hollow of the plain near the Canal 
 was the work of scavengers or housebuilders, but 
 coming nearer we made it out to be a collection of 
 a hundred tumbledown, flat-roofed mud hovels, 
 scattered about without the smallest attempt at 
 regularity, and varied by numerous piles of refuse, 
 the accumulation of ages, the odour of which we could 
 catch even a couple of hundred yards away. The 
 architecture of these dust-heaps is of the most simple 
 kind, as the builders, not having yet reached the art 
 of making windows, content themselves with a door, 
 effected by cutting a hole in the most convenient side 
 of the square mud pile. The only inhabitants visible
 
 22 ON TEE INDIAN HILLS. 
 
 in the glare were a couple of camels and some ragged 
 brown children in dirty blue garments, who ran out 
 to gaze on us, scampering along the bank and yelling 
 for backshish. I threw a huge " captain's " biscuit 
 to the biggest, which was at once pounced upon by a 
 crowd of small Egyptians, and when last seen they 
 were still fighting over this unheard-of luxury. All 
 the afternoon we steamed along between the sultry 
 banks on either hand, catching accidental glimpses, 
 through the gaps, of a sandy desert beyond, with its 
 scattered thorn bushes and skeletons of camels, but 
 perceiving no signs of life save an Arab or two stalk- 
 ing along the Canal his dusky black figure showing 
 up well against the pale blue sky or the drowsy 
 signalmen in the station-houses. In many places the 
 sand at the edge of the water was marked with the 
 trails of strange water-creatures and footmarks of 
 animals, which might be those of jackals and even 
 gazelles, for they sometimes come down to the brink. 
 We passed several dredging machines at work huge 
 cumbrous affairs, worked by steam, the mud being- 
 got up in an endless circle of buckets which empty 
 themselves into a long iron shoot, whence the stuff 
 finds its way to the adjacent plains. Greater efforts 
 should be made to grow plants and trees upon this 
 soil. There is already a scanty show of reeds in 
 places along the Canal, and they materially assist in 
 keeping the channel open by binding the sand 
 together and preventing its slipping; but if melons 
 or any kinds of grasses could be persuaded to establish 
 themselves on the neighbouring soil, the dredging 
 machines would probably find their work much 
 lightened. 
 
 We still went smoothly and slowly along between 
 the banks, with the saffron hue of the Eastern after- 
 glow lighting up the sky. We glided round numerous 
 turns, past the ugly Chateau Eugenie, built for the
 
 THE THRESHOLD OF THE EAST. 23 
 
 Empress when she opened the Canal, and rarely used 
 since nor is it wonderful, for the sand lies banked 
 up to the top-story windows on one side, and there 
 can be little pleasure in inhabiting a house where 
 your garden blows from one part to another according 
 as the wind drifts it. At nightfall we took a final 
 sharp turn and entered the first of the really beauti- 
 ful Bitter Lakes. The steamer was now in a land- 
 locked water not the smallest sign of entrance or 
 exit to be seen anywhere dry desert all around us, 
 excepting in one quarter, where there was quite a 
 dense wood of palm and nebbuk trees, with white 
 houses peeping between them. This was Ismailia, 
 where the chief Canal officials live in preference to 
 Port Said. We anchored for the night about two 
 miles from the town, and there were soon some half- 
 dozen feluccas alongside, their long lateen sprits flap- 
 ping against the ship's side and rigging, as the evening 
 breeze rocked them to and fro, while their crews 
 shouted and yelled, causing considerable confusion 
 in the darkness. A party who went ashore gave 
 rapturous accounts on returning of the donkey rides 
 they had enjoyed, and of numerous adventures with 
 dogs, jackals, Egyptian policemen, and boatmen, which 
 made us wish, too late, we had accompanied them. 
 
 The next morning, just as the sun rose, our anchor 
 was lifted, and after running aground once in attempt- 
 ing to turn, we steamed away to the southward. The 
 water of the lake displayed the most beautiful blue- 
 green colour, contrasting strongly with the spotless 
 yellow and white of the sandy shores. Ismailia looked 
 quite rural and pretty under the warm sunlight, 
 amongst its green trees, with the great palace of the 
 Viceroy towering above them. Let us hope that the 
 groves of Ismailia will spread themselves, for these 
 lakes, which before the Canal was opened were dry 
 beds of salt, may now favourably influence the
 
 24 0JV THE INDIAN HILLS. 
 
 climate and generate the much-needed moisture. 
 Nothing but moisture is needed, for it is found by 
 actual experiment that the sand of the desert, unlike 
 the hard sand of the sea-shore, is perfectly fertile 
 nothing, in fact, but the " top soil " of a tract of 
 country in a very fine state o pulverization, which 
 will grow anything with irrigation. We now care- 
 fully picked our way down an avenue of buoys, 
 and then regained the Canal. 
 
 Here we were in fairyland. The high banks of the 
 preceding day had vanished, and in their place spread 
 a level tract of land on either side, broken up into 
 thousands of little azure lakelets and bays. In the 
 background the sand formed great smooth yellow 
 hiUs- without a spot or mark of any kind upon them. 
 In the, foreground the waters had encroached upon 
 the desert, and all around us were little lagoons and 
 Is, of the bluest turquoise tint, though scarcely a 
 foot deep. Little peninsulas of sand jutted into 
 them, and little sand cliffs fringed their sides. In 
 their centres rose liliputian sand islands, on which, 
 encouraged by the brackish water, grasses and thorn 
 bushes made tiny forests. In these miniature lagoons 
 fishes great and small disported themselves, and as 
 the rolling waves made by our passage broke on the 
 sandy beaches, the shining fry were thrown up on 
 dry land, where they were quickly pounced upon by 
 hungry sea-swallows graceful little lavender-and- 
 white birds which flew on either side of the ship 
 as she passed along. After breakfast we entered again 
 into the region of high banks, but now they were no 
 longer the brown clay of yesterday, but soft, bright, 
 wind-smoothed sand sloping into the water, where 
 grew on either side tall hedges of reeds, so near the 
 ship I almost succeeded in picking some. Gliding- 
 past these we entered another broad lake, much larger 
 and deeper than the last, where the land trended so
 
 THE THRESHOLD OF THE EAST. 25 
 
 far away that it became nothing but a yellow streak 
 on the horizon ; and here a pleasant breeze, with less 
 hot sand in it than usual, fanned our faces and raised 
 little curling waves under our bows. Until the water 
 from the Red Sea was first let into these lagoons they 
 were in much the same state as the Dead Sea is now. 
 The water was so densely impregnated with salt that 
 it is said the workmen used to stick their spades 
 upright in it (this, however, requires to be taken with 
 even still more " salt "), while the bottom was com- 
 posed of nearly as much saline sediment as sand or 
 mud. The French engineer took advantage of this, 
 and saved himself more than eight feet of digging ; 
 for immediately the fresher water was admitted it 
 diluted the solution and reabsorbed so much salt that 
 the bottom of the lake sank many feet downwards, 
 and thus spared half the labour of cutting a passage. 
 
 Altogether, an intelligent observer cannot but enjoy 
 the Canal passage, and be very much impressed with 
 the hugeness of the undertaking and the enormous 
 amount of energy required to have kept going that 
 army of labourers men of all nations and tongues 
 and to have fed them in such a wilderness. Perhaps 
 the only mistake connected with the great highway 
 was the erection, at a prodigious expense, of extensive 
 shipping docks and harbour works at Suez. These 
 clocks were built under the impression that the Canal 
 would render that town a great emporium and coaling 
 station, but they are now a proof of how risky it is 
 to prophesy " until one knows ; " for, instead of 
 increasing the importance of Suez, the Canal has 
 well-nigh ruined it. Once everybody came to Suez, 
 when it was the real harbour of the Red Sea and the 
 station whence passengers and mails started across 
 the desert for Cairo and Alexandria. But now, shorn 
 of its glory, it sees the commerce of the world go by 
 within arm's-length, and yet stagnates and decays for
 
 2G 0JV TEE INDIAN HILLS. 
 
 lack of trade, since few ships make use of the big 
 harbour, Port Said being the real northern port, as 
 Aden is the southern one of the Red Sea. There are 
 several reasons why Port Sa'id has thus sucked up the 
 prosperity of Suez thechief being that where steamers 
 stop their passengers will land and trade become 
 brisk, and steamers only stop where they can get coal 
 cheapest and find the best provisions. The promoters 
 of the Suez Docks overlooked the fact that coal-laden 
 ships coming from England would naturally prefer 
 to unload their cargoes at Port Sai'd thus sparing 
 themselves four days' journey at least through the 
 Canal and back, and saving the Canal dues, which, 
 being very heavy, would of course add largely to the 
 price of the coal unloaded at the southern end. It is 
 for this reason the steamers discard the Red Sea town 
 for the northern one, with its cheap coal and European 
 provisions. If M. de Lesseps only had Aladdin's lamp, 
 he might do a useful thing by rubbing it, and, on the 
 appearance of the Djin, getting him to remove all the 
 harbour works from the Suez entrance to the Medi- 
 terranean port. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 ON SINBAD'S SEA. 
 
 AT the sandy town of Suez our good ship did not stop 
 for even a moment, but slackened speed just enough 
 to permit a little snorting and puffing steam launch, 
 with the agent and our letters, to overtake us, and 
 then, steaming out of the Canal, picked our way 
 amongst the dredgers, the broken-down coasting ships, 
 etc., which were the only occupants of the docks, and
 
 CLY SINBAD'S SEA. 27 
 
 finally emerged into the Red Sea, The only visible 
 reason why it should be called Red is that, on the 
 Egyptian side, there rises a long range of fine sand- 
 stone hills of a warm pink hue, running all along the 
 coast. As for the sea itself, it is, of course, as blue 
 as the heaven above it, and no more of a ruddy tint 
 anywhere than the Black Sea is inky or the White 
 Sea milky. The opposite shore to Suez lies as flat as 
 a billiard-table for about twenty miles all round. The 
 guide-books say that somewhere on it may be seen a 
 well overshadowed by trees, this being the spot where 
 Moses rested after crossing the sea with the children 
 of Israel. But in fact, twenty or more places in the 
 Gulf of Suez are pointed out as the true spots at which 
 the Hebrew Lawgiver crossed ; the most favoured one 
 being about thirty miles south of Suez, where there 
 is a good landing-place on both sides a great cleft in 
 the cliffs, with a sand " shoot " leading down into the 
 water. 
 
 So few ships now pass round the West Coast of 
 Africa and cross the equator that the time-honoured 
 custom of receiving a visit from Neptune is occasion- 
 ally moved by common consent round to the head of 
 the Red Sea, where his majesty now ofttimes holds 
 his court," and comes on board outward-bound ships 
 to pay his respects and shave those passengers who 
 have never been through the Canal before. In the 
 evening, after leaving Suez, we were invaded by a 
 crowd of finny monsters, with a fishy old gentleman 
 at their head, whose disguise could not hide the coun- 
 tenance of the jovial ship's doctor; while his majesty's 
 barber, with a bucket of soapsuds and a chopper for a 
 razor, was well played by the under steward. Besides 
 a crowd of courtiers, there were sepoys with hand- 
 cuffs for the unruly ; but the " griffins " came up as 
 their names were called, and took their shaving very 
 quietly, while the barber cracked innumerable jokes-
 
 28 ON THE INDIAN HILLS. 
 
 at their expense. The young ladies were also called 
 up to be shaved, but, as the barber said, " Beards are 
 like ideas men only have them when they grow up, 
 and women never have any ; " so as there was nothing 
 to shave, they were allowed to shake hands with 
 Neptune and hasten away ; after which we had some 
 dancing, in which the courtiers were continually trip- 
 ping over each other's tails, and then fireworks were 
 let off from the stern, during which performance the 
 king and his retinue retired, a final blue light, sent 
 adrift in a tube which went bobbing astern, being 
 pointed out to the youngest of the passengers as 
 " Davy Jones's " private gig taking him away. With 
 this imposing ceremony ended our passage through 
 the Great Ditch. 
 
 The next day was Sunday, and we had church 
 on deck under the saloon awning, the grey-headed 
 captain reading the service from a desk covered with 
 the dear flag of our country, and Mount Sinai away 
 to the left soaring rosy and bright in the hot sunlight, 
 while the fresh waves were running bubbling by the 
 port-holes. 
 
 Afterwards there was fire drill, which alarmed those 
 of the ladies who did not know it was only a make- 
 believe. We were just dispersing after the final hymn 
 had ended, when the fire-bell was heard ringing loudly 
 that sound so dreaded by sailors. Of course, there 
 was a rush forward to see what was the matter, and 
 we found the native crew cutting wildly about, chat- 
 tering and gesticulating like monkeys. In about a 
 minute, or less, the brass caps were screwed off the 
 two steam-pumps, and twenty yards of tubing fixed 
 to each, down which the water quickly made its way, 
 throwing up little jets from every defective seam as 
 the pressure increased, until it came to the far end 
 by the saloon, where a lascar was holding the nozzle 
 overboard, or we should have been swamped. At the
 
 ON SINS AD'S SEA. 29 
 
 same time two hand-pumps were fixed on either side 
 of the ship forward, with plenty of tubing running to 
 the main hatch and second-class cabin, and heavy 
 leathern pipes with perforated leaden muzzles were 
 trailed overboard for obtaining a plentiful supply of 
 water. Every one seemed to know his duty. The 
 whole ship's company including the twenty " boys " 
 or waiters who stood in a long line at the gangway, 
 and the carpenter, who appeared with an axe ready 
 to break open any number of doors or hatches had 
 their posts, and occupied them, so that if the fire had 
 been genuine we should have been pouring heavy 
 volumes of water on it in less than three minutes. 
 
 When this was over the captain held an inspection 
 of the crew, which proved an interesting spectacle. 
 The ship's company of a large Indian steamer such 
 as the Almora is a very mixed collection of human 
 beings. To begin at the top, there are the captain and 
 his four officers, all Englishmen. Besides these, there 
 is the chief engineer, who ranks with the first navi- 
 gating officer, and three or four assistant engineers all 
 Europeans their duty being entirely confined to the 
 engine-room. There is also an English doctor, gene- 
 rally a very pleasant man, who has a remarkably easy 
 life on the outward voyage, rarely finding anything 
 to do but lie on his back reading a novel, or perhaps 
 once and again being called upon to feel the pulse of 
 some young lady ; though coming home he often has 
 his hands full, attending to a cargo of fever-stricken 
 Anglo-Indians. An upper and under steward, with 
 an English stewardess and a ship's clerk, make up the 
 list of Europeans. 
 
 The number of Asiatics was much larger, and their 
 nationality more varied. First in rank was the head 
 boatman or serang, a corruption of the Persian word 
 for a general. His dress consisted of snowy-white 
 trousers of the usual native cut, baggy towards the
 
 30 ON THE INDIAN HILLS. 
 
 waist, but very tight round the ankles, where they 
 formed many wrinkles, and contrasted strikingly with 
 his bare brown feet. His white jacket was tied in 
 round the waist with a gay red scarf, and round his 
 neck hung a silver chain with a whistle attached, on 
 which he was able to produce a set of signals com- 
 pletely understood by the crew. This distinguished 
 individual came from Bombay, whence all the best 
 native sailors are drawn. The two boatswain's mates 
 tindals in Hindustani were clad in much the same 
 way, and exerted themselves strenuously at the Sunday 
 review in ranging their long line of clean-clad lascars 
 down one side of the deck. There were some sixty 
 of these men, whose sole duty lay in attending to the 
 sails and gear of the ship. Not half so many English 
 sailors would have been required ; but the British 
 physique is, of course, superior to that of the Indians, 
 whose sole diet consists of rice and cakes, though 
 some are glad enough to eat flesh when they can get 
 it even the flesh of unclean animals. The reason 
 why the pig is considered unclean is well known. 
 Mohammed once called a great council of the beasts 
 and birds of the earth to hear him preach. They all 
 attended, and so great was the eloquence of the 
 Prophet that they with one accord were converted 
 to the faith, with the exception of the cow and the 
 pig, who, for reasons of their own, declined to be 
 influenced, and entered a protest against the proceed- 
 ings. At this Mohammed was very naturally enraged, 
 and forthwith cursed them, and proscribed their flesh 
 to all true believers. In order to avoid the results 
 of roughly breaking this command, the lascars have 
 resort to a simple process. When a pig is bought by 
 subscription or received as a present from the officers, 
 he is conducted to the bows and slaughtered in 
 accordance with the most orthodox rules of Islam, 
 the butcher drawing his knife across his throat and
 
 ON SINS AD'S SEA. 31 
 
 muttering a solemn, " In the name of Allah the Com- 
 passionate." The pig is at once tied by the legs to 
 a strong rope, pitched overboard, and trailed through 
 the water for an hour or more, after which time a 
 lascar goes up to the line and proceeds to haul it in, 
 saying as he does so, " Jao suar, idhar ao machchi," 
 that is, " Go away, pig ; come hither, fish." After 
 this formula the " fish " is supposed to be clean enough 
 for all practical purposes, and is soon cut up and 
 converted into stew. 
 
 From an officer I learnt that the crew's usual food 
 on the voyage was rice, dried fish, and a sort of pulse 
 called dal. When in harbour or exposed to cold 
 weather they sometimes received a sheep or pig as 
 a present ; but he told me that some time before he 
 had been instructed by the managers of the company 
 to go through the ship's books, and find the average 
 cost of feeding the lascars each day, the result of his 
 investigations being that the average per head per 
 diem was only three half-pence ! For this reason, 
 amongst others, natives are employed in preference 
 to English sailors ; for, as he said, though the English- 
 men are more reliable in danger and better able to 
 work in rough weather, their feeding was almost as 
 costly as that of passengers. 
 
 Besides the ship's lascars there are Sidi boys 
 regular negroes from the neighbourhood of Zanzibar 
 whose chief duty consists in shovelling coal into 
 the furnaces far away down at the bottom of the 
 ship. Probably none but they could stand the heat ; 
 but they seem to like it, and though never clean, 
 except for parade on Sunday, they are a cheerful set, 
 living all day in a roasting temperature, and sleeping 
 at night on the iron grating of the engine-room or in 
 a coal-bunker, as happily as though it were a bed of 
 feathers. The Agwallas consider themselves rather 
 superior to the Sidis, their chief duties being to do
 
 32 ON THE INDIAN HILLS. 
 
 the rougli work of cleaning the machinery and acting 
 as the hands of the English engineers. They are all 
 Mussulmans, and mostly from the neighbourhood of 
 Bombay, as are also the " boys " who wait in the 
 saloon and second cabin; in fact, most Indian ships 
 are manned by Mussulmans, as the Hindoo is gene- 
 rally too effeminate for rough work, and has, besides, 
 religious scruples about crossing the kala pani, or 
 black water, as he calls the ocean. 
 
 Though I have mentioned the " boys " last, they 
 are the finest men, the best fed, and the smartest 
 dressed of any natives on board the ship. As to their 
 honesty and general behaviour I have not much to 
 say. They are attention itself at meals, standing 
 behind one's chair with folded arms, and watching 
 with eagle eyes for an empty plate or glass. Being 
 always barefooted no Indian ever comes into the 
 presence of a superior with his feet covered they 
 move about quite noiselessly, and, in fact, nothing- 
 could be better than their waiting. At off-times they 
 are also very obliging and willing, though perhaps 
 some of it may be due to the prospect of the tip of 
 ten or twenty rupees which each passenger gives his 
 own particular " boy " at the end of the voyage. 
 
 Their chief amusements are having their hair cut, 
 or rather shaved, and playing draughts, over which 
 they become quite absorbed. Saturday afternoon is 
 the favourite time for the hair-cutting operations. 
 I frequently went forward to watch the 'modus 
 operandi at the main hatch, where the " boys " con- 
 gregated. The barber, a good-looking fellow with 
 long black cat-like whiskers, shaved the " believers " 
 with great dexterity, but at a pace that made me 
 thankful not to be under his hands myself. Sitting 
 down on his heels in front of his customer, who also 
 squatted, he gave him a little round hand-glass to 
 watch all that was done, and then, razor in one hand
 
 ON SINBAD'S SEA. 33 
 
 and the other resting on the head of the victim, he 
 rolled it about from side to side, and soon removed 
 the bristles of a week's growth, taking care, however, 
 to leave that single lock of hair above the forehead 
 by which the Angel of Death draws true believers up 
 to heaven. The shaving over, and the Mussulman's 
 skull being as smooth as a cannon-ball, the barber 
 proceeds to put the finishing touches by extracting 
 all superfluous hairs from the ears, nose, etc., and 
 then cracking every finger-joint in turn ; nay, for a 
 couple of cash more, he will thump his customer all 
 over, that being considered the most refreshing part 
 of the whole operation. In spite of the terrible pace 
 at which he is obliged to work to shave the whole 
 crew in turn, he rarely makes a false stroke or inflicts 
 a single cut. 
 
 On the whole the company of the ship was a very 
 interesting collection of human beings, their officers 
 seeming well contented with their work, everything 
 being done at the proper time, and very little talking 
 being necessary. In cold weather the natives are apt 
 to get benumbed and stupefied, like bees in winter ; 
 but in the tropics, where the ships sail during the 
 greater part of the time, they are perhaps as good as 
 Europeans. 
 
 For the next two days we were out of sight of land. 
 We now began to feel genuine equatorial heat and the 
 resulting lassitude white linen jackets and trousers 
 for the men, and various pretty light dresses for the 
 ladies, coming into fashion in our little society. The 
 ship's officers had donned their hot-weather uniform 
 on the first Sunday after passing through the Canal, 
 and now looked both cool and neat in snowy white, 
 with gold buttons and bands on their sleeves. They 
 also laid aside their blue-peaked caps, and took to 
 broad-brimmed white pith hats of a regulation pattern, 
 very necessary for them, as they were constantly 
 
 D
 
 34 ON THE INDIAN HILLS. 
 
 exposed to the rays of a roasting sun. For my own 
 part, I found nothing so comfortable as thin white 
 flannel It was pleasant during the day, and when 
 the sun went down and the usual heavy dew began to 
 fall, it saved me from the chilly feeling which many 
 other " griffins " on board experienced. I am sure of 
 this, that whatever the outside clothes are made of, 
 it is the height of rashness to wear anything but 
 flannel or wool next the skin in the tropics. 
 
 For a head covering anything will do, as the 
 passengers remain under the awning all day long ; 
 but it is best to wear something light, with good 
 ventilation, since even a temporary exposure may 
 result in a bad headache. Those who have never 
 lived in the East can form no idea of how hot the 
 sun can be, and what a power the orb has when it 
 shines straight down. They have a vague sort of 
 notion that it is "very warm," but perhaps they will 
 appreciate it more if they were to remember that 
 once or twice a steamer going through the Red Sea 
 in hot weather has been obliged to turn and steam 
 against the wind, simply to save the lives of those on 
 board. Such, of course, is an exceptional case, and as 
 a general rule the heat will be found bearable, though 
 no one can afford to trifle with it. 
 
 While the sun was high up in the sky, the glare on 
 the sea was so great that no land could be seen on 
 either side; but when the sun went down in the 
 west, he dropped behind the craggy Libyian hills, 
 which loomed out inky black against the pale yellow 
 " Libyian glow," about which artists and tourists rave, 
 and which is certainly beautiful, though scarcely equal 
 to the crimsons and greens of a sunset in the fjelds of 
 Norway. When the sun sank down, the hills would 
 come out in black profile against a pink and yellow 
 sky, and twilight would deepen rapidly; but after 
 fifteen or twenty minutes the sky began to get
 
 ON SINE AD'S SEA. 35 
 
 brighter and brighter, till it almost seemed the sun 
 was coming back, and then the "after-glow" faded 
 and darkness settled down on everything the stars 
 glittering out one after the other till the sky was as 
 brilliant as the phosphorescent sea, and the dew began 
 to fall heavily on the ship, soon soaking anything that 
 was exposed to it. 
 
 By the oth of September we were in the neighbour- 
 hood of " The Islands," and the water being shallow, 
 we saw a great abundance of fishy life and many 
 new birds. About six o'clock, when roused from my 
 mattress on the saloon skylight by my " boy " with 
 coffee and biscuits, the sea was alive with fishes of 
 all sorts and sizes, and the perfect stillness of the 
 surface enabled me to watch their various movements. 
 The biggest fish were sharks. There were six or 
 seven of them half a mile away on our starboard bow 
 but half a mile seems no distance on the open sea 
 rolling and plunging about in circles ; every now and 
 then one would rush up from deep under-water and 
 throw his huge length several feet into the air, falling 
 back with a resounding splash amid showers of spray. 
 Fishes are usually supposed to lead a dull, pleasureless 
 life, and few people would suspect any members of 
 the tribe of actually romping, yet these "salt-sea 
 robbers " were as clearly as possible having a game, 
 and enjoying themselves in the early sunlight before 
 the serious business of the day began. For my part, 
 I believe there is a great deal more in the fishy mind 
 than most people think. Nearer us there were sundry 
 shoals of fish about the size of the Cornish rock bass, 
 also leaping about ; but as two or three porpoises 
 were rolling in the neighbourhood, I expect they were 
 more bent on escaping their enemies than playing. 
 Everything that was not amusing itself was intent 
 upon devouring some weaker victim. 
 
 In the air there were hundreds of little black-and-
 
 36 ON THE INDIAN HILLS. 
 
 white sea-gulls, all pouncing upon the shoals of 
 shining silver fry that the larger fish chased and 
 compelled to leap into the air to avoid them, many 
 being snapped up by the gulls before they could fall 
 back. They seemed to be having a lively time 
 between the fish and the birds, but perhaps it gave 
 those that escaped a good appetite to prey in turn on 
 yet feebler denizens of the deep. While every fish in 
 the sea appeared to be thus dividing his energies 
 between escaping from his pursuers in air and water, 
 and eating as many as possible of his relations who 
 happened to be smaller than himself, the gulls were 
 being chased about and compelled to drop their 
 booty by piratical-looking birds that seized it before 
 it sank in the water. The eyesight of these birds 
 and the gulls is most acute. There were many of 
 them sailing round the Almora as high, at least, as 
 her topmasts, and on the watch for any food that 
 might be thrown overboard. How they knew they 
 might expect any is a difficult question, but there 
 they were ; and having nothing better to do, I fetched 
 a long, deep sea-line, and, baiting the last hook with 
 bacon, soon had it trailing astern. To me the tiny 
 speck of flesh was quite lost in the bubbling caldron 
 of foam and spray turned up by the screw and 
 meandering far away in our wake. I had not even a 
 notion of whereabouts it was ; but the gulls high up, 
 who could scarcely even have seen me throw it over- 
 board, caught sight of it at once, and came plunging 
 down like hawks, picking it up without a moment's 
 hesitation, though they " declined the hook with 
 thanks." 
 
 Amusing ourselves with the numerous birds and 
 fishes around the ship, we spent another roasting hot 
 day, steaming quietly along till about 1 p.m., when 
 we were off the " Twelve Apostles " a group of 
 islands standing boldly out from the sea in a long
 
 ON SINBAD'S SEA. 37 
 
 line, very evenly placed, and about a mile apart, like 
 a gigantic row of nine-pins. The first one seen in 
 coming from the northward is a mere steeple of grey 
 rock, with the waves dashing nearly over it ; but the 
 others are much larger the largest of all, and the 
 central one, seeming about a couple of miles in 
 circumference. They appeared to be clothed with 
 short scrub and grass in places, but generally were 
 very craggy and steep, in parts the cliffs rising 
 straight out of the sea to a height of two hundred 
 feet, while in others the sides sloped down, seamed 
 with what looked like veins of black lava. I doubt 
 if they are inhabited at present, but perhaps some- 
 thing might be made out of them a fish-tinning 
 manufactory could be started, for which there would 
 be plenty of material in the surrounding sea, as we 
 had been witnessing all the morning. If the sardine 
 is found as low down as this, from what I have seen 
 of the sardine fishery and preserving manufactories 
 along the south coast of France and in Corsica, I 
 should think these islands would be a very promising 
 spot in which to commence operations. We cleared 
 the lowest of the group just at sunset, and the long 
 line of ragged pinnacles, lit up with the last red light, 
 formed a striking picture till darkness hid them 
 from us. 
 
 Early next morning we ran into a regular tropical 
 downpour, though the sea was as calm as a mill-pond, 
 and the sun just rising above the Arabian table-land. 
 The Aliiiora was for a time the centre of a miniature 
 deluge; the rain, every drop as big as a bean, beat 
 upon the awning and ran off the edges in an unbroken 
 
 sheet that quite hid the sea from view. K , 
 
 whose mattress was next mine, hearing the noise, 
 sleepily muttered that he thought it was going to 
 rain, but when roused, we agreed that it was a great 
 opportunity for adding a shower bath to our usual
 
 38 ON THE INDIAN SILLS. 
 
 morning tubbing: so we went forward to the main 
 
 O O ' 
 
 hatch, where many of the gentlemen were congregated 
 in light costume, getting the lascars who were scrub- 
 bing the decks to pump upon them with the fire hose. 
 
 At 7 a.m. the weather mended, and as the mist 
 rose, we got a clear view around, and found we were 
 steaming down a wild bare coast about ten miles on 
 our port side. Long sandy beaches, strewn with 
 rocks, alternated with rugged hills and precipices all 
 the way until the two shores Africa on the right 
 and Arabia on the left closed in rapidly upon us, 
 and we seemed to be running down to the small end 
 of a wedge. In appearance there was little to choose 
 between either coast, both being equally rugged and 
 barren the result of the uncertain way in which the 
 rain falls. For nine months or more, the land will 
 be consumed with fiery heat, which reduces the soil 
 to the condition of dust or sand. Then, perhaps, a 
 small black cloud comes out of the sea, spreading as 
 it goes, till it covers the whole sky ; and then " the 
 floodgates of heaven are opened," and nine months' 
 rain descends in three or four days, furrowing the 
 earth with water-courses, and washing all the soil 
 away to the hollows or the sea ; in fact, just such a 
 rain-storm as we had witnessed that morning. 
 
 Perim was reached after breakfast the island 
 which divides the exit of the sea into two channels. 
 Either passage is practicable for large ships, but the 
 left one, being the widest, is most frequently used, 
 and we steamed through it safely, yet had to keep 
 the sounding-lead going, as very strong currents 
 sweep these narrow inlets at certain seasons, and 
 move sand-banks from place to place in an unpleasant 
 manner. The day may even come when they will 
 close up the mouths and turn the Red Sea into an 
 inland lake, as has, beyond doubt, been done at the 
 northern end by the Mediterranean. There is so
 
 ON SINE AD'S SEA. 39 
 
 little to be said about Perim itself that every one 
 who feels bound to mention it takes refuge in the 
 one stock story on the topic. The story is simply 
 this. A French commander, on his way to annex the 
 valuable little island to " la belle France," dropped in 
 at Aden, and spent a jovial night with the English 
 commander. He seems to have let out some hints of 
 his purpose, for two hours before the too-talkative 
 Frenchman got his frigate under sail the next morn- 
 ing, an English gunboat had stolen out of harbour, 
 having on board as cargo a flagstaff and a Union 
 Jack. When the Frenchman at length arrived at 
 the goal of his ambition, one can well imagine the 
 sapristis he uttered, when his eyes caught sight of 
 the British flag fluttering from the summit of the 
 highest peak in the early morning breeze. Here 
 history merges into romance, some versions of the 
 tale being that the French and English shook hands, 
 and sat down to as good a breakfast as their means 
 afforded, and others maintaining that the little episode 
 nearly plunged the two great countries into war. 
 Anyhow, as we passed in the Almora the British flag 
 was still flying, and doubtless will fly there for ever. 
 The only use of the island is as a foothold for a fort 
 to dominate the straits, which, however, we have put 
 off building. Nothing of agricultural value grows on 
 it. It is a flat, barren, muffin-shaped place, with a 
 dingy white lighthouse, backed by a dingier barrack 
 in the centre. There is no soil, I believe, but a few 
 dwarf cocoanut palms are grown in the barrack yard, 
 and a small scrubby plant, with tiny yellow flowers, 
 finds a scanty living amongst the cracks of the rocks. 
 There is not even a supply of fresh water, but all 
 wanted for drinking purposes has to be condensed 
 from the sea- water. On the whole, I am glad I don't 
 live at Perim. 
 
 As we left the island behind us, we emerged into
 
 40 ON THE INDIAN SILLS. 
 
 the Sea of Sinbad, changing our course from nearly 
 due southward to a few points north of due east as 
 we bore up for Aden, and meeting a strong breeze, 
 which we had not felt inside, but which threw up a 
 considerable swell in a very short time and sent some 
 of the ladies below, though most of the gentlemen 
 stayed on deck and watched the rugged Arabian 
 coast to the northward of us passed slowly by. If 
 the inside of the country were as uninviting as the 
 outside, no one would desire to see more of it. 
 
 At five o'clock the same afternoon we reached Aden, 
 and " easied " into the great land-locked bay that lies 
 inside "Steamboat Point." Immediately we were 
 seen approaching, long before we had finally dropped 
 our anchor, flights of crows and kites started from 
 the shore to inspect us, and, reaching our rigging, the 
 former birds perched and set up an uproarious cawing 
 to their friends on shore. This was my first intro- 
 duction to the Indian crow, that famous bird which 
 is to India what the sparrow is to England, but, 
 indeed, even more noticeable and conspicuous than 
 the latter. Only a little slower than the stream of 
 kites and crows came a number of tiny canoes, im- 
 pelled by Abyssinian boys, who, with a single paddle, 
 working first on one side and then on the other, 
 drove their primitive log " dug-outs " over the waves 
 to the ship, where there was soon a flock of them, all 
 shouting at the top of their voices, " I dive, sar ! I 
 dive, sar ! " till some one threw overboard two or three 
 small silver coins. As they touched the water a dozen 
 little blacks sprang eagerly after them, going down 
 like stones, and totally disregarding the sharks which 
 abound in the bay. Canoes and paddles, left to their 
 fate, bobbed about on the water, until one by one the 
 black heads came to the surface, and black hands held 
 up the coins, all of which had been safely recovered 
 from the bottom of the sea. Then, as soon as every
 
 ON SINS AD'S SEA. 41 
 
 little savage had recovered his paddle and tumbled 
 back into the canoe, the shouting began again, " Have 
 a dive, sar, have a dive ! " till we were deafened. 
 Some had lumps of coral or shells with them, which 
 they brought on deck to sell, scrambling up the ship's 
 side by a slack rope as easily as monkeys ; but they 
 asked ridiculous prices for everything in the expecta- 
 tion of being beaten down. Their heads were covered, 
 in many instances, with a hard white substance a 
 couple of inches thick, looking like china clay. For 
 some time I could not make out what this was, and 
 was more puzzled to notice that some had the usual 
 short, curly black hair, while on other heads, though 
 equally curly, it was tawny gold. Afterwards I 
 found it was owing to the lime with which they 
 plaster their hair, for an obvious purpose, once every 
 two or three months. This must be an uncomfortable 
 process, and bleaches the hair to a dirty yellow when 
 removed after a week or two. They were not at all 
 bad looking, many of the little fellows having graceful 
 forms, light-brown skins, and regular features. They 
 are all from Somali-land, or the interior of Abyssinia, 
 and come over in Red Sea trading vessels. 
 
 When one has mentioned that Aden is a burnt-out 
 cinder, with, however, a good deal of warmth still 
 left in it, and that nothing lives in the neighbour- 
 hood which can possibly avoid it, except crows and 
 mosquitoes, all is said about it that there is to say. 
 It is a sort of small edition of Gibraltar; only the 
 " key of the Mediterranean " is of a pleasant neutral 
 tint at a distance, with traces of vegetation, while 
 this is of a torrid brown, painful to look at, without a 
 single redeeming feature. How it came to be called 
 Aden, which in Arabic is " Paradise " the Eden of 
 the Bible I do not know, unless the joke was com- 
 mitted by some unfortunate resident in a fit of sar- 
 castic spleen. We went ashore, of course, in a large
 
 42 ON THE INDIAN SILLS. 
 
 party, but we took the precaution to make a good 
 dinner first, and gave the " cinder " time to cool down 
 after sunset before we started. 
 
 When the moon at length arose, we hailed " No. 1 
 boat," and, filling our purses, tumbled in and were 
 rowed ashore. What a wonderful power moonshine 
 has in softening ugliness and rounding off deformity 1 
 It is sometimes useful not to know too much. Too 
 much light spoils a great many things, Aden amongst 
 the number ; but in the uncertain, charitable rays of 
 the moon the great pile of lava, with its contorted 
 strata and tall pinnacles, looks actually imposing. 
 
 Once on shore, our first thought was the post-office, 
 which we reached only to see closed, it being then 
 rather late in the evening; but, at the suggestion of 
 the ship's doctor, who happened to be with us, we 
 made for the agent's office, and soon found ourselves 
 on an open sandy plain, with a semicircle of white 
 houses round one side, well lighted up, and the harbour 
 on the other. These houses were nearly all hotels, or 
 shops for supplying goods to the ships anchoring off 
 Steamboat Point, and mostly kept by the Parsees, 
 who devote their lives and the large amount of wit 
 Providence has given them to making money 
 " honestly if possible." At the agent's office a large 
 shop where everything, from postage stamps to ship's 
 tackle, could be purchased we stamped our letters, 
 and then adjourned to a neighbouring hotel. We spent 
 the remainder of the evening discussing " Beaconsfield 
 and Salisburys," as somebody translated B. and S., 
 while relays of Abyssinians pulled the huge punkah 
 overhead, or stood behind our chairs fanning us with 
 peacock-feather fans, in expectation of the sahib's 
 magnanimous bounty. 
 
 The punkah is worth a word. It is an invention 
 made to keep Englishmen in India as much below the 
 boiling point as may be. In the ceiling of every room
 
 ON SINJBAD'S SEA. 43 
 
 in a better-class Indian house there are strong hooks, 
 to which short ropes are fastened, supporting a long 
 thin teak board, which swings freely backwards and 
 forwards. To the lower edge of the board is fastened 
 a fringe or curtain, varying according to the tastes of 
 the owner. Generally it is a foot or eighteen inches 
 of brown holland with red braided borders, but some- 
 times the stuff is much more magnificent pale cloth 
 of gold, for instance, fringed with a deep border of 
 white and scarlet flamingo feathers. From the teak 
 board a bridle of two ropes is connected with another 
 long cord, which passes through a hole in the wall, 
 turns over a grooved wheel, and descends to the 
 verandah or some other convenient place, from which 
 it can be worked by the punkah- wallah, who sits on 
 his heels pulling the line back and forth. At first, to 
 those not accustomed to the ceaseless " flap, flap " of 
 the heavy fringe, it is apt to give them a strong incli- 
 nation to go to sleep, but after a time it becomes an 
 absolute necessity, the slow creak of the wheel mixing 
 with the hum of the night insects outside, and the 
 currents of cool air being so essential to one's comfort 
 that without them, should the punkah-wallah strike, 
 or some accident happen, the Anglo-Indian is liable 
 to a fit of temper. I pity the poor coolie who has the 
 rope-pulling to do. He gets about fourpence a day ; 
 his occupation quite prevents him from going to sleep, 
 and yet must be dreadfully somnolent work; but if 
 he should succumb, and indulge in a peaceful " forty 
 winks," he is generally rudely awakened by an empty 
 soda-water bottle being thrown at him, or the butler 
 being sent out with a stick to " oil the machinery." 
 
 Considerably after midnight, those who had taken 
 most brandy and soda-water proposed to seize some 
 donkeys that were standing on the sand below our 
 verandah, and ride in a body to the great tanks built 
 somewhere at the back of the island, or to scramble
 
 44 O.V THE INDIAN HILLS. 
 
 up to the highest peak in the neighbourhood and wait 
 for sunrise, of which we should have a splendid view. 
 But those who were not so full of Dutch courage, and 
 who had chiefly confined themselves to cheroots and 
 story-telling, were sleepy, and supported a counter 
 proposition for getting on board and going to bed ; so, 
 after some discussion, we paid the " la wing " and 
 walked down to the harbour, where we found our 
 boat, and the crew asleep in her, swathed in their 
 white bournouses. 
 
 The Almora was anchored just astern of a fine 
 French frigate, the Marseille; so, before going on 
 board, we ordered our boatmen to row slowly round 
 the latter, and getting under her gleaming port-holes, 
 we struck up the "Marseillaise," our voices rolling 
 over the still water and awakening a wonderful echo 
 from the rocks on shore. 
 
 " Aliens, enfants de la patrie, 
 Le jour de gloire est arrive, 
 Contre nous de la tyrannie, 
 L'etendard san giant est leve:" 
 
 so we sang, till the Frenchmen came upon the stern 
 of their vessel, and launched into a well-sustained 
 " God save the Queen," which they sang capitally, 
 quite " taking the starch out " of our performance ; 
 after which rapprochement cordiale we cheered them, 
 nearly swamping our boat by all standing up at once, 
 and finally got on board our ship, where we were 
 soon buried in much-needed slumber. 
 
 On the second day from Aden we were running 
 along the northern shore of the large island of Socotra, 
 which appeared to be one of a group of six or seven ; 
 all the others, however, mere rocks, while the big- 
 island itself is nearly a hundred miles long by forty 
 across in the broadest part. It seemed a most fertile 
 spot, with white cliffs along the seaboard and green 
 tracts of open country further inland.
 
 ON SINS AD'S SEA. 45 
 
 The chief trade, I believe, is in aloes, which are 
 largely used for paper-making, and it grows the 
 dragon's-blood tree, from which a medicinal gum is 
 obtained. The population is about four thousand, 
 mostly Arabs, though there are some rich Banian 
 traders located on the hills. Although the island at 
 present belongs to the Sultan of Keshin of whom 
 probably very few people have heard we have lately 
 made a treaty with him by which he promises never 
 to cede Socotra to any foreign Power, and never to 
 allow any settlement to be made upon it without the 
 consent of the British Government, which, needless to 
 say, would not be given, as the island lies right in the 
 road to India. Practically, that treaty and the small 
 annual subsidy we pay to the Sultan places the island 
 in our hands. 
 
 Then we lost the protection of Socotra cliffs and 
 the far-away Cape Guardafui, and got out into the 
 open sea, where we soon found ourselves in for a 
 "capful of wind," as sailors pleasantly call a good 
 gale. It blew hard and harder every hour, till it 
 scarcely seemed weather could be any worse. The 
 ship heeled over and raced through the water, with 
 huge curling waves chasing her on either side, every 
 now and then sending a blinding shower of spray 
 sweeping across the bows, or landing a few tons of 
 water on the deck, where it careered about in an 
 unruly flood, washing armchairs, cushions, novels, and 
 everything movable, down into the lee-scuppers. 
 Above all rose the creaking of the yards, the whist- 
 ling of the wind amongst the cordage, varied by the 
 occasional breaking of china, the quacking of the 
 ducks, and mournful remonstrances of the inmates 
 of the various pens and cages forward as they lurched 
 about from side to side. 
 
 Very few remained on deck for the first day or two, 
 but I thoroughly enjoyed the blow. It certainly was
 
 46 ON THE INDIAN HILLS. 
 
 very rough rougher than I have ever seen the sea, 
 even in the German Ocean or the Mediterranean 
 under a tearing mistral. The big green waves came 
 on board of us every five minutes, setting everything 
 floating about the deck, and driving all hands from 
 cover to cover like rabbits across the open. About 
 mid-day, when the wind was end on, and we were 
 plunging heavily through the sea, our fore square-sail 
 gave way to an extra strong puff of wind. One 
 moment the great sheet of white canvas was bellied 
 out without a wrinkle in it, straining the ropes and 
 making the spars creak, and the next we heard a 
 sound like blasting in a stone quarry, and, looking 
 up, saw the best part of the sail flying away down the 
 wind like a lady's handkerchief, while all that remained 
 was a collection of streaming ribbons that fluttered 
 and lashed about in the gale. 
 
 This sort of thing went on for a couple of days, and 
 then ended in soft breezes, which blew till we got into 
 shallower water near the Maldive Islands. The milder 
 weather brought the ladies out of their cabins one 
 after the other looking, alas ! as if care or something 
 else had been feeding on their " damask cheeks," but 
 they picked up rapidly when they had breathed the 
 fresh air for a little while and tasted several good 
 meals. A little later we were able to point out to 
 them some faint threadlike things on the horizon 
 as palm-trees growing on the low coral reefs of the 
 " hundred thousand islands," and about noon we were 
 steaming very slowly and carefully through the most 
 southerly of the great upper group of atolls called by 
 the general name of Lacadives. 
 
 Fortunately we got the best of passing glances at 
 this interesting group, and were duly grateful, as 
 steamers often keep far out in the broad " ten 
 degrees channel " where nothing can be seen of them. 
 Every spot of these strangely created lands was
 
 ON SINE AD'S SEA. 47 
 
 covered with a dense forest of palm-trees, from which 
 the few thousand fishermen who inhabit them derive 
 a considerable revenue in cocoa-nuts, oil, toddy, and 
 fibre, all of which they convey in open boats to 
 Colombo and the ports of the Indian coast. The 
 effect of salt water at the roots of these trees is 
 curious. In one place we approached a small atoll, 
 with the usual forest of palms growing down to the 
 water's edge, but one patch, about a hundred yards 
 square, was of a dark brown colour, giving us the 
 impression the trees had been badly burnt or singed 
 just there, until we came quite close to the island, when 
 it turned out that there was a small sandspit running 
 along one part of the face, and separated from the 
 atoll by about twenty yards of water. The palms on 
 the older, and possibly deeper, soil of the latter were 
 of the ordinary glossy green ; while those on the sand- 
 bank, whose roots were probably deep under water, 
 were of a dull, sombre brown, though to all appearance 
 growing. 
 
 The flying-fish had been very numerous since we 
 left Aden, but we saw them to most advantage when 
 the sea was calm, as it was here. At other times they 
 seemed to go deep down, only coming up to the surface 
 occasionally in twos or threes. When, however, 
 the sea was a sheet of glass, and our vessel passed 
 through the water like some great marine monster, 
 the sight was most interesting and novel. The fish 
 rose in scores all round us. Leaning over the ship's 
 side, I could see far in the green depth great herds of 
 them swimming backwards and forwards, each shoal 
 under the guidance of an old and cautious leader, who 
 had doubtless had many narrow escapes from the jaws 
 of large members of his species or the ravenous 
 dolphin. They would swim this way and that now 
 diving down, till I could hardly distinguish their 
 shadowy forms, and now coming up nearer the surface
 
 48 ON THE INDIAN HILLS. 
 
 in their efforts to elude or outpace the steep black 
 sides of the monster who had invaded their dominions. 
 After a time the leader would give some sort of signal 
 a peculiar twist of his expressive fins perhaps and 
 all the shoal would turn their heads from the ship. 
 Then I could just make out a great wriggling of tails 
 as the fish shot upwards through the water with arrow- 
 like rapidity. Another second and they had reached 
 the surface, and, spreading their great side fins, their 
 impetus carried them away over the surface of the 
 waves with an easy, rapid flight. The distance which 
 some of the largest and strongest fish accomplished 
 was really astonishing ; one, a fine fellow of about a 
 pound weight, sprang out of the water just as I 
 happened to be looking at my watch, and I took the 
 opportunity of timing his flight, which was close upon 
 four minutes from rise to fall. During that time it 
 must have covered a distance of at least half a mile, 
 which seemed a very remarkable performance, seeing 
 the fish made no pretence to actual flying, keeping its 
 fins out nearly at right angles from its body the whole 
 time, and trusting to the impulse received in the 
 starting rush through the water. Frequently they 
 avoided breaking crests by rapid side turns which 
 could not have been better done by swallows on the 
 wing. As a rule, however, their flight was quite 
 straight nothing more than a long glide about a foot 
 above the surface, but ofiering a very curious sight 
 when there were several hundreds on the wing at once, 
 crossing and recrossing each other like house martins 
 over the shallows of an English brook in summer 
 time. 
 
 Since leaving Suez no one had thought of reposing 
 between decks, everybody sleeping in the open, the 
 ladies having all the " after skylight " to themselves, 
 separated from the rest of the ship by a screen of 
 canvas and Union Jacks. We used to see them flitting
 
 ON SINE AD'S SEA. 49 
 
 from their cabins below to their mattresses behind the 
 awning like shrouded ghosts, and then things would 
 settle down quietly in their dominions ; the lanterns 
 were put out, and silence held an " ancient solitary 
 reign," broken only by occasional sounds such as the 
 strange, melodious cry of the look-out men in the 
 bows and on the bridge, passing the word to " keep a 
 bright watch ahead " after every bell that rang the 
 half -hours of nautical time. Occasionally, it is true, 
 there would be a disturbance among the sheep and 
 poultry in the forward part of the ship, or a cock 
 would wake up suddenly and send a solitary crow 
 echoing over the still sea, which would rouse the 
 <lucks, who quacked out a vigorous remonstrance 
 against being disturbed, and were in their turn up- 
 braided by the whole flock of geese, who seemed to 
 use very strong language. Then, perhaps, the fair 
 sleepers on the other side of the curtain would raise 
 an alarm of " black beetles," and we heard smothered 
 shrieks and screams, and a dozen cries of " Throw it 
 overboard ! " " Kill it ! " " Stamp on it ! " " Don't 
 hurt it ! " " Call the stewardess ! " etc. Of course we 
 all jumped up, and though no one dared to go to the 
 rescue, some of us pushed brooms, mops, etc., under 
 the bottom of the curtain, while others ran to fetch 
 the stewardess or doctor, or anything else they could 
 think of in the ardent chivalry of the moment. The 
 cockroaches certainly were not nice huge, great 
 fleshy creatures, three or four times the size of their 
 English brethren, with an ample allowance of spiky 
 legs and waving antennae. They swarmed all over 
 the ship, and anything animal or vegetable left within 
 their reach became speedily tainted with their un- 
 savoury presence ; so we showed them very little 
 mercy, condemning all those we caught to a watery 
 grave. 
 
 The last day of the voyage was a charming one. 
 
 E
 
 50 ON TEE INDIAN HILLS. 
 
 We were steaming along over the strangest " ground- 
 swell " I ever encountered. The sea was beautifully 
 smooth, but as far as eye could see furrowed by long-, 
 unbroken undulations. Our course being directly at 
 right angles to these curious vibrations of some distant 
 storm, we at one time were apparently gliding down 
 the gentle slope of a watery ridge for a couple of 
 hundred yards, and then as gently steaming up the 
 corresponding rise for the same distance. It was 
 quite impossible for the worst sailor to be ill under 
 the circumstances, for there was not a speck of broken 
 water to be seen anywhere, excepting the splashes 
 made by the innumerable flying-fish leaping and 
 falling into the sea. About noon we made out Cape 
 Comorin far away to the northward two slender 
 peaks on the horizon standing out, beyond the possi- 
 bility of being mistaken for clouds, against the serene 
 blue sky. Some one who had once landed under 
 them described the southernmost point of the Indian 
 peninsula as being very wild and barren great 
 ranges of uninhabited bare mountains, towering one 
 above the other, and below a broad beach, sloping 
 into the water from the foot of the cliffs. This beach 
 is said to present a curious appearance at a little 
 distance, being banded very evenly with alternate 
 black and yellow stripes of pulverized coal, of a 
 coarse kind, and fine sand. Very beautiful and 
 many rare shells are thickly scattered about, to- 
 gether with the famous " money-cowrie " and several 
 sorts of valuable corals all, of course, more or less 
 broken up. 
 
 When my " boy " brought me the usual cup of coffee 
 and biscuits the following morning, I roused myself 
 and took a look round. We were still gliding at 
 half-speed over a bright, sunlit sea, smooth as a mill- 
 pond, without a ripple anywhere. The sun was but 
 a very little way above the horizon, not high enough
 
 ON SINBAD'S SEA. 51 
 
 to dry up the heavy dew that hung thick and spark- 
 ling all over the ship. The sky was the pleasantest 
 of pale-blues ; so smooth and soft, it seemed it could 
 never be black and frowning. But what riveted my 
 attention at once was a long line of rugged blue 
 mountains stretching along the eastern horizon, with 
 a broad belt of green lowlands at their base, reaching 
 down to the sea. That was Ceylon, the land of pearl 
 and amethyst, of spices and palms " where every 
 prospect pleases, and only man is vile." 
 
 The word that there was land in sight soon brought 
 an excited crowd with opera-glasses and telescopes 
 to look at the new scenes. We divided our attention 
 between watching for the town and harbour of 
 Colombo, which lies low down on the coast, and 
 admiring the ragged outline of Adam's Peak, which 
 we made out very clearly far inland, although it is 
 not usually seen at this time of year, the highest 
 mountains being enveloped in the white sea-mist 
 brought up by the south-west monsoon. From a 
 religious point of view it is considered the holiest of 
 holy spots, alike by Buddhists, Mohammedans, and 
 Brahmans, for on the summit there is a huge foot- 
 mark sunk deep into the hard rock, where it has been 
 "since the world was made." This is ascribed by 
 the Buddhists to the last incarnation of Buddha, the 
 princely hermit Gautama and certainly, if he lived 
 up here he had plenty of time for thinking while 
 the Brahmans say it is the footstep of the holy Siva, 
 and Mohammedans believe that Adam stood there 
 for a few hundred years when he did penance after 
 being expelled from the Garden of Eden. This holy 
 print, or Sripada, is a depression in the face of the 
 rock about five feet in length by some two and a half 
 feet broad. Originally it bore only the very smallest 
 resemblance to a human footmark, but the Buddhist 
 priests who hold charge of it have ventured to touch
 
 52 ON THE INDIAN HILLS. 
 
 it up with mortar, and, by marking the divisions of 
 the toes and giving it a heel, have brought it now 
 to a point of very passable resemblance to the left 
 footprint of a vast giant. They have also erected a 
 temple over it, to which many pilgrims go to say the 
 comprehensive prayer, and from such pilgrims, who 
 climb the great peak by a long succession of stone 
 steps and bamboo ladders, the priests derive a hand- 
 some revenue. 
 
 Those great violet mountain ranges were grand and 
 impressive, and had I gone no nearer I should have 
 come away with a very high opinion of the beauty 
 of Ceylon, but a closer acquaintance dispelled much 
 of the pleasure of the first early morning glimpse we 
 caught of the island. Sidney Smith said he had two 
 illusions left one was the Archbishop of Canterbury, 
 and the other was raspberry-and-currant tart. I 
 feel for him, as I had an illusion once, and it was 
 Ceylon. 
 
 We neared the land very rapidly, although the sea 
 was so smooth we could hardly believe we were 
 moving. About thirty miles from the shore we ran 
 through a fleet of trading vessels bound to the Maldive 
 Islands with the money they had obtained by the 
 sale of the fish, chank shells, and produce of the palm 
 tree, which form the staple products of the locality. 
 The cocoa-nut palm, in fact, is their staff of life, and 
 nearly everything about the boats we saw was made 
 from the palm-tree. The little boats looked very 
 curious and picturesque, with flapping sails waiting 
 for the morning breeze, as we made our way through 
 them, and set each rocking astern of us ; bearing 
 as we did the proportion to the half-decked cockle 
 shells that a well-fed pike does to a minnow. I would 
 certainly rather be on board of them in a calm than 
 in a monsoon storm, for they appear totally unfit for 
 ocean trading ; yet probably the wild-looking savages
 
 ON SINS AD'S SEA. 53 
 
 who form the crews understand the signs of the 
 weather, and do not put out to sea unless they are 
 sure of a fine run. 
 
 Still closer in to the land we passed through another 
 fleet this time of smaller boats all busily engaged 
 fishing with hand-line, on a long, low coral-bank that 
 runs parallel with the coast, and has about fifteen 
 fathoms of water on it, to supply the Colombo market 
 Avith its daily supply of fish. It was a curious sight 
 to note the naked brown figures of the fishermen in 
 their uncouth boats, and hear their shouting and 
 talking in unknown tongues, while they hauled up 
 the glistening prey of all sorts and shapes, or threw 
 overboard some refuse scraps of bait to the crowds of 
 hungry gulls that wheeled around with discordant 
 cries in the air overhead. None of them made room 
 for us, however, though a few hundred years ago 
 the appearance of such a ship as ours would have 
 frightened their ancestors out of their wits ; and we 
 had to pick our way very carefully through the 
 crowd, until we at last safely emerged on the inside 
 of the fleet, without having done any greater harm 
 than breaking a few lines and scaring the fish in the 
 neighbourhood of our track. Then, as we slowly 
 neared the land, the various details came forth one 
 after another, and we made out tall feathery palms 
 against the sky line, and then white houses, and 
 lastly, a long, low, sandy beach, with a crowd of ships 
 and boats of apparently every nation in the world, all 
 peaceably at anchor under the guns of the white fort, 
 from the summit of which the British flag fluttered 
 gaily in the morning breeze. 
 
 It was only with the greatest reluctance we could 
 tear ourselves away from the enchanting prospect, to 
 turn our attention to such commonplace affairs as 
 breakfast and packing up ; but they both had to be 
 transacted. However, we went below, and after
 
 54 CLV THE INDIAN HILLS. 
 
 a substantial meal and a little speech-making, in 
 which our kind and attentive captain was suitably 
 thanked by the spokesman of our party, we pro- 
 ceeded to put the finishing touches to our packing- 
 operations. 
 
 When I got on deck again, we were in the harbour 
 of Colombo, which stretched round us in a deep 
 crescent-shaped bay. To the right ran out a rocky 
 promontory surrounded by a strongly built English 
 fort, in the embrasures of which we could see, even 
 at the distance of a mile, a large number of powerful 
 cannons, ready to sweep the harbour if need be. 
 Below it a long broken grey wall marked the battle- 
 ments of the old fort built by the Portuguese when 
 they held the island, but now fallen into decay, and 
 deserted for the new and more powerful fortifications 
 we have built. Behind the clean-looking fort we 
 caught a glimpse of Government House, a fine four- 
 storied white building, almost hidden in a dense mass 
 of vivid green trees and palms, from the midst of 
 which rose a tall flagstaff with the Union Jack 
 fluttering out in the wind. Looking round the shores 
 of the bay, first there was the English town of well- 
 built white chunnam bungalows, all more than half 
 buried in deep green foliage, and beyond the European 
 town lay the native bazaar a vast collection of 
 picturesque little red-roofed huts, one storied, of course, 
 and boasting only the simplest styles of architecture, 
 reaching right down to the water's edge, where in- 
 numerable fishing-boats of strange forms and patterns 
 were moored to piles or drawn up beyond the reach 
 of the waves. These boats extended half round the 
 great crescent-shaped bay, until the towering palms 
 which were dotted about very numerously among the 
 red-roofed mud dwellings gradually grew more and 
 more numerous, and the outskirts of the town were 
 reached, where an unbroken forest of splendid cocoa-
 
 CEYLON AND ITS PEOPLE. 55 
 
 nut palms swept right round the northern arm of the 
 inlet. Above all, the brilliant sun was shining down 
 on everything, and gave that tropical appearance to 
 the view which must be seen to be understood. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 CEYLON AND ITS PEOPLE. 
 
 AMONGST the ships in harbour were two or three of 
 the crazy-looking two-masted Dutch barks, painted 
 the usual green and white; and yet, somehow or 
 other, these creep all over the world, and are to be 
 found in every port and inlet whence merchandise 
 can be shipped, no matter what the latitude or 
 longitude. Here, if their crews have read modern 
 history, they must feel a tinge of sorrow overspreading 
 their minds as they look at the fertile island which 
 was once their own. Besides these, there were vessels 
 of several other countries in the harbour ; but the 
 English ships were much the most numerous, the best 
 built, and the best ordered of all. 
 
 No sooner had our starboard anchor gone down 
 with a great rattling of chain, and the ship swung 
 into her berth, than we were stormed by the dusky 
 crews of a dozen clumsy cargo boats that came along- 
 side to take off our Colombo merchandise. Directly 
 we were at rest these boats came bumping and 
 pushing against the sides of the ship, until their 
 crews, with a prodigious amount of shouting and 
 fighting, had made them fast somehow or other, and 
 then the bright- skinned Cingalese and Tamil boat- 
 men seized the slack ropes hanging overboard, and 
 scrambled up the sides of the ship, jumping down
 
 56 ON TEE INDIAN HILLS. 
 
 from the bulwarks. They were soon in apparent 
 possession of the deck, though they happily confined 
 themselves to the forward part of the vessel ; one or 
 two who ventured down towards the saloon, where 
 the ladies were, being driven forward with but scant 
 ceremony. Physically these men left very little to be 
 desired. I had expected to find every one wearing 
 a black skin in India on the verge of starvation, on 
 account of the long famine that had existed for the 
 last two years in the Madras Presidency and to the 
 southward; and so I was pleased to see these coolies, 
 at all events, remarkably well nourished, tall, and 
 strongly made, many of them of good personal appear- 
 ance. Although not particularly clean, they seemed 
 to shave with great scrupulousness, never wearing 
 the smallest vestige of hair about their faces ; and 
 when they took off the rag which was wound round 
 their heads as a sort of apology for a turban, to mop 
 up the perspiration which soaked their brows, I 
 noticed that their scalps were also closely shaven. 
 Whether their heads were newly shorn or not, all had 
 left one long forelock just above the forehead, in 
 order that the Angel of Death may, as has been said r 
 take hold of it when he draws them up to heaven. 
 The Red Indians leave just such a lock of hair grow- 
 ing, but with them it is not a religious form, being an 
 act of courtesy to enable their enemies to " lift " their 
 scalps with greater convenience when they kill them. 
 This is very considerate ! 
 
 While the swarm of black figures was hard at work 
 unloading the fore-hold of the numerous English goods- 
 for the Colombo market, their ceaseless chatter and 
 the fearful rattling of the energetic donkey-engine 
 drove us half wild ; but we completed our packing 
 operations, tipped our special " boys " the usual ten 
 
 rupees, and then, after a hasty meal, W and 
 
 myself pushed off for the shore in a native canoe,
 
 CEYLON AND ITS PEOPLE. 57 
 
 after promising our friends to come back for one 
 more dance that evening. The boat in which we 
 embarked was a very remarkable structure, and about 
 as uncomfortable as it was strange. As for " beam," 
 it had none to speak of. It was constructed in this 
 way. The bottom was formed of the trunk of a small 
 palm-tree, hollowed out, rounded off at either end, 
 and planed smooth below. The sides of the hollow 
 were built upward with thin planks of teak bent 
 together at the ends, and laced one to another with 
 numberless strong fibres of coir, passing through small 
 holes bored opposite each other in the planks. There 
 is scarcely a nail about the boat, the cracks being- 
 caulked with coarse tow, and the lacing of fibres 
 giving an elasticity and springiness which could not 
 be obtained were the construction different, and proves 
 of the greatest service in any rough weather. The 
 top edge of the planks, about four feet out of the 
 water, is roughly finished off by a lacing of small 
 round bamboo, and the small seats are made of large 
 split bamboos. The result is a canoe that would 
 horrify an English boat-builder, but which is fully 
 equal to a spell of rough weather. Although the 
 length is eighteen or twenty feet, the beam is not 
 more than a foot and a half, and the seats are between 
 three and four inches above the water, so that the 
 rowers, and the passengers too, if they like, can let 
 their toes dangle in the waves on either side as they 
 go along a luxury which would, however, be danger- 
 ous on account of the sharks which abound along the 
 coast. But this is not all ; the most curious part of 
 the canoe being two long light bamboo poles that pass 
 across the boat, and, being lashed to the bulwarks on 
 either side, project eight or nine feet over the water, 
 having a long light log of palm or some other equally 
 buoyant wood lashed to them. The purpose of this 
 outrigger is to prevent the boat upsetting when struck
 
 58 ON THE INDIAN HILLS. 
 
 by a sea, which duty it performs so well that these 
 apparently fragile boats venture out in weather that 
 would swamp an ordinary craft, while their speed 
 over smooth water is only slightly diminished. 
 
 In a proa of this peculiar construction W and 
 
 myself, whose fortunes were linked for the present, 
 started for the shore at about 11.30 a.m., and had a 
 fearfully hot row of three-quarters of an hour against 
 a strong current and under a blazing sun. There was 
 no awning to the boat, and though I had a white 
 umbrella and a pith helmet, the latter boasted no 
 puggaree, or linen flap hanging down behind, and the 
 former was English made, so that the material, though 
 all that could be desired as protection against English 
 suns, let the fiery glare of the Indian orb through like 
 water through a sieve. I was nearly roasted, and in 
 much danger of sunstroke before we had threaded our 
 way among the ships ; but eventually we reached the 
 stone steps of the landing-jetty. 
 
 To commence with, I had a very rude awakening 
 from the ideal picture formed of Ceylon ; for no sooner 
 had we arrived within a hundred yards of the shore, 
 than we were aware of a most fearful odour, which 
 came to us on the hot land-wind that blows all day. 
 This, getting worse as we approached, nearly com- 
 pleted the work of the roasting sun, and put us hors 
 de combat. The cause was not far to seek, for on 
 reaching the jetty we found the beach was a broad 
 level of black putrid mud, on which the little waves 
 of the harbour rolled over and over a dreadful collec- 
 tion of garbage, dead cats and dogs, and the general 
 refuse of a large town. The only things that seemed 
 anything but sickened in the neighbourhood were 
 countless flocks of Indian crows, which hopped and 
 cawed while they feasted royally on various carrion 
 and acted as much-needed scavengers, though every 
 now and then a big kite would come sailing along
 
 CEYLON AND ITS PEOPLE. 59 
 
 overhead, and, spying a choice morsel in the beak of 
 some crow, would turn silently, by a motion of his 
 long wings, and fall swooping down with the velocity 
 of a crossbow bolt. Scattering the cawing black 
 scavengers right and left, he would snatch up the 
 
 " HE WEARS THE LIVERY OF SIN WITHOtT A BLUSH." 
 
 tempting piece of offal, and flap slowly away to eat 
 it in some neighbouring palm-tree or on the roof-ridge 
 of a reed-thatched native hut. This was not a very 
 promising beginning, but when once landed and on 
 the shoreward side of the beach, things grew better,
 
 60 ON TEE INDIAN SILLS. 
 
 yet I shall not easily forget my first experience of 
 the " spicy breezes " of Ceylon, though subsequently 
 I experienced many that took the keen edge off the 
 memory of the first. 
 
 At the bottom of the landing-jetty was a sandy 
 yard with warehouse sheds and custom-house offices- 
 all round. Directly opposite to where we stood opened 
 a fine gateway in the high brick wall of what had once 
 been the outer barricade of the old Portuguese fort. 
 This gateway had one tall central span for the bullock 
 carts to pass through, and two narrow archways, one 
 on either side, for the foot traffic ; and it framed in 
 very prettily a glimpse of the English town beyond, 
 with its white houses standing amongst luxuriant 
 green foliage. 
 
 But what struck me most were the white bullocks 
 used for drawing the two-wheeled country carts. 
 There were some fifty or sixty of them at the time 
 lying or standing about the yard in all positions, some 
 sleeping with half-closed eyes, some shaking their big 
 ears from side to side and ruminating over the delights 
 of inland pastures, while others stood in the shade 
 shaking their heavy dewlaps and swinging their tails. 
 All of them were sublimely idle ; and so were the few 
 native drivers who were to be seen curled up under 
 the bandies, or chewing betel-nut in shady corners. 
 Most of the bullocks were white, though some were 
 grey, but whatever the colour, all stood adorned in a 
 most extraordinary and fantastic manner by patterns 
 and diagrams burnt into their hides with hot irons. 
 One poor creature, who must have* exercised a great 
 deal of patience while his master was using him as a 
 canvas for his artistic tastes, had a remarkable plant- 
 like design starting from a point on his back, twisting 
 and turning all over his body. There ran a couple of 
 spiral tendrils down each leg, several things like full- 
 blown sunflowers on either side, and every blank space
 
 CEYLON AND ITS PEOPLE. Cl 
 
 left after the elaborate drawing had been finished was 
 filled up with stars, moons, and circles. All these 
 had been burnt into the hide long before, and pro- 
 bably gave the animal considerable suffering, to say 
 the least of it ; but it seems a very general custom, 
 and is supposed to bring luck to the animals, some of 
 which had even sentences from the holy books, and 
 incantations, burnt into their skins in Tamil and 
 Cingalese characters to keep off the evil eye and save 
 them from disease. As far as beef-making went they 
 certainly did not look much, having no points about 
 them which would secure the favour of an English 
 Battle judge ; but they are very fairly fitted for beasts 
 of draught in a land where no one ever hurries much, 
 .and where the travelling is done slowly over bad 
 roads. 
 
 The bandies or country carts were also curious 
 constructions, designed by simplicity itself, being- 
 nothing more than a narrow platform about seven 
 or eight feet long and two feet wide, mounted 
 -on two high wooden wheels of country make, and 
 consequently shaky and unreliable. To protect 
 travellers from the glare of the sun, long bamboos in 
 most cases were bent over from side to side, and 
 coarse cocoa-nut matting or matting of split rattan 
 canes placed upon this, laced down with coir fibres, 
 thus forming a rude shelter open at both ends. The 
 single pole to which the two bullocks are attached, 
 one on each side, had at the further end a curved 
 yoke, which goes just in front of the hump growing 
 above the shoulders of all these cattle, and a single 
 strap passing under the throat is the only thing that 
 keeps the self-willed animals in their places. The}" 
 thus have perfect freedom to turn round and stare 
 the driver in the face, if the} 7 like, and occasionally 
 do indulge in bad behaviour, but on the whole their 
 conduct is very good, considering the treatment they
 
 62 ON THE INDIAN HILLS. 
 
 receive from the bandy- wallah, who sits on his heels 
 at the base of the pole and holds the cord reins. 
 Whip he has none, and when the pace gets below the 
 regulation tramp of two or three miles an hour, he 
 seizes the long tails of the unfortunate bullocks and 
 proceeds to twist them round and round until the 
 pace mends. This accounts for the knotted and dis- 
 located appearance of some of the caudal appendages 
 that I noticed. 
 
 Having paid off our boatmen and deposited my 
 luggage, which had come ashore in a huge cargo boat, 
 
 W and I set off for the Fort Hotel. We were, of 
 
 course, beset by guides and beggars, many of the 
 latter boasting of fearful diseases and distortions 
 they certainly seemed to be proud of them while 
 the guides offered to show us the way anywhere and 
 everywhere. Now, this sort of thing is bad enough 
 in a cool place like Paris or Rome, but here in Ceylon, 
 with a red-hot mid-day sun glaring down on every- 
 thing and making the roads and houses glitter until 
 it was painful to look at them, and melting the 
 marrow in one's spine, it was worse than tiresome. 
 Before we had been on Indian soil twenty minutes 
 we were forced to speak roughly to the natives, and 
 administer a few gentle pokes with our white 
 umbrellas to the most audacious of the crew. 
 
 A walk of half a mile through avenues of tulip 
 trees, with fine yellow-and-red flowers growing on 
 each plant among masses of broad green leaves, and 
 under the cool colonnades of some Government offices 
 where we saw through the open windows busy 
 groups of white-clad Cingalese, with tortoise-shell 
 combs in their hair, working numerous printing- 
 machines and setting up the type for Government 
 despatches and proclamations brought us to the 
 new and only half-finished Fort Hotel, where we 
 secured two rooms, the only ones vacant just then,
 
 CEJLON AND ITS PEOPLE. 63 
 
 and sufficient for our wants, though certainly not 
 very pretentious. 
 
 This hotel will doubtless improve in course of time. 
 At present it is a bare open-roomed place, having a 
 bar on the lower story, with a row of long-armed 
 chairs standing against the wall, which are usually 
 well occupied all day and most of the night by thirsty 
 loungers, who sit smoking long Trichinopoly cheroots, 
 their legs stretched out before them, while little black 
 boys run hither and thither bringing lights for the 
 cigars, or various drinks, in which they drop great 
 lumps of ice, frozen on the broad lakes of Canada and 
 America, and brought across- the Pacific by sailing 
 ships, The sitting-room above is a huge place, with 
 bare walls and floors ; but the most curious thing is 
 that, although very well furnished, when one looks 
 up there is no flat white ceiling aloft, as in an English 
 room, but overhead are the tiles and laths of the 
 roof, with glimpses of sunlight through chinks and 
 crannies. Every now and then a squirrel may be 
 seen making a tour of discovery along the beams and 
 rafters directly over the table where one sits reading 
 or writing. The bedrooms are just as bare mere 
 horse stalls, in fact as the partition walls between 
 each room are not continued up to the roof, but a 
 space of about two feet is left in order to obtain a 
 current of air all over the house. This may be a cool 
 arrangement, but one hears a good deal of one's 
 neighbours' splashing and tubbing, while at night a 
 variety of snores, from the deepest to the mildest, 
 disturb the stillness. To European eyes an Indian 
 house seems all ventilation; privacy and security 
 are quite given up to this. There were no glazed 
 windows to my room, but in their place were green 
 blinds, which opened outwardly, and which, when 
 shut, could be regulated to admit any amount of light 
 by moving a long central stick. It did not afford
 
 64 ON THE INDIAN HILLS. 
 
 any real security against intruders ; but in India one 
 soon loses the English habit of locking and barring 
 everything at sundown. The crows find their way 
 in and make themselves quite at home. When the 
 hotel servant first showed me my bedroom, there was 
 a crow perched on the edge of the washing jug, 
 regarding his shadow in the water beneath with 
 Narcissus-like satisfaction which we rudely disturbed, 
 sending him cawing and fluttering out to the sheds 
 in the yard below. 
 
 Then, after a refreshing tub, always an important 
 institution in India, I made my way down to the 
 great cool salle a, manger, and proceeded to take tiffin 
 in solitary grandeur as the regular meal was over; 
 but the chief result of this was that I had the whole 
 set of waiters to myself. It was not an unalloyed 
 pleasure, for there were six of them in immediate 
 attendance on me, and sundry cooks and " cook boys " 
 hanging about the room, or stealing glances at the 
 latest arrival through the tatties. The punkah-wallah, 
 when he saw me enter the room, sprang up from the 
 shady corner, where he had been chewing betel-nut, 
 and, spitting the juice at the lizard running along the 
 gravel path outside, hurried to his post in the verandah 
 and commenced to swing the long punkah waving 
 over the table. The " boys " also put in an appear- 
 ance from various quarters, shaking themselves to- 
 gether and setting their turbans straight, while I sat 
 down and looked over the bill of fare. The food 
 turned out to be, on the whole, good, commencing 
 with a fish from the coral reefs outside the harbour, 
 very much like salmon in appearance and taste, 
 and then some ordinary courses, ending as usual 
 with two or three sorts of curry and " Bombay 
 ducks." 
 
 But, on the whole, I was rather glad when the 
 "butler boy" brought me a finger glass with roses
 
 CEYLON AND ITS PEOPLE. G5 
 
 floating in it, and asked with a deep salaam if the sahib 
 would smoke ; and tiffin was over, for the half-dozen 
 waiters tall Cingalese in flowing white robes, worn 
 like the old Roman toga, and tortoise-shell combs in 
 their hair who stood round the table in a circle, 
 motionless as statues, and watched every action, were 
 irksome. 
 
 The crows also became a nuisance. At first they 
 were amusing, but there came twenty in attendance 
 while I was at tiffin, and goodness only knows how 
 many more about the hotel and the compound behind 
 the house. They sat on the rafters overhead, on the 
 top of each open door, on the Venetian blinds, on the 
 doorsteps, all along the edge of the verandah, and 
 everywhere else. Once or twice, while the "boys" 
 were out of the room, an extra bold bird flew in and 
 deliberately perched on the back of a chair on the 
 side of the table opposite to where I was sitting; 
 thence, after a few caws, he pounced down on a piece 
 of bread or meat, and bore it away in triumph through 
 the window to a neighbouring roof-ridge. It was of 
 no use trying to scare them away, as I soon found. 
 At one time the cawing all round was so noisy that 
 I seized a plantain out of a dish that stood near at 
 hand, and hurled it at a black sinner flapping and 
 squawking on the top of the door; but instead of 
 moving on, he saw the action in a different light, 
 and, pouncing down on the banana, invited all his 
 friends, far and near, to join in the feast. The 
 summons spread rapidly, and crows came trooping 
 up from all parts, till there was scarcely standing room 
 for them on the neighbouring tiles, and all the air 
 was full of a horrible noise ; so that the butler and 
 his assistants had to rush forth, and shout and wave 
 and throw stones, until the uproar had somewhat 
 calmed down. Really a few of these crows ought to 
 be taken up for "disorderly conduct," or suppressed
 
 66 ON THE INDIAN HILLS. 
 
 by some means. I had read a great deal about them 
 before, but they are much blacker in every way than 
 any one who has not seen them would believe ; in 
 fact, these fowl were nearly the only thing that did 
 not disappoint me on my first day in Ceylon. 
 
 The natives, of course, attracted a great deal of 
 my attention during the first walk I took, and the 
 Cingalese especially, who form by far the larger 
 portion of the population here in Colombo at all 
 events. They are a very fine, muscular set, the thews 
 and sinews of those that wore nothing but the cum- 
 merbund or waistcloth standing out very visibly from 
 their dark limbs and forms. Most, however, were 
 clothed in a single roll of white linen, twisted round 
 the body and brought up over the left shoulder, 
 leaving the right arm and part of the chest bare. 
 Some of the richer classes wear embroidered shoes 
 with turned-up toes, and all, rich or poor, fastened 
 their hair behind with a high tortoise-shell comb, 
 which, standing high above their heads, gave them 
 a curious appearance. The hair of the men was 
 remarkably long and thick, as long as that of the 
 women, and it was a curious sight to see a fat old 
 gentleman in a white toga, with yellow shoes, sitting 
 on a stone under a shady tree and leisurely comb- 
 ing and twisting his long raven-black tresses, which 
 hung down to the place where his waist used to 
 be. I passed several thus employing their afternoon 
 leisure. 
 
 The twilight deepened into night so rapidly that 
 my first tour of exploration was brought to a close 
 almost before it had begun, and I had some difficulty 
 in finding the way back to the hotel, which, how- 
 ever, was reached just in time to dress for the table 
 d'hote. At this there sate a considerable gathering 
 of English people, very few of whom lived in the 
 hotel, but were bachelor citizens and officers who
 
 CEYLON AND ITS PEOPLE. 67 
 
 found the cooking more to their taste than such as 
 they could get at their own bungalows or messes. 
 The talk was very " shoppy " nothing but " import 
 and export duties," or kindred subjects ; so, being 
 both sleepy and tired after the day's exertions, I 
 made my escape as soon as possible, and sought the 
 seclusion of my loose-box-like bedroom ; but not to 
 sleep ! I had somehow forgotten there were such 
 things as mosquitoes, until reminded of the existence 
 of those wretched creatures very effectually that 
 evening. The first mosquito died; but there were 
 hundreds more about, and before I could slip under 
 the gauze curtains which hung round my bed, at 
 least a dozen of the small assassins had made a blood- 
 thirsty attempt on me. Even then two or three of 
 the miscreants worked their way into the curtain at 
 some unguarded hole, and persecuted me fearfully. 
 If there is any truth in Buddhism, I wonder whose 
 souls enter the bodies of these abominable little 
 wretches ? 
 
 About 1 a.m. I did drop off probably because all 
 the mosquitoes inside the curtains had supped heavily, 
 and left me for a short time while they digested. But 
 the respite was brief, for it soon began to rain, not in 
 a civilized English drizzle, but a sudden outburst of 
 water, as if all the reservoirs of heaven were broken. 
 The rain came down in torrents, and rushed off the 
 eaves on to the gravel below with a continuous clatter, 
 so that it was impossible to sleep. Even the crows 
 were disturbed, and two or three cawed wildly as 
 they flapped about in the outside darkness trying to 
 rind shelter somewhere. The rain beat so violently 
 on the tiles overhead as to wash two or three off; and 
 I listened to the water coming down in my neigh- 
 bour's room, and heard him, springing from the pro- 
 tection of his bed-curtains, call loudly for a "boy." 
 Then there was considerable excitement amongst a
 
 68 ON THE INDIAN HILLS. 
 
 family of little brovrn-striped squirrels, who perhaps- 
 had made their nest in the rain-water pipes under 
 the eaves; at all events, something seemed to have 
 gone wrong with them, as they set up a most pro- 
 digious chirrupping and squeaking, and rushed fran- 
 tically backwards and forwards about the beams 
 overhead, under the impression that the hours of the 
 world were numbered, and Buddha was already de- 
 stroying the six lower heavens, as is written in the 
 sacred books that it shall be. So the night passed,, 
 with torrents of rain broken by bright flashes of 
 lightning that gleamed through the bars of my 
 Venetian blinds every few minutes, and were followed 
 by thunder, which sounded as though volcanic 
 explosions were going off in rapid succession only a 
 few feet above the roof. But at last the welcome 
 dawn came, the rain stopped, and I must have seized 
 this opportunity to snatch a brief slumber, for when 
 I woke up the sun was shining brightly through the- 
 open windows, and my particular " boy," who had 
 thrown them wide to wake me, was busy getting my^ 
 bath-tub ready. 
 
 One thing strikes the new-comer on his very first 
 day in an Indian house, and it is the lizards. Fancy 
 the excitement there would be in a London drawing- 
 room if even a single lacertan were to be observed 
 stalking flies on the walls of the room, and yet here 
 nothing is thought of a score of reptiles so engaged. 
 Immediately it grows dusk and the palm-oil lamps 
 are lit, they come from the crannies of the roof, where 
 they have been dozing out the day, and commence a 
 diligent search for food on the broad white expanse 
 of their " happy hunting grounds." It does not seem 
 to make the smallest difference to them what their 
 position is, or whether their head or tail be uppermost 
 they lay their plans just as deeply if they are 
 topsy-turvy as in any other attitude. When they
 
 CEYLON AND ITS PEOPLE. GO 
 
 -espy a fly asleep on the horizon, they make tracks 
 for him. I saw a smart little grey lizard start after 
 -a fly perched on the wall at the farthest corner of 
 the room. The lizard at first approached his victim 
 rapidly until the intervening space was very much 
 reduced, and then he began to slacken his speed. 
 Finding he was nearing the fly from a quarter whence 
 he could be seen, he " fetched a compass " of a couple 
 of feet, and got round to the rear of his victim. Then 
 he began to approach more slowly still, and when only 
 a few inches away, he proceeded with the utmost 
 caution, placing first one paw down and then the 
 other, until he came within an inch or two of the 
 unconscious victim. There was a pause for a moment, 
 a sudden spring forward, and the fly had gone, and 
 the lizard was gulping something down his throat 
 with every appearance of satisfaction. They rarely 
 miss their aim, and, being most expert stalkers, 
 the good which a score or two must do, feeding all 
 night on the mosquitoes and flies, should be consider- 
 able. 
 
 While at Colombo I rose early one morning to walk 
 over to the Museum and Botanical Gardens, which 
 are well worth a visit. My way led me through the 
 eastern portion of the native town, and getting lost 
 for a time in a labyrinth of lanes, I saw a good deal 
 of native modes of living and habits, which were 
 occasionally more peculiar than pleasant; but the 
 bright sun overhead, and the gay colours which 
 glanced out from amongst the raggedest crowd, soft- 
 ened down the appearance of squalor and ennobled 
 even dirt. There was the usual profusion of native 
 fruits and vegetables in the bazaars, and the dry 
 goods were nearly all of English manufacture; even 
 the little native children were enjoying themselves in 
 the hot dust with empty sardine-boxes, which they 
 were towing about with string as miniature carts,
 
 70 ON TEE INDIAN HILLS. 
 
 while Peak and Frean biscuit-cases were put to a 
 multitude of domestic purposes. 
 
 Just outside the town there is a broad sheet of 
 water with a palm-covered island in the centre. It 
 cannot improve the health of the place, as it does not 
 seem particularly clean; but there it stands, and is 
 largely used by the natives for washing both them- 
 selves and the linen of the Europeans. A line of rails 
 runs round this lake, and while walking along the 
 road a curious accident happened. A dhoby, or 
 washerman (all the washing is done out here by 
 men), had been hard at work cleansing the linen of 
 some English family, and, having got through early, 
 had placed all the clean things in his basket, which 
 he had deposited on the line of railway while he 
 went away to chew betel-nut or something of the 
 kind. No sooner had the luckless man gone out of 
 sight behind some native huts, than an engine and 
 tender came along at full speed, and dashed headlong 
 into the basket, which was thrown into the air, 
 discharging its " white confusion " like a bursting 
 shell. The engine flew through the cloud of linen, 
 and the next moment rushed by me with a variety of 
 useful articles of attire streaming out in the air from 
 the funnel and various parts to which they had stuck, 
 while the remainder were torn to shreds amongst the 
 wheels underneath. 
 
 I found myself at last in the gardens of the Museum, 
 which were crowded with a variety of strange and 
 new shrubs and plants, and alive with birds and 
 butterflies. These gardens alone were amply sufficient 
 for one morning's investigation, and afforded a regular 
 " botanical debauch," as Mr. Grant Duff calls it in his 
 charming " Notes on an Indian Journey." Here were 
 growing together a vast collection of tropical plants 
 brought from all corners of the island, but the chief 
 places were given to those whose products were useful
 
 A MOUNTAIN CITY. 71 
 
 to humanity. Amongst them the cinnamon held a 
 conspicuous rank. Close by was a cluster of the 
 graceful cardamom plant, which is already affording 
 profitable employment to planters in the jungles. 
 There were cotton bushes, which grow the cotton of 
 commerce, and towering cotton trees, in which the 
 kites seem particularly fond of building their nests. 
 A little further on rose a jungle of sugar-canes, with 
 long rough leaves, and then a patch of tobacco plants 
 in full bloom, receiving great attention from numerous 
 black and red butterflies. There were bread-fruits 
 and jack-fruits, calamanders, ebony, satin, rose, sappan, 
 iron, jack, and innumerable others, but everywhere, 
 the most useful of all, the omnipresent palm. Every- 
 body appears to admire palms very much, but it 
 seems to me they are over-praised. It is all very 
 well to talk about their gracefulness, but they give 
 little shade in a land where shade is a priceless 
 luxury. Truly they are very useful commercially, 
 but they do not come within a very long way of an 
 old English oak or chestnut for beauty. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 A MOUNTAIN CITY. 
 
 ON the following morning I was awakened by* 
 
 W , who occupied the next room to mine, putting 
 
 his head and shoulders over the partition which 
 divided the rooms, and saying he had received orders 
 last night from the Colombo agents of his company 
 to proceed forthwith to the scene of his future labours, 
 somewhere about forty miles to the north-west of 
 Kandy, in the centre of the island, and was going to
 
 72 ON THE INDIAN SILLS. 
 
 start by the first train. If I wanted to see the 
 ancient capital of the island, now was my chance. 
 After a moment's consideration his proposition was 
 accepted, and a few minutes afterwards we were both 
 seated in the dewan-khana, hard at work on coffee 
 and eggs very small ones these, by the way, four or 
 five only making up the substance of one English 
 egg and then, getting through our chota hazri, we 
 started off for the railway station. 
 
 When we reached the summit of a little eminence, 
 from which a good view of the town and harbour was 
 to be obtained, we both turned at once to take a last 
 look at the Almora, but we looked in vain. There 
 lay the green-and-white Dutchmen, and the Govern- 
 ment frigate, 'and a score of other ships, but our 
 vessel's berth was empty, and nothing left of her save 
 a faint line of smoke on the southern horizon. "We 
 both felt that our last tie with England was gone, 
 and, after watching the receding smoke for a few 
 minutes, we smothered our feelings by setting off at 
 a great pace for the station again. We took second- 
 class tickets to Kandy, and got into what was labelled 
 a second-class compartment, but in point of comfort 
 it might have been a fourth or fifth class. It was 
 open right through, with the hardest of hard wooden 
 seats. We made a start about half-past seven, and at 
 first the line ran through deep groves of palm trees 
 and scattered native huts, in front of the doors of 
 which there were always a collection of little brown 
 children, dogs, and chickens, all living on terms of 
 perfect equality, and apparently both very happy and 
 very dirty. Beyond the palm groves, which only 
 fringe the seacoast, the country became more open, 
 and I saw rice growing again for the first time since 
 I was a veiy small chokra and was out in India 
 about the time of the Mutiny. 
 
 The rice is called paddy by the natives, and the
 
 A MOUNTAIN CITY. 73 
 
 English, adopting the word, call the places in which 
 it is grown paddy-swamps ; and they are real swainps. 
 There are no hedges such as make the country so 
 diverse and interesting in England, but each field is 
 separated from the adjoining field by a high mud 
 bank, broad at the base and two or three feet wide 
 at the top, which is from four to six feet above the 
 level of the surrounding land. When the young rice 
 is planted, the water is turned into the enclosure from 
 some neighbouring stream or canal, and ploughed 
 backwards and forwards by native ploughs drawn by 
 white bullocks. The result is a fearful "Slough of 
 Despond," the whole field becoming one sea of liquid 
 mud, but that is the condition which the grain likes 
 best. As we passed over the level country in the 
 train, the young plants were just shooting above the 
 soil in armies of tender green blades, and the recent 
 rains having freshened things up a great deal, there 
 seemed every prospect of a good harvest and an end 
 of the famine. In some fields the rice had been sown 
 earlier, and was a foot or more high, and here the 
 paddy-birds a very graceful species of white heron 
 seemed to be enjoying themselves along with two 
 varieties of plovers. 
 
 After some fifteen or twenty miles of these paddy- 
 swamps and scattered palm-groves, we approached 
 the foot of the great inland mountains, and began to 
 mount rapidly, the scenery and surroundings changing 
 with every mile of our way, until we had left the 
 lowlands and palm trees far below, and were climbing 
 up amongst mountain valleys and gullies clad with 
 thick forests of jack, fig, and many other trees. Every 
 now and then we crossed a foaming mountain torrent 
 by a light iron bridge, probably forged in Birmingham 
 .and brought out here piece by piece, or we rattled 
 through dark tunnels pierced through the hearts of 
 mountains too rough or too steep to be climbed.
 
 74 ON THE INDIAN HILLS. 
 
 We stopped at many stations, all of them very 
 neatly kept, with clean white-looking offices and 
 sheds, carefully cindered platforms, and generally a 
 wonderful variety of flowers and shrubs rewarding 
 attentions of the local coolies by luxuriant displays 
 of foliage and blossoms. The name of every station 
 was written up in black on a great white signboard, 
 in three or four idioms, so as to be intelligible to 
 the various races of her Britannic Majesty's subjects. 
 First came the familiar English characters, and then 
 a modified form of the classical Sanscrit, and then 
 the twisting and twining Canarese letters, every one 
 of which looks like a worm in convulsions. But,, 
 despite all these various ways of writing the name of 
 the same place, the coolies, who filled several third- 
 class compartments in another part of the train, did 
 not seem to be much benefited. Probably most of them 
 did not know a dot or letter of any of the five hundred 
 languages of the world. At any rate, they grew very 
 excited whenever we stopped at a station, and after 
 a great deal of struggling and talking they usually 
 ended by getting out with all their bundles and 
 chattels, and wandering helplessly backwards and 
 forwards until they were unceremoniously driven 
 back to the train by the guards and porters, who 
 appeared in some mysterious manner to know the 
 exact destination of each man and woman. 
 
 At every stoppage there were men and women with 
 plantains and cocoa-nuts to sell. The plantains were 
 very good, and the price of a large bunch was only 
 about a half-penny. In Covent Garden Market you 
 would have to give four or five shillings for the same 
 quantity, and then they would be nothing compared 
 to these fresh-gathered fruits. The cocoa-nuts offeree? 
 for sale were all unripe ; there seemed to be no de- 
 mand for the ripe fruit, it is, I believe, only used for 
 flavouring curries, etc., in this country. The unripe
 
 A MOUNTAIN CITY. 75 
 
 cocoa-nut, from which the coarse outside husk had 
 been peeled, was of a pale greenish colour and no 
 harder than pulp. When a coolie bought one of 
 these, the cocoa-nut man struck the top off with a 
 blow from a small bill-hook he carried in his girdle 
 for the purpose, and the coolie drank the milky con- 
 tents up with every sign of satisfaction, though 
 
 W persuaded me not to try any, as he said it 
 
 was dangerous stuff at this time of the year. 
 
 The stationmasters on nearly all Indian lines of 
 railway are either Europeans or Eurasians, and the 
 engine-drivers are all Englishmen, who are found to 
 be much more trustworthy and cool-headed, should 
 danger arise, than the natives. The engine-drivers 
 are remarkably well-to-do, much better off, in fact, 
 than many hundreds of " gentlemen clerks " in London 
 offices. On this line they only conduct two trains a 
 day, one up and one down, which leaves them a good 
 margin of time at their own disposal. I do not know 
 what their pay is exactly, but it is very considerable, 
 and they get besides the value of all the fuel saved 
 each journey from a liberal allowance made for the 
 working of the engine. Then they have an excellent 
 bungalow at either end of the line, where they can 
 live and sleep, and altogether their berth seems a very 
 comfortable one. 
 
 As I had been making some inquiries about " Sensa- 
 tion Rock," which we were then approaching, an 
 official asked if I would like to pass over it on the 
 engine, as the Prince of Wales had done. I gladly 
 accepted the offer, and at the next station we mounted 
 up on the engine, and started for the far-famed rock. 
 Probably many million people travel in trains for 
 every one that has ever ridden on an engine. It is 
 a most peculiar sensation. In a carnage you are held 
 steady by the other carriages, fore and aft, but in the 
 front of the train it is not so. The <rreat iron horse is-
 
 76 ON TEE INDIAN HILLS. 
 
 harnessed by nothing except the rear couplings, and 
 leaps and bounds along, when going rapidly in a way 
 that is decidedly startling at first. For a time I had 
 to hold on to the railing until I got what we should 
 call afloat my sea-legs. It was most exciting, while 
 as for fresh air, we flew along so rapidly it was as 
 much as one could do to breathe at all outside the 
 shelter of the engine-shield. 
 
 From the tender, where my official friend and I 
 established ourselves, there was twice as much to be 
 seen as from the inside of a carriage, and we had the 
 special advantage of knowing what we were coming 
 to, which is not the case in ordinary travelling. At 
 one point we saw a fine cobra asleep between the 
 rails, and thought we should have run over him ; but 
 he felt the vibration of the coming danger, and crawled 
 into the ditch on one side in time. However, we 
 caught him up there, and had a good look at the 
 
 snake as he turned to hiss defiance at us. K 
 
 said he once saw a man bitten by one of these reptiles 
 in the leg, and he died in three hours, in spite of all 
 that could be done for him. There is no certain cure 
 for the bite yet discovered, but perhaps the best 
 remedy is ammonia poured into the wound, either 
 pure, if the spirit is weak, or diluted with equal parts 
 of water if strong. Sucking the puncture, and tying 
 a ligature tight round the limb above it, is often useful, 
 and helps to stop the spread of the poison. 
 
 Occasionally we passed the picturesque little bamboo 
 hut of a line-watchman under the shelter of a spread- 
 ing fig tree, and the man would come out and make 
 a low salaam when he saw there were " burra sahibs " 
 on the engine. At other times we rattled through 
 long tunnels where the engine fires and the sparks 
 from the funnel lit up the jagged granite roof above 
 us, and looking back we saw the long string of 
 carriages in our wake following and turning when
 
 A MOUNTAIN CITY. 77 
 
 we turned like a huge subterranean snake. Then 
 again we were rushing through some deep cutting 
 where the bushes and creepers nearly met overhead, 
 leaving only one narrow streak of blue of all the sky, 
 and rare and curious ferns of all shapes and sizes 
 grew on the deep soil on either bank, while lizards 
 and many different species of butterflies revelled in the 
 flowers and dense undergrowth. 
 
 " Sensation Rock " is certainly a triumphant piece 
 of engineering, and makes one giddy even from the 
 safe point of view of the window of a railway carriage, 
 but it is much more interesting from the platform of 
 the engine. For some way the line has been running 
 along the forest-clad side of a mountain, but eventually 
 comes to a place where the sloping flanks are merged 
 into the perpendicular face of a towering cliff. Along 
 this the line is laid for a distance of a hundred yards 
 or so on a sort of half bridge and half embankment. 
 
 " Now," said K , as we approached the precipice 
 
 at thirty miles an hour, " if we go off the rails, it will 
 be a ' long good night ' to all of us, with no chance of 
 escape ; " and the next minute we were flying over 
 the narrow causeway, with two hundred feet of tower- 
 ing precipice above us, and below nothing but sheer 
 crag and air for something like a thousand feet. 
 Leaning over the engine rail, we gazed far down into 
 the valley below, where the green and brown paddy- 
 fields were like the squares on a chess-board, and the 
 men and oxen ploughing no bigger than the smallest 
 dots, while here and there in the centre of dark-green 
 patches of palms and bananas stood little Indian 
 villages looking like brown smudges on the wide 
 plain. Beyond, the hills rose ridge above ridge up 
 to the sky, with dense forests and bright tracts of 
 grass-land on their sides, and far away to the west- 
 ward a streak of deeper blue showed where the sea 
 lay.
 
 78 ON TEE INDIAN HILLS. 
 
 At something like a thousand feet above the level 
 of the plains we had an uninterrupted view of twenty 
 miles to the southward over as rich a tract of forest- 
 land as any in the world. What a museum of wonders 
 there must have been hidden in that expanse botanical, 
 animal, and mineral ! The wonderful armies of sylvan 
 trees especially impressed me, clothing the hillsides 
 with a covering that seemed as fine and close-fitting 
 as velvet, and yet was made up of tens of thousands 
 of forest giants, each an interesting study in itself. 
 I always admired trees, and for a great forest I feel as 
 much reverence as I do for a library. 
 
 But I was not half satisfied with gazing over the 
 wide vista of mountain and plain, when it was 
 abruptly hidden from us by the line entering another 
 cutting, and " Sensation Rock " was nothing more 
 than a memory. Even from below, probably, the cliff 
 is a striking object, and it must open the eyes of the 
 coolies ploughing in their ancestral paddy-swamps 
 to look above and see far overhead, right up in the 
 home of the kites and eagles, the iron horse of the 
 " Feringees " toiling and panting along the face of 
 the precipice where a few years ago not even the 
 mountain sheep could have found a foothold ! 
 
 A few miles further on we passed a tall stone pillar 
 
 on the right-hand side, which K pointed out as 
 
 marking the highest point of the railway, and then 
 the freer running of the engine soon told us we were 
 again on level ground. From here the scenery was 
 less rugged and grand, as we had gained the top of 
 the tableland, and were merely passing over an 
 elevated plateau, differing from the low swamps of 
 the seacoast in the drier soil and the different vegeta- 
 tion. The bamboos were still numerous in fact, 
 they grow at an elevation of 2500 feet, and our 
 present altitude was not 1200 but they were not so 
 prominent or luxuriant as below, and the rice crops
 
 A MOUNTAIN CITY. 79 
 
 had quite given place to various cereals. Here for 
 the first time I saw coffee growing in its native soil. 
 It had, however, obviously been suffering badly from 
 leaf-disease, and the bushes were mere skeletons of 
 their former selves, with meagre collections of limp 
 yellow and green leaves and a few bunches of half- 
 dried berries. 
 
 This leaf-disease long ago became a serious affair 
 in Ceylon, where it firmly established itself, and has 
 depreciated the value of a great many estates. It 
 seems to be caused by a minute white fungus, which 
 strikes its roots into the substance of the leaf from 
 the under side and throws out numerous fine white 
 thread-like fibres, which travel along the surface of 
 the epidermis until they come to the pores of which 
 the skin of every leaf is full, and here they send down 
 a root and establish a fresh centre, wherefrom other 
 fibres start out, until the whole under surface of the 
 leaf is covered. What is the immediate cause of the 
 mischief does not seem to be yet certainly known, 
 some planters maintaining that it arises from exhaus- 
 tion of the soil, others from wet seasons, bad aspects 
 of the plantation, too much manure, and many other 
 causes. The only thing about which all are agreed 
 is that it is very harmful to the trees and greatly 
 depreciates the value of the crop. 
 
 Just before reaching the terminus, W left me, 
 
 to find his way up country, bound something like 
 fifty miles away, and without knowing a word of any 
 native language. 
 
 Our journey was finished about mid-day, when the 
 train drew up in the large and clean station of Kandy, 
 where myself and hand-bag were immediately besieged 
 by a salaaming crowd of Tamils and Canarese, who 
 seemed as pleased to see me as if they had been waiting 
 and longing for this moment all the last six months. 
 Entrusting my bag to a small boy who looked thin
 
 80 ON THE INDIAN HILLS. 
 
 and in want of backshish, I told him to lead the way 
 to the Queen's Hotel, and followed him up a long- 
 dusty road under clumps of tulip trees and deep- 
 shadowed figs, until we reached a long low white 
 building at the corner of the two main thoroughfares 
 of the town, which is dignified with the name of 
 hotel. Here my belongings were deposited, and after 
 a poor tiffin, the very worst cooked and served meal 
 I had eaten since leaving England, I went for a stroll 
 down the town, and of course directed my steps first 
 of all to the far-famed temple of the " Light of Asia," 
 Prince Buddha. 
 
 From the exterior it is rather like a Chinese pagoda, 
 but has no very distinct form, on account of being 
 surrounded with other buildings priests' houses pro- 
 bably and balconies with far-reaching eaves. I 
 made my way up into one of these verandahs, and 
 spent a long time admiring the extraordinary frescoes 
 with which the walls were adorned. One would not 
 think Buddhism was a very mild or gentle religion, 
 if all one knew of it were gathered from these pictures, 
 which are calculated to give a timid person bad 
 dreams for a fortnight. They seemed to illustrate the 
 various doings or misdoings of the demons who make 
 it their special duty to torture poor sinners in the 
 "lower regions." The men were all bright red in 
 colour, and the demons sooty black. In the first 
 fresco two devils were sitting on the chest of a some- 
 what stout gentleman, and tearing out his tongue 
 with a large pair of red-hot pincers. Next came 
 more imps, roasting another gentleman over a lively 
 fire, the great white blisters on his skin and his uneasy 
 expression being admirably given. Further on, there 
 were more of the same kind, illustrating how some 
 of us are to have our skin peeled off, or our eyes 
 hooked out with sharp nails, some day; and the 
 region depicted was so horrible, I felt sincerely sorry
 
 A MOUNTAIN CITY. 81 
 
 even for the little devils who had to live in it. I also 
 penetrated a short way into the interior of the temple, 
 which was only dimly lighted by a few palm-oil 
 lamps. What was to be seen, however, was very rich 
 and impressive in the mellow light, and at one end 
 there was a sort of shrine, partly hidden by hanging 
 curtains, and lit up inside by numerous small lamps. 
 This was doubtless the abode of Buddha's tooth ; and 
 while I was standing admiring the surroundings, two 
 priests in flowing yellow garments, with bare feet 
 and closely shaven heads, came up to me and threw 
 some handfuls of white flowers over me a proceeding 
 which I did not understand; and fearful that they 
 would think I had come to be christened, or married, 
 or something of the sort, I beat a retreat. 
 
 From the gaily painted temple of Buddha my 
 wandering steps led me to a well-built and substantial 
 English church, only a hundred yards away from the 
 heathen pagoda. The size of this church and the 
 number of pews showed the English residents up here 
 to be numerous, and with the officers of the two or 
 three British regiments quartered in the barracks 
 close by they must form a pleasant little society. 
 
 The native streets of Kandy are very Oriental in 
 appearance, and much brighter in colour and gayer 
 than Colombo, where there is a great proportion of 
 Government clerks and mercantile employes among 
 the population, who affect European dress, or, if they 
 wear their native costume, which becomes them much 
 better, they confine themselves to white and black. 
 Here in the principal streets there was a dense but 
 ever-moving crowd and a tossing sea of coloured 
 turbans, amongst which blue, red, yellow, and green 
 were conspicuous, while the flowing yellow and saffron 
 robes of Buddha's priests, the showy white of the 
 Government " writers," and the many varied sarees of 
 the women, filled up the main stream, and made as 
 
 G
 
 82 ON TEE INDIAN HILLS. 
 
 bright an everyday picture as could well be seen 
 anywhere. The crowd, though thick, was very orderly, 
 and but for the children and dogs, who were per- 
 petually getting in one's way, there was no more 
 scrimmaging or jostling than on a summer's afternoon 
 in Hyde Park. To the English especially, either from 
 reverence or fear, the natives were very deferential. 
 For instance, I stopped to make a purchase at the 
 counter of a worker in sandalwood, around which a 
 group of well-to-do natives were talking and bargain- 
 ing, and when I approached they at once discontinued 
 talking and stepped aside. In the same way, when 
 walking through the crowd in the thickest part of 
 the bazaar, I always had plenty of elbow-room, and 
 was not jostled once, the various groups dividing 
 courteously to let me pass. At one place there were 
 some little children sprawling all over the road 
 directly in my path. They were so engaged making 
 little mounds of dust and sticking feathers in them 
 that they did not notice my approach; but just as I 
 got up to them, a little girl of twelve or thirteen, in a 
 sky-blue saree clearly their guardian for the time 
 sprang up, and rushing to the group, said in a whisper, 
 which I overheard, " Look ! an Englishman ! " while 
 she seized one little brown imp, whose attire con- 
 sisted of a piece of string and two glass bangles,, 
 by the top-knot, and dragged him out of my path 
 with as much precipitation as though I had been an 
 elephant. 
 
 I passed one real elephant, a giant, a great lumbering- 
 beast, towering high above the one-storied shops on 
 either side of the street, but in spite of his vast size, 
 which nearly blocked the whole road, stepping as 
 softly and carefully along amongst the toes of the 
 crowd as a young kid. A little further on two- 
 English officers came riding along, lifted high above 
 the heads of the many-coloured throngs on their tall
 
 A MOUNTAIN CITY. 83 
 
 white chargers, and looking delightfully neat and cool 
 in their becoming white-and-gold uniform. So rode 
 the Roman legionaries amongst the wild Britons in 
 England some sixteen or seventeen hundred years 
 ago; and who shall say what changes such another 
 period may bring about in the nations of the world ? 
 The Fijian may sketch the bittern-haunted ruins of 
 Westminster Abbey, and moralize on the departed 
 grandeur of the once great British nation, and the 
 whole world may be ruled by new races. 
 
 There being no visitors at the Queen's Hotel, it 
 was dull in the evening, and I had to amuse myself 
 as best I might with an ancient newspaper. So, 
 after a couple of cheroots smoked in the verandah, 
 where a shower had made the air soft and cool, I 
 determined to "turn in," and get back to Colombo 
 as early the next morning as possible. 
 
 On the following morning, immediately after chota 
 hazri, I " made tracks " for the station, and succeeded 
 in catching the first down train for Colombo, to which 
 place the run was uneventful, and by mid-day I was 
 back in the Fort Hotel again. 
 
 It rained heavily during the afternoon, but I took 
 a walk round by the fort and beach, which lines the 
 peninsula on which it is built. There were vast 
 numbers of crows all along the edge of the water, 
 hopping and flapping about, or quarrelling over the 
 bits of garbage thrown up by the surface. They are 
 not particularly clean feeders quantity rather than 
 quality seems to be what they are set upon. They 
 eat anything, vegetable or animal, and must really 
 do a great deal of good as scavengers carrion being 
 better when fledged with black feathers than when 
 lying open and ugly on the sand. It is curious how 
 clean the birds keep themselves, in spite of their very 
 objectionable tastes. Like the Syrian doves, which 
 grovel all day in the odoriferous dust-heaps of the
 
 84 O.V THE INDIAN HILLS. 
 
 villages, and yet, when sunset comes, rise into the air 
 and take their way homewards as bright and spotless 
 as though they had done nothing but trim their 
 feathers since morning, so these crows, no matter 
 what they may have been feeding upon, are always 
 glossy and neat. Their black feathers shine in the 
 sunlight with almost as many tints of green and 
 purple as a pigeon's neck, and their keen dark eyes 
 are full of mischief and cunning. It must be to the 
 fore-mentioned changing lights of the plumage of 
 their neck that they owe their scientific name of 
 Corvus splendens ; they are certainly not splendid 
 in any other respect. And yet, though they are 
 abandoned wretches, given to all manner of wicked- 
 ness, one cannot help liking them, they are so utterly 
 indifferent to one's opinion of their proceedings; if 
 they would only be a little less noisy, they might be 
 quite estimable. 
 
 The beach was strewed with a variety of shells 
 thrown up by the late storms, most of which, however, 
 had been damaged against the rocks and boulders ; 
 but there were some new and curious specimens ; 
 amongst others three or four sorts of cowries, one of 
 which was the money cowrie, used by the natives as 
 small change. Very small change they are, as 5120 
 only equal the value of a rupee or two shillings. 
 
 The next morning, the 20th of September, I walked 
 
 over the racecourse with M , of the O. C. Bank, 
 
 to see the club house, with which I was agreeably 
 surprised. It is a very fair building for the town, 
 and is well patronized. There had been a ball the 
 night before, and consequently the place was in a 
 great mess heaps of empty soda-water and wine 
 bottles in the courtyard, showing what hot work 
 dancing had been. In the dining-room the crows 
 were having a grand feast amongst the lobster-claws 
 and chicken-bones under the table, while the squirrels
 
 A MOUNTAIN CITY. 85 
 
 were sitting on the beams overhead, and holding a 
 hot argument about the extraordinary goings on of 
 the strange beings below the previous night. Lastly, 
 upstairs in the great dancing-saloon disorder reigned 
 supreme, and the floor was littered with relics of the 
 bygone gaiety. I picked up a programme of some 
 much- dancing young lady, who had close on thirty 
 names down for the evening's work. Close by was a 
 crimson rosebud left on a chair, which I carried off, 
 though doubtless it was not meant for me, and one 
 might have made quite a collection of beads and tags 
 of lace and ribbons, had one chosen. 
 
 The club house stands by itself, overlooking a fine 
 grassy maidan, which is called the racecourse, and 
 which is well suited for one save for the troublesome 
 little land-crabs, who have pitted it far and near with 
 their burrows, thus making the ground excessively 
 dangerous for galloping. These mischievous Crustacea 
 come up from the sea close by and dig themselves 
 homes in the soft soil, bringing out the sand in real 
 armfuls, and, with a spring in the air, scattering it in 
 a wide circle away from them. So continuous are 
 their exertions, that though a staff of labourers is 
 constantly at work filling up the holes, the war still 
 goes on, and what the crabs dig in a night it takes 
 the coolies all day to replace. These crabs, like 
 Caesar's ancient Britons, are equally ready to fight or 
 fly. They possess wonderful swiftness of foot, and 
 can run faster than a man can walk, so that it is not 
 at all easy to cut them off from their burrows ; but 
 if they are circumvented, they at once throw them- 
 selves into a fighting position, and inflict severe injury 
 on any one who seizes them rashly. 
 
 The Portuguese quarter of the town is interesting ; 
 the houses are (like the people who dwell in them) 
 half native and half European. Some of the inhabi- 
 tants are pure-blooded Portuguese, the remnants of
 
 86 ON THE INDIAN HILLS. 
 
 the former owners of the island, but the majority 
 have Indian blood in their veins, and associate more 
 with their Asiatic relations than their European 
 kinsmen. Their houses are better built than those of 
 the Cingalese, and differ from them chiefly in having 
 verandahs with blinds and steps leading to the door- 
 ways. The people themselves are a good-looking set, 
 the women especially, having fair olive-coloured com- 
 plexions, good eyes, and graceful carriage. They are 
 not, unfortunately, particularly clean, the small chil- 
 dren being much dirtier than native children. The 
 chief street in this quarter is very steep, and goes by 
 the suggestive name of Dam Street, which title is 
 posted up on a very conspicuous board at the top of 
 the hill. Certainly, as one toils up the slope, with a 
 blazing sun overhead and a glaring white road under- 
 foot, one does get rather ruffled, and perhaps it is a 
 comfort to some people to have the feelings they 
 scarcely like to utter exhibited in black and white 
 when the summit is reached, and they pause to gain 
 breath and mop up the perspiration. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 UP THE COAST. 
 
 AFTER waiting more than a week at Colombo, and 
 making daily pilgrimages to the British India Office 
 to inquire " when on earth " the next steamer was 
 coming (she was much overdue), she suddenly put in 
 an appearance at the harbour mouth, and I forthwith 
 packed up my shore-going kit, paid my bills, and 
 went down to the custom-house docks to get my 
 luggage out. About mid-day, I was once more afloat
 
 UP TEE COAST. 87 
 
 on "the sea the fresh, the green, the ever free," 
 following the cargo-boat in a light outrigger paddled 
 by two sinewy natives. 
 
 The Africa, although a fine steamer, was not so 
 smart and trim as the Almora, chiefly because she 
 was merely a trading ship, and had been hard at 
 work for the last few months carrying rice to all the 
 ports of the Malabar and Coromandel coasts for the 
 famine-stricken natives inland. She had, however, a 
 good saloon, with any number of cabins and berths, 
 of which I took my choice as there was only one 
 passenger, besides myself, and he invariably slept on 
 deck ; in fact, I followed his example after one night 
 spent below, when I was driven wild with cock- 
 roaches and stifled by the heat. 
 
 We spent the whole of the blazing hot day taking 
 in cargo, principally jute and rice; and the noise of 
 the donkey-engine, the dense volumes of smoke, and 
 the close, sickly smell of the open holds, where hun- 
 dreds of tons of rice were piled up as tight as it could 
 be packed, made me long for the evening and the 
 serang's shrill whistle for the crew to get up the 
 anchor. 
 
 But though it was uncomfortable on deck, there 
 were some " men and brothers " alongside infinitely 
 more uncomfortable. These were a couple of hundred 
 coolies going back to their homes in Madura and 
 Malabar, after a year's work on the Ceylon planta- 
 tions. They came off from the shore men, women, 
 and children, with all their small belongings, bundles 
 and parcels of every shape and size piled up in two 
 cargo-boats, so tightly packed and squeezed together 
 that it seemed impossible a baby could have been 
 added to the load without turning some one out. 
 Alas for them ! there was a strong ground swell 
 rolling into the harbour, which heaved the cargo- 
 boats up and down, although the Africa sat as
 
 88 ON THE INDIAN HILLS. 
 
 steady as a rock ; and the result was that even before 
 they reached her the coolies were abjectly sick, and 
 they do not bear up well against adverse circum- 
 stances, so their sufferings were almost comical. They 
 had left the shore sitting or standing in the boat as 
 happy and trim as coolies ever can be, but when 
 they got under our bows all were lying down at the 
 bottom in one indistinguishable conglomerate of legs- 
 and arms. 
 
 The poor creatures looked more like a kettle of 
 eels than anything else, and the rowers sitting on 
 the seats above them only laughed at their miseries. 
 Their sufferings, however, were only just beginning, 
 for there was so much cargo and stealable property 
 about on deck, that the first officer would not permit 
 them to enter the ship until things had been got into 
 better order on board. So there the miserable people 
 lay, rolling and tossing about on the heavy ground 
 swell, with a burning sun overhead, roasting them and 
 adding to their miseries, while only a few feet away 
 lay the great long ship as steady as dry ground, and 
 doubtless a sort of heaven to their eyes. For three 
 long hours they rolled about in the miseries of sea- 
 sickness, from which they seemed to suffer as much 
 as though they were Christians, until at length their 
 sufferings were so intense I took pity on them. I 
 went to the captain and begged him to be good 
 enough to have them up as soon as might be, and he 
 gave at once orders for the ship's ladder to be let 
 down over the side, and the coolies proceeded to come 
 on board. But this was not as easy as it might seem. 
 
 At one moment the ground swell brought the 
 rice-boats up to within a few feet of our bulwarks, 
 and the next, sinking rapidly, took the boat right 
 down to the level of the orlop deck. The first coolie 
 who made the attempt seized hold of the ladder with 
 one hand when the boat was high, and when it sank
 
 UP THE COAST. 89 
 
 back again the next moment was left kicking in the 
 air, holding on by one hand and waving a dirty brown 
 bundle with the other. He would inevitably have 
 dropped off and been drowned or crushed, had not 
 the lascars or native sailors sprung down to his rescue, 
 and, seizing him by the top-knot and shoulders, 
 pitched him headlong on deck, where he landed, 
 sprawling like an octopus. Some of the men came 
 up well, but the women and children were a great 
 trouble, making fruitless attempts at the wrong time, 
 and when a good opportunity occurred hanging back. 
 Somehow or other they were at last all got on board. 
 The worst cases were two Arab women done up in 
 huge trousers and flowing robes, with yashmaks over 
 their faces. They were so quiet and dignified amidst 
 their sufferings that I felt for them under what, to 
 them, must have been a fearful ordeal. Their dresses 
 completely prevented them from doing anything in 
 their behalf, and they were very loth to be touched 
 by the hands of unbelieving giaours ; so there they 
 stood on the edge of the rice-boat, until the lascars 
 lost patience, and, seizing them by anything they 
 could get hold off, hoisted them on deck by main 
 force. 
 
 At sunset the crows, who had been perched in 
 lines on the rigging all day, took their departure to 
 the shore with the kites and a fleet of empty cargo- 
 boats ; and the stopping of the donkey-engine left 
 the vessel in peace while dinner was served in the 
 saloon. It was not a particularly brilliant meal ; the 
 
 captain at the head of the table, MacB on one 
 
 hand, and I on the other made up the whole company, 
 with a flock of white-robed " boys " behind our chairs 
 doing nothing but stare and listen to the stories by 
 which the captain amused us during dinner ; then, 
 when he had said good night, we betook ourselves to 
 our mattresses, and watched the bright stars over-
 
 90 ON THE INDIAN HILLS. 
 
 head and shining globes of the jellyfish under water, 
 until we sank into dreamland. 
 
 The next two or three days were remarkable for 
 nothing but their tediousness. We first ran up to 
 Tuticorin, in the Gulf of Manaar and close to Adam's 
 Bridge the ridge of sand and stones in many places 
 just "awash," which connects Ceylon with India. 
 This ridge is supposed by various signs to be rising 
 slowly. Amongst others, a couple of Dutch ships, 
 while being pursued by some Portuguese men-of-war, 
 when Ceylon was in the possession of the latter, 
 escaped by making a bold attempt to sail across the 
 bar. In this they succeeded, while the Portugal 
 ships, drawing more water, came to grief. As the 
 Dutch ships could not get across now, this certainly 
 goes some way to prove that the bank is higher than 
 it was, but if rising at all it rises very graduall}\ 
 Some day it may, perhaps, be dry land right across 
 from the mainland to the island, but either such a 
 bridge or a clear passage cut through for shipping- 
 would tell very heavily against the prosperity of 
 Colombo, which would be left outside the new lines 
 of traffic, and perhaps share the fate of Suez and 
 Alexandria after the making of the Suez Canal. 
 
 Of Tuticorin I did not see much, as, owing to the 
 shallowness of the water, we anchored some seven 
 miles from the shore, and there was not time to row 
 to land and return before nightfall. Immediately we 
 let go our anchor we noted, with the help of our 
 glasses, a fleet of flat-bottomed rice-boats putting off 
 to us, and although, owing to the distance, we did not 
 see them start, we were soon aware that the crows 
 were coming too, and before we had well swung 
 round to our anchor they arrived in a great flock, and 
 took possession of the rigging and spars. Who shall 
 say they are not enterprising and intelligent birds, 
 when they make out a ship in the offing, and fly oft'
 
 UP THE COAST. 91 
 
 seven miles to her for the chance of picking up a 
 mutton bone or the leg of a chicken ? 
 
 The natives in the heavy rice-boats took a much 
 longer time to reach us, it being a two-hours' pull 
 against the tide ; but they were a muscular lot, and 
 did not seem at all distressed when they reached the 
 sides of the Africa. After they had had a grand 
 quarrel for places, during which we were the centre 
 of a wild pandemonium of voices, and the donkey 
 engine had set to work, the rest of the day was steam, 
 uproar, and the smell of damp rice. These natives 
 are mostly Roman Catholics, and wear on their brown 
 chests little crucifixes and medals, the symbols of 
 their religion, which they occasionally take up and 
 kiss in a rather demonstrative fashion. Probably the 
 reason why the natives become converts to Roman 
 Catholicism more readily than to Protestantism is 
 that the forms and ceremonies of the former appeal 
 more to their Oriental imaginations than the simpler 
 Anglican worship, and perhaps also because the 
 Catholic missionaries, who are numerous along this 
 coast, obtain a greater hold over the natives by living 
 amongst them and studying their habits and ways 
 of life. 
 
 The dinner that evening was even more solitary 
 
 than the last, since MacB had left us during the 
 
 afternoon for Tuticorin, where he was to be famine 
 correspondent to a London daily paper. So the 
 captain and I dined in lonely state, and I had to listen 
 to a score of wild tales about his adventures in various 
 parts of the world. Amongst other things, we were 
 talking of the sand ridge in the neighbourhood 
 stretching across the gulf, and he said he believed it 
 was entirely caused by the north-east and south-west 
 monsoon, the former blowing for half the year and 
 sweeping the sand in from the Bay of Bengal, and the 
 latter driving the sand up the narrow channel from
 
 92 O.V THE INDIAN HILLS. 
 
 the Indian Ocean for the other six months. In this 
 way the silt was banked up in a narrow ridge between 
 the two seas, and the shallowness of the water off 
 Tuticorin was due to the same cause. In fact, he 
 thought both the Gulf of Manaar and Palk Strait 
 were being slowly filled up with drifting deposit, 
 the water being shallower off this harbour now than 
 it was a few years ago, to his own knowledge. Our 
 rice-loading operations being over by sunset, we 
 steamed away to the southward during the course of 
 the evening, and to my great regret passed Cape 
 Comorin about midnight, when, as it was very dark 
 and raining heavily, we could see nothing of the coast 
 line. 
 
 In the morning I woke up to find we were anchored 
 off Trevandrum on the Travancore coast, and were 
 besieged by the usual swarms of cargo-boats and 
 lightly clad natives, who had surrounded us and were 
 shouting and struggling for first place. 
 
 All that can be seen of Trevandrum from the sea 
 is a white flagstaff towering above the palms, and one 
 white house on top of a steep rock. This may have 
 been all there was of Trevandrum, but, as the name 
 is printed large and thick in the maps, I am inclined 
 to suspect there must have existed more " town " 
 behind the palms inland. However, the rain came 
 down in torrents shortly after daybreak, and hid even 
 that solitary house from my sight. 
 
 All day the donkey-engines were at their monoto- 
 nous work, hauling the fat rice-bags out of the close 
 stuffy hold, and lowering them over the side of the 
 ship, which the steam wrapped in white vapour from 
 stem to stern, and, together with the driving rain, 
 made it utterly impossible to keep dry anywhere on 
 deck. So, after putting on every available pair of 
 boots at hand, and getting them and all my clothes 
 soaked through and through, I gave up the attempt,
 
 UP TEE COAST. 93 
 
 going about barefooted like the officers for the rest of 
 the voyage. There were no ladies to mind how we 
 were got up, and simply for want of something to do, 
 I assisted the officers at tallying cargo, and even tried 
 my hand at running the engines. But it was damp 
 and uncomfortable work at best. 
 
 For two more days we rolled up the coast through 
 the fag-end of the south-west monsoon, amidst an un- 
 interrupted downpour of pelting rain, which did not 
 leave me with as much as a dry handkerchief in 
 my wardrobe. We stopped twice or even three times 
 a day at different little waterside ports to disgorge 
 the precious white grain, for lack of which the famine- 
 stricken coolies were dying by thousands inland ; but 
 there was never anything to see on shore nothing 
 but a long flat coast, with an unbroken fringe of 
 palms growing down to the water's edge, and the 
 usual musterings of boatmen, kites, and crows. 
 
 Consequently I was glad when the morning of the 
 27th of September broke fine and sunny, and the 
 captain pointed out to me, far ahead, a tiny white 
 flagstaff towering above the palms, which he said 
 was Cochin, the next port to Calicut, my destina- 
 tion. 
 
 We stayed at Cochin a few hours, and arrived 
 finally off Calicut beach early in the afternoon. 
 
 From the sea, like all other ports along this low 
 monotonous coast, there is not much to be said for 
 the town. It consists of a line of open shanties on 
 the beach, a white lighthouse, and the usual flagstaff, 
 from which the Union Jack flutters gaily. The 
 palm trees hide all the rest of the place, and fringe 
 the coast northward and southward as far as the eye 
 can reach. But inland the scene is enlivened by the 
 misty blue outlines of what a Yankee would call 
 " rising ground," and what is geographically known 
 as the Western Ghauts about the first hills I had
 
 94 ON THE INDIAN HILLS. 
 
 seen since leaving Kandy. These hills form the 
 western boundaries of the great coffee districts of 
 Coorg and Mysore, perhaps the most productive in 
 the world, and continue to characterize the coast in 
 an almost unbroken line up to Bombay. 
 
 The boatmen, who soon came off from the shore, 
 are slightly different in features and colour from 
 those we had seen hitherto, but the most striking 
 thing about them was their head-covering, which is 
 the most extraordinary structure ever seen on a human 
 head. Imagine a huge umbrella made of split bamboo 
 and neatly covered with strips of fan-palm leaves ; 
 then remove the stick, and in its place substitute a 
 cylinder, also of palm leaf, like an English silk hat 
 minus the brim ; and then place this edifice on the 
 close-shaven head of a Tamil boatman, and you will 
 understand their headgear, which serves the purpose 
 of sun-hat or umbrella equally well, but is not adapted 
 to carrying burdens in high winds. So broad are the 
 hats, that when the first cargo-boat came off to us I 
 saw nothing but the hull, twenty spoon-shaped paddles, 
 and an undulating platform of things that looked at 
 a distance like huge soup-plates turned upside down. 
 In attire, or rather lack of it, these men were the 
 same as their countrymen further down the coast, but 
 the crosses and charms which hung on each brown 
 chest in the neighbourhood of Tuticorin were not to 
 be seen here, showing that the missionaries had not 
 yet broached this part of the country, or had not 
 been so successful. 
 
 I landed in the mail-boat by special favour of 
 the postmaster-general of the district, a very pleasant 
 Englishman, who gave me a complete and exhaustive 
 account of the history of Calicut from the most 
 remote period up to the present date, and threw in 
 a supplement to his discourse about the future of 
 the town, while we were being rowed ashore sitting
 
 UP THE COAST. 95 
 
 on a sack of letters shortly to be distributed in the 
 neighbourhood. 
 
 He mentioned, I remember, that the words " calico " 
 and " Calicut " are one and the same, the former 
 being the older form and the name of this town 
 when it was a thriving and busy industrial centre 
 and the chief manufactory of calico and cotton cloths. 
 Since then it has gone down sadly in worldly pros- 
 perity, and is now nothing but a police station and 
 the residence of some European coffee and mercantile 
 agencies. That the place was once of great im- 
 portance is certain for many reasons ; amongst others, 
 there is a colony of pale-skinned Jews to the south- 
 ward of the town, who are supposed to be the direct 
 descendants of the Jews whom Solomon the Magni- 
 ficent sent to the " gorgeous East " to collect ivory 
 and peacocks for his palaces. That they came here 
 and established themselves shows the place must 
 have had a wide- spreading trade, and have been well 
 known at that period to the wandering Arabs and 
 Persians, who were probably the earliest explorers 
 that crossed any ocean in search of trade and com- 
 merce. 
 
 It is a hundred pities there is no harbour to the 
 town, as were there one it might soon become a 
 flourishing seaport again ; but, indeed, there is scarcely 
 a haven worthy of the name from Bombay in the 
 north down to Colombo in the south, and when the 
 monsoon blows in from the Arabian Sea the whole 
 western coast of India becomes dangerous. Here 
 especially, as there is not an atom of protection, the 
 trading and passenger steamers have frequently to 
 steam by with mails and passengers, and carry them 
 on until they are able to get near the shore. Wrecks 
 of native crafts are frequent here and at Cochin. 
 They anchor near the shore during a lull in the 
 monsoon, and perhaps while they are busy taking
 
 96 O.V THE INDIAN HILLS. 
 
 cargo a gale springs up ; but, being dull, heavy tubs, 
 they cannot get into the offing quick enough, and 
 drive on shore, all hands being generally lost, and 
 the beach strewn for miles with their freights of 
 cocoa-nuts or palm-oil casks. 
 
 The strand, when we reached it, was a very ani- 
 mated scene: in the background long low lines of 
 sheds for storing rice and merchandise, and a tower- 
 ing hedge of palm trees rising behind them, with the 
 tall white lighthouse overtopping even the palms ; 
 coolies were hurrying to and fro between the cargo- 
 boats and storehouses, bending under the weight of 
 great rice-sacks ; half-caste writers in white European 
 garments, with white helmets on their heads, were 
 standing at the doors, entering each bag in their 
 day-books ; native women, some gaily dressed in 
 white calicoes with green or red sarees, and some 
 not dressed at all, were running about with loads on 
 their heads nearly as heavy as those carried by the 
 men; scores of naked brown children, revelling and 
 rioting in unlimited dirt and sand, were fighting with 
 dozens of mangy dogs for bones and scraps of melon- 
 peel ; while above the busy crowd the cawing crows 
 occupied every coign of advantage, and the kites 
 swept round and in and out among the masts and 
 palm trees in easy circles, eveiy now and then coming- 
 down like meteors, and flapping away triumphantly 
 with part of a dead dog, a fish's head, or some such 
 tempting morsel. Above all the Indian sun flared 
 down on the Christians and pagans, the "just and 
 the unjust," and gave the scene that brilliant con- 
 trast of light and shadow which is seen nowhere 
 except under a tropical sun. 
 
 After depositing my light effects with the agent of 
 the British India Company, and sending off a special 
 cargo-boat with a reis and twenty muscular rowers 
 for my heavy baggage, which completely filled the
 
 UP THE COAST. 97 
 
 cargo-boat and probably made the natives think the 
 sahib had a remarkable supply of trousers and coats. 
 I placed myself under the guidance of my friend of 
 the mail-boat, and made my way to the English club 
 house, where my name was entered as an honorary 
 member, and under its hospitable roof I spent the rest 
 of the day. 
 
 This club house is a very comfortable place, and 
 much frequented by the English residents and stray 
 planters, who come down from the hills, when fever- 
 stricken, to see the doctor here, and imbibe the 
 invigorating ozone of the sea-breezes. It boasts a 
 capital reading-room, with a wide verandah, well 
 stocked with the peculiar long-armed easy-chairs of 
 the country, and opening directly on to the beach. 
 Behind is a billiard-room, and across the courtyard 
 there is a row of half a dozen comfortable bedrooms 
 under a low thatched roof, with the inevitable 
 verandah and punkah ropes hanging by every door- 
 post. Then one passes down a long passage under a 
 shady grove of palm trees, where the ripe nuts hang 
 in great clusters at the top of the tapering stems, until 
 the feeding department is reached, where I " tiffined " 
 with two or three other Englishmen, one of whom 
 subsequently turned out to be bound for the same 
 part of the jungles as myself. 
 
 With tiffin, a game of billiards, and reading the 
 latest English newspapers, I managed to get through 
 the hotter hours of the day, until the crows began to 
 fly homewards, and the little brown beings who had 
 been playing in the hot white sand likewise "made 
 tracks " for their mud huts, and there came a strong 
 odour of burning cow-dung, the only fuel here, and of 
 boiling rice. Then, waking up and stretching myself, 
 I called out for a " boy," and ordered a buggy to be 
 brought round. In this gilded pill-box I meandered 
 <lown the various village streets and into the open 
 
 H
 
 98 ON THE INDIAN HILLS. 
 
 country beyond, at a pace little above a walk. I did 
 not understand then that, if you are in a buggy and 
 want the bullocks to go faster, you have to beat the 
 driver, who will then transmit the "walloping" to 
 his "cattle." We soon pick up these things; but in 
 my innocence, on that first day, after a couple of miles 
 of dawdling, my usually serene temper was ruffled, 
 and I got out and belaboured the sleepy white oxen 
 with my big white umbrella a proceeding which 
 seemed to afford the " mild Hindoo " who was driving 
 some gentle amusement, but did not take us on a bit 
 faster. So I got inside again, and, lighting a cheroot, 
 resigned myself to fate with the reflection that we 
 must do at Rome as the Romans do. 
 
 After bumping and jolting along for several miles 
 through village streets, under spreading fig trees and 
 waving bamboo clumps, we turned suddenly to the 
 left, thereby bringing my head into violent collision 
 with the right side of the buggy, and, passing through 
 an English-looking swing gate and white pillars, 
 
 approached a large house, the residence of Mr. F , 
 
 of the firm of Messrs. H & Co., whose guest I 
 
 was to be for the time. 
 
 The next morning I was up early, and after a 
 refreshing tub went out into the compound until 
 hazri should be announced. It had been raining in 
 
 O 
 
 the night, and every leaf and spray was thickly hung 
 with rain-drops, which glittered in the early sun like 
 diamonds. The air itself was as fresh and sweet as 
 possible, such as it often is on a May morning in some 
 meadow-surrounded English country house. Here I 
 first made the acquaintance of the gay little seven- 
 sisters a small kind of finch who keep in parties of 
 that number, and play from bush to bush with a 
 continual stream of chatter, as noisy as a convent of 
 novices when the lady prioress has gone to bed. The 
 little striped squirrels were in force too, cutting back-
 
 UP THE COAST. ( 99 
 
 wards and forwards across the path with their bushy 
 tails held over their backs, or rushing up and down 
 the trunks of the fig trees, occasionally stopping, 
 often with their heads downwards, to have a gossip 
 with a neighbour from the other end of the compound. 
 From living long in security and unharmed, they 
 have grown wonderfully tame, letting me stand within 
 a couple of yards of them without manifesting the 
 smallest uneasiness, simply keeping their bright eyes 
 on me with an expression of interest rather than fear. 
 But of the kites they seemed to have a wholesome 
 dread, the appearance of one sailing above the tree- 
 tops causing a great commotion, so that in less than 
 a second every bushy tail had vanished into the 
 tangled branches that formed their home and castle. 
 They have other enemies besides the kites among 
 the worst the rat-snakes, who inhabit the roots of the 
 mango and fig trees ; for though these are commonly 
 supposed to feed on the animal from which they take 
 their name, they often vary their diet by a meal of 
 young squirrels or fledglings. One of these rat-snakes 
 crossed my path and escaped into the long grass on 
 the other side of the road. Although perfectly harm- 
 less, he was an enormous reptile, nearly six feet long, 
 glossy black and yellow in colour, his clean scale 
 armour shining wet with the dew that had fallen 
 upon him as he was making his way home from a 
 night's freebooting. 
 
 Of butterflies when the sun got warm many kinds 
 appeared, the commonest being the small saffron- 
 coloured Terias Hecate, and the handsome black-and- 
 crimson swallow-tail Papilio pammon, which seemed, 
 by the way, to be the principal victims of the graceful 
 green bee-eaters, a pair of which had their perches on 
 the woodwork of a disused well, and every now and 
 then made rapid darts at passing insects. They never 
 missed their prey, and always brought their quarry
 
 100 ON TEE INDIAN HILLS. 
 
 back to the same spot to be diswinged before being^ 
 swallowed, the ground under their watch-towers being 
 thickly strewn with gaily painted shreds of unfortunate 
 butterflies and bees. These meropes are delightful 
 birds, with slim green bodies and pointed tails, but 
 their chief charm lies in their ceaseless activity and 
 the arrow-like certainty of their flight. Down by the 
 same well where the bee-eaters had established them- 
 selves were many grey and pied wagtails, the exact 
 prototypes of their English kindred in plumage, 
 habits, and voice. These grey wagtails jerk their tail& 
 in the same way as their English relations, and their 
 notes are exactly similar to those which may be heard 
 any day by an English brook. Many of the butter- 
 flies, too, are cast in the same mould on both sides of 
 the world ; a " brimstone " which I caught in the 
 compound had the peculiar red horns with a downward 
 bend, and the same tuft of soft down at the base of 
 each lower wing, which characterize the common 
 English species. Have these creatures risen from the 
 same stock, or have successive waves of immigration, 
 each overlapping the other, diffused the same species 
 and family likenesses all over the globe ? 
 
 In the afternoon I made an expedition into the 
 town on foot, not much caring about any more buggy- 
 riding after yesterday's proceedings. The road was 
 something like a Devonshire lane, with high red banks 
 on either side, but the clumps of bamboos and 
 palms spoil the comparison. Occasionally there were 
 European bungalows standing back from the track in 
 their compounds, where little white children were to 
 be seen playing about, attended by ayahs and men- 
 servants. Every now and then a string of women 
 passed me, carrying enormous loads of grass on their 
 heads and going at a quick trot. They did not seem 
 particularly prepossessing according to our standard 
 of female comeliness, and hard work and the life they
 
 UP THE COAST. 101 
 
 iead spoil them very early. They wore only one 
 garment a long strip of cloth wound round and 
 round their waists so as to form a short petticoat 
 reaching to the knees ; of this they bring the spare 
 end up over their left shoulder, and let it hang down 
 behind. The old women do not stand on ceremony in 
 the matter of dress, and wear clothes only according 
 to their means. Generally they are very poor. 
 
 Calicut seems to have a very varied trade, and the 
 courtyard of the custom-house to which I went for my 
 baggage was piled up with merchandise of every sort 
 and variety waiting to be cleared, being meanwhile 
 protected from the merciless beaks and claws of the 
 crows and kites, with which the roof swarmed, by 
 strong netting spread from one side of the courtyard 
 to the other. It is a great pity, I repeat, no proper 
 harbour can be made here ; if there were one, it would 
 be of immense importance to the " country side," and 
 double the wealthy population of Mysore and Tra van- 
 core. Probably some day the railway which now 
 ends at Beypore will be brought on, and a break- 
 water erected to shelter the shipping when the south- 
 west monsoon blows. At present the vessels lie in 
 the open roads, and when a storm is seen to be coming 
 on they have to up anchor and make for the open 
 sea, for woe to the craft which puts off sailing too 
 long, as she speedily comes under the palm trees 
 fringing the beach ! 
 
 After enjoying a game of billards at the club and 
 reading the latest English newspapers, I started to 
 walk back, thinking the cool of the evening would be 
 refreshing and pleasant, but forgetting that darkness 
 treads close on the heels of day out here. I had 
 scarcely begun my walk when the sun went down, 
 crimson and gold, behind the palm groves. For a 
 little while there was a sort of bright reflected 
 glow on everything, and then twilight deepened into
 
 102 ON THE INDIAN SILLS. 
 
 darkness, and the owls and bats came out, till it was 
 scarcely possible to see the road two yards ahead. 
 Luckily it was a straight one, and though several 
 times the outline of tall clumps of bamboos or deep 
 shadowy fig trees made me fancy the way was lost, 
 yet I kept on, and after a time smelt the peculiar and 
 not easily forgotten scent of an Indian village at night 
 the odour of burning cow-dung and boiling ghee, 
 and then saw the twinkling lights and the white- 
 robed figures of the villagers standing out in the fire- 
 light of the hamlet that lies halfway between Calicut 
 and Plantation House. But the worst portion of the 
 walk was yet to come; and the darkness increased 
 until it was so dense that the only way of keeping 
 the road was by feeling the hard surface underfoot. 
 Several times I was brought to a sudden standstill by 
 running into the hedge or colliding with the stem of 
 a palm tree. Once, what seemed to be the glowing 
 end of a cigar came down the road towards me, and, 
 imagining there was an Englishman behind it, I 
 waited until it showed close by, and then called out, 
 " Who goes there ? " But there was no answer ; so, 
 after a moment's pause, I called out again " Stop ! " 
 and the only answer was a sepulchral " stop " from an 
 echo in the bamboo jungle at the side of the road. 
 Thinking this very uncivil, and the cigar-end being- 
 close to my face, I put my hand where the smoker's 
 shoulder ought to have been and yet felt nothing; 
 so, without more ceremony, I made a grab at the light 
 itself, which was bobbing round me in a very mysterious 
 fashion, and seized not a cigar, but a huge fire-fly, 
 much larger than the common sort, who blazed for a 
 moment, with a crimson glow of indignant surprise, 
 and then put himself out and declined to light up 
 again. My chief fear, however, was of snakes, which 
 abound on all open spaces after dark, and indeed the 
 English never go out without torch-bearers and thick
 
 ON THE EOAD TO THE JUNGLE. 103 
 
 sticks to guard themselves ; but I had neither, and, as 
 I was wearing low shoes and thin socks, it was with 
 considerable relief that at last the long dark walk was 
 
 finished and I saw the twinkling lights of F 's 
 
 hospitable mansion close in front of me. 
 
 At dinner that evening F said I had done a 
 
 thing which his twenty years' experience of India 
 would have made him extremely reluctant to imitate. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 ON THE EOAD TO THE JUNGLE. 
 
 SUNDAY morning, the 30th, found me with kit packed 
 and ready for a forward movement upon the jungle ; 
 so, after a comfortable breakfast I made my adieu to 
 
 F and his pleasant family, tipped the butler and 
 
 a great number of his satellites, who seemed fully 
 accustomed to this habit of civilized countries, and 
 eventually found myself en route for Beypore in a 
 bullock-bandy with a considerable quantity of small 
 packages, and the inevitable Indian tiffin basket, which 
 is an absolute necessity when one travels. 
 
 I have mentioned before what a bullock-cart is like, 
 so I will not repeat the description. It is, however, 
 doubly trying to ride in one when bent on catching a 
 train, and mine kept me in a fever of worry. It was 
 ten miles from the house to the terminus of the rail- 
 way, and as only one train went every day, and my 
 luggage was going by that one, while bearers and all 
 sorts of well-made arrangements awaited its arrival at 
 my destination at Palghaut, the thought of missing 
 it was distracting. And yet the placid white oxen in 
 the shafts ivould not move faster than a walk. In vain
 
 104 ON TEE INDIAN HILLS. 
 
 I got out and thumped them with my heavy umbrella, 
 and equally in vain their driver twisted their long 
 tails into knots (until one could almost hear the bones 
 cracking) and heaped unmitigated abuse upon their 
 female ancestors. Their tails proved as hard and 
 senseless as their hides, and they seemed to consider 
 that, their ancestors being long since departed to 
 celestial pastures, it mattered little what calumny was 
 heaped upon those unconscious heads. In brief, they 
 won the fight and set their own pace, as doubtless they 
 had done many times before, and I had to give in 
 with the best grace possible, devoutly hoping something 
 would happen to delay the departure of the train. 
 
 At Beypore there was a ferry-boat waiting ap- 
 parently for me for though the bows were laden 
 with a miscellaneous collection of native passengers, 
 a seat with a crimson cushion on it was reserved in 
 the stern so, stepping in, we put off at once, and, 
 rowed by the sinewy arms of half a dozen bronze- 
 skinned boatmen in the usual cool costume of broad 
 hat and small handkerchief, we got to the other side 
 in about twenty minutes. Here the boatmen first 
 pushed the second-class passengers over into about 
 two feet of water and let them get ashore how they 
 could, and then turned the boat round and put a 
 plank from the thwarts to the beach for myself. For 
 this, however, I had to pay my passage across, with 
 its attendant luxuries, costing eight annas, while the 
 coolies only paid two. 
 
 I was much surprised to find that the porter 
 nuisance is as bad here as anywhere on the European 
 continent. No sooner had I finished breakfast than 
 my luggage was seized upon by a whole host of 
 individuals, who had been squatting in the verandah 
 for the special purpose ever since my arrival. It 
 would not have seemed so bad if they had taken fail- 
 loads, but they took just as little as possible one
 
 ON TEE HO AD TO THE JUNGLE. 105 
 
 fellow pounced upon two bottles of lemonade and 
 persisted in carrying them down to the train, which 
 stood at the bottom of the single flight of stairs. I 
 rewarded most of the others, but the lemonade gentle- 
 man was the last straw which overcame my generosity, 
 and I told him to go ; but he seemed to think he had 
 earned a reward, and stood chattering and grinning 
 at the window to the amusement of the other luggage- 
 wallahs, so, after standing it for some time, I rolled 
 up a newspaper and suddenly sprang out of the 
 carriage. The fellow seemed to think his last hour 
 had come, for he " scooted," as they say in America 
 fled down the platform, crossed the sandy beach and 
 sprang into the nearest boat, and, I believe, would 
 have cut the rope and put out to sea, only that, looking 
 back, he saw that, contented with my bloodless victory, 
 I had retired to the carriage again. 
 
 There was nothing of much interest or very new 
 to be seen along the line. For some time we ran 
 through the palm groves that fringe the seashore, 
 with the huts of the fishermen scattered here and 
 there among them. Once or twice we came to a very 
 abrupt standstill, and, putting our heads out of the 
 window, perceived that the obstruction was an old 
 buffalo or cow, who was grazing leisurely between 
 the rails, and sundry billets of wood had to be hurled 
 before " Cyl " considered it advisable to move on. 
 Afterwards we turned inland, and, leaving the palms 
 behind, came to the regions of bamboos and paddy. 
 Here the fields were green in places, and, like those 
 of the neighbourhood of Colombo, simply swamps 
 enclosed by mud embankments ; in others the crops 
 were nearly ready to cut, and little black fellows 
 perched on muchans, or platforms raised high in the 
 air on four poles, kept up a continual rattle with 
 split bamboos, to frighten away the swarming flocks 
 of tiny birds that circled round and round overhead.
 
 106 ON THE INDIAN HILLS. 
 
 Small white egrets were numerous, and the air was- 
 full of kites and hawks, while the telegraph-wires 
 were the roosting-places of bright green bee-eaters. 
 Possibly there were quail and partridges among the 
 paddy, for once or twice I saw foxes slinking along 
 the sides of the embankments, doubtless searching 
 for provisions. Every village that was not large 
 enough to boast a tank had a well in the neighbour- 
 hood worked on the common Indian plan very 
 ancient, and, like most ancient things, inconvenient. 
 The bucket-rope of these wells passes over a wooden 
 wheel fixed on top, and an inclined roadway leads 
 up to the summit of the wall which surrounds each 
 well. Two oxen, generally superannuated and ex- 
 tremely " gharib," are harnessed to the rope, and when 
 they move down the incline, up come the full buckets, 
 which are emptied out into a sluice, and then the 
 unfortunate animals have to lower the buckets again 
 by laboriously backing up to the wheel. In this way, 
 first going ahead and then veering astern, they spend 
 their eventless existences. 
 
 But on the whole there was little of interest on the 
 run up the line, though an enthusiastic traveller says, 
 "The railway passes through the most glorious tropical 
 scenery and luxuriant vegetation to be found south of 
 Himalayas." But as I am not writing a guide-book, 
 and consequently am not in artistic hysterics, the 
 country must be described as flat paddy swamps, with 
 a broad muddy river to the south which, by the way, 
 rolls down considerable quantities of gold to the sea, 
 and occasional clumps of bamboos or palms, hiding 
 little villages of thatched huts with a thick popula- 
 tion, principally dogs and children. 
 
 Arriving at the large comfortable station of Pal- 
 ghaut, I found four bandies or up-country carts waiting 
 in the courtyard outside to take me and my multi- 
 tudinous belongings to " Wheeler's bungalow," where
 
 ON TEE EO AD TO TEE JUNGLE. 107 
 
 supper was to be had and an English-speaking servant 
 to be found, who would make arrangements for the 
 other stages of the journey. 
 
 Here F , whose acquaintance I had made coming 
 
 up, proved of the greatest service to me, as he was an 
 old Indian, knew the languages, and was going to 
 his estate in the jungles, only a few miles from mine, 
 so we had determined to travel together. What I 
 should have done without his help it is difficult to- 
 say, as none of the bandy- wallahs knew a word of 
 English or Hindustani, of which latter language I 
 commanded a little. Fortunate indeed is the " griffin" 
 who has his first journey up country made smooth for 
 him by the friendly help of an experienced fellow- 
 countryman ; and if such help is not to be had, the 
 next best thing is to secure the services of a native 
 servant who speaks the languages of the district to 
 which the traveller is going, and also the language of 
 his master. 
 
 Such servants are always to be found in the large 
 towns, and are not expensive luxuries, as they rarely 
 get more than Us. 15 a month, and, if of the right 
 sort, save the Englishman a world of trouble. In 
 
 F , however, I had a pleasant companion as well 
 
 as guide ; and as soon as we had seen three of the 
 bandies piled up with boxes, we climbed into the 
 fourth, and, giving the signal to start, turned our 
 backs on the station our last link with civilization, 
 and one which we knew we should not see again for 
 many a long day and so proceeded down the hot 
 road to the English quarter of Palghaut, which lies 
 three miles from the railway. 
 
 If travelling in the buggy of the Indian towns is 
 uncomfortable, the unfortunate Englishman gets even 
 more shaken up in these country bandies ; and yet, in 
 spite of the jolting, I liked them already they are 
 so delightfully primitive, and are so perfectly honest
 
 108 ON THE INDIAN HILLS. 
 
 about the entire absence of springs or ornamentation 
 of any sort. They do not pretend to be anything 
 more than they are. When you first look at them 
 you perceive a pair of big wheels supporting a muffin- 
 traylike wooden platform, over which small bamboos 
 have been arched from side to side, and bamboo 
 matting lashed to this with finely split rattan creepers. 
 In the shafts, or rather on either side of the pole, 
 stand a pair of sleepy white or red oxen, having 
 patterns burnt into their hides, and the curved yoke 
 resting against the front of the strange-looking humps 
 which grow up between their shoulder-blades. When 
 you have taken in these things at a glance, you have 
 seen all there is to be seen, and no matter how much 
 you travel in bandies afterwards, you will find out 
 nothing more about them except that what was very 
 obvious to the eye will become equally obvious to the 
 other senses. The traveller will learn that the straw 
 which covers the body of the cart is but a poor remedy 
 against lack of springs. Still, as one lies at full length 
 in the dry paddy, with the pale yellow mats overhead 
 to keep out the strong rays of the sun, the view goes 
 gliding by the open ends of the cart, and the muttered 
 exclamations of the driver perched on the pole sound 
 dreamily on the ear, till there is a certain sense of 
 comfort if one be not over tender-skinned. Then 
 again, once up country no one is restrained by the 
 conventionalities of society ; one feels, as the Russians 
 say in Transcaucasus, that " the heavens are high and 
 the Czar far off; " and if one's coat and waistcoat are 
 oppressive, it is easy and perfectly permissible to doff 
 and sit on them by way of a cushion. So, on the 
 whole, I would much rather journey in the unpre- 
 tentious bandy than endure the cramping of a buggy. 
 We lumbered through the long Indian street with 
 its usual crowd of natives, some gaily dressed in all 
 the colours to be extracted from the multitudinous
 
 ON TEE SO AD TO THE JUNGLE. 109 
 
 dyes of the country, and some perforce contented 
 with their own brown skins and a small dhotee or 
 waistcloth. One or two little children ran after the 
 cart, and, thinking it was empty, proceeded to climb 
 in behind, but shrank back very quickly when they 
 saw there were two real live white sahibs inside. I 
 was in constant fear we should kill somebody, as no 
 one moved out of the roadway when we approached ; 
 but we got through in some wonderful manner with- 
 out a mishap, and were presently winding amongst 
 the fig and banian trees of the European quarter. 
 
 " And where," I said to .F , " may the shops be 
 
 situated at which you buy whatever you want ? " 
 At which he laughed, and told me that there was only 
 one shop which made any pretence of dealing with 
 the Europeans of the town. Everything that could 
 not be got there must be sent for from Madras or 
 Bombay a week off at the least. So to this single 
 shop we made our way, and found it a curious little 
 den kept by a spectacled Hindoo, who was profuse 
 with his salaams, but kept everything except the 
 articles wanted. The main stock of the establishment 
 seemed to be wines, brandies, preserves, and tinned 
 provisions of various kinds, while the walls all round 
 were ornamented with pictures of Hindoo gods and 
 goddesses, mostly in vermilion dresses against bright 
 blue skies, alternating with engravings of English 
 gleaners and the biscuit manufactories of Messrs. 
 Peek, Frean, and Co. Having opened an account 
 with the " mild " Hindoo, who seemed by the way to 
 be very quick at figures, and ordering a supply of 
 provisions to be sent up to the jungle, we got back to 
 our bandies and proceeded to our destination for the 
 evening. After twenty minutes more of creaking and 
 crawling, we entered the compound of a pleasant little 
 white bungalow. The heavy thatch roof coming 
 nearly down to the ground and forming a wide and
 
 110 ON THE INDIAN HILLS. 
 
 shady verandah all round, was very steeply " pitched," 
 thereby showing that heavy rains are to be expected 
 here. This was "Wheeler's bungalow," where, although 
 the owner was away on the hills, I had received per- 
 mission to sleep and make myself at home. 
 
 Half a dozen coolies were soon at work loading up 
 the verandah with my baggage, and with a parting 
 injunction to them to make haste and get it done 
 
 before nightfall, F and I plunged into the house 
 
 in search of supper and the servants. The cool way 
 
 in which F made use of other people's property 
 
 considerably astonished me. After shouting ourselves 
 hoarse in vain endeavours to rouse up a " boy," we 
 proceeded to the kitchen in the rear of the compound, 
 where we captured a small chokra, with only a pair 
 of boots and a necklace by way of clothing. Him 
 
 we set to make a fire, and then F took down a 
 
 frying-pan and proceeded to grease it before putting 
 it on the stove. Seeing my look of astonishment, 
 
 F asked me if I was hungry, and on my replying 
 
 " certainly," said that in that case I had better set to 
 work and help him get some supper, as we were now 
 in a land where it does not do to rely upon providence. 
 So I threw my white coat and helmet into one corner, 
 and, rolling up my sleeves, was soon absorbed in 
 poaching eggs and getting a refractory kettle to boil. 
 When the cooking operations were nearly completed, 
 we went to the dining-room to set the table, and 
 without the slightest hesitation my friend dived into 
 every cupboard and drawer in search of the necessary 
 articles. At length we found them, together with a 
 
 few this of marmalade and preserves. These F 
 
 set me to work to open, after solemnly assuring me 
 he would be my bail if I was had up for house- 
 breaking; and eventually we sat down to a capital 
 meal, none the less palatable because it was earned 
 by our own toil. Scarcely had we spread our napkins
 
 ON THE EO AD TO THE JUNGLE. Ill 
 
 across our knees, when the heavy sound of a booted 
 footfall was heard outside, and immediately after an 
 
 Englishman entered and greeted F , by whom I 
 
 was at once introduced to the new-comer, S , 
 
 another of the half-dozen of coffee planters in the 
 Annamully jungles. The latest arrival had brought 
 a dozen of bottled beer with him, so we all sat down 
 again and proceeded to make a feast of the meal, which 
 
 S enlivened by some jungle stories and shooting 
 
 adventures. The remainder of the evening we passed 
 in the verandah, smoking long Trichinopoly cheroots 
 and sipping iced brandy-pawnee, which one of the 
 servants of the master of the bungalow, who had put 
 in an appearance only when we had finished supper, 
 concocted in a manner indicating a plentitude of 
 practice. 
 
 Late in the evening we separated to get some sleep 
 if possible, as our conveyances had been ordered for 
 daybreak, and we had a long mountain-climb before 
 
 us ; but whatever F 's fortunes may have been, 
 
 mine were very bad, and I did not obtain even the 
 theoretical " forty winks." First of all, the night was 
 fearfully hot and close, and one by one I consigned 
 every covering on the bed to the far corners of the 
 room, but without relief. Then I fancied, in an evil 
 moment, that it must be the close, heavy mosquito 
 curtains which were so oppressive, and proceeded to 
 roll them up and throw them over the bed-posts. 
 But this was a fatal manoeuvre, for scores of winged 
 creatures rushed immediately to the attack, and 
 proceeded to refresh themselves at my expense. It 
 was too late to put the curtains down, as the enemy 
 were already in possession, and I turned and tossed 
 and tasted the torments of purgatory, until patience 
 was worn out. Then, seeing that sleep was out of 
 the question, I struck a light, and after taking 
 vengeance on a dozen of mosquitoes, donned my
 
 112 ON THE INDIAN HILLS. 
 
 habiliments and went out into the garden to smoke. 
 There was no moon yet visible, but she was just rising 
 and sending a subdued silvery moon-dawn before her, 
 which, together with the gleam of a thousand beautiful 
 stars, made everything look soft and fairy-like. I am 
 a great lover of moonlight. To me it seems one of the 
 most refined and beauteous of Nature's phases, and it 
 was very pleasant wandering here in this Indian 
 garden, with the graceful palms and sombre figs, half 
 seen in the shadowy beams ; through deep thickets 
 of sweet-scented shrubs and great white-flowered 
 convolvuli, all their blossoms turned toward the 
 rising light, while the fireflies, with their small blue 
 sparks, meandered about amongst the dark foliage; 
 or to sit and meditate by a disused tank, where the 
 sacred lotus flowers had it all their own way and 
 covered the surface of the shining water with their 
 half-closed fragrant flowers and broad leaves. Then, 
 too, the air was full of strange sounds not heard 
 during the day the ceaseless chirruping of innumer- 
 able insects, giving voice to their feelings in a thousand 
 tones, from the thick thatch of the bungalow to the 
 tops of the cotton trees, and down again to the low 
 flowering bushes and long grass. Far away the 
 jackals were fighting over the bones of a newly dead 
 buffalo, and the dogs of the nearest villages were 
 barking enviously at them, apparently wishing they 
 too were at the feast. 
 
 But at length my cheroot came to an end, and 
 making my way back, I found a bandy with two 
 sleepy white oxen standing in the moonlight by the 
 verandah, lazily swinging their tufted tails to keep 
 away the night insects. By the cart a dozen coolies 
 were lying, or squatting on their heels, smoking and 
 talking in low tones. These gob up at once, and 
 salaamed when I passed. Entering the house, I was 
 nearly upset by F in his pyjamas, with a kettle
 
 ON THE BO AD TO TEE JUNGLE. 113 
 
 In one hand and a saucepan in the other. He, as 
 usual, was making himself useful, and we were soon 
 snatching a hasty chota hazri, while some of our kit 
 was being packed and stowed in the bandy in which 
 my friend was to make the next stage, I going on 
 ahead to order breakfast in a munchiel, or swing 
 cot, with ten bearers a mode of travelling which is 
 much faster than being drawn by bullocks, and 
 considered extremely aristocratic down here. The 
 munchiel is a strong blue hammock, slung beneath 
 a bamboo pole, and covered in by a broad flat palm- 
 leaf mat which swings above the support. From 
 either edge of the mat there are strings attached, 
 which the traveller holds in his hands, being able 
 consequently to tip the awning to either side, so as to 
 keep off rain or sun. When arranged with a suffi- 
 ciency of pillows and blankets, it is not at all an 
 uncomfortable mode of travelling, and one gets a 
 capital view of the scenery from it. 
 
 Our preparations being completed, we agreed to 
 walk some way, as the moon was up and the early 
 morning delightfully fresh and cool. Away we went 
 
 down the road that leads to the southward, F 
 
 with bare feet regardless of snakes, and the coolies 
 jogging along behind us. At one time we were 
 passing over paddy swamps, where the night wind 
 played upon hundreds of acres of waving rice, and the 
 moon shone down on pools and water-holes, making 
 them as bright as silver, and apparently delighting 
 the frogs, who were croaking, far and near, in hoarse 
 choruses. At another time we were plunging into 
 the black gloom of a banian grove, where it was too 
 dark to see a couple of yards ahead, and the air was 
 vibrating with the noise of myriads of insects amongst 
 the foliage and fruit. After an hour's walking we 
 passed a little roadside hut, and, the way abruptly 
 sloping down, found ourselves on the margin of a 
 
 i
 
 114 ON THE INDIAN HILLS. 
 
 broad rapid river. "Here," said F , "we stand 
 
 on British soil, but yonder black bank, with the tall 
 palms, is the native territory of Cochin whither we 
 are bound; and do you see those mountains far to 
 the southward with rugged peaks standing out against 
 the sky, and white clouds floating halfway up them ? 
 Those are the Annamullies, and above those clouds 
 and in the hollows of those peaks lie the estates 
 where we are to grow coffee for our stay-at-home 
 countrymen and the rest of the world." Of course I 
 was immensely interested at the sight of my future 
 home, and could not take my eyes off the serrated 
 range and the fleecy silver clouds, until the coolies 
 came up and it became necessary to cross the river. 
 
 To see if this were practicable we first sent a 
 man across, and on his safely reaching the other side 
 though the water once came up to his chest I 
 proceeded to get into my munchiel, which six men 
 were supporting on their shoulders. But this was- 
 not so easy as might be supposed, the blue-cloth 
 hammock going round and round in an extraordinary 
 way directly any pressure was put upon it. Eventually 
 I was in and comfortably tucked up, though as help- 
 less as a tortoise if anything should happen ; and all 
 my men five at either end of the pole went down 
 the slope and waded, waist-deep, into the shining 
 water. At one part it was so deep that, to save 
 me from a wetting, the bearers hoisted the bamboo 
 pole on to their bare, smooth skulls, and I was 
 conscious that a stumble of any one of them might 
 plunge the whole party into the river. However, we 
 reached the other side safely, and sat down to watch 
 
 the passage of F in his cart. The bandy got 
 
 along all right to nearly the middle of the stream, 
 then the bullocks became frightened or sulky, and, in 
 spite of the frantic yells of the bandy-wallah, tried 
 to turn back, a feat which would have resulted in
 
 A MOONLIGHT FORD.
 
 ON THE ROAD TO THE JUNGLE. 117 
 
 F 's getting a cold bath ; but the munchiel bearers 
 
 dashed into the stream, and, surrounding the cart and 
 oxen, eventually brought the whole thing safe to 
 shore, after which we proceeded on our journey now 
 on the " foreign soil " of Cochin. 
 
 In spite of not having had any rest the preceding 
 evening, the scene was so novel and the mode of 
 travelling so strange that I found it impossible to 
 think of sleep. The heavy bandy was soon left far 
 behind, and my bearers, going at a rapid trot, carried 
 me along in excellent style. Besides the ten men, 
 who now worked in relays, there was one old Tamil 
 headman, with a smooth brown skin, neatly shaven 
 head, and spotless white cloth wound loosely round 
 his waist. He carried a native umbrella, made of 
 palm-leaves, and at first I wondered why he held it 
 up so persistently even in the darkest and stillest 
 parts, but the truth was it would not shut, so he was 
 forced to keep it open; and as he scudded along 
 in front, with his white robes and his unclosable 
 umbrella, he led a sort of rude chorus to keep the 
 men in step and lighten their labours. At first it 
 was, " Um bay ! urn bay ! urn bay ! " continued for 
 twenty minutes, till I was beginning to wonder what 
 the next line would be, and then the old headman 
 stopped for a second, but soon began again, "Ah 
 hum ! ah hum ! ah hum ! " and after a mile or two of 
 this he went on with, " How hi ! how hi ! how hi ! " 
 The monotony very nearly sent me to sleep, but not 
 quite ; and I took note of all the features of the 
 country in order to be able to find my way down to 
 Palghaut, should I ever have occasion to travel alone. 
 
 At one time, as we were skimming rapidly through 
 a moonlit grove between two topes of jungle, we 
 rapidly approached something white lying on the 
 road. At first I supposed it must be a heap of stones, 
 but when we came up it took the shape of a man,
 
 118 ON THE INDIAN HILLS. 
 
 and I saw it was a coolie dead. The poor wretch 
 was lying across the road, with his arms wide apart, 
 his pale face and open eyes turned up to the moon, 
 and nothing to cover him but his one tattered ra^ 
 
 o o 
 
 of cloth. It was my first "famine coolie." The 
 munchiel-wallahs did not seem at all affected, never 
 varying the evenness of their jog-trot. We swept 
 right over him, and I could not note even a falter in 
 the old Tamil's song, " How hi ! how hi ! " as he took 
 the poor body in his stride. Half a mile further a 
 jackal ran close by us going, perhaps, to "bury " the 
 dead coolie ; it is probably the only sort of burial he 
 will get, for this it must be remembered is native 
 territory, and there are no sharp-eyed " collectors " 
 here to inquire into the why and wherefore of every 
 man's demise. 
 
 After this the moon went down, and the darkness 
 became " Egyptian ; " but we still sped along, and 
 presently it began to grow very chilly, and a strange 
 mysterious sort of light crept over the sky, near 
 objects growing more and more distinct as the 
 heavens in the east waxed paler and paler. The 
 monotonous song of the bearers stopped, and the 
 chirruping of the insects died away, so that for a 
 time everything was silent and still, while the sky 
 brightened and the heavy monsoon clouds showed 
 first grey and silver, and then became fringed with 
 pale saffron light. Gradually the golds and crimsons 
 of sunrise climbed up into the sky, until at last it 
 seemed all on fire from east to west, and then there 
 was a bright glow in the horizon, and the sun rose 
 splendid above the low grass hills ; whereupon at 
 once a new concert of sounds broke forth, and the 
 green paroquets burst from the shelter of the fig 
 trees, darting with glad screams through the air to 
 proclaim the coming of another day. 
 
 I must have gone to sleep for a time, for, waking
 
 ON THE ROAD TO THE JUNGLE. 119 
 
 up, I found myself apparently floating along in mid- 
 air over extensive paddy-fields, with a little village a 
 mile ahead, and beyond that low hills, rising gradually 
 tier above tier into towering mountains whose top- 
 most peaks were lost in the clouds. My coolies were, 
 in fact, taking a short cut along the high mud walls 
 which keep the irrigation streams inside the enclo- 
 sures, and are very frequently used as footpaths by 
 the natives. As these walls are five or six feet high 
 and very narrow, I could see nothing of the ground 
 from my hammock, and could not at first remember 
 what sort of conveyance mine was ; but recollections 
 of the preceding evening soon came back, and, though 
 the scenery was very beautiful, my thoughts wan- 
 dered fondly to breakfast amid fervid hopes that 
 nothing might have happened to F and the pro- 
 visions. I had not long to wait, for getting amongst 
 plots of ground cultivated with brinjals and sweet 
 potatoes, the head man came up to my side, and with 
 a salaam pointed to the village ahead, and said, " Wal- 
 lenghay, sahib." Directly afterwards we forded a 
 shallow stream only ankle-deep, and on the opposite 
 side found ourselves amongst scattered huts and 
 gardens, fenced in with light bamboo hedges. Turn- 
 ing sharp to the right, my men put on some extra 
 pace having " kept a trot for the avenue," as the 
 Irish post-boys used to say and we dashed down 
 the little native bazaar, with its open booths on 
 either side, the motley Hindoo crowd dividing and 
 staring wonderingly at us, and the dogs barking 
 and the chickens flying away in a ridiculous panic. 
 Passing a broad banian tree at the head of the 
 lane, round the stem of which a rude stone terrace 
 had been erected as a location of the village gods 
 half a dozen strange elephant- headed idols smeared 
 over with red and yellow paint, and surrounded with 
 little offerings of flowers, rice, and glass bangles
 
 120 ON THE INDIAN HILLS. 
 
 we, thirty yards further, pulled up in the clean- 
 swept courtyard of a neat little native house, much 
 used by the planters for breaking the journey between 
 Palghaut and the hills. 
 
 My five hours in the munchiel had made me both 
 stiif and hungry, and I could not help wondering at 
 the much superior " condition " of the bearers, who 
 had carried me all the way at a rapid trot, and 
 yet seemed perfectly fresh chatting with their 
 acquaintances and chewing betel-nut without the 
 least symptoms of fatigue. Having paid the old head 
 man for which purpose I called him to me, and he 
 came bowing and holding out both hands edge to 
 edge, as much as to say that the sahib's bounty was 
 so munificent that it could not be contained in one 
 hand I dismissed them, and turned my thoughts to 
 breakfast. 
 
 The neat little Hindoo lady who kept the house 
 soon understood my signs and some half-forgotten 
 Hindustani, and forthwith gave orders to a couple of 
 brown young children to capture a promising young 
 cockerel, who luckless bird that he was brought 
 this fatal notice on himself by standing on the gate- 
 post, and trying his very feeble voice at a crow in 
 answer to a neighbouring rival. The boys attempted 
 to stalk him, but he was too wide awake, and flew 
 down at once, whereupon began a tremendous chase 
 up and down and round about. The cock ran into 
 the fireplace of a disused copper, and the children 
 plunged after him. I thought his fate was sealed ; 
 but no, there was a loud cackle, and out he came 
 from under the lid and set off round the yard, with 
 his pursuers close after him. Over boxes and baskets 
 they went, kicking up the dust and frightening the 
 other fowls out of their small amount of wits. After 
 ten minutes of this hot chase the boys were done up, 
 and the widow had to come to their assistance, imme-
 
 ON THE ROAD TO THE JUXGLE. 121 
 
 diately effecting by strategy what could not be done 
 by force. Getting a large sieve, she propped it up 
 with a twig of bamboo from the hedge, and tied a 
 long piece of cocoa-nut fibre to the centre, afterwards 
 sprinkling some rice underneath. Down came the 
 hens from the coigns of vantage whither they had 
 fled during the chase, and set to work upon the grain. 
 The youthful cock was obviously aware that there 
 would soon be none left, so, keeping one bright eye 
 on the brown urchins, who had retired some distance, 
 and the other on the rice, he approached step by step. 
 I had half a mind to intercede on behalf of so brave a 
 bird, but while I watched with suspense he approached, 
 walked once or twice round, and then ventured under 
 the sieve. The string was pulled, both little savages 
 gave a howl of delight at the same moment, and 
 the betrayed victim was borne struggling into the 
 kitchen. 
 
 While the breakfast was thus tragically preparing, 
 I lit a cheroot, and took a stroll down the main and 
 only street of the little village. The inhabitants 
 seemed to know I was a stranger and bound for the 
 jungles, for many were the nods and laying together 
 of heads I saw from the corners of my eyes among 
 the shopkeepers ; indeed, I am sure I afforded an 
 endless theme of conversation to some old women 
 and children sitting under the village tree and ex- 
 pectorating bright red betel-nut juice all about them- 
 What has always struck me about native markets is 
 that almost all the stalls are devoted to food of some 
 sort. One shop will be a pulse-vendor's, where many 
 kinds of grain are exposed for sale in little wicker- 
 work baskets, and the walls and roof are hidden by 
 strings of queer- shaped nuts and bunches of chillies 
 or bananas. Another shop is devoted to dried fish, 
 which is hung up in festoons or piled on the same 
 bench on which the proprietor sits cross-legged ; and
 
 122 ON THE INDIAN HILLS. 
 
 then there will be more seed shops and more fish 
 merchants all down the bazaar. But where are the 
 butchers, the bakers, the stationers, the linendrapers, 
 and all the others which make a walk in London as 
 good as a lecture on domestic economy ? The truth 
 is probably that the natives need none of them they 
 have not got so far along the path of civilization, and 
 they have few needs beyond eating. As for furniture 
 their houses boast little but the very simplest. I 
 peeped into one or two of which the doors were open 
 as I passed, and could see nothing but a hearth 
 formed of three large stones, a miscellaneous collection 
 of fire-blackened earthen chatties of all sizes, with a 
 few mats made of the finely divided leaves of the 
 fan-palm by way of couches. But these, of course, 
 were the huts of the poorer classes ; the houses of the 
 rich natives in the English stations and towns are 
 furnished much after the fashion of European dwell- 
 ings. I certainly did expect to find both the booths 
 of jewellers and sellers of linen and cloths in profusion, 
 but neither were visible. The former, I fancy, have 
 their little forges in their back yards, and in a place 
 like this naturally do not keep much "stock," but 
 content themselves with making bracelets and bangles 
 when any one brings them the rough material in the 
 shape of rupees; while for linen and clothing the 
 inhabitants visit big weekly fairs in some part of 
 the district, or trust to hawkers who wander from 
 village to village with heavy packs. 
 
 Another thing missing was the monkeys. Hitherto 
 I had not seen a single specimen, wild or tame, and 
 yet all the books of Indian travel describe them as 
 numerous everywhere on the housetops and among 
 the trees. But though monkeys may be absent, the 
 kites and vultures are wonderfully numerous here. 
 The sky is full of them all day, for ever wheeling 
 round and round, each species seeming to keep to a
 
 ON THE HO AD TO THE JUNGLE. 123 
 
 certain stratum, the kites wheeling round the palm- 
 tops lowest of all, while far away up under the blue 
 dome the vultures and eagles are sailing round in 
 mighty circles of ten miles' radius overhead one 
 moment and the next far away, searching the jungle, 
 exploring the ravines and hollows, and then coming 
 back across rivers and plains with scarcely a move- 
 ment of the wings, ever gliding along with " supreme 
 dominion" in their aerial voyages. Descending to 
 the surface of the earth, there were many new and 
 gorgeous butterflies to interest the naturalist hand- 
 some swallowtails, with primrose-yellow and velvety 
 black wings ; great Papilio Hectors, rich- winged with 
 crimson and brown, and many others, too varied to be 
 mentioned, playing among the wayside herbage or 
 hunting each other through the broad leaves of the 
 ever-graceful bananas. A morning walk in India 
 must always seem pleasant to a Western stranger, 
 however dull an observer he may be under ordinary 
 circumstances, for its life and surroundings are so 
 new and different. He may have formed some ideas 
 of the tropics which will be doomed to disappoint- 
 ment; but, taken as a whole, he cannot fail to be 
 well satisfied. Perhaps the thing that struck me 
 most was the lack of common flowers. I expected to 
 find, on landing on Eastern soil, the whole country 
 an almost endless show of blossoms, from the tops 
 of the trees to the roots of the grass a very ex- 
 travagant idea, no doubt, but most people have some 
 such when they arrive in India ; whereas, in truth, 
 there are not so many flowers visible at this season, 
 at least as are to be seen in a summer walk in an 
 English lane. 
 
 Coming back, I passed a curious Kindergarten 
 school of small native children. Whether they were 
 at work or play, it was difficult to tell, but they 
 seemed to be enjoying themselves. There was a tall
 
 124 ON THE INDIAN HILLS. 
 
 pole erected in the centre of the enclosed yard of a 
 neat little hut, and round the staff thirty gay brown- 
 skinned Tamil boys and girls were marching, with 
 short sticks in either hand, with which they were 
 beating time to a strange chorus of two or three 
 words, repeated over and over again, in a sort of 
 chant, by an extremely ugly old coolie woman in a 
 blue saree, who appeared to be presiding over the 
 performance. It was a pretty sight to see the children 
 all absorbed in their occupation, the girls with their 
 black hair, glossy with oil, waving in the wind, and 
 the boys with their curious-looking shaven heads, as 
 smooth as an ostrich-egg, with just one long tuft 
 hanging over the forehead. In another spot was a 
 village academy where a half circle of little naked 
 scholars sate round a grey-headed schoolmaster, and 
 worked sums with sticks on boards sprinkled with 
 brick-dust. 
 
 Eventually a pair of white oxen and a bandy came 
 meandering down the village street, and I was joined 
 
 by F , who was ravenously hungry and very sore 
 
 with six hours' jolting in his waggon. So we got 
 back to our comfortable little resting-house, and fell 
 to work forthwith on some chicken curry, excellent, 
 though I was unpleasantly conscious of whence the 
 material came. Our hostess's crockery was not very 
 numerous nor perfect. There was an old teapot 
 which had lost both handle and lid in some past 
 period, and had its spout broken short off ; there were 
 a couple of much-chipped dishes, two cracked teacups, 
 and a saucer. With these, however, we managed to 
 get on very comfortably. The furniture and decora- 
 tions were about on a par with the china. There was 
 a rickety charpoy, or native bedstead, of teak wood, 
 doubtless very useful once, but not trustworthy now ; 
 a still more shaky table with treacherous legs, one 
 chair without a back, and a wine-box, which we
 
 ON TEE ROAD TO THE JUNGLE. 125 
 
 used as a stool. By way of decorations, the white- 
 washed walls were pasted over with indiscriminate 
 cuttings from English illustrated papers, mixed up 
 in the most odd manner, and not one of them 
 horizontal or exactly perpendicular natives never 
 can or will see the beauty of straight lines or parallels; 
 in fact, it takes an education to do so. Staring down 
 on us from one wall were the carved heads of most 
 grotesquely evil demons, with fierce red glass eyes, 
 and wide-open mouths, showing long rows of snake 
 fangs, while from their foreheads rose the pointed 
 horns of the small hog-deer. Altogether, they were 
 most hideous objects, but interesting, as showing the 
 native ideas of the evil spirits of the jungle. Wood- 
 carving seems to be very successfully practised in this 
 village, for, as we sat in the broad chunamed verandah 
 after breakfast, I noticed how skilfully all the heads 
 of the pillars were ornamented, each with scrollwork 
 and mythical symbols round the upper parts. The 
 framing of the windows needless to say they were 
 glassless were also carved with delicate leaves and 
 
 O 
 
 flowers, the abundant and varied timber of the neigh- 
 bourhood encouraging the art. 
 
 Then, with new munchiels, we were accompanied 
 to the outskirts of the village by some of the native 
 police ; not that there was any need of their services, 
 but they were sent as an act of courtesy to speed the 
 parting guests, and ran by the sides of our hammocks 
 until we had reached the open country when they 
 salaamed low and left us to continue our journey. 
 For some time it was extremely hot, and, despite the 
 awning overhead, my blue swing-cot turned out to 
 be uncomfortable, and liable to give cramps. I con- 
 
 lided my feelings to F as we jogged along side 
 
 by side, and, to comfort me, he narrated a story of 
 how a fat and prosperous Englishman from Madras 
 started one day to make a pilgrimage to these very
 
 126 ON THE INDIAN SILLS. 
 
 jungles to see some coffee estate in which he was 
 interested. The railway part of the journey he stood 
 well enough, but coming on from the station to the 
 traveller's bungalow at Palghaut in a bandy was 
 fearfully trying, and his disgust reached a climax 
 when he saw a munchiel for the first time, and learnt 
 that was the best means of performing the next stage. 
 At first he could not be got to make the attempt, 
 but eventually was persuaded to enter, and, once lying 
 in the hammock, he was bound to finish the stage. 
 What his sufferings were it is easy to imagine. He 
 had never appreciated up-country travelling, and by 
 the time he reached Wallenghay he had had quite 
 enough of it, giving up all thoughts of visiting the 
 coffee estate, and returning to Palghaut station the 
 same day, whence he made his way back to his com-' 
 fortable bungalow at Madras, considerably wiser and 
 thinner than when he left. I felt myself losing weight 
 rapidly, and was very glad of my experienced com- 
 panion's assurances that we should be much cooler 
 when we came to the Ghauts. So we stood it as well 
 as we could, and watched the paddy-fields with the 
 tall palms growing from the banks which divide them,, 
 and the wayside huts almost hidden in plantains and 
 creeping plants, whence little children ran out to stare 
 at our retinue as we trotted by ; until presently we 
 were aware of approaching a river, as the road began 
 to slope down, and some oxen passed us with their 
 hides still glossy and dripping from a recent bath. 
 In another minute or two our bearers were splashing 
 across a shallow stream, with overhanging trees on 
 either bank, and the bed broken up with projecting 
 slabs and pinnacles of grey rocks. Among these a 
 party of native washermen were at work. All the 
 washing seems to be done by men, although it would 
 appear a naturally feminine employment. The modus 
 operandi is the same as can be seen any day in the
 
 0^7 THE SO AD TO THE JUNGLE. 127 
 
 streams of Italy or Southern France, and consists of 
 rolling the linen up into a wet " swab," and whacking 
 it against a flat smooth stone. The more muscular 
 the washermen, the quicker the linen is done, but 
 it generally fares badly with the buttons. The style, 
 however, was doubtless first invented for native 
 garments, which rarely boast many such fastenings ; 
 but now all English clothing has to take its chance 
 with sarees and cummerbunds. 
 
 Passing these semi-amphibious washers standing 
 knee-deep in their own " tubs," we soon reached the 
 commencement of the real ghaut road, and the vegeta- 
 tion became greener and more dense. Here, too, I 
 saw more winged life than at any other point of my 
 journey. The crow-pheasants were numerous hand- 
 some birds, with black-and- chestnut bodies and long 
 pheasant-like tails, of which they seemed both con- 
 scious and proud as they strutted sedately about 
 amongst the low bushes. The ever-active mynahs 
 were hard at work searching for worms and slugs, 
 though they still kept a very keen look-out for hawks 
 sailing overhead, and their sharp alarm notes sent all 
 the small birds in the neighbourhood to cover when 
 they were sounded. The paroquets also enlivened 
 the scenery with their emerald-green bodies and long 
 pointed tails. For some reason they can never fly 
 without uttering a series of piercing shrieks, and as 
 they go in flocks of ten or twenty, the noise where 
 a party is disturbed is an experience not to be for- 
 gotten. 
 
 I was greatly impressed, as soon as the jungle was 
 really entered, at the wonderful height and size of 
 the forest trees, not so much in lateral spread as in 
 loftiness and the distance from the ground to the 
 nearest branches. There was one tree which was 
 especially noticeable when we had mounted well 
 above the plain; its trunk was smooth-barked and
 
 128 CLV THE INDIAN HILLS. 
 
 grey in colour, but as I ran my eyes up the mighty 
 stems, I was astonished at their height. The first 
 branches must have been from one hundred to one 
 hundred and fifty feet above the road on which we 
 travelled, and the head of the trees rose quite another 
 fifty feet ; in fact, the tree-tops became confused 
 masses of green leaves, cloud-like and indefinite, and 
 small birds amongst the highest branches were scarcely 
 definable dots. The mightiest giants that adorn the 
 parks and woodlands of England would seem but 
 shrubs in comparison with these forest kings, and 
 yet my companion pointed out, as I had already 
 noticed myself, the curious fact that there are no 
 trees in these jungles which have the aspect of any 
 extreme old age. It may perhaps be partly due to 
 the fact that the scarcely changing seasons make 
 little mark on their outward appearance ; but never- 
 theless, after travelling through miles of primeval 
 forest, and being wonderstruck with the stature of 
 the timber, I should not like to say I had seen any- 
 thing more than a hundred years old. 
 
 But if the trees were wonderful, the undergrowth 
 of smaller vegetation is insignificant. At first, as the 
 broad, well-kept road approaches the foot of the 
 ghaut, the trees and shrubs on either side combine 
 the flora of both plain and mountain, and there the 
 botanist can undoubtedly revel to his heart's content 
 in grassy glades, with occasional dense patches of 
 tangled creepers among herbaceous plants and thick - 
 foliaged undergrowths. But when the real ascent is 
 reached, and the road degenerates into a stony bridle- 
 path winding backwards and forwards in sharp zigzags 
 and abrupt curves, the temperature falls with every 
 hundred feet of elevation, and while the forest trees 
 become taller and more closely planted, their dense 
 and high tops shut out the sunlight from the surface 
 of the ground, and gradually supplant all the weaker
 
 ON THE EOAD TO THE JUNGLE. 129 
 
 vegetation, with the exception of mosses, ferns, and 
 bamboos, the last of which monopolize whole hillsides 
 to themselves, and attain astonishing dimensions in 
 quiet and sheltered ravines. 
 
 The road ascended at a gradient of one in four or 
 five feet in places, and was so steep that in many 
 
 parts, being ahead of F , I looked down upon his 
 
 munchiel and bearers thirty or forty feet below me ; 
 and then his men would take a shorter cut than mine, 
 whereupon I would catch a glimpse of them through 
 the bamboo clumps a considerable distance above. 
 In this way we went on all the afternoon, ascending 
 the great Annamully range in a manner which was 
 like nothing so much as going up a gigantic ladder, 
 and taking the rungs first to the right and then to 
 the left. About three o'clock we had reached an 
 elevation of more than two thousand feet above the 
 plain, and a sudden break in the roof of tree-tops 
 gave us a brief but wonderful view of the lowlands 
 through which we had travelled the night before, lying 
 stretched out far to the northward like a gigantic 
 map. Every one who has journeyed much in India has 
 viewed such a scene. There lay the yellow paddy 
 fields, with green patches of cultivated ground and 
 sombre palm groves, through which wound the broad 
 streams which we had forded in the moonlight, like 
 meandering silver ribbons; and there were all the 
 little villages along the high-road, up and down which 
 tiny black dots marked the foot passengers and native 
 carts carrying the produce of the fields to the bazaars 
 of the neighbouring towns. Nearest of all, and look- 
 ing in the clear mountain air to be within a stone's 
 throw, though really far below us, was the palm- 
 surrounded hamlet of Wallanghay, with the gay 
 crowd still moving in its bazaar, and the path we had 
 just taken clearly marked out among the gardens and 
 cultivated plots that surrounded it. Only a few short 
 
 K
 
 130 ON THE INDIAN HILLS. 
 
 hours ago I was envying the eagles up under the 
 blue roof of heaven, and here I was feeling an eagle 
 myself and seeing the world as they see it ! When 
 we have invented flying and can use our wings like 
 the bird of Jove, it will matter little how the face of 
 the country is disfigured with factory chimneys and 
 big towns, for nothing could look commonplace from 
 such an elevation as this. 
 
 After a brief halt to admire the splendid view, we 
 had to continue our upward progress, and soon to 
 content ourselves with remembrances of the scene 
 below, for we had reached the level of the heavy 
 monsoon clouds, which at this season float backwards 
 and forwards along the face of the hills, and we 
 became enveloped in dense white mist, which circled 
 about, leaving us scarcely view enough to find the 
 stony path that still continued ever upwards. In one 
 place the pathway led by a smooth stage of bare rock, 
 across the centre of which a single thread of water 
 made its way, though this becomes, after a heavy 
 rainfall, a dangerous foaming torrent. A little higher 
 up the stream were six or seven deep circular holes, 
 large enough for a man to get into, and at the bottom 
 of several of them are heavy round stones of a harder 
 rock. It is these stones that have scooped the great 
 hollows when the winter rains have come rushing 
 down and set them continually turning and joggling 
 about ; but considering the slowness with which the 
 grinding process must go on, and the hardness of the 
 bed of the nullah, the lapse of time which each hole 
 represents must be enormous. Yet further up the 
 track which now had degenerated into a mere bridle- 
 path was cut across by a vein of gneiss, which the 
 road-makers have found too hard for them to remove, 
 and so have left it in its natural rugged condition. 
 This obstacle alone would effectually cut off all car- 
 riage communication between the lowlands and jungle,
 
 ON THE HO AD TO TEE JUNGLE. 131 
 
 without taking into consideration the roughness and 
 steepness of the whole ascent. Getting out of the 
 munchiels, a few more yards brought us to an open 
 grassy plateau on the spur of a mountain, and here 
 the bearers respectfully requested to be dismissed, as 
 it was growing late, and they wanted to get back to 
 the lowlands before nightfall, having a great dread 
 of staying at such an elevation during darkness, 
 believing these mountain woodlands to be the high 
 place of fever and ill- willed spirits. So we paid them 
 at the rate of twelve annas per man, equal to one 
 shilling and twopence in English coinage, and, rolling 
 up the hammocks and lashing them to their poles, 
 they salaamed all round, and were soon lost in the 
 mist and rain on the pathway below. 
 
 Left to ourselves, F and I looked about for a 
 
 place wherein to make our frugal tiffin and to drink 
 the beer we had brought up with us. This we soon 
 lit upon in the shape of a circle of rough stones 
 placed on the very extreme point of the spur, and 
 overhanging a deep wooded ravine^ along the bottom 
 of which a mountain brook ran foaming and tumbling- 
 through the dark arcades of the jungle trees, till it 
 was lost to sight far away in the direction of the 
 plain. As the white mist came drifting round us 
 and wetted our thin clothing through and through, 
 and the wind moaned and sighed among the bare 
 rocks and through the tree-tops, it was impossible not 
 to feel the influence of the place, or quite to dis- 
 believe it to be the home of departed spirits and of 
 the inhabitants of another world. Apparently the 
 natives living up here had felt the same uncanny 
 sense, for the stones on which we sat down to lunch 
 formed a sartiee, or worshipping place, of great sanc- 
 tity. It was the abode of a spirit famous for effect- 
 ing cures of all sorts, and the space enclosed by the 
 stone ring was piled up thickly with rudely executed
 
 132 ON THE INDIAN HILLS. 
 
 wooden carvings of every conceivable part of the 
 human body. Legs and feet were, perhaps, the most 
 common, but there were hands, arms, heads, and num- 
 berless other models in thick profusion. F , who 
 
 has often been here before, says he believes that 
 when a Tamil coolie gets sick or hurts himself in 
 any way, he sets to work and carves out of some 
 soft wood as accurate an image of the afflicted part as 
 he can. With this and a little rice in a pot, he comes, 
 doubtless in fear and trembling, to the lonely moun- 
 tain spur, and, having 'cooked and scattered the rice 
 by way of offering, mutters some short prayers as 
 likely as not the name of some single deity over and 
 over again for a couple of hundred times, and then 
 throws his model arm or leg into the enchanted circle 
 by way of memorandum to the Unseen, afterwards 
 going on his way convinced that he has done all that 
 is possible. If the limb gets well, it is a proof of the 
 efficiency of the samee place, and if it does not he 
 comforts himself with the thought that perhaps the 
 prayers were not long enough or the rice not sufficient 
 in quantity, and hopes for better success on another 
 occasion. It was a curious place, and I much wanted 
 to carry away some of the carvings ; but my com- 
 panion, whom the white mist had made a little 
 superstitious, persuaded me against it by assuring 
 me if I did I should inherit some of the sick- 
 nesses. 
 
 Equally dividing the few effects we had brought 
 up with us, we resumed our march through the 
 gloomy, wet jungle for three miles, the road no longer 
 ascending rapidly, but making its way along the 
 sides of the hollows and round the shoulders of the 
 hills, yet all the time overshadowed by mighty trees 
 and heavy masses of bamboos, so that the ground was 
 wet and sodden, and thickly carpeted with dead and 
 dying leaves, which fall fast at this season, but never
 
 ON THE ROAD TO THE JUNGLE. 133 
 
 leave the trees quite bare, as new ones rapidly take 
 their places. 
 
 It was here I first made the acquaintance of that 
 abominable creature, the tropical leech. I was walking 
 along over the soft matting of decaying vegetation, 
 when I was suddenly aware of a pain in one instep, 
 as though a carpenter's bradawl had been slowly 
 thrust into my flesh, and naturally proceeded to 
 investigate the cause. No sooner had I removed my 
 leathern legging than out rolled a horrid blood- 
 distended leech about the size and shape of a ripe 
 black cherry, and there was a mark like a shot-hole 
 above my foot from which the blood was slowly 
 trickling, as it always does at first, owing to the 
 
 depth of stab given by the creature's lancet. F 
 
 pointed out to me other leeches that had " spotted ' 
 us, even while we halted, and were hurrying up from 
 all quarters, getting over the ground at a wonderful 
 rate by the simple process of seizing a convenient 
 object in advance with the front suckers, and then 
 looping the body up and placing the tail end just in 
 rear of the head, when the latter part is moved for- 
 ward again. When hungry which, by the way, 
 seems to be their chronic condition they are of a 
 light-brown colour, with a bright yellow line down 
 either side, and numerous fine black points all over 
 their skins. In length they are about an inch and a 
 half though they have a wonderful power of distend- 
 ing themselves to reach a convenient coign of vantage 
 and are about the thickness of a barley straw ; but 
 when they have succeeded in their fell ambition, and 
 have drunk deeply of the blood of the white stranger, 
 they become most loathsome and disgusting-looking 
 red bags, with no perceptible difference at either 
 extremity, and their utmost ability is then to roll 
 into some nook or corner, and lie by until their 
 appetite returns. It has always struck me as curious
 
 134 ON TEE INDIAN HILLS. 
 
 that they should entertain such bloodthirsty tastes 
 when their natural and usual food must be simply 
 decaying vegetation. For instance, this and every 
 other lonely jungle path swarms with their flabby 
 armies, and though the human passers-by must be 
 very few and far between, the approach of any one 
 sets them all stretching their ugly bodies and racing 
 over the ground, in the hopes of reaching his feet and 
 making their first and last meal on blood. Myriads 
 of them must live and die on strictly vegetarian diet, 
 and yet their descendants are as ready as ever to 
 assault and drive their sharp beaks into the flesh of 
 the first mortal who comes within their range ! 
 
 After a long damp walk through the forest glades, 
 my companion and I saw with satisfaction the sky 
 showing through the tree-tops ahead, a sure sign that 
 we were approaching open ground ; and soon a sudden 
 turn to the left brought us into daylight on the north- 
 western edge of Polyampara, the oldest coffee estate 
 on these hills, under the management of an energetic 
 
 Cornishman, G. D , who has been out here for 
 
 some fifteen years, and may be considered the founder 
 of the district. Here my entertaining and courteous 
 companion shook hands with me, and, after exacting a 
 promise that I would seize the first opportunity to 
 visit his eyrie, " the highest and healthiest bungalow 
 on the hills," he took his way through the jungles 
 to his own estate, and left me to introduce myself to 
 
 D , who, he said, was sure to be delighted to put 
 
 me up for the night. So, descrying a bungalow in 
 the distance, I made for it, and speedily found the 
 owner, who received me cordially, and, as I had been 
 led to expect, invited me to stay the night. 
 
 Coffee planters are ever early birds, and on the- 
 moming after reaching the head of the ghaut, I was 
 roused by an extraordinary sound, which at first 
 seemed to be a thunderstorm, but on springing up
 
 ON THE SO AD TO THE JUNGLE. 135 
 
 and looking from the window of my room, I saw the 
 
 noise came from D 's head maistry, or overlooker, 
 
 who was exerting all his strength in beating a great 
 Chinese gong with a heavy hammer ; so I proceeded 
 to make a hasty toilet. By the time I had reached 
 the verandah, the sun was just climbing over the 
 tree-tops, and the thin white mists were falling back 
 before him, but still resting in the deep hollows and 
 behind every clump of forest where it was protected 
 from the light morning breeze. Soon, lines of coolies 
 of all ages and both sexes, grey-haired old men, 
 women, and small children, with tools on their 
 shoulders, were winding their way slowly and sleepily 
 to various parts of the estate, while native maistries 
 in white linen garments urged them on and directed 
 their course. When the last of the men had left the 
 group of sheds where they had been mustered, my 
 host came towards the bungalow; and after due 
 greetings made, and inquiries as to how I liked my 
 first night on the hills, we proceeded to take our chota, 
 hazri, as the first morning meal is called. Having 
 got through two or three rounds of toast and a cup 
 of coffee a light repast, on which, however, it is the 
 fashion to do all the hard work of the morning we 
 drew on our heavy boots, and, donning pith helmets 
 with streaming white puggarees behind, proceeded on 
 a tour of inspection while the air was yet cool. 
 
 It is difficult to describe a coffee estate so that it 
 may be clear to the imagination of one who has never 
 seen that plant growing under cultivation, since it 
 is little like any home production, and no part of 
 England bears any resemblance to these jungle 
 clearings. The first thing to be understood is that 
 the land is a continual succession of hills and ravines. 
 There is not such a thing anywhere in the district as 
 a piece of ground, naturally level, of sufficient size to 
 play a game of tennis on, but wherever you walk you
 
 136 ON THE INDIAN HILLS. 
 
 are either slipping downhill or laboriously climbing 
 upwards, except, of course, when you make use of the 
 roads which run through the estates in two or three 
 directions. But when working, that is the exception, 
 and you have to force your way as the crow flies, 
 over hill and dale. Another cause which renders the 
 walking very hard work is the scattered logs of trees 
 which cover the ground. On an old estate like 
 Polyampara they are not a great inconvenience, as it 
 is now fifteen years since they fell, and Nature, which 
 in this land always exerts herself to get rid of dead 
 matter as speedily as possible, has very nearly 
 succeeded in crumbling them all back to dust. But 
 on a newer estate matters are different, and a walk 
 requires the nimbleness of a squirrel and strength of 
 a professional gymnast. When it is first decided to 
 open a garden, the Englishman comes up to the jungle, 
 and, pitching his temporary encampment at a con- 
 venient spot near a stream, proceeds, with a dozen or 
 two of coolies, to drive lanes through the tangled 
 undergrowth to mark out the margins of his first 
 "clearings." Perhaps his base line is twenty chains 
 due south ; then he works due east, north, and west, 
 until he has completed the square ; and all trees in 
 that enclosure are doomed, so that the squirrels and 
 monkeys had better remove their families as speedily 
 as may be. For soon the sound of the axes is heard 
 falling sharp and quick all day long, and one by one 
 the forest monarchs snap and come rushing down to 
 earth, breaking and bending all their neighbours, 
 until the place is one wild scene of confusion great 
 tree trunks in all sorts of wonderful positions and 
 angles, and ten feet deep of withering foliage and 
 broken branches on the ground. During three long 
 " hot months " of the year this lies drying under the 
 fierce sun, a mournful wilderness of fallen grandeur, 
 until the planter sees the sky clouding and knows
 
 ON THE HO AD TO THE JUNGLE. 137 
 
 the rains are coming, when he goes one windy 
 morning and, with a single match, fires the mighty 
 pile. Then the flames spread far and near, and the 
 thick yellow smoke hides the sky, while the clearing 
 burns night and day for a week or more. Meantime 
 the planter has either made a "nursery," where he 
 should have by this time a sufficient quantity of 
 carefully tended and watered young coffee plants, 
 -about a foot high, or has to get his stock elsewhere. 
 As soon as the clearing is burnt out, the assistant is 
 sent on with bands of coolies, and " pits " the enclosure 
 with long lines of square holes running from side to 
 side of the plantation. Finally, when the rains come, 
 the young plants are tenderly taken up, slipped into 
 rough wicker baskets, and placed in the pits prepared 
 for them, where each is carefully tucked up. There 
 they grow into thick bushes, and the coffee planter 
 spends the three years which must elapse before his 
 first crop is ripe in opening more land, building pucka 
 bungalows and coolie " lines " or sheds, and driving 
 roads through the estate. 
 
 ^Iy friend D 's place had reached this climax 
 
 some years ago, and so showed how an estate ought 
 to look when in full cultivation. I was much struck 
 with the beautiful symmetry of the lines of coffee 
 shrubs, which took their course undeviatingly over 
 hills and down the steep sides of the nullahs from 
 wherever we stood, right and left, to the very confines 
 of the clearing. The advantages of this were obvious 
 directly, for we soon came on a party of coolies hard 
 at work weeding; and each man or woman having 
 the space between two rows of bushes to himself or 
 herself, we could tell at a glance if they were all 
 working, and, walking behind the labourers, the 
 inaistries could plainly see if any work had been 
 badly done, at once admonishing the offender. Armed 
 with round baskets to hold the weeds, and with small
 
 138 ON THE INDIAN HILLS. 
 
 implements of iron, shaped much like a mediaeval 
 battle-axe, with a spike on one side and a small hoe 
 on the other, they were doing their feeble best at 
 reducing the too-exuberant vegetation which a couple 
 of days' rain had brought up. But they were a feeble 
 set the men thin and broken-down, wearing nothing 
 but a dirty cummerbund, and the women equally 
 miserably clad in a single grimy saree. 
 
 As we were walking along, one of the maistries 
 
 called D 's attention to a woman lying beneath 
 
 a coffee bush, and trembling all over with fever. My 
 companion beckoned her to come down to the road on 
 which we were standing, and she got up and came 
 slowly towards us, the whole line of coolies striking 
 work and stopping to watch us. She was really a 
 very pretty girl of about eighteen, with a fairer skin 
 than usual among her kindred, and perhaps, in better 
 times, before the famine, may have been noted in the 
 village for her comeliness; but at present she was 
 sadly down in the world. She had drawn the spare 
 end of her thin green saree from her shoulders, and 
 was carrying something rolled up in it. When she 
 came and stood before us, she was trembling like 
 
 an aspen with jungle fever, and D bid her hold 
 
 out her hand to have her pulse felt. He rested his 
 fingers on her wrist, and then told me to try it, upon 
 which I found the pulsation very fast and feeble 
 nearly one hundred and ten beats a minute doubtless 
 partially due to her being frightened at being so near 
 white sahibs. " What have you got here ? " said 
 
 D in Tamil, suddenly taking the end of the saree 
 
 out of her hand, and down fell an armful of small 
 weeds and the unripe berries of the coffee bush, which 
 the girl had been collecting to eat for her supper. 
 
 D scolded her, and asked her how she was to get 
 
 well if she ate such stuff as that, and then ordered 
 her to the " lines " and rest, where he would send
 
 ON THE EOAD TO THE JUNGLE. 139 1 
 
 her food and medicine ; so she wrapped her green 
 robe round her shivering body and went away to her 
 hovel. My companion explained to me that she had 
 but just come up from her native village, far away in 
 Mysore, with some of her kindred ; and he added, 
 " These poor creatures want continual watching when 
 they first arrive. They are so broken down and 
 hopeless that they cannot understand that they are 
 not going to be allowed to die. They eat any garbage 
 or rubbish they can find, although they know the 
 result will be fever immediate and heavy. They 
 won't come for medicine, because they don't know 
 what is the matter with them, and don't care ; and, 
 in fact, they are about as helpless and feeble as 
 children of three or four years old. But I cannot 
 afford to let them die, as it is a great trouble to bring 
 them to the estates, and I find it cheaper to buy them 
 food, feed them, and give them free board and lodging 
 until they are fit to work. In this way nearly every 
 English estate in the south of India is a ' relief camp/ 
 and we do our best to help distress without saying 
 anything about it." 
 
 To show me the sort of rough material which comes 
 up from the famine-stricken lowlands, we went down 
 to a large, roomy wooden building by a stream, which 
 
 D called the " hospital shed," and here we found 
 
 collected together a dozen of the most fearfully 
 emaciated mortals it was ever my misfortune to 
 behold. They were lying curled up on mats, or with 
 their chins resting on their knees, and their bare 
 fleshless limbs looking like withered branches. None 
 of them moved when we entered ; in fact, they were 
 too far gone to do anything but moan and shiver 
 under the cold fits of the ague and fever which 
 always follows close behind starvation. But the 
 most painful sight of all was at the end of the room, 
 where a coarse cocoa-nut mat was thrown over some-
 
 140 ON TEE INDIAN SILLS. 
 
 thing which I took to be firewood or rubbish. Judge, 
 
 then, of my astonishment when D pushed it 
 
 away with the point of his umbrella, and disclosed 
 a poor little native child, about six months old, 
 screwed up into a tight knot, with its thin limbs 
 close to its body, and the knee and elbow joints 
 bulging out from the dry, shrivelled skin. It was 
 like nothing so much as the desiccated rats which 
 are occasionally found in the crevices of old buildings ; 
 but, alas! it was alive, and kept rolling its great 
 eyes about without seeming to see anything. All 
 its remnant of life seemed in its eyes, and their only 
 expression was one of wild suffering and pain. In 
 
 reply to my asking if it could live long, D said, 
 
 although perhaps it might live, it could never recover ; 
 so we covered it up, and went on with our walk. 
 
 It is curious under these circumstances to be told 
 of the great difficulty that exists in getting labourers 
 to accept work. One would think they would go 
 anywhere sooner than starve, but it is not so. They 
 cling to their districts and villages until they are 
 almost too feeble to walk, and then only come up 
 with great reluctance, and, needless to say, are worth 
 little when they arrive. Besides the love of home, 
 very strong within them, and a great distaste for 
 being made to do a regular amount of work, which 
 they know will be their fate up here, they have a 
 vast dread of the silent and sombre jungle, peopled 
 with all sorts of bad and malicious spirits and demons 
 in their imaginations. Nor really can one blame 
 them : the prospect of coming among the chilly airs 
 and deadly mists of these regions, and probably being 
 buried on some lonely hillside, with no kinsmen to 
 perform the last friendly rites, is not pleasant; in 
 fact, it needs a " Britisher's " pluck to do it willingly, 
 and that is a quality of which these poor grain-fed 
 people are almost wholly destitute.
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 AT WORK. 
 
 AFTER a very pleasant stroll round D 's clearings, 
 
 and imbibing much useful information, we finally got 
 back to the bungalow ; and, shaking hands with my 
 courteous host, I set out for my own estate, under 
 the guidance of a swarthy, short, curly-headed native, 
 looking like an aboriginal Australian, who had been 
 sent to show me the way to Pardagherry. We wound 
 along by the side of a shallow stream for three or 
 four miles ; the road, well made and broad, running 
 under continual avenues of trees, and crossing the 
 bed of the stream once or twice by very solidly built 
 bridges ; until we came out into the open again, and 
 a wide expanse of mature coffee lay before, with a 
 clean white bungalow standing on a knoll nearly in 
 the centre of the clearing, shadowed by two graceful 
 palm trees the only ones on these hills. As the 
 road ran close by, I called upon the superintendent, 
 and found him and his assistant hard at work over 
 accounts. They were naturally astonished at the 
 sudden appearance of a new " pale face," and it was 
 
 necessary to explain who I was, when H , the 
 
 chik-doree, and W , the superintendent, welcomed 
 
 me cordially to the jungles. The assistant assured 
 me that the vilest of Irish mud hovels was a paradise 
 compared to the place I was going to, and painted 
 the discomforts of jungle life in glowing terms, ending 
 up with the ironical hope that I should be comfort- 
 able ; so, with a promise to drop in at his bungalow 
 some day and let him know what my quarters proved 
 like, I marched forward again. 
 
 Another estate was passed, on a ridge of mountain
 
 142 ON THE INDIAN HILLS. 
 
 planted on both sides with coffee, and again we 
 descended into a valley and left the cleared ground 
 behind us. Here the vegetation appeared more dense 
 and matted than farther to the north, great creepers 
 swinging from tree to tree, while long rattan canes 
 a hundred springing from one root climbed hither 
 and thither, and overhung the road in festoons. Here, 
 too, the pathway for it was no longer a made road 
 ran along the top of a ridge, and although the valleys 
 on either side were not discernible, the trees had 
 clearly felt the influence of the wind ; for there were 
 many dead trunks lying about in all stages of decay, 
 with green moss spreading a pall over them, and pale, 
 scentless white orchids shooting up, fresh and beautiful, 
 from the rotten wood. 
 
 After we had done a couple of miles along this 
 road, a strange figure was seen coming down the 
 
 path, and I was soon after confronted by R , 
 
 the superintendent of the company's estate where I 
 was going to work. A very old hand himself at 
 coffee planting, and a dweller all his life in wild 
 regions, he had become a regular backwoodsman, and 
 had discarded as superfluous many of the refinements 
 of civilization. Imagine an old grey-headed man, his 
 chin and cheeks long unacquainted with the razor, 
 sharp black eyes long accustomed to look on nothing 
 but obsequious natives, and a form bent with fever 
 and hill-climbing, equipped in a loose and not par- 
 ticularly new suit of dark green cloth, white leather 
 leggings, a broad-brimmed hat of coarse rice straw, 
 and a heavy stick to lean upon. Such was my asso- 
 ciate when he first presented himself to my sight, and, 
 after making each other's acquaintance, he retraced 
 his steps, and together we proceeded to the settle- 
 ment. This we were not long in reaching, and the 
 ideas I had formed of an encampment in embryo were 
 rudely shaken. Dim notions had floated through my
 
 AT WORK. 143 
 
 head of shady fig trees, with wide-spreading branches, 
 and white tents under their shelter, with rows of 
 neat native huts down by a neighbouring stream half 
 hidden in verdant cool foliage, with horses and cattle 
 grazing ad libitum, and laughing children and noisy 
 dogs to welcome the traveller ; but the reality was 
 sadly otherwise. 
 
 The ridge along which we had been passing grew 
 rapidly narrower, and began to slope downwards ; 
 while daylight and patches of blue sky showing 
 through the trees on either side, indicated that we 
 were passing along the centre of a narrow strip 
 or belt of forest, which had been left when the 
 clearings were made upon either side. As the path- 
 way sloped more and more downwards, the soil had 
 been washed off by the heavy rains rushing to the 
 nearest watercourse, leaving the matted roots of the 
 tall trees everywhere exposed, and making a wild 
 entanglement which in places formed rude steps, of 
 which we took advantage, and in others arches and 
 lacework of timber, which it required care to thread 
 without tripping. At the bottom of the hill we came 
 suddenly in view of the " settlement." Totally dif- 
 ferent from what I had expected, it looked like 
 nothing so much as a wild African village, such as 
 Stanley has described and figured many times in his 
 " Travels in the Dark Continent." The underwood 
 had been cut down, together with a few of the most 
 inconveniently placed trees, and in the rough clearing 
 thus formed (all bristling with stumps and remains of 
 bushes) half a dozen low reed-thatched hovels had 
 grown up a little below an isolated residence, which, 
 though of exactly the same construction as the others, 
 seemed a trifle more carefully finished. This latter 
 was our temporary home, and, arriving in the rudely 
 built verandah, R bade me " welcome to the green- 
 wood," and told me we should have to make ourselves
 
 144 ON THE INDIAN HILLS. 
 
 as comfortable as circumstances would permit, until a 
 slack time in the coffee planting gave us an oppor- 
 tunity to build pucka bungalows. 
 
 Certainly there was not very much to boast of in 
 
 my new quarters. K, 's hut was about thirty feet 
 
 long by about twelve broad, and was divided in two 
 by a chinky partition of Palghaut mats. One half 
 which abutted on the path by which we had ap- 
 proached was the dining-room, and for its sole fur- 
 niture boasted a round table, a meat-safe with shelves 
 and wire gauze to keep out flies and slugs, and a 
 strong lock and key to keep out the " boys." The 
 available space which these left was further diminished 
 by a heavy iron safe, a stove with an exceedingly 
 obtrusive chimney, and two or three chairs. The 
 owner pointed out with great pride that the floor was 
 not the actual surface of the soil, which had been 
 smoothed and covered with rough-sawn boards laid 
 side by side on it. He also begged me to notice that 
 we had entered by glass folding-doors, which, though 
 they would not close tightly, had been fixed up as 
 a temporary arrangement, and he considered them 
 extremely luxurious. The construction of the hut 
 itself was very primitive, as I took in at a glance. 
 Four strong forked poles had been driven in at the 
 corners, and young saplings, roughly lopped and 
 trimmed, had been placed on them. Upon these the 
 roof had been constructed, with a very steep pitch to 
 throw off the heavy monsoon rainfall, and had been 
 thickly thatched with pale yellow lemon-grass from 
 the neighbouring hillside. Yet though the roof was 
 substantial enough, the sides of the hut were fragility 
 itself. A few stout stakes had been driven in at 
 equal distances, and to these Palghaut mats were fas- 
 tened with split rattan creepers ; yet, as there was 
 only a single thickness of matting, daylight came in 
 at a hundred places, and the green and yellow stains
 
 AT WORK 145 
 
 down the inside showed that they made no pretence 
 of being watertight. Besides this, some one seemed to 
 have been in a fidgety mode with the stove, which 
 had been moved round and round the room perhaps 
 according to the changes of the wind but wherever 
 it went a hole had had to be cut in the side of the 
 hut that the chimney might reach the outer air, and 
 as the stove moved on these holes had been filled up 
 with any material at hand straw, sacking, or even 
 brown paper. 
 
 Our sleeping quarters were even more cramped, 
 there being three beds side by side across the division, 
 and a washing-stand made out of an old box taking 
 up all the remaining space. By way of decoration, 
 the walls of the hut were hung with a wonderful 
 collection of articles, guns, sword-bayonets, tin buckets, 
 a side of bacon, several squirrel and monkey skins, 
 dried fish, a few young coffee plants strung up by 
 their roots, old clothes, hats, etc. Altogether, this 
 sample of a coffee-planter's hut (the sort of thing 
 every one who opens up a new estate for himself must 
 put up with for a time) was most Robinson Crusoe- 
 like and romantic to those who could look at it in 
 such a light. Having somewhat shaken down and 
 despatched a fair breakfast, at which curry made of 
 goat's flesh was the chief dish, we were joined by 
 
 E, 's son " Charlie," a pleasant English-looking 
 
 boy of about sixteen, who had been out to shoot a 
 pigeon with a long, heavy Snider smooth-bore, which, 
 though rusty, has killed a fine bison lately. 
 
 We subsequently made a tour of inspection of that 
 division of the property on which the settlement 
 stands. The whole estate is divided into two portions, 
 separated by a narrow stream. The most southerly 
 consists of 1118 acres of virgin jungle, the home of 
 the bison and elephant, untouched and unexplored 
 since the world began, except by aboriginal tribes, to 
 
 L
 
 146 ON TEE INDIAN HILLS. 
 
 whom it is a veritable happy hunting-ground. The 
 more northerly division consists of a thousand acres, 
 and goes by the name of Pardagherry, meaning in 
 Tamil the "New Rock," from some patches of bare 
 stone which crop up in conspicuous places. On all 
 the Government maps of a few years ago the site of 
 our clearings was put down as " impenetrable jungle," 
 and yet the soil was no sooner found suitable to coffee, 
 than the "Britishers" broke through all barriers, 
 laughed to scorn the " impenetrableness " of these 
 unknown wilds, and made roads through the densest 
 parts, establishing themselves firmly; so that probably, 
 before many years, what was once the lonely home 
 of the wild elephant will become a flourishing settled 
 district. 
 
 Thus far, our part towards this end consists in 
 having traced the " Top Entrance Koad," as our 
 survey names it, though it is more properly a bridle- 
 path, but at present our only link with the other 
 states and civilization. Besides this, during the two 
 
 years he has been at work here, R has felled, 
 
 cleared, and planted the best part of one hundred and 
 thirty acres of land, and made and established two 
 "nurseries" for rearing the young plants from the 
 seeds. The ground already planted is, roughly speak- 
 ing, in the shape of a parallelogram, its greatest length 
 being from north to south. Through the centre runs 
 a ridge with a belt of forest still standing along the 
 top, and down this leads our main thoroughfare. The 
 ground sloping away on the westward of the ridge is 
 divided in two parts by another broad belt, which 
 sweeps right down the slope to the margin of a 
 mountain stream, about twenty feet wide, which we 
 flatter with the name of the Manalora river. This 
 stream curiously rises on the very brink of the 
 precipices which overlook the great Palghaut plain, 
 but instead of descending to the northward, a chance
 
 AT WORK. 147 
 
 fall in the hillside leads its course to the southward, 
 so that it winds its way through the jungle and 
 passes our estate, and, after receiving many upland 
 torrents, grows into a veritable river, and finally 
 reaches the sea far to the southward in the neighbour- 
 hood of Cochin. On the other side of the rising 
 ground which forms the backbone of the land already 
 planted, the land trends down to the bed of a small 
 nullah, and is cleared for a little distance up the 
 opposite slope, when it is again bounded by primitive 
 jungle and rises rapidly to a high ridge, called the 
 " Poothapara Thund," on the far slope of which all is 
 grass and an excellent place for bison and elephants. 
 This side is also divided into two parts by a belt of 
 about two chains in breadth. There are thus four 
 separate clearings : No. 1 of fifty-six acres, No. 2 of 
 twenty-two acres, both on the western side ; No. 3 of 
 thirty-six acres, and No. 4 of fourteen acres, on the 
 eastern half. This arrangement will be found a very 
 convenient one as a beginning of new estates. 
 
 With regard to the best size for clearings, there are 
 many different opinions. One set of planters hold 
 that large fields are much superior for many reasons. 
 They maintain that if you have nothing less than fifty 
 acres in extent, you enjoy freedom from the hosts of 
 weeds which grow in the jungle, you are less troubled 
 by harmful insects which love the shade and shelter 
 of trees and undergrowth, and they think such clear- 
 ings are more convenient and better managed. But 
 the other side say that by making small plantations 
 and leaving plenty of timber, you gain great shelter 
 from high winds a thing of considerable importance 
 to coffee, especially in its young state you have great 
 stores of leaf mould within easy distance for using as 
 manure, and they argue that, notwithstanding insects 
 and weeds, the coffee thrives better than in the open. 
 Probably the best size of clearing will vary with the
 
 148 ON THE INDIAN HILLS. 
 
 conditions and aspect of the estate. On windy ridges 
 such as this, where the young plants are liable to feel 
 the full force of either monsoon, protection of some 
 sort seems imperative, and none is so convenient and 
 lasting as broad " belts " or strips of jungle, unfelled 
 when the clearings are first made. These wind- 
 shields should not be less than two chains through, or 
 they will not answer their purpose ; nor more, or they 
 will take up too much valuable land. As it is, the 
 strip along the top of our ridge and the two others 
 running at right angles to it occupy thirty acres of 
 our ground which might be bearing coffee, but it has 
 been wisely devoted to its present purpose. 
 
 During a walk round the estate, undertaken after 
 breakfast to show me the boundaries, we came upon 
 a gang of forty coolies making a path through the 
 north-easterly clearing for the greater convenience of 
 weeding operations, which are in full swing about this 
 time, and it was astonishing to see how quickly the 
 work was done when there was some one by to keep 
 the men up to the mark. When we scrambled down 
 to them, the road had just got clear of the fallen 
 timber of the enclosure, and was to take a slant 
 upwards (the course having been previously set out 
 
 with pegs by R ) until it penetrated through 
 
 the jungle and ran into the " Top Entrance Road." 
 Apparently the coolies had been taking it easily while 
 the superintendent was away at his hut breakfasting, 
 for he went down amongst them and began abusing 
 them right and left in Tamil, supplementing his abuse 
 by an occasional prod or two with his stick in the 
 ribs of the most sleepy. There were about forty men 
 present, and certainly under his eyes they progressed 
 at a wonderful rate. In front of us was a dense clump 
 of tall bamboos, the growth of many a year, and as 
 this blocked up our way it had to come down. First, 
 ten coolies with axes set to work on it, and one after
 
 AT WORK. 149 
 
 another the green reed-like stems were cut through 
 and brought low. Four minutes sufficed for this, and 
 then the billhook and mamooty men, i.e. coolies with 
 instruments like spades having the blade bent at right 
 angles to the shaft, marched to the attack. In a 
 couple of minutes the roots and stumps were hacked 
 into bits and thrown aside, and another minute 
 sufficed for the spademen to smooth the earth; and 
 then the road went triumphantly forward across the 
 place where but a short time before the bamboos had 
 been masters. Next we came to a couple of small 
 trees and a tangle of rattan creepers, which all fol- 
 lowed the bamboos the axe and bill men going first, 
 slashing and hacking frantically, and the rest coming 
 after. This is what we call a dug-out road ; that is 
 to say, the hillside being very steep, soil is shovelled 
 away from the upper part and placed on the lower 
 side till the road comes level. Thus there is a per- 
 pendicular wall on one hand and a steep scarp on the 
 other, and being smoothed, the fresh red soil looks 
 neat and nice, but requires some time to settle down. 
 At first, owing to half the breadth being cut out of 
 the solid, and half composed of loose soil, it is apt to 
 sink on the outer side and has to be repaired. A little 
 further on we came to a thicket of kewra bushes, 
 where the hillside was so steep it was difficult to keep 
 one's footing. These plants, which are a variety of 
 those which grow in the lowlands, have a bare brown 
 stem five and six feet long, and a crown of sabre-like 
 leaves with edges sharp as knives and indented by 
 numerous sawlike teeth. A thicket of such is prac- 
 tically impenetrable, and the coolies came to a stop on 
 the outskirts, but the road had to go forward in spite 
 
 of difficulties. So E took a bill and I took an 
 
 axe, and led the attack. Being clothed, we got on 
 better than our men, who were not ; but my hands 
 were considerably cut and full of thorns and prickles
 
 150 ON THE INDIAN HILLS. 
 
 by the time we reached the other extremity of the 
 barrier, while the poor coolies with bare legs and feet 
 must have had a bad passage. 
 
 In this way we made rapid progress all the after- 
 noon, until our watches told us it was past five o'clock, 
 the usual hour for striking work, when we retraced 
 our steps to the huts, and a great bell, suspended from 
 two trees directly in front of our verandah, was rung, 
 as the signal for the coolies to cease work all over the 
 estate. 
 
 Presently they came trooping in, men, women, and 
 children, in long lines from various points of the 
 forest, with their tools across their shoulders, and their 
 thin brown forms wrapped close in cumblies, the native 
 shawls of the district; and as they arrived took up 
 a position two deep on a patch of clear ground just 
 below the bungalow. Here they formed a great hollow 
 square, and after allowing time for stragglers to come 
 
 in, R put a great day-book under his arm and 
 
 marched into their midst, like the recording angel, to 
 set down the day's work before the darkness fell. He 
 proceeded to call over names, and each one who had 
 been working all day was expected to answer " Here ! " 
 and, after depositing the tools he had been using, 
 would be free to depart to the lines. The appellatives, 
 Tamil, Canarese, Hindustani, and Malayalim, all mixed 
 up and following each other in rapid succession, were 
 wonderfully puzzling to pronounce, and I felt mis- 
 givings as to my success when this duty devolved 
 
 upon my shoulders. R seemed perfectly at home 
 
 amongst these outlandish designations, and rattled 
 them off in a rapid manner, " Here ! " " Here ! " 
 " Here ! " following in rapid succession, and the circle 
 getting thinner and thinner every moment. As each 
 name in the book was called and answered to, a 
 pencil mark was put down opposite it in another 
 column, if the man or woman had worked a whole
 
 AT WORK. 151 
 
 day ; and by adding these up at the end of the week 
 we could tell how much was due to each person. 
 
 Occasionally, however, the superintendent, who 
 seemed to know nearly every coolie on the place by 
 sight, came to one who had been lazy during the day, 
 and either refused to put him down at all, thereby 
 depriving him of a day's pay, or only entered him as 
 having done six hours' work. Against this decision 
 of the Englishman there was, of course, no appeal ; so 
 the responsibility was considerable, and all depended 
 on the justice and accurate remembrance of the sahib. 
 In one or two cases of poor creatures who got nothing, 
 I fancied their fault was more owing to inability to 
 toil than simply idleness ; but it is always very hard 
 to tell, and they must be kept up to the mark some- 
 how or they would do no work. One or two of these 
 latter hung about until roll-call was over, and then 
 tried hard to move the decision of the superintendent, 
 or get him to put them down for at least half a day, 
 saying that in an unfortunate moment they had laid 
 aside their mamooty or axe, and just then the sahib 
 " whose generosity was boundless," had come up and 
 fancied they had done nothing all day. But in most 
 of these cases our generosity was limited by the stern 
 necessity of making an example of some one occa- 
 sionally, and the coolies had to go away without 
 attaining their ends. 
 
 By this time the sun was going down, and its 
 beams, which before had been so powerful, now came 
 wandering through the forest, and tinged all the tree 
 trunks rosy red, throwing a strange, unnatural glow 
 on everything. Yet the day's work was not quite 
 done, for we had to count a couple of hundred dirty 
 axes and tools, and lay aside those that needed re- 
 pairing, afterwards locking up the storehouse, which 
 made one side of the square in which the coolies had 
 mustered ; and then returning to the bungalow to
 
 152 ON THE INDIAN HILLS. 
 
 find half a dozen coolies squatting on their heels in 
 the verandah. These were " medicine coolies," i.e. had 
 
 come up to be doctored by R , and in this very 
 
 unpleasant work I assisted him. Half their maladies 
 were directly due to want of cleanliness, and the re- 
 mainder were owing to bad food or none at all. For 
 
 instance, the first man drew off his cumbley at E, 's 
 
 order, and showed his skin marked with the " itch " 
 from head to foot even while standing in front of 
 us the poor fellow was in an agony of irritation and 
 we gave him some sulphur ointment in the top of a 
 cocoanut shell which he had brought up for that pur- 
 pose, and told him to rub it on, promising that he 
 would be well in a couple of days ; whereon he de- 
 parted with a great sense of the sahib's wisdom. The 
 next coolie had his legs tied up in multitudinous 
 wrappings, and when he had unwound these, he showed 
 us six or seven great sores which were eating into his 
 flesh and totally prevented his walking. We gave 
 him lint and clean bandages, and told him to wash 
 himself clean, and then we would do something more. 
 Another one was just recovering from smallpox, and 
 seemed very weak and ill. Two more felt the fever 
 coming on, and wanted to be dosed with quinine, and 
 another man had his foot swollen up to the size of a 
 pumpkin by some poisonous thorn which we spent 
 twenty minutes in hunting for an operation many 
 times more unpleasant than simply washing the 
 feet of beggars, which some saints have got credit for. 
 Having done our best for them all, the day's work 
 was at last over, and we went into the hut, struck a 
 light, and proceeded to wash and brush ready for 
 dinner. 
 
 Our chief illumination was a large paraffin lamp, 
 which we slung from a rafter overhead in the " sit- 
 ting-room," and under the cheerful influence of this 
 the strange little dwelling did not look at all uncom-
 
 AT WORK. 153 
 
 fortable, with a red curtain across the glass door, and 
 all other holes in the walls carefully stuffed up. We 
 dined very contentedly, though my eyes were con- 
 tinually wandering to the bare grass roof, with its 
 untrimmed rafters and long pendant cobwebs, and the 
 mat walls with their strange collection of objects hung 
 round them, and I could not help comparing it with 
 the spacious silver-and-grey saloon of the Almora, in 
 which I had so recently been dining. However, 
 
 K, assured me that when it began to rain again 
 
 in a few days, as it would, we should find the place 
 perfectly water-tight with perhaps the exception of 
 one or two places in the walls and he told me this 
 was a great deal to be thankful for on a new estate, 
 he having lived many a day under little more than 
 an umbrella and a blanket. On "turning in," my 
 thoughts were again led to the Almora, for I remem- 
 bered with fond regret that delightfully soft silk- 
 cotton mattress which used to form my couch every 
 evening on deck under the pleasant white awning. 
 But here my resting-place was constructed of three 
 boards placed side by side on the tops of two empty 
 wine cases. This was not all. I could have put up 
 with sleeping on boards, but it was unkind of Fate 
 to let the planks be of unequal thicknesses, so that, 
 whichever way they might be arranged, there was 
 always a fearfully sharp-edged ridge running down 
 the centre. 
 
 Above the bed-head there was a hanging string 
 with a peg fastened to it, and after wondering what 
 this could be for, I came to the conclusion it was a 
 bell that communicated with a little shed outside in 
 which our cooking was done, and which we honoured 
 with the name of kitchen ; so I was on the point of 
 pulling it by way of experiment, when " Charlie " in 
 the next cot to mine called out, " Pray, don't pull 
 that ; it is an elephant gun four bore loaded up to
 
 154 ON THE INDIAN HILLS. 
 
 the muzzle with powder and ball, and fixed to one of 
 the trees outside about ten yards from your head ! " 
 " You don't say so ? " I inquired with considerable 
 interest. " And which way does it point ? " But on 
 Charlie's assuring me it pointed towards the jungle, 
 I agreed to draw down the peg if there should be an 
 alarm of elephants during the night, and fell to sleep 
 meditating on this infernal machine. 
 
 It has always surprised me how soon one gets into 
 new habits, and under what various circumstances 
 the human machine will work. For the first two or 
 three days after my arrival it was only with the 
 greatest difficulty I could rouse myself at the planter's 
 hour of 5 a.m., but on the third or fourth day I woke 
 up quite naturally some time before daybreak. One 
 frequently reads that the early morning hours are the 
 pleasantest of all in India ; and so they may be down 
 on the plains, where the midday sun is unbearably 
 hot, but up here at this season they are decidedly raw 
 and cold, with usually a thin drizzling mist or damp 
 fog hanging about until the sun is up. Under such 
 circumstances the planter turns out, and, after sound- 
 ing the muster-call on his great bell or gong, makes 
 a hasty toilet and partakes of the invigorating hot 
 coffee and toast which his " cook boy " has prepared. 
 Then, as soon as the coolies, all swaddled up to their 
 chins in blankets, have sauntered up to the open 
 ground by his hut, he takes his memorandum-book 
 and goes down to divide them according to the work 
 to be done. Twenty men, perhaps, under one maistry, 
 are sent with axes and crowbars to cut and move the 
 logs from the line of a new road ; ten or twelve more 
 to weed the " nursery ; " so many women and child- 
 ren, under two or three overseers (they always want 
 a lot of looking after), take baskets and hoes and 
 depart to weed the coffee land already planted ; some 
 are sent to fetch grass, some to building, and so on,
 
 AT WOEK. 155 
 
 As each party goes down to the store to get the 
 necessary tools, the assistant has to see that each one 
 takes the right thing and only the right thing, and the 
 building is full of coolies pushing, fighting, and quar- 
 relling, some taking the wrong implements, and some 
 none at all, in spite of vigorous endeavours to get 
 things straight. Even when all the natives present 
 at muster have been told off and started with their 
 tools, the day's troubles are only beginning ; for no 
 sooner are they clear of the settlement and winding 
 along the narrow jungle paths, than they make all 
 sorts of attempts and " dodges " to escape and get 
 back to their huts, hoping, by being present at the 
 morning muster and again at evening roll-call, that 
 their absence during the day will not have been 
 noticed, and so they may get a day's pay for doing 
 no work. 
 
 On the second day after my arrival, I was told off 
 to conduct fifty women and girls about half a mile 
 away through the forest, to a new clearing that had 
 just been made on the Poothopara Thund, and which 
 we were planting with guinea-grass to be the feed of 
 a future herd of cattle. I got my little convoy in 
 order. After considerable trouble with one or two 
 elderly females, who wanted to say their prayers 
 under every fig tree we came to, and half a dozen 
 coolie women with little children, who kept bolting^ 
 into the jungle and had to be retrieved, we eventually 
 reached our ground, and I forthwith arranged my 
 workers in a long line and commenced operations. 
 But although fifty had started, when I seized an op- 
 portunity of counting my forces I found there were 
 only thirty-two present, and I had to go back to the 
 settlement to find the remainder, and drive them 
 before me. Getting back to the guinea-grass en- 
 closure, which by the way was full of great crags of 
 rock and huge fallen tree trunks, on counting the
 
 156 ON THE INDIAN HILLS. 
 
 line, which had made very little progress since I left 
 it, there were only twenty-nine women at work ; so, 
 hastily starting the contingent just brought up, I 
 went in chase of the runaways, and after scrambling 
 over rocks on hands and knees, and creeping in like 
 position under tree trunks, I found and drove in nearly 
 all of them, many being placidly asleep with their 
 sarees thrown over their heads. Even when in line 
 they are very troublesome. While I was at one side 
 of the clearing showing some brown-skinned damsel 
 the right way to work, every one would sit down and 
 chew betel-nut at the far extremity, and by the time 
 I had got over there and had wrathfully upbraided 
 the transgressors, I would look round and see the 
 coolies just left chatting or stretching themselves 
 meditatively ! All this under a hot Indian sun was 
 very severe work, especially for one not accustomed 
 to it, and yet it could not be avoided, though experi- 
 ence doubtless makes it easier. 
 
 Then, too, the women are much more troublesome 
 than the men. It is a mistake to think they are 
 easily managed ; and before I had been on the estate 
 many days, I sincerely wished they were all away at 
 their native villages in Mysore and Madura, with 
 their troublesome children and squealing babies. But 
 it always falls to the " chik doree's " share to look 
 after them when he first begins his experiences, as 
 their occupations are usually the humble weeding 
 and picking up sticks, while the men are engaged on 
 more difficult tasks, which require skilled supervision. 
 Our principal occupation for some time was clearing 
 this guinea-grass enclosure of the loose sticks and as 
 many of the branches as were movable, and fetching 
 
 the grass roots from W 's estate, where there was 
 
 a flourishing plantation much patronized by the sam- 
 bour and other deer of the neighbourhood. As this 
 was three miles away or more, the work was very
 
 AT WORK. 157 
 
 tedious, my share of it being continually driving long- 
 lines of women and children backwards and forwards. 
 One way they were light-hearted enough, and pro- 
 bably laughed and joked at my expense, though my 
 command of the language did not enable me to tell 
 for certain. Perhaps that was as well ; but coming 
 home, each woman had a heavy load on her head, 
 and each child a smaller one, and the path naturally 
 seemed longer, while we were very much troubled by 
 the leeches and flies. At the end of each double 
 journey I really felt for my workers, who were weak 
 and famine stricken ; but there was no help for it, so 
 the superintendent said, and three times every day 
 we were expected to make the long gloomy walk, 
 over hill and dale, through the wet jungle. It was 
 bad enough for me, who was well shod, well fed, and 
 marched both ways without a load ; it must have been 
 grievous to many of my poor followers, whose bare 
 feet and legs were exposed to leech-bites and thorns, 
 and who had to make half their journeys under great 
 loads of the pale green grass, which, by hanging down 
 in front and behind, nearly enveloped several of the 
 smaller carriers. 
 
 It may be wondered how I got on with scanty 
 knowledge of the language. In truth, it was very 
 difficult work, as my Hindustani was of little or no 
 good ; and I should have been in greater difficulties, 
 but for the assistance of the maistries, one or two of 
 whom always accompanied the parties ; and knowing 
 by experience what had to be done, they were able to 
 direct their more ignorant countrymen and women, I 
 meanwhile standing by, looking as wise as might be. 
 These maistries, or head workmen, are much superior 
 to their compatriots in every way. First of all, they 
 are always dressed somehow or other ; one of them 
 would no more appear in public in the piece of string 
 and rag of a coolie than an Englishman would. In
 
 158 ON THE INDIAN HILLS. 
 
 this respect they are very particular, and it gives them 
 at once a great rise above the lower grades. In their 
 homes they are small farmers, and have come up to 
 the jungles when the land is burned like a brick from 
 long-continued drought, and their bullocks have died 
 from want of grass. Moreover, many of them are 
 men who have been born and lived on coffee estates 
 all their lives, and these are of course the most valu- 
 able, owing to their experience, and because they have 
 grown to know the ways of the Englishmen, and 
 often even their language ; though, unfortunately for 
 me, none of ours had arrived at that degree of ex- 
 cellence. There was a half-caste, however, on the 
 estate who spoke both Tamil and English, and he 
 was of considerable use from his knowledge of the 
 operations and of the native methods. He lived in 
 a small hut by himself, between our bungalow and 
 the coolie settlement, so that he was always at hand 
 
 when wanted ; and whenever R had a more than 
 
 usually unpleasant job to be done, somebody was 
 always sent to fetch the unfortunate "clerk," who 
 got considerably more " kicks than half-pence." 
 
 The position of these half-castes, who are very 
 numerous all over the country, must be difficult to 
 support with dignity. Born of native women, some- 
 times the wives of European soldiers, they live between 
 the races in every respect. In colour they are a yel- 
 lowish white, with poor physiques and the sloping 
 shoulders of the native, with the same strangely 
 formed hands and fingers. Unfortunately, while they 
 inherit the weak points of both breeds, they do not 
 seem to be particularly strong in the virtues of either. 
 It may not be their fault ; it may be want of education 
 and training ; but, as they stand at present, they are 
 scorned by the pure-blooded natives, over whom they 
 attempt to tyrannize (which the natives strongly 
 resist, as they feel none of the respect for them which
 
 AT WORK. 159 
 
 they do for the sahib), and looked down on by the 
 Englishmen with even more hauteur than would be 
 shown to a native of pure blood. They are thus 
 placed "between the devil and the deep sea," and 
 associate with neither, keeping to themselves, and 
 coddling their wrongs a great pity, as they and 
 their descendants are becoming very numerous. Our 
 particular clerk, who held a position just above the 
 first native maistry, was, on the whole, a fair sample 
 of his kindred. Dressing in thin, threadbare black 
 clothes, cut on an English pattern (I fear his whole 
 wardrobe), through all the worst of the wet monsoon, 
 his poor battered white helmet and his thin-soled boots 
 which I fancy he kept on night and day, because he 
 dared not take them off for fear of their coming to 
 pieces moved me to compassion. I have seen him, 
 when the day's work was done, of which he had 
 borne a big share with no chance of praise, steal away 
 to his hut with the rain streaming down his clothes, 
 and sit down to his miserable plate of boiled rice and 
 fish ; and in such a place ! A low, miserable shed, 
 having a mud floor, and walls of rotten mats that 
 emitted a sickening smell night and day, and a thin 
 thatch roof that harboured all sorts of unclean insects. 
 Amid such surroundings with no education, no 
 knowledge, and very little hope here or hereafter; 
 despised by his inferiors, and scorned by his superiors 
 who shall blame him much if he drank deep 
 wherever and whenever he could ? In fact, it was his 
 
 great failing, poor fellow ! R told me that he 
 
 gets so wild on the subject, that if he cannot beg, 
 borrow, or steal arrack or brandy from high or low, he 
 will come up to hospital and declare he has a bad 
 attack of cholera, in the hopes of getting hold of a 
 bottle of chlorodyne; and, should he succeed, goes 
 away triumphantly and drinks it, trying to think it is 
 something stronger.
 
 160 ON THE INDIAN HILLS. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 JUNGLE DAYS. 
 
 THE rain came down with very little intermission 
 during [my first week not the warm drizzle of an 
 English autumn, but a cold shower-bath, night and 
 day. Again and again we all got wet through, and as 
 nothing could be dried, owing to the saturated con- 
 dition of the atmosphere, my whole wardrobe rapidly 
 emerged from the packing-cases, and, becoming wet, 
 was in turn hung up to take care of itself round our 
 walls. I changed my hue like a chameleon, and at 
 last began to look anxiously for a break in the clouds, 
 in order that I might dry some things ; otherwise I 
 should be reduced to the necessity of going weeding 
 in evening dress. 
 
 Every morning we rose at dawn, mustered the 
 coolies in a downpour, worked all day under the 
 same conditions, and when the evening came released 
 our men, always a long and tedious affair, and gladly 
 betook ourselves to the reeking hut, where we dined 
 in a vapour-bath of moisture condensed by our lamp. 
 Then, after a pipe and reading a little, we sought our 
 bunks, and listened to the rain pattering overhead 
 and the trees sighing with the wind that swept up 
 the mountain gorges, until we dropped asleep. 
 
 One never knows what a man can stand until the 
 time comes to make the trial. In England I should 
 have thought this sort of life the height of misery, 
 although well accustomed to " roughing it ; " but here 
 I had fallen quite naturally into the way, and regarded 
 being drenched through and through, in spite of 
 umbrellas and oil-skins, as of very slight importance. 
 It told, however, on R , who was " not so young
 
 JUNGLE DATS. 161 
 
 as he was once," and, neglecting himself, he got worse 
 and worse, putting duty after duty on my shoulders, 
 until the 12th, when, coming home from work, he was 
 clearly "run out." His dinner was pushed away 
 un tasted, and he insisted upon going to bed at once. 
 
 We helped the old coffee-planter to his cot ; but he 
 was stiff all over, and lay groaning and writhing long 
 into the lonely hours of the night, while " Charlie " 
 and I watched and tended him, and did what we 
 could. But not even he himself had any idea what 
 was the matter. About midnight nothing would 
 satisfy him but starting at once for Palghaut, where 
 there was a hospital with an intelligent native apothe- 
 cary, who, he hoped, would be able to doctor him. 
 
 In vain we tried to dissuade R from the long wet 
 
 journey, for it was of no avail ; so, while his son ran 
 down to the lines to collect twenty of our strongest 
 men, I set to work to construct a munchiel. This was 
 rather difficult, as there were no bamboo clumps within 
 a mile capable of affording a stem strong enough to 
 support the burden down the rocky road to the plains. 
 However, necessity is the mother of invention, and 
 looking round, my eye lit upon the long poles, made 
 of young sapling jack trees, which supported the 
 division of our rooms ; and seeing one could come 
 away without bringing down everything in the neigh- 
 bourhood, I was soon at work upon it with a clasp- 
 knife, and, after being half choked with cobwebs 
 and blinded with dust, got it safely down. But 
 then there was the difficulty of the hammock. A 
 blanket was lashed on, but wound itself into a robe, 
 and was cut away as a failure. Then fortunately I 
 bethought me of an Ashantee hammock which had 
 been used on the voyage out, and this was tried and 
 found a great success, though somewhat frail in ap- 
 pearance. About one o'clock in the morning, in the 
 heavy silence which precedes the dawn and the dense 
 
 M
 
 162 ON THE INDIAN HILLS. 
 
 black darkness, the coolies shouldered my roughly 
 
 made munchiel, we helped R in, and telling him 
 
 we hoped to see him back soon, the melancholy pro- 
 cession started, and the torches borne by two or three 
 of the party gleamed fitfully upon the wet tree trunks 
 as the path wound up the ridge, until the light, be- 
 coming fainter, finally died away altogether and left 
 us in solitude. 
 
 The first pay day in the jungle is always a very 
 difficult one for the new arrival, especially when he 
 has to be his own paymaster to the forces, his cashier 
 and clerk all rolled into one. The coinage is strange 
 to him, and he is sure to get more or less mixed up in 
 his pice, annas, and rupees, unless he has a head which 
 is better fitted for a mercantile desk at home than the 
 backwoods. Most of those who try coffee planting 
 have souls above mathematics, and to them their first 
 experience of paying a horde of coolies (who, like all 
 natives, dote on disputation) will be long remembered 
 as a dies irce. Still it is a thing which has to be 
 done, however unpleasant ; but I feel for King James, 
 " of sacred memory," who naively said, when receiving 
 a petition to pay his Scotch bills, " Of all petitions 
 this is the one which his majesty liketh the least." 
 
 Unfortunately for me, the next day after R 's 
 
 flight to the lowlands was Saturday, and all day long 
 I was practising rapid reduction of rupees to the 
 smallest coin of the empire, while striving to draw 
 some consolation from the fact that the estate would 
 have nothing to do with cowrie shells, 5120 of which 
 go to the rupee. The thought of giving and counting 
 out much small change of that sort would be dis- 
 traction, four pice or cash to the anna being quite 
 as much as I could stand with equanimity. 
 
 The day, like its predecessors, was miserably cold 
 and dull, and, fearful of being overtaken by dark- 
 ness before getting through the paying, the estate
 
 JUNGLE DATS. 163 
 
 bell was rung an hour earlier than usual to recall the 
 coolies to the mustering ground. They came trooping 
 in from all parts in strong force, and apparently with 
 considerable interest, to see what was going to take 
 place. When they were all mustered, the crowd was 
 thicker and denser than I had ever seen it before, 
 everybody having turned out, even to the lame and 
 sick who were too ill to go to work. When I entered 
 the great circle of nearly two hundred men, women, 
 and children, looking as solemn as might be, with 
 the fateful day-book in one hand and a huge bag of 
 copper and silver coins in the other, having the half- 
 caste clerk at my elbow to interpret, I was conscious 
 that all eyes were upon me, and my smallest motion 
 was being watched, in deep silence, by the assembled 
 coolies. Determined to get into practice as soon as 
 possible, instead of letting the half-caste call over the 
 names,"! decided to do it myself, and, shooting out 
 the bag of money into a glittering heap on the rough 
 wooden table in front of me, plunged at once into the 
 long columns of outlandish names, which filled ten or 
 twelve folio pages of the day-book. Opposite to each 
 name in our system of book-keeping, there were six 
 rows of columns, one for each day of the week, and in 
 each of these columns there was a whole mark, a half, 
 or a blank, according as the coolie had worked a 
 whole day, a half- day, or none at all. Beyond these 
 columns was one to record the total number of days 
 worked out of the last six, and then another division 
 to record the pay given out. At the end of the month 
 the columns on each page were added up, both across 
 and up and down, and, if exactly correct, the final 
 reading in the bottom right-hand corner was exactly 
 the same for both. Thus, it was impossible to make 
 a mistake of even a pie without being able to discover 
 it; but at the same time, among so many densely 
 packed columns, it was difficult to avoid small errors,
 
 164 ON THE INDIAN HILLS. 
 
 likely to show up large in the final result, and cause 
 a vast amount of trouble in correcting. 
 
 I had to call each coolie's name first of all, and, if 
 he had been working all day, put him down in the 
 Saturday column with a mark ; then add up his total 
 work for the week say, five and a half days put 
 this down in the space devoted to it, calculate five 
 and a half days at five annas a day the rate at which 
 we pay our men put down Rs. 1 Ha. 2p. in the pay 
 space, count it out of the heap of coinage at my elbow, 
 give it to the man, and dismiss him. This may sound 
 simple enough, but there were many little difficulties 
 to be surmounted. When I began calling the fearful 
 and wonderful Tamil and Canarese names, there was 
 a general titter round the circle, and three or four 
 men answered at once, my pronunciation being so 
 shaky that they could not distinguish whose name it 
 was. However, I suppressed the giggling, and, having 
 obtained " silence in the court," forged slowly ahead, 
 every now and then making some mistake which set 
 the natives smiling, but getting slowly into the way, 
 and running up the sums and counting out the change 
 like a booking-clerk. Often a coolie would conclude 
 he had not got the right amount, and open a discus- 
 sion, which I had to cut very short ; and fifty per cent, 
 of them thought their rupees were bad, so that from 
 all sides rose the sound of money being chinked upon 
 the rock to test its ring. Each native as he came up 
 salaamed and held out both his hands, edge to edge, 
 to receive the overflowing bounty of the sahib. Poor 
 people ! the strongest man amongst them who had 
 worked in the rain and sun all the week only took 
 six times five annas about equal to three shillings 
 and fourpence and on this, of course, many had to 
 support a wife and children too ill or weak to toil. 
 Then, again, the women many of them mothers, with 
 small brown fragments of humanity slung upon their
 
 JUNGLE DAYS. 165 
 
 backs got three annas a day, and the most they could 
 earn was little more than two shillings a week. Even 
 the little children came up, ducked their small shaven 
 heads in comical homage to the great white sahib, and 
 held out very small brown hands for the price which 
 those same hands were supposed to have earned, at 
 the rate of a penny a day. Last of all, the maistries 
 received pay at the rate of six or eight annas per 
 diem, and then the horse-boys, cook, sweepers, and 
 hangers-on of all sorts. When these were satisfied, 
 there was still a small crowd of non-contents who 
 came up and complained that their money was bad 
 would I change it ? which I always did when possible, 
 as if a poor fellow earned one rupee and chanced to 
 get paid with a bad, unbarterable coin, there was 
 nothing but starvation for him during the next week. 
 Others thought there was a mistake somewhere 
 always to their disadvantage and their names had 
 to be hunted for, and the amount of money given 
 compared with that entered in the book. It was 
 hopeless to please them all, but on going over the 
 accounts during the course of the next evening I was 
 well satisfied to find there was only an error of a few 
 annas happily too much given out, not too little. 
 
 Muster and paying over, and the stores and out- 
 houses locked up, the estate pony seen to, and his 
 feed of grain measured out, there were the sick and 
 ill clustered round the bungalow verandah to be 
 attended to before being released for the day. With 
 
 these I was much helped by K 's son, who, having 
 
 spent all his life in the south of India, knows the 
 manners and habits of the natives. Between us we 
 bandaged half a dozen ulcerated legs, sewed up a 
 chopped finger, administered castor oil and Epsom 
 salts a horrible brew of "Charlie's" invention to 
 two babies, gave a dose of quinine to a young coolie 
 girl who thought she had fever, and rubbed half a pot
 
 166 ON TEE INDIAN HILLS. 
 
 of sulphur ointment into two in-patients suffering 
 from the itch. One old woman, who had recently had 1 
 small-pox, came up for her daily allowance of cod- 
 liver oil, but she had forgotten to bring the top of a 
 cocoa-nut shell with her, that being the article which 
 is usually produced to receive medicine. In this 
 dilemma I was for sending her back to the lines to 
 fetch the cocoa-nut, but my young friend solved the 
 difficulty in a very simple manner. Telling the poor 
 woman to sit down on the ground, and open her 
 mouth as wide as possible, and keep her eyes shut, and 
 not to move a muscle, he put the allowance of oil into 
 a handleless teacup, in which we mixed all our 
 medicines one after the other, and then poured the 
 contents into the woman's open mouth, to her com- 
 plete satisfaction. 
 
 After this we were free to enjoy a much-needed 
 rest, and we dined, in solitary grandeur, spending the 
 last evening of my first week in the forest telling 
 stories " Charlie's " being about the jungle and the 
 " Blue Mountains " of Bangalore, where he had passed 
 all his sixteen years, and I discoursing on the wonders 
 of civilization and the beauties of the home country, 
 subjects of which neither of us ever tired. 
 
 With such a congenial companion, Sunday passed 
 harmlessly away in unpacking and overhauling my 
 belongings, and examining my four guns, with which 
 my friend was delighted, his previous experience 
 having been with heavy Snider rifles. We determined 
 to take out the small " collecting gun " the next 
 morning, to try it. Little did we think what an 
 unfortunate resolve that was. A long eighteen-foot 
 salmon rod, which I had brought in the expectation 
 of getting some mahseer fishing, especially delighted 
 " Charlie," who confessed he had never seen anything 
 like it before, and persisted in practising fly-throwing 
 with it all clay. A more orthodox mode of spending
 
 JUNGLE DATS. 167 
 
 the time was out of the question, as church was an 
 unknown term here, and my book-box had not yet 
 
 arrived, while R 's library consisted of thirty 
 
 copies of a pamphlet showing why he had suddenly 
 left his last appointment, and " The Family Doctor," a 
 useful though not romantic work. 
 
 For the next few days there was a most enjoyable 
 break in the clouds, and we seized the opportunity to 
 hang out our wardrobes on every available bush and 
 rattan in the neighbourhood, that they might get dry 
 after the last week's soaking. Like ants we also 
 brought our stock of tinned provisions into the sun- 
 shine, and put our boots and bed-clothes in a heap in 
 a sunny corner of the verandah. In fact, we had been 
 so miserably saturated for many days and nights that 
 we brought forth everything movable to dry ; and 
 much they needed it ! 
 
 The daily work was gone on with, but an unfortu- 
 nate accident which happened to my comrade spoiled 
 our enjoyment, and took me away from the estate for 
 a while. Seizing a spare half-hour at breakfast-time 
 one morning, we went out, accompanied by a sporting 
 maistry, named Timma, to try the powers of the small 
 gun which had so taken " Charlie's " fancy. This was 
 a sixteen-bore muzzle-loader, and, being only intended 
 for securing specimens of birds, was loaded with a 
 small charge. All went well, and we procured some 
 finches and a thrush new to me, until we got to No. 3 
 clearing, where we rested for a time. I had previously 
 noticed my friend was a little careless of the gun 
 which he was carrying, and begged him to keep it at 
 half-cock. He promised to do so, but while leaning 
 against the trunk of a fallen tree in the young coffee, 
 and listening to the grey pigeons in the jungle, he 
 put the hammer up ready for a chance shot, and, 
 resting the muzzle on the toe of his boot to keep it 
 clean, began playing with the trigger while he
 
 168 ON TSE INDIAN HILLS. 
 
 talked. I was intent on watching for a pigeon, and 
 did not notice this, but all of a sudden there was a 
 report at my side, and, looking hastily round, I saw 
 the gun fall to the ground and my companion stagger 
 backwards. " What on earth is the matter ? " I said. 
 " Oh," said he, " my foot has gone ! " But it was not 
 quite so bad as that. When the smoke cleared away 
 his foot was all right, but we saw an ugly sight. His 
 boot was blackened with the burnt powder, and in 
 the toe was a great ragged hole, out of which, as we 
 looked, the blood slowly welled, and ran over upon 
 the ground in a thick red stream. He behaved very 
 pluckily, but would not let me take his boot off until 
 we got home ; so, there being no time to stand on 
 ceremony or send for help, I threw the two guns to 
 the maistry, and, taking my companion on my back, 
 " made tracks " as fast as possible to the settlement, 
 which was more than half a mile away. " Charlie " 
 is a substantial fellow, and the day was hot, but the 
 blood which trickled down continually kept me at my 
 best pace, and in a few minutes we were safe in our 
 hut and I was busy cutting away at the blood-sodden 
 boot, every movement of which caused my unfortunate 
 comrade a sharp pang. At last it began to come off, 
 and I drew it away in fear and trembling, for j 
 expected there would be two or three toes loose inside, 
 but was delighted to see, when the foot was at length 
 bare, that though the big toe and the next one were a 
 powder-and-blood-stained mass, nothing had actually 
 come away ; and after washing them carefully in 
 tepid water, I was able to assure the unfortunate 
 fellow that, by a wonderful chance, the whole charge 
 of shot had passed between the two toes. Thus, 
 though both bones were visible and the flesh was 
 hanging in shreds, no great harm was done. Patching 
 the flesh up as well as might be, and sewing it 
 together with white thread silk being; lacking I
 
 JUNGLE DAYS. 169 
 
 finally wrapped all up in lint and rags, and there was 
 my friend, disabled and looking like a gentleman with 
 a bad attack of the gout. He had borne the whole 
 thing with the most excellent fortitude, and when it 
 was over was a good deal more cheerful than I was. 
 
 That night I ransacked my memory for thrilling 
 accounts of adventures on English rivers and Nor- 
 wegian fiords, and sat up late by the bedside of my 
 damaged and iwakeful comrade. But the next day, 
 and the day after, his foot hurt him more and more ; 
 and he got an idea into his head that lockjaw was 
 coming on, as the wound was looking rather green; 
 and at last insisted upon going down to his father at 
 Palghaut. So a second call was made upon my rough 
 and ready carpentering abilities to make another mun- 
 chiel, this of a young bamboo stem, supporting a strong 
 blanket held open by short pieces of wood at either 
 end, and covered in on top by a broad sheet of palm- 
 leaf matting, strengthened by cross-bars. It was well 
 I took the precaution to put a waterproof covering 
 over the hammock, as the sky looked very threatening, 
 and the thunder was rolling about like the chariot- 
 wheels of Indra on the other side of the clouds. 
 
 Late in the afternoon of the 16th of October our 
 preparations were complete ; and having determined 
 to take my friend down to the lowlands at his earnest 
 request, as he was quite helpless by himself, and hoping 
 to get back early the next morning, the munchiel and 
 a dozen coolies, with a strong but bad-tempered old 
 horse, the property of the estate, for myself, were all 
 waiting outside. Scarcely had " Charlie " been safely 
 stowed into the munchiel, than there was a bright 
 flash of lightning and a roar of thunder directly over- 
 head, which set my steed dancing and neighing with 
 fright, and down came the rain, as if the floor of 
 heaven had given way and a second deluge was 
 coming on. Hastily giving the signal to start, I
 
 170 ON TEE INDIAN BILLS. 
 
 scrambled into the saddle, much to the disgust of the 
 tattoo, who thought the stable more comfortable than 
 the jungle paths on such an afternoon ; and before we 
 had gone a hundred yards every one of us but my 
 friend in the hammock was saturated through and 
 through. The rain was tremendous. Not content 
 with coming down in drops like ordinary rain, it 
 descended in blinding torrents. The thick roof of 
 leaves overhead made no difference; every leaf was 
 a small waterspout, and the tree-trunks were glossy 
 with water pouring from them. The ground, which 
 a few minutes before had been fairly dry and solid, 
 was now a swamp in places, and on the steep parts 
 was cut up by hundreds of rushing rivulets, which 
 tore along, sweeping down sticks, stones, and rubbish 
 to the nearest stream, in headlong cascades. I no 
 longer wondered why the hill-tops of this region are 
 bare and soilless. A few such storms would wash 
 away anything except firmly fixed rocks. It is a 
 wonder the trees themselves stood. 
 
 Through this cruel storm we made our way, scarcely 
 seeing the bridle-track for the spray, the thunder rolling 
 overhead and the trees swinging about and bending 
 like reeds, threatening every moment to fall on us, or 
 at least block our road ; until, as darkness came on, 
 we emerged into the estate of the Dewan of Cochin, 
 from which, to the head of the ghaut, the road was 
 "pucka," and there was less chance of missing it. 
 Here, my horse being nervous and excited, I thought 
 a gallop might do him good ; so, leaving the munchiel 
 behind, I made the best of my way through the tall 
 coffee of this clearing, as fast as my steed liked to go, 
 
 and never drew rein until on the borders of D 's 
 
 estate of Polyampara, where, after some time, the 
 munchiel came up ; thereon, holding a consultation 
 with my friend and the maistry in charge, we deter- 
 mined to stay the night at D 's bungalow, and go
 
 JUNGLE DAYS. 171 
 
 on the next morning to Palghaut. There was small 
 chance of being able to cross the flooded rivers in the 
 darkness and rain, leaving out of consideration the 
 haunted samee place, which the coolies were loth to 
 pass on such a night. So we betook ourselves to the 
 friendly shelter, and were, as usual, hospitably received. 
 
 The journey down was concluded next day without 
 
 any noteworthy incident, and R , who was laid 
 
 up in the hospital at Palghaut, received his son and 
 news of the gun accident at the same time. Finding 
 there was no hope of his being able to move for two 
 or three days, and being anxious about the working 
 of the coolies during my absence, I bade good-bye to 
 two or three hospitable friends, picked up in the rapid 
 way in which acquaintances are made at Indian 
 stations, and early next morning turned my back 
 on the pleasant little town much more warm and 
 genial than the gaunt, gloomy jungles. Riding hard, 
 I reached Wallenghay in time for a late breakfast 
 at Widow Vladimir's. Here I learnt that two Eng- 
 lishmen |had gone the day before up to the jungles to 
 shoot, and anxious to know who they were, I pressed 
 on, fording the stream at the foot of the ghaut, and 
 commenced the ascent. 
 
 Passing through the lowlands, the heat had seemed 
 very great, in spite of the fact that my clothes were 
 of the whitest and thinnest "duck ; " but as I mounted 
 into higher regions, the temperature fell very rapidly, 
 and from the appearance of the clouds I feared there 
 was another drenching in store for myself and horse. 
 
 Just as the bamboo region was reached, at an 
 elevation of one thousand feet above the sea, the sky 
 grew black as ink, and a wind came rushing out of 
 the mountain gorges, bending the trees before it and 
 bringing the mist in its wake ; then the storm over- 
 head broke and the rain came down in steaming 
 torrents, turning a thousand rills into dashing
 
 172 ON THE INDIAN HILLS. 
 
 streams and making the path a slippery cascade, 
 in which my horse staggered hopelessly about. 
 Between rain and steam I soon was in the condition 
 of moist blotting-paper. But turning back was not 
 to be thought of, and it was necessary to reach a 
 torrent which crossed the road on ahead before it 
 should be so flooded as to become impassable. This 
 stream, which has been mentioned before as being 
 noticeable for the six or seven round basins worn in 
 its bed a little higher up, where the road cut it, has 
 no well-defined course, but in dry weather trickles 
 across a broad, flat shelf of rock, and falls with a 
 musical tinkle into a beautiful fern-grown chasm on 
 the far side. But now the scene was anything but 
 promising. Instead of a rivulet meandering down- 
 wards, there was a foaming brown torrent racing over 
 the ledge, carrying down great loose stones with it 
 and falling with a loud roar far down into the unseen 
 chasm below, while the road, which must be reached 
 if I wanted any supper, was just discernible through 
 the mist amongst the rocks on the far side. 
 
 My horse was frightened at the sight, and could not 
 be brought to try the venture while I was on his 
 back ; so, seeing it was useless that way, and being 
 already wet through, I jumped off and, dragging him 
 after me, waded in. At first the water was only 
 a foot deep, but it soon rose and filled my top-boots, 
 and got higher and higher, until in mid-stream the 
 rush was so severe, every moment I expected to lose 
 my footing. The horse's hoofs clattered and slipped 
 on the smooth rock, and he grew more and more 
 nervous. In one place we were only a few yards 
 from the edge where the stream broke into foam and 
 went thundering down the gully, and a slip there 
 would have sent us both to adventure in other 
 worlds ; but we got by and were almost safe, when a 
 grey figure, that had been watching us unseen, sprang
 
 JUNGLE DAYS. 173 
 
 up among the misty rocks in front, and with a most 
 sepulchral and mournful howl, such as none but evil- 
 minded things could give, dashed back into the jungle. 
 My horse reared right up and snorted, and I thought 
 his last moment had come, but he regained his footing 
 by a wonderful chance, and a moment after we were 
 standing, dripping, safe on shore. The weird ap- 
 parition that had startled us at so critical a moment 
 was a hungry wolf on the look out for dead bodies. 
 Probably he had seen us arrive on the opposite shore, 
 and, with the cunning of his species, had fancied there 
 was a bountiful supper in store for him, which, of 
 course, must have been a very exciting prospect on so 
 wet an afternoon. One can easily imagine with what 
 eager interest, as he crouched among the rocks, the 
 gaunt brute watched the Englishman and his horse ; 
 and. his feelings can be understood when his supper 
 in futuro passed the most dangerous place and had 
 nearly reached safety. No wonder he howled ! 
 
 Then into the saddle again, and ever upwards 
 through the lonely and gloomy bamboo jungles the 
 chosen home of bison and tigers where the rain half 
 blinded me, and the tall stems on either side lashed 
 about like reeds in the wind. The sarnee place was 
 reached at dusk, and looked the very beau ideal of a 
 haunt of ghosts, with the white mist eddjdng about 
 the groaning trees, the dead leaves whirling in circles, 
 and the great pile of wooden memorials of human 
 suffering. Here, getting on to level ground, and 
 consequently a better made road, it was possible to 
 ride fast, and, galloping through the storm, we crossed 
 Polyampara and the jungle beyond, passed the 
 
 bungalow of C. H , and skirted W 's estate of 
 
 Poothapara without stopping. I subsequently asked 
 the latter if he had seen me, and he said he was 
 smoking in his verandah and had noticed a horseman 
 in white, on a " fiery black steed," passing along the
 
 174 ON TEE INDIAN BILLS. 
 
 high ground when the storm was at its worst, and had 
 been sorely perplexed to think who could be out 
 riding on such an evening. In fact, I let the horse 
 make his own pace, and, his home being in front and 
 his grain waiting, we did quick time for the rest of 
 the way, and, just " saving daylight into harbour," 
 cantered down into the settlement as darkness fell. 
 
 Persons of a sanguine temperament will find the 
 first year on a new estate full of little difficulties and 
 disappointments, and will often be severely tried if 
 they are given to feeling lonely. Now, I had promised 
 myself a comfortable dinner and a pleasant change 
 into dry clothes after my long ride, but when the 
 bungalow was reached, it was shut up and still, no 
 cheerful light or promising smoke issuing from the 
 chimney everything was wet, cheerless, and dark. 
 I shouted " Ghora-wallah ! " till the jungle echoed, but 
 no one came; so, vowing vengeance on the truant 
 " horse boy," I took the horse to the stable, unsaddled 
 him, wiped him down, fed him, and then got into my 
 bungalow by the " office " window, as the door was 
 locked. 
 
 It took ten minutes to find and rouse the " cook 
 boy," who was stupefied with arrack, which he had 
 been drinking to keep the damp and cold out ; and, 
 while he exerted his feeble intellect in making a fire 
 in the store with a pile of wet logs, my clothes were 
 changed ; and, once more dry again and under shelter, 
 my thoughts turned on dinner, my last " pucka " meal 
 having been at the "Travellers' Bungalow" at 
 Palghaut the evening before. So I asked the boy 
 what he proposed to give me. He was still extremely 
 foggy, and, after rubbing his eyes and thinking for 
 a moment, said, "Nothing, sahib." My only reply 
 Avas to direct him to open one of my tins of pre- 
 served soup, which I had brought up for such an 
 occasion, and get it ready "juldie;" but, to my ex-
 
 JUNGLE DATS. 175 
 
 treme disgust, he informed me, in confused sentences, 
 that those two Englishmen had been up the day before, 
 and had dropped in to see me, but finding I was 
 away and, as the stupid " boy " told them, not 
 expected back for some time, they breakfasted here, 
 and seemed to have made free with the tinned 
 provisions, after which they marched southward. A 
 short note, which the servant produced from his 
 turban, told me that their own provisions not having 
 then come up, and hearing I should not be back for 
 some time, they had looted what they had seen in the 
 cupboard, and would replace them " with very many 
 thanks before I returned." This was but cold com- 
 fort, and on examining what food there was left, I 
 found that it consisted of a bottle of palm-brandy, 
 two pounds of black pepper, and the remains of a 
 piece of bacon which hung above my bed. The sole 
 consolation was that my unknown guests had not 
 been able to borrow my store of tobacco, which, 
 under some benign influence, I had locked up before 
 starting for the lowlands. 
 
 There was nothing to be done but to put the 
 best face on the matter ; so I was soon seated at the 
 table, with the lamp burning dimly overhead in the 
 dense opal-coloured smoke of the wood fire, which did 
 not seem to care about going up the chimney in an 
 orthodox manner, and several rashers of bacon in 
 front, flanked by the arrack and huge pepper-tin. 
 There was some comfort for the meagreness of the 
 fare in making as much display as possible. After 
 all, hunger is the best sauce for all kinds of food, and 
 one can dine very fairly off bacon and plenty of 
 pepper after a long wet ride, especially if there is 
 nothing else to be had, while arrack punch is excel- 
 lent when^properly made. 
 
 There were, indeed, a few little extra inconveniences, 
 such as the night insects, who seemed to be having
 
 176 ON THE INDIAN HILLS. 
 
 a public meeting round the lamp and on the table, 
 continually hopping into my plate or glass ; and then 
 again a musk-rat had been crawling over the bacon 
 while it was suspended on the wall, and had left a 
 remarkably strong taste behind him. This set me 
 thinking on the many stories I had read of the skill 
 of native servants in poisoning people in slow ways, 
 so that they gradually languished and slid, without 
 any vulgar symptons, into other worlds, and I fell to 
 wondering whether my cook was to be trusted. He 
 knew well there were several hundred rupees in the 
 safe, the keys of which were in my pocket : what 
 would be easier than for him to give me a sleeping* 
 draught or a dose of powdered glass, and a fortune 
 lay at his command ! And then what a shocking bad 
 
 character he had ! F had sent him down to me 
 
 the first day of my arrival, with a note to the effect 
 that he was sure I should be in want of a servant, 
 and as the bearer was " the biggest rogue and greatest 
 thief in the district," he could not keep him any 
 longer, and hoped he might suit me until something 
 better was to be had. His name was " Chokra " 
 when he entered my service, but my young friend 
 " Charlie " re-christened him " Sheitan " after a short 
 acquaintance with his dusky form and darkling 
 habits. Meditating in this vein, while the fire burnt 
 low and the rain beat upon the thatch and the wind 
 howled, something caused me to look over my 
 shoulder, and there stood the object of my thoughts, 
 with his arms folded on his chest, silent and motion- 
 less, scarcely anything of his evil face being visible 
 in the gloom but his white teeth and rolling eyeballs. 
 Thinking this might be a good opportunity to see 
 what sort of a man he was, I proceeded to ask him 
 a question or two. " Well, Sheitan," I said, " you 
 told me the other day you had been to a native 
 school ; now, what did you learn there ? Any
 
 JUNGLE DAYS. 177 
 
 geography ? ' This was rather a long word for him, 
 but he said, " Yes ; " so I continued, " That's right. 
 Now, where do Englishmen come from ? " Without 
 moving a muscle he answered placidly, "Palghaut, 
 sahib," and he obviously believed that was the rim 
 of the world, his Ultima Thule, beyond which there 
 was nothing but uncertainty. So I tried another 
 track. " Are you a Christian, Sheitan ? " I inquired. 
 " Yes, sahib," he said. " That's right. Then of course 
 you know where you will go when you die ? " I 
 inquired. He looked at me for a moment with his 
 big gloomy eyes, and then, all solemn and motionless, 
 said, " To hell, sahib." I thought, after this, I would 
 not make any more inquiries as to his education, but 
 bidding him pile up the fire and call me at daybreak, 
 dismissed him for the night. 
 
 But at best it was not possible to spend a very 
 cheerful evening. The rain beat down incessantly, 
 and the wind sobbed amongst the tree-tops and 
 rattled the long pendant creepers together in mourn- 
 ful tunes. Every now and then one of the stoppings 
 of the holes in the sides of the hut, through which 
 the stove-pipe had formerly passed, would be blown 
 in, followed by a gust of wind and a torrent of rain, 
 and the gap had to be hastily plugged up again with 
 anything that came first to hand. Once or twice I 
 heard big branches snap off from the trees in the 
 jungle and fall crashing to earth, and any moment 
 one might come through the roof of my hut. 
 
 Then the thoughts of the next day were not agreeable. 
 A thousand acres of land on my hands, and a couple 
 of hundred coolies to look after and control before I 
 had been a week up here or knew a word of the 
 language, and, last but not least, the grey mosquitoes 
 drove me half wild, and the small beetles that would 
 crawl down my back or up my sleeves just when I 
 was comfortably smoking. As for fleas, they abound 
 
 H
 
 178 ON THE INDIAN HILLS. 
 
 wherever coolies are, and I had grown indifferent to 
 them and their bites perhaps would have felt lonely 
 without them. But there is a larger creature of the 
 grasshopper tribe, which makes day and night 
 hideous with its noise, and for this insect I entertained 
 the most cordial hatred. The sound it makes is quite 
 indescribable, but seems most like a couple of metal 
 saws going through a plate of sheet iron. If I had 
 any other feelings but wrath while this evil being is 
 performing, they would be wonderment and admira- 
 tion for the powers of so small a musician. Fancy a 
 creature two inches long, who can cause himself to be 
 heard half a mile away ! What a blessing it is such 
 powers are not given to human beings ! An Irish 
 member of Parliament with any such gift would 
 upset our Constitution ; but the thought is horrible. 
 These terrible nuisances the jungle crickets I mean 
 are supposed to make their fearful sounds by rub- 
 bing their legs over their wing-cases, and though their 
 legs are certainly armed with a formidable row of 
 sharp spines, they must work very hard to obtain 
 such results. 
 
 One of them came into my bedroom on the 
 evening of my return from Palghaut, just as I had put 
 out the light and was falling asleep, and, settling on 
 the rim of our washing-basin, deliberately tuned up 
 and launched into a wild chorus of screeches. I 
 listened for a moment, and then one of my boots flew 
 in the direction of the sound, and knocked the basin 
 to the ground. For a while the enemy was silenced, 
 but just as I was falling asleep again he started afresh 
 on the rafters overhead. Another boot dislodged him ; 
 but as fast as he was driven from one spot he turned 
 up in another, and so, finding him irrepressible, I 
 struck a light and, after a prolonged chase into every 
 corner of the hut, succeeded in securing him, and 
 magnanimously let him go through one of the holes
 
 " UNDER THE SUN." 179 
 
 in the sides of the bungalow. The last thing I heard 
 before going to sleep was his detestable song from 
 the roof-ridge of my shed, in return for this Buddhistic 
 clemency. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 "UNDER THE SUN." 
 
 NATURALLY enough, the work that fell upon me 
 
 after E, 's compulsory absence in hospital at 
 
 Palghaut was very hard. At five o'clock each morn- 
 ing it was necessary to be up and have the great 
 bell rung, and then came the mustering of the coolies, 
 and the setting them their various tasks. This would 
 have been nearly an impossibility, without a know- 
 ledge of Tamil and Canarese, but for the assistance 
 of the half-caste, who interpreted my orders. Then, 
 from 6 a.m. to 12.30 p.m. I was continually on the 
 move, hurrying hither and thither, scrambling about 
 the clearings, pushing through the jungles, and making 
 myself as "numerous" as possible. For this sort of 
 work it is, of course, hopeless to use a horse, as the 
 ground is much too rough and obstructed, and riding 
 in the jungle, except just in the beaten track, is out 
 of the question, on account of the creepers and 
 bamboos. 
 
 At half-past twelve there occurred a brief interval 
 of rest for breakfast, during which our tapal, or run- 
 ning postman, from the plains, arrived, and some of 
 the time had to be devoted to reading and answering 
 letters, private and on business ; and then, all writing 
 finished, and the necessary orders for food and the 
 wants of the estate having been sent to the native
 
 180 ON TEE INDIAN BILLS. 
 
 agents in Palghaut and Wallenghay, the postman put 
 his little wicker-basket on his head, and set out again 
 for the lowlands. 
 
 The endurance of these men is something wonder- 
 ful. We had four in our service, and every day one 
 of them came up with our post, etc. They arranged 
 that one man should start from Palghaut immediately 
 on the arrival of the early morning mail, with letters, 
 papers, butter, eggs, and occasionally clean clothes or 
 something of the kind, all packed into a small basket, 
 weighing perhaps five or six pounds, and carried on 
 his head. He ran the whole eleven miles to Wallen- 
 ghay by every short cut he knew of, and as fast as 
 he could go. At Wallenghay he found another tapal 
 waiting, and transferred the basket ; whereupon the 
 second man " made tracks " for the jungle, and his 
 was the hardest stage, for he had to face the ghaut 
 road, with its tiger-haunted glens and unholy places. 
 Only stopping perhaps to drink and pray for a minute 
 or two by some brook-side, he gained the mountain) 
 tops, and arrived at my bungalow about one o'clock. 
 Then, as previously mentioned, while the man sat on 
 his heels in the verandah and chewed a little betel- 
 nut, I was writing the answers to the correspondence 
 he had brought up, and when they were finished the 
 basket was refilled with anything that had to be 
 returned to the plains, and the tapal salaamed and 
 started away again for the ghaut road. He generally 
 managed to reach Wallenghay the same evening, 
 whence my correspondence was taken to Palghaut 
 in time for the early post to Madras and the rest of 
 India the next morning. Thus the man who had 
 Wallenghay to Pardagherry stage (and each of our 
 four men took it regularly in turn) had to do sixteen 
 miles uphill with a heavy weight on his head, and 
 then sixteen miles downhill again, between ten in 
 the morning and sunset. As might be expected, they
 
 "UNDER THE SUN." 181 
 
 were models of good training, without an ounce of 
 superfluous fat anywhere about them ; and, as their 
 clothing consisted of a long strip of white cloth wound 
 round and round the waist, and hanging down to the 
 knees, it was possible to study the muscles of the 
 human body, as shown forth under their smooth 
 copper-coloured skin, to great advantage. 
 
 After the arrival and departure of the tapal the 
 event of the day in these lonely wilds there was 
 always another long spell of work to be done during 
 the afternoon, and this was the hottest and most 
 fatiguing part of the toil, made especially trying by 
 the fact that the coolies were by this time nearly 
 spent, and the greatest exertions were necessary, in 
 our wilderness-like clearing, to get any work out of 
 them. So by the hour the sun was sinking amongst 
 the tree-tops in the west, and the great bell was 
 tolling to recall every one, I was generally very glad 
 to hear it. On getting back to the settlement, roll- 
 call had to be gone through,' the sick attended, the 
 horse watched while he fed, in order that the ghora- 
 wallah might not steal the grain, and the tools issued 
 in the morning received back and counted, all of 
 which made rest, and then dinner, very welcome. 
 
 The evenings that followed were oppressively soli- 
 tary. No Englishman within five or six miles, and 
 then only one, and he very taciturn. Riding to any 
 of the estates was not to be thought of after a day's 
 severe work in the sun, without taking into account 
 the dark jungle paths reeking with fever-mist at 
 night, tangled with roots, and the off-chance of 
 meeting an elephant or bison. So there was nothing 
 to do but smoke in silence, and turn in as early as 
 might be. 
 
 I had a considerable amount of trouble with the 
 boy " Sheitan." He would persist in washing himself 
 and his clothes in my only saucepan, and kept my
 
 182 ON THE INDIAN HILLS. 
 
 rice in an old stocking, while his kitchen, which 
 abutted on the bungalow, was like nothing so much 
 as a coal-hole, and had a great heap of refuse in one 
 corner. Occasionally I looked into this place to keep 
 the sanitary arrangements in some sort of control, 
 and nearly always found my " boy " had company of 
 some sort ; in fact, I rather think there was a small 
 relief camp on my premises under the cook's manage- 
 ment for my rice went wonderfully fast, as did my 
 other provisions. Once or twice I found a native 
 woman nominally assisting at the cooking, and 
 " Sheitan " always answered my inquiries by saying, 
 " This is my mother, sahib, just come from Wallen- 
 ghay " apparently careless of the fact that he had 
 said the same of quite another woman, and that it 
 was not probable he had two or three mothers. 
 Then, again, there was some difficulty in clothing 
 him. When he first put in an appearance, he was in 
 bathing costume, and, thinking such an important 
 factotum should be respectably clad, I exercised my 
 mind to find him some garments, but without success, 
 until at last, calling him into the bungalow, I ex- 
 plained my views, and bade him look round and see 
 if there was anything which might do ; so in his 
 solemn way he marched round and inspected all my 
 belongings. He was dissatisfied with a shirt, and it 
 must be confessed, when he was inside it, with the 
 sleeves flapping helplessly over his hands and his 
 head only just coming above the collar, he did not 
 look very dignified or fit to wait at table. So he 
 proceeded with his search, and, after a minute or two- 
 of hesitation over a pillow-case, finally chose a soiled 
 linen-bag which was hanging on a peg, and expressed 
 his opinion that, if he might have it, it would make 
 a splendid pair of pyjamas. On receiving permission, 
 he walked off with the bag, which was white, with 
 large purple spots. I thought he intended to cut it
 
 " UNDER THE SUN." 1 83 
 
 up and make a jacket out of it, but in less than half 
 an hour an animated bolster entered the hut, with a 
 pair of brown legs below, and a head and arms on 
 top. After having boasted of his tailoring skill, he 
 had contented himself with laying the linen-bag on 
 the floor, and, slicing off the two bottom corners with 
 a knife, had roughly hemmed the edges, and then, 
 getting into it, had put his feet through the holes 
 and drawn the tapes at the mouth tight round his 
 chest. He was perfectly serious, and afterwards con- 
 tinued to wear this ridiculous garment in all weathers, 
 asleep and awake, for kitchen work and for waiting, 
 during the next three weeks ; and, as may be supposed, 
 by that time it wanted washing. 
 
 On the estate, the work that had to be done was 
 not very varied, but consisted in preparing the guinea- 
 grass clearing, road-making, and utilizing the end of 
 the monsoon for planting out a few thousand more 
 coffee trees into one of the clearings, and filling up 
 " failures " in others. The first work is simple enough, 
 and when the grass is established, it needs no more 
 attention, but in a good situation affords a continual 
 cut of hay for cattle, without any trouble expended 
 in return. In forming a field, the only thing necessary 
 is to secure a wet week or ten days for the operation. 
 The roots of the grass, having been brought into the 
 clearing, which has been previously freed from weeds, 
 stones, and branches so far as may be, are torn in 
 parts, each of which should have about twelve stems. 
 Coolies, armed with mamoties, then dig or scrape little 
 holes in the ground, as much as possible in lines, and 
 about eighteen inches apart. In these the second line 
 of coolies, usually women or boys, place the roots, but 
 instead of planting them upright, divide each bunch, 
 and, when inserting them in the holes, bend half the 
 stems one way and half the other an arrangement 
 which is supposed to make the plant spread more and
 
 184 ON THE INDIAN HILLS. 
 
 cover the ground. In this way, when the field is 
 completely planted, all care is over, for if the rain 
 continues for a few days after the planting the roots 
 will strike, and the young shoots, coming up with all 
 the luxuriance of tropical vegetation, will soon hide 
 rocks, fallen trees, and stones in a waving sea of 
 green. 
 
 The road-making was harder work, and consisted 
 in forcing a passage along the steep hillside in No. 4 
 clearing. This occupied a great number of our coolies, 
 under the supervision of many of the maistries, and 
 cost a very considerable amount above the usual 
 allowance. Owing to the very heavy nature of the 
 timber, and to the ground being on a steep hillside, 
 all the trees in falling had gone one way, and had to 
 be cut through ; whereas on the level the trees take 
 no particular direction, and frequently leave deal- 
 spaces of considerable magnitude. In the present 
 case, however, we had not that advantage, and the 
 
 three or four miles of road which R had requested 
 
 me to open before his return constituted a formidable 
 enterprise. 
 
 Every morning I marched out at the head of the 
 attacking forces, consisting often of a hundred men 
 armed with mamoties, crowbars, and axes, and every 
 evening, as we wound our way homewards, the road 
 had been a few yards further advanced. But we met 
 obstacles which gave us a vast amount of trouble. 
 Now and again it was the stump of a forest giant, 
 that had been cut off five feet above the ground, 
 which we had to draw, like a mighty tooth. One or 
 two of these stumps took us four or five days' toil. 
 The first day's would go in scratching away the soil 
 and undermining the roots, and when those were laid 
 bare we had the task of cutting through them, many 
 being underground branches as thick as the stem of a 
 small tree. When at last they were severed, all
 
 " UNDER TEE SUN." 185 
 
 available hands were mustered, and, with crowbars 
 and long levers, the stump was slowly hoisted out 
 amongst the frantic cries of the maistries and shouts 
 of the perspiring coolies, to be rolled down the hill- 
 side, where it is to stay for twenty or thirty years, 
 until sun and rain have resolved it into dust. The 
 greater proportion of the trees were cut through in 
 two places, and the intermediate portion was rolled 
 away easily enough ; but sometimes, in spite of my 
 utmost engineering skill, the upper portion of the 
 trunk would come rolling down the hill-slope, sending 
 every one flying for his life, and blocking up the track 
 again. A coolie was once overtaken by one of these, 
 and only saved from being crushed out of all form by 
 the log tilting up and sliding over that under which 
 he crouched. But the most troublesome features of 
 the road-making were the logs of iron wood, of which 
 we had to remove three or four. Their name perfectly 
 expresses their nature they are literally vegetable 
 iron ; and I could tell, so soon as I entered the clearing, 
 whether the coolies were at work upon one by the 
 metal like ring the wood gave forth when struck by 
 the axes. Standing close by, at every stroke that 
 was made I saw the axes bound back as though struck 
 against a steel block, and a very minute chip of wood 
 was the only result; in fact, the axes often got the 
 worst of the encounter, and had to be frequently 
 changed. Rolling these logs was a work of immense 
 labour, on account of their great density and weight. 
 A few dynamite cartridges skilfully placed would 
 Tiave saved us a lot of trouble, but unfortunately we 
 had none on the estate ; but that is the way they 
 <lispose of tough tree-stumps in Australia, and it 
 answers excellently. 
 
 The third of my chief occupations consisted in 
 taking the young coffee plants up out of the " nursery," 
 and removing them to the spots where they were
 
 186 ON THE INDIAN HILLS. 
 
 finally to be planted. The "nursery," which was in 
 the corner of No. 1, and in an angle formed by the 
 Manalora river and a small stream which emptied 
 itself into it, had been formed eighteen months before ; 
 in fact, it is always the first operation on a new estate 
 after the planter and his coolies have been roughly 
 hutted. 
 
 A suitable spot having been selected and the great 
 essentials are nearness to a stream, so that the young 
 plants may be watered during the hot weather and 
 immediately after they are planted, and that good 
 shade-trees may overhang the " nurser}^ ; " a depth of 
 rich earth, that of a brown colour is considered the 
 best, with accessibility to all parts of the estate and 
 to the jungle where the great stores of leaf-mould are. 
 These things having been secured, the land is cleared 
 of all weeds and shrubs, which are grubbed up and 
 removed by hand, nothing in this case being burnt 
 upon the spot ; but the stuff removed is often formed 
 into a hedge round the place to keep off the wild 
 animals, which do a great deal of damage by roaming 
 about at night and nibbling the young shoots of the 
 coffee. 
 
 The next operation is to divide the ground with a 
 broad path down the centre, and numerous parallel 
 beds on either side, eighteen feet long by two broad. 
 They should not be of any greater breadth, or it will 
 be impossible to attend to the young plants, when 
 they appear, without injuring some. When the beds 
 have been deeply dug, the coffee seeds in the outer 
 wrapper or "parchment" are planted in little holes 
 drawn at right angles across the bed, each seed about 
 four inches from its neighbours. A few weeks of 
 warm, damp weather will bring the young plants to 
 the surface, and they appear first with two cotyledons 
 or seed leaves, after which the stem shoots rapidly 
 up ; and in from twelve to eighteen months the
 
 "UNDER THE SUN." 187 
 
 "nursery " will be in a flourishing condition, and the 
 beds filled with luxuriant young plants with glossy 
 dark green leaves about sixteen inches in height. At 
 this stage of growth they require attention in the 
 way of watering when the weather is exceptionally 
 hot, and many planters collect dry leaves from the 
 adjacent jungle, and spread them thickly between the 
 rows in order to retain the moisture in the ground. 
 We adopted this plan at the request of the company 
 at home, and though the leaves were a decided advan- 
 tage to the plants, they harboured an astonishing 
 number of snakes, of which the coolies were very 
 much frightened without much cause, however, as 
 the most common variety was a little grey-and- 
 white reptile, about a foot long and quite harmless ; 
 though once or twice a very deadly snake, the tic- 
 polonga, was seen making for the jungle, and was 
 permitted to escape unmolested, every man taking to 
 his heels in the opposite direction. 
 
 At last comes the important operation of " planting 
 out," of which there are several modes. One is to 
 scoop the young plant up by a complicated sort of 
 trowel, made to remove the seedling with the earth 
 round its roots, and then to convey it to the clearing, 
 bedding the plant out, and filling up the hole with 
 soil. But our way, which seems the most certain, 
 though slightly more expensive, is to have great 
 quantities of light wicker baskets manufactured at 
 Palghaut and Wallenghay, of the size and shape of a 
 flower-pot. These are made of split rattan cane, and, 
 though they should be tough and elastic, it is essential 
 that they should not be so closely woven as to prevent 
 the roots of the plant piercing them and penetrating 
 the surrounding soil. It is better to have them too 
 loose than too well made. Into these a couple of 
 handfuls of the best jungle leaf-mould is placed, and 
 then the young coffee plants are carefully taken up
 
 188 ON THE INDIAN HILLS. 
 
 with a short trowel, a small piece is cut off the tap- 
 root to prevent it being bent, and they are placed one 
 in each basket, where they may be safely left until it 
 is convenient to move them into the clearings. It is 
 curious that the centre fibre should be so sensitive, 
 but if it gets at all bent it seems to impair the 
 vitality of the top of the plant. Consequently, this 
 part of the operation has to be very carefully watched, 
 and only the maistries are intrusted with the pruning- 
 knives. They go from coolie to coolie, and take off a 
 few inches of each tap-root. One advantage of basket 
 planting is that the plants can be left about for some 
 time without danger. Thus, I had five thousand 
 plants brought from the " nursery " into No. 3 clearing, 
 and placed along the side of the road, where they 
 awaited planting until more pressing work was over ; 
 and the rest of the time all the women and boys 
 were filling up " failures," i.e. putting new plants in 
 places where those formerly planted had died out 
 from various causes, principally from having been 
 placed in holes that have hard rock below, into which 
 the roots cannot penetrate. 
 
 With such work as this, there was hardly time to 
 feel lonely, as all my days were spent in continual 
 activity, and the necessity of retiring early to rest, 
 in order to be up the next morning at daybreak, cut 
 the evening very short. Still, for two weeks I had 
 not seen a single white face or spoken my own 
 language, and at times it certainly was monotonous. 
 My sole connection with civilization was the daily 
 tapal, who brought me occasional and very welcome 
 letters from " home," a chance paper from Madras, 
 and advice from the hospital-bound superintendent 
 at Palghaut. On Saturday mornings the same tapal 
 brought up a couple of hundred rupees, more or less, 
 in small coinage of copper and silver, for paying the 
 coolies, and this had to be accurately counted before
 
 " UNDER THE SUN." 189 
 
 he left the plantation again. But the days at this- 
 season of the Indian year were very much alike 
 nearly all being characterized by pouring rain and 
 cold mists in the early morning, and a wretched state 
 of soppiness as to all my possessions ; in fact, I never 
 longed so eagerly for fine weather in an English 
 February as I did while alone on the estate. Of 
 course there are occasional breaks in the monsoon, 
 when the sun is very powerful, and everything steams 
 like a vapour-bath ; but the usual state of affairs at 
 the intermediate season is moist and cheerless beyond 
 compare. 
 
 I had a slight attack of dysentery at one time, 
 brought on probably by being so often wet through, 
 and by the rapid changes of temperature. This made 
 the work the harder; but after nursing myself for 
 half a day, I found inaction was quite unbearable, 
 and continued my usual occupations until the attack 
 thought fit to slacken. In fact, there is so much hard 
 work to be done on a new estate that getting ill is- 
 unpermissible. 
 
 On the last day of October the weather cleared up 
 a little, and the bright sunshine brought out increased 
 numbers of insects and butterflies, while the birds were 
 more lively. They flew from tree to tree, chasing each 
 other about and enjoying the warmth. The only 
 striking species of birds I had noticed so far were 
 a small colony of half a dozen golden orioles, wha 
 had their abode in a small patch of jungle in the bed 
 of a nullah, and were chiefly remarkable for their 
 discordant cries, ill becoming their beautiful orange 
 plumage, and their extreme shyness. Another bird 
 was somewhat like a magpie, of small and graceful 
 proportions, with a black-and-white body, and a 
 remarkable tail between one and two feet long. I 
 first came across one of these birds when it was feed- 
 ing amongst some low bushes, and it sprang up and
 
 190 ON THE INDIAN SILLS. 
 
 ascended through the tops of the trees, dragging its 
 long white tail behind like an animated rocket. 
 
 On the 1st of November R returned to resume 
 
 the charge of affairs, and I was well satisfied to hear 
 from him, after he had been round the estate, that the 
 work done during his absence exceeded his expecta- 
 tions. Yet he was still feeble, and felt conscious of 
 impaired energies, and he advised me to prepare 
 myself to take charge of the estate again, as he felt 
 very doubtful of being able to remain long away from 
 the doctor's hands. In this way, the old planter 
 advising and instructing often from his bed, where 
 his weakness confined him most of the time, and 
 I executing the instructions, working all day far 
 and near, and of a necessity equally hard in rain and 
 sunshine, and devoting the evenings to estate corre- 
 spondence and accounts, we found ourselves at the 
 end of the first week in November, with the dry 
 season close at hand, and a great deal of interesting 
 work to be done in the ensuing six months. 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 A FEEBLE FOLK. 
 
 FATE seemed determined that I should win experience 
 single handed ! I had not been on the estate ten 
 
 days, when R was forced to go to the lowlands 
 
 on account of sickness, and returned little improved 
 in strength. After making a very plucky stand 
 against his painful complaint for a week, and direct- 
 ing my labours from his couch, or feebly hobbling for 
 short distances round the estate, leaning heavily on 
 his stick, he broke down hopelessly again on the
 
 A FEEBLE FOLK. 191 
 
 evening of the 7th, and begged me to get carriers and 
 a hammock to take him away to the lowlands. So, 
 deeply chagrined, I turned out, collected twenty coolies 
 with a trustworthy maistry, and prepared the mun- 
 chiel, at which experience had made me quite expert. 
 It was a very dark night, with a fine drizzling rain, 
 and the torches of split bamboo carried by the men 
 threw fitful gleams around, making the tree-trunks 
 look copper-coloured, and illuminating our little hut, 
 but rendering the surrounding darkness even more 
 
 dense by comparison. R was quite broken down, 
 
 and as I helped him into the hammock he said, " Good- 
 bye, Arnold ; you will never see me again ; " and with 
 this cheerful remark the procession moved slowly off, 
 and left me in the darkness and rain, to my not over- 
 pleasing meditations. 
 
 There was nothing to do, however, but to " buckle 
 to " again, and the next week my whole time was 
 occupied with the usual work, and building a new 
 set of temporary "lines" for some coolies expected 
 from Madura. These were made of corrugated iron, 
 the sheets being sent up from the agents at Calicut, 
 and intended eventually for roofing the permanent 
 buildings and bungalows. This iron costs a great 
 deal for carriage, even from the lowlands, and much 
 more must be added for transport from England, 
 besides which it certainly does not make convenient 
 coolie " lines ; " and where there is much timber suited 
 for roofing purposes, it seems hardly worth its cost. 
 
 The finishing touches were also put to a very small 
 hut about fifteen yards from the one used hitherto, 
 and just across the footpath, which was to be my 
 abode for some time. It was not palatial in dimen- 
 sions, being about twenty by fourteen feet, nor was 
 the architecture impressive, or the decoration elaborate. 
 It was simply a little band-box-like edifice, made of 
 the usual " brown paper and touch- wood " sort of
 
 192 ON THE INDIAN HILLS. 
 
 material which we used, i.e. stakes stuck into the 
 ground and covered with Palghaut matting. It had, 
 however, two advantages over the one I occupied 
 before from a sanitary point of view : the floor was 
 raised up and made of thick planks, resting on rough 
 piles of stones fore and aft ; and another advantage 
 was that there were mats on both sides of the stakes 
 instead of only on one, which made it drier. I had 
 great trouble in getting the workmen to put these 
 mats on straight. An accurate line is totally un- 
 appreciated by an ordinary native ; again and again 
 I showed them how the lines should run horizontal 
 or perpendicular. They listened in silence, and 
 seemed to understand perfectly, but the next two or 
 three mats would point to every part of the compass, 
 and cruelly ruffle my notions of order. The roof, 
 which was made extra thick, with the eaves brought 
 to within four feet of the ground to protect the sides, 
 was made of the long sweet-scented lemon-grass, and 
 there were three little glass windows, a door with a 
 rough porch, and a wall of matting across the interior 
 to divide the sleeping compartment from the day- 
 room. Alogether it was a strange little place, pretty 
 to look at while the materials were fresh and clean, 
 but not good for hard use the daylight streaming 
 through the two thicknesses of matting in many 
 places, and the wind coming in at every corner ; while 
 after a shower every part got damp, and, being 
 entirely built of vegetable produce, there was a very 
 strong odour of decaying matter something between 
 wet hay and bilge-water on a steamer. When dry, 
 the lemon-grass had it all its own way, and the scent 
 then was very pleasant. 
 
 While out one day in the clearings, the sun, which 
 had been shining brightly a little while before, became 
 rapidly overcast, and light shadows like falling leaves 
 began to chase each other over the ground. Looking
 
 A FEEBLE FOLK. 193 
 
 up to see what could be the explanation of this, I 
 perceived a strange sight above. It was a mighty 
 emigration of newly developed butterflies, seeking 
 " fresh fields and pastures new." At first they came 
 by ones and twos about fifty feet above the ground, 
 borne very gently along with outspread pinions on a 
 soft north-east breeze ; but these were only the scouts 
 of the main army, and soon they were passing by 
 hundreds and thousands overhead, all apparently with 
 one mind taking an undeviating course over hill and 
 dale. Some object they must have had in view, but 
 what it was would be very difficult to say, for nothing 
 but lonely tracts of jungle lay in their path, and then 
 the open sea. The wind was certainly not sufficiently 
 strong to be sweeping them by, whether they wished 
 it or not, and their steady flight and the way in 
 which they seemed to be economizing their powers 
 appeared to indicate a purpose to travel far before 
 their destination was reached. Amongst others, there 
 were large numbers of Papilio erithonius and Papilio 
 pammon, and many Pierides ; but the majority were 
 too high to be recognized with any certainty. It was 
 a wonderful sight, not easily forgotten, and during 
 the two hours while the flight lasted, many hun- 
 dreds of thousands must have passed over the spot 
 where I stood, the whole column stretching far and 
 wide. 
 
 One has little time, however, for studying natural 
 history or anything of the sort on a new estate. The 
 work is never ceasing, and the opportunities are 
 nothing like those enjoyed by Englishmen in most 
 other occupations. Then, too, my first season was 
 exceptionally wet, for the rain stored up its forces 
 and, after being much overdue, made up for lost time 
 by descending in deluges. So copious a rainfall sent 
 down the price of rice and grains in the markets of 
 the low country, but it will be a long time before the 
 
 o
 
 194 CW TEE INDIAN HILLS. 
 
 coolies recover from the effects of the recent famines 
 and agricultural ruin. 
 
 It is scarcely understood at what a low ebb, even 
 in times of prosperity, the common people of India 
 live. The natives of India subsist from hand to 
 mouth, often in fact eating what they never earned, 
 and running into debt. Not so very many years ago 
 they were predial slaves, changing masters according 
 as the land on which they lived changed owners ; but 
 the advent of British rule has amended this, and now 
 the coolie gets the same wages as before, lives as he 
 has lived for the last five hundred years, is free to 
 wander where he likes, and when hard times come, 
 having no master, he is also free to take care of him- 
 self in which he conspicuously fails. He is about 
 as successful a free man as a child of six would be 
 if released from the " barbarous trammels " of the 
 nursery and told to enjoy the glorious privilege of 
 fending for itself. Our friend the coolie, when he 
 works for native ryots or cultivators of the soil, rarely 
 takes his wages in coin of the realm, but is glad to 
 receive as much coarse grain as will keep him and 
 his household from day to day. He is a decided anti- 
 Malthusian marries early and rears large families,, 
 utterly heedless of to-morrow, his greatest windfalls 
 the few rupees he receives as a present from his 
 employer when the latter has a feast-day, and his 
 highest ambition to buy his wife bangles and to 
 outshine his humble neighbours at marriages and 
 ceremonies. He never has any money, and, if he had, 
 would not keep it a week. As long as food is cheap, 
 he gets on fairly well, and even spares a little rice as 
 an offering on the shrine of his household god, or goes 
 to the extent of spending an anna in red ochre to 
 ornament the saniee ; but when the Indian seasons go 
 wrong, it fares very hard with the coolie. 
 
 The rain holds back when it ought to fall, or
 
 THE SAMEE TREE.
 
 A FEEBLE FOLK. 197 
 
 descends in torrents when it is not wanted, and the 
 harvest is bad. There is perhaps no grass, and then 
 the cattle die of starvation far and wide. The coolie's 
 labour grows worthless like himself, and as nobody 
 has any capital invested in him, nobody cares what 
 becomes of him, except perhaps the Government, and 
 as there are probably no railways and few roads near 
 his village, the Government may be said to be far off, 
 wherever situated. He could save himself if he would 
 move from the spot where all his life has been spent, 
 but he clings to it wildly. He will not go to the relief 
 works, where plenty of work and a little food is to be 
 had. He will not confess himself a pauper and seek 
 the famine camps ; he will not even move up to the 
 demon-haunted jungles, and enlist under the banners 
 of the hardy Englishmen who are waging war against 
 the fever-mists in these gloomy regions. So he wanders 
 backwards and forwards, and picks the bones of his 
 fellow-workmen, the buffaloes, along with the dogs 
 and hyenas, and when those same ribs are clean and 
 white, he turns herbivorous and chews the leaves of 
 trees, small weeds, and the heart of the aloe ; and if 
 this does not kill him straight off by an attack of 
 cholera or famine diarrhoea, he may at last crawl to 
 the nearest relief camp or plantation. But by this 
 time he is run out ; his thread of life is spun too fine 
 he has no inside; continued starvation has dried 
 it up, and he is nothing but an animate mummy, a 
 skeleton wrapped in very dirty brown leather. 
 
 The extent of the last famine, and the difficulties 
 of the Government in affording relief, may be better 
 understood when it is remembered that in the Madras 
 Presidency alone some three or four millions of natives 
 find it hard enough to live in times of prosperity, 
 when their food grains are selling at sixty to eighty 
 pounds per rupee. When famine comes, and only 
 from ten to fifteen pounds of the same food-stuff can
 
 198 ON THE INDIAN HILLS. 
 
 be obtained for the same sum, as was the case during 
 the last months of 1877, the nature of the distress and 
 the task of the Government may be understood. It 
 is not the fault of the natives, excepting in a nega- 
 tive way, inasmuch as they do very little to help 
 themselves; and still less is it the fault of the land- 
 lords, who support their labourers as long as they can, 
 but the stern laws of self-preservation compel them 
 to be turned adrift at last. It is, first of all, due to 
 the defective rainfall, and, secondly, to the fearful 
 poverty and lack of resources of the cultivators. Both 
 these causes can be modified to a great extent by a 
 Government formed on the best of all principles, a 
 mild despotism. If the Government would use a little 
 compulsion on the native farmers in the matter of 
 well-digging and tree-planting, great results might be 
 attained. Nobody now doubts the benefits to be 
 derived from these two works. Famines, alas ! do 
 not simply reduce the people to starvation and kill 
 them off like flies, but they come attended by diseases 
 of all sort, and leave behind them, when they pass 
 away, a vast legacy of sickness and misery. Our 
 own coolies on the estate bore only too clear a witness 
 to what a long effort they had made before they had 
 arrived there, showing in their wasted strength and 
 attenuated forms how long the struggle would be to 
 regain their former condition. 
 
 With such material the difficulty of working a new 
 estate may be understood, especially by those who 
 have had some experience of natives. My presence 
 was essential, everywhere and all day, to get any- 
 thing done, and even when on the spot the work 
 accomplished by most of my coolies would have made 
 an English navvy laugh. I once found three men 
 engaged on the roots of a small jack tree which had 
 to be removed. It was a mere sapling, but they had 
 been squatting on their heels round it for half an
 
 A FEEBLE FOLK. 199 
 
 hour, feebly picking at the soil with their mamoties ; 
 and probably they would have gone on for half an 
 hour more, and eventually left it against another day ; 
 but happening to pass along, and being disgusted at 
 their slowness, I laid hold of the small stem, twisted 
 it once round, and pulled it out of the ground with a 
 jerk, and, flinging it into a neighbouring nullah, left 
 the coolies gazing blankly at the empty hole. 
 
 The women and children proved especially trouble- 
 some, since they were the very essence of feebleness 
 and stupidity. It was necessary to get some work 
 out of them, as they were drawing full wages, and 
 yet, of course, it was impossible to speak so roughly 
 to them as to the men. Still they seemed to stand in 
 considerable awe of me, and did their best while I 
 was actually watching ; at a pace, however, which 
 showed only too clearly it could not be maintained 
 when my back was turned. 
 
 Another difficulty was doctoring the sick. Being 
 totally inexperienced at this sort of duty, I was often 
 in great perplexity, with no one to consult or ask 
 advice of. But Nature, with some slight assistance, 
 more or less adroit, from me, made a number of sur- 
 prising cures. Many cases, however, were past the 
 mending of any earthly doctor, and in one week 
 fourteen coolies died in the " lines " within a stone's 
 throw of my bungalow. Nearly every weekly report 
 sent down to the agents at Palghaut contained the 
 record of many deaths in brief totals, such as " died 
 during the week men, 5 ; women, 3 ; and children, 
 6," or whatever the numbers might be. They dropped 
 out of the ranks to be buried in the nearest strip of 
 jungle, and nobody knew whence they came or who 
 they were. The most fatal disease was famine diar- 
 rhrea, which bears a great resemblance to common 
 cholera ; in fact, I do not know where the certain line 
 can be drawn between them, except that the muscular
 
 200 ON THE INDIAN HILLS. 
 
 cramps, which are so fearfully characteristic of the 
 latter, are not present to any great extent in the 
 malady brought on by famine and long privation. 
 But there is little to choose between them in appear- 
 ance, and the end often comes suddenly with both. 
 In one case I was fetched to see a man who had been 
 working in the clearing in the morning, but had been 
 brought to the " lines " with all the symptoms of 
 cholera morbus. He was obviously very far gone, 
 and I went to the hut to get what medicine I could 
 think of, but before it was mixed a maistry came up, 
 salaamed, and said it was too late the man was dead. 
 This was by no means an isolated case. Every night 
 (they had a peculiar habit of dying at night) one 
 or more took the great plunge into the Unknown. 
 Perhaps it was the chills of the evening killed them ; 
 at all events, the half-caste clerk was always wonder- 
 ing, when the day's work was over, who would die 
 before sunrise. One night he was in my bungalow, 
 standing at my elbow and explaining some entries 
 made in the account-books before my arrival, when 
 he suddenly paused in a long sum and said, " Hark, 
 sahib ! " The night was windy and wet, the rain was 
 pelting against the matting, the wind was howling 
 among the trees and finding its way into the hut at 
 twenty holes, making my lamp flicker and the cob- 
 webs wave about overhead. I listened, but nothing 
 was to be heard for a time, except the continual sound 
 of the monsoon storm ; until, all of a sudden, there 
 was a most ghostly hoot, and then a rattling laugh, 
 from the trees on the neighbouring hillside about a 
 hundred yards away. " Do you hear it, sahib ? " said 
 the half-caste. "It is the devil's messenger, and a 
 coolie is dying, and the thing that makes that noise 
 is waiting to take his spirit." Of course, I told him 
 that was nonsense probably it was some owl or 
 nightjar disturbed from a snug retreat by a tree fall-
 
 A FEEBLE FOLK. 201 
 
 ing; but he was obviously unshaken in his barbarous 
 belief, and all the multiplication and division were 
 knocked clean out of his head, so that I had to give 
 him some arrack punch and send him to his shed. 
 
 As I lay on my hard, badly jointed board cot, with 
 the rain pelting against the single thickness of mat- 
 ting a few inches from my head, I listened intently to 
 hear the unearthly sound again, but without success, 
 and when I met the "writer" the next morning, 
 asked him if any one had died to fulfil his prophecy. 
 He said it was so two coolies had died close together 
 the evening before ; so I had to pocket my scepticism 
 and change the subject. 
 
 On another evening there was a new disturbance 
 of a different kind. I had gone to bed, and every- 
 thing was still and quiet, as it did not happen to be 
 raining just then, although it was intensely dark ; 
 when, all of a sudden, there rose a sound like a loud 
 blast on a brass trumpet from the direction of the 
 coolie " lines," and the moment after " Sheitan " burst 
 in and cried, " Sahib, sahib, the elephants are coming ! >r 
 I sprang up, and, seizing a rifle and stuffing into it a 
 cartridge, ran out in my flannel sleeping-suit and 
 slippers. By the time I got down to the " lines " 
 every single coolie in the place was howling and 
 shouting at the top of his voice, while one or two 
 were throwing lighted torches about, to the great 
 danger of the thatches. There was nothing else to 
 be seen, however, and as no elephant could stay in 
 the neighbourhood of such a row, and as I did not 
 care about a midnight hunt in slippers and sleeping- 
 gear, I beat a retreat and turned in again. On in- 
 vestigation the following morning, it turned out that 
 an old elephant, and a young one about eighteen 
 months old, had come down the hillside, forded a 
 small shallow stream at the bottom, and ascended 
 into the coolie "lines." Probably they were all in
 
 202 ON THE INDIAN HILLS. 
 
 amongst the huts before they knew whither they 
 had strayed, though they ought to have been warned 
 by the extremely powerful odour which pervaded the 
 locality inhabited by my natives. There were their 
 footmarks anyhow, all over the place, some of them 
 twenty by eighteen inches across, and from this the 
 size of the old elephant can be judged. In one 
 place they had been within five yards of a hut 
 occupied by two families of coolies, and had stepped 
 upon and broken two large earthenware chatties left 
 out overnight. A little further on, the fore foot of 
 the larger animal had rested on the edge of a rough 
 earth embankment forming a sort of raised causeway 
 in front of a line of huts, and the ponderous weight 
 had brought it down with a run. Every one of 
 the coolies seemed to have been equally frightened, 
 although only two or three had actually seen the 
 animals. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 BUILDING TABERNACLES. 
 
 FOR the next week or so my work was varied by 
 very extensive lopping and burning operations on 
 Bungalow Hill. This is a spur of the high range 
 which bounds our land on the north-east, and was 
 selected as a site for the " pucka " bungalow on ac- 
 count of standing centrally placed in the middle of 
 the estate, and being some two hundred feet above 
 the surrounding country, which should make it fairly 
 healthy. The only hills which overtopped it were 
 the high forest-clad cone of " Hootcha Mullah " to the 
 eastward within this property, and to the north-west,
 
 BUILDING TABERNACLES. 203 
 
 across the Manalora stream (which was our boundary 
 in that direction), the rocky grass-covered heights of 
 the Pardagherry Mountain. On this same hill, and 
 just visible from where I had been working lately, 
 was a wonderful bare precipice, with a wall of rock 
 some three hundred feet in height. Directly under- 
 neath, almost sheltered from the rain by the over- 
 hanging cliff above, with the help of a telescope it 
 was possible to make out the picturesque little straw- 
 thatched hut of another English planter, S , who 
 
 lived there by himself the greatest hermit of us all. 
 
 The view was extensive whichever way one looked. 
 To the right and left the high mountain just men- 
 tioned shut off the quarter of each monsoon, and looking 
 southward down the winding valley of the Manalora, 
 the eye ranged over long expanses of unclaimed 
 jungle stretching right away to Cape Comorin. We 
 were, in fact, the most southerly of all the estates in 
 this direction, and beyond us was a wilderness, the 
 home of the bison and elephant, all "impenetrable 
 jungle." To the north-east we looked along the 
 course of the road, which lead here, over half a dozen 
 estates buried in deep frames of jungle, each with its 
 little white bungalow and dusky coolie " lines ; " and 
 amid most of them one caught here and there the 
 flashing of a pool or streamlet, the all-important water 
 for turning the pulping machinery and supplying the 
 coolies. Farther away the ghaut road began, and, 
 the hills sloping down, nothing more was seen of the 
 forest until the lowlands unrolled themselves, stretch- 
 ing far away like a wonderful fabric of green and 
 silver cloth. At this distance the towns and villages 
 could not be made out, but just where the great 
 Southern Indian plain was melting away into indis- 
 tinguishable distance, the great towering Neilgherry 
 Mountains rose up again, ascending tier above tier 
 into the sky.
 
 204 ON THE INDIAN HILLS. 
 
 Hither each morning I made my way, at the head 
 of a long array of axe and bill men, threading the 
 narrow path, while the mist still hung about, and 
 every spider's web was beaded with a thousand glit- 
 tering liquid diamonds. At the hill-top I generally 
 stopped for a moment to admire the view, while the 
 inaistries got the coolies into working parties. But 
 there was not much time for meditating on the 
 beauties of nature, for much had to be done before 
 any attempt could be made to build on this command- 
 ing spur. The forest which clothed it was cut down 
 some six months before, and presented a scene of wild 
 confusion ; but, for some reason, when the three 
 months of drying had been allowed and fire was ap- 
 plied, the " burn " proved a failure. The flames ran 
 rapidly over the clearing, consuming all the leaves 
 and lighter stuff without touching the heavier timber, 
 which, of course, cannot be burnt as it lies, unless a 
 great heat is obtained by the embers of the smaller 
 materials. So it became necessary to lop up every- 
 thing and burn it by instalments a long job, and 
 needing all the best labour on the estate. As soon as 
 we arrived, the ashes of yesterday's fires were raked 
 together and carefully nursed into a blaze by the skil- 
 ful coolies, and then twelve or fifteen tiny columns of 
 thin grey smoke curled up in the still morning air, 
 and soon the ring of the axes was heard and the crack- 
 ling of sticks, as the fires gained height and strength, 
 and the coolies no longer enjoyed poking them, but 
 threw on logs and branches from a respectful distance. 
 By the time the sun came up we were encanopied in 
 a dense curtain of yellow smoke, through which at 
 first he shone only feebly, but when he got higher and 
 stronger and glared on us from above, his rays, added 
 to the heat of the now roaring bonfires, produced a 
 result never to be forgotten. Nearly every day I was 
 subjected to a temperature high enough, one could
 
 BUILDING TABERNACLES. 205 
 
 almost fancy, to cook a thick chop, and besides this 
 I was continually choked with smoke, blinded with 
 clouds of hot white ashes, and stifled with the fumes 
 of hundreds of strange weeds and herbs. I went to 
 work in the morning fresh, clean, and neat, in white 
 linen jacket and trousers, with nicely polished top- 
 boots and a snowy pith helmet, but when breakfast- 
 time came nothing could present a more striking con- 
 trast than my appearance. My clothes were torn, 
 soiled with earth, and marked from head to foot with 
 charcoal. My hair was powdered thickly with white 
 ashes, and my face and hands about the colour of a 
 coolie's skin with smoke and dust. It was useless to 
 wash until the day's work was done, so I usually 
 breakfasted as I stood, and one of the planters, drop- 
 ping in to see me one day at the midday meal, 
 exclaimed as soon as he had dismounted and entered 
 my hut, " Why, Arnold, what have you been doing ? 
 you look like a coal-heaver ! " And I am afraid I 
 did. 
 
 The coolies do not seem to find the heat too much 
 for them ; they possess the advantage of working en- 
 tirely without clothes, and perspire freely, the moisture 
 running down their bare bodies and cutting channels 
 in the charcoal dust and ashes, until they make a 
 most curious picture. But the superintendent is 
 clothed, and has to be continually on the move amongst 
 the fires, now crawling under charred logs on hands 
 and knees, and now reaching a distant part of the 
 clearing by walking along the tree-trunks and leaping 
 from one to the other. While engaged in this latter 
 way, I had a spill which might have resulted in serious 
 consequences. Wishing to cross the crown of the hill, 
 where the fires were burning fiercely, to see what a 
 party of coolies on the opposite side were doing, I 
 climbed up on a log of peepul wood lying across a lot 
 of others, and, running and jumping from stem to stem,
 
 206 ON THE INDIAN HILLS. 
 
 had nearly got through safely, but, being half blinded 
 and choked with the dense yellow smoke and fearful 
 heat, I dropped off one log, without due caution, on to 
 another four feet below, thinking it was sound. But 
 the fire had eaten along through the whole tree, leaving 
 a glowing mass of burning embers and about half an 
 inch of green bark all round. Directly my feet 
 touched the trunk it gave way, and I came head over 
 heels to the ground, auiid a blinding storm of smoke, 
 dust, and ashes. The only damage done was a few 
 holes burnt in my clothes and one or two scorches on 
 my hands, while, if it were possible, my clothes were 
 grimier than ever. 
 
 It was impossible, however, to control the work 
 successfully all over the estate for long with my limited 
 knowledge of the language; and after a spell of 
 hard uphill work, I wrote to Calicut to say that, as 
 
 Mr. E, would not probably be back for several 
 
 months, the interests of the estate imperatively 
 demanded there should be some one on it who had 
 had more experience than had fallen to my share of 
 the various operations. To this a reply was sent r 
 allowing that the work was very hard for an un- 
 seasoned " chickdoree," and stating that as there was 
 an unattached Englishman in the district a brother 
 
 of D , of Polyampara who had had considerable 
 
 experience, he would soon be associated with me, if 
 possible. Shortly afterwards my new acquaintance, 
 
 E. D , wrote to say he had accepted a temporary 
 
 position on the estate, and would come over in heavy 
 marching order the next day. 
 
 So I made a few preparations, rigged up another 
 bunk, ordered an extra supply of provisions from 
 Wallenghay ; and while seated at breakfast one morn- 
 ing, I was aroused by the arrival of a long string of 
 coolie women loaded with pots, pans, bedding, and 
 general effects, and behind them marched an English-
 
 BUILDING TABERNACLES. 207 
 
 man, whom I immediately recognized as one with 
 whom I had tiffined on first landing at the club-house, 
 Calicut. So we fraternized readily, and, having 
 stowed the new arrival's kit, proceeded to breakfast, 
 and then discussed future plans over our cheroots. My 
 friend's build and stature much like that of the robust 
 Ghoorkhas of Northern India, five feet nothing in 
 height, by three feet broad gave great promise of 
 energy, which was not lessened by the fact that he 
 was a Cornishman. He brought a servant with him, 
 which was fortunate, as " Sheitan's " cooking was very 
 poor and his habits deplorable. It was impossible to 
 get any respect for cleanliness into that " boy's " head, 
 and he had a most free and easy way with my property 
 breaking my small stock of china, cutting the 
 stitches of the soles of my boots when he scraped the 
 mud off, with many other offences, besides the ex- 
 pense which his numerous " mothers " caused me by 
 eating my provisions. 
 
 One of the very few creatures which I had shot 
 since reaching the estate was a specimen of the 
 Malabar squirrel, Sciurus maximus. This extremely 
 handsome animal is as large as a full-grown hare, 
 with the richest soft-furred skin, mahogany colour on 
 the back, striped with a broad black band on either 
 side, and yellow underneath. The ears are ample 
 and fringed with long hairs, the eyes large and hazel- 
 coloured, while the face combines all the colours of 
 the body in stripes. They utter a curious grunting 
 sound when calling to each other, but are silent when 
 alarmed, and glide from branch to branch, only be- 
 traying their presence by shaking the leaves and 
 twigs as they spring. The first specimen I secured 
 was feeding far up among the thick foliage of a jack 
 tree, and might have been passed unnoticed, but for 
 husks of broken seeds which kept falling to the 
 ground as the squirrel unshelled the fruit. Even
 
 208 ON THE INDIAN HILLS. 
 
 then it was no easy matter to make him out at the 
 elevation. 
 
 I must also plead guilty to having shot two or 
 three of the great black monkeys which abound in 
 these jungles during the wet monsoon, but I always 
 had a feeling of quasi-homicide when one was shot 
 they bear such wonderfully human faces, and they 
 behave in much the same way as a human being 
 might. Hearing some chattering in the tree-tops 
 once, I went to the spot, and coming suddenly into 
 view of one old monkey, he seemed to know that 
 hiding was safer than flying under the circumstances, 
 so, seizing hold of a leafy bough above, he drew it 
 down until his head and shoulders were quite hidden; 
 but it did not occur to him that all the rest of his 
 body was exposed his "untutored mind" fancied 
 that if he could not see me, it followed naturally that 
 he himself must be invisible, much the same argu- 
 ment as those philosophers use who deny the existence 
 of a spiritual world. The size of these monkeys 
 is enormous when their arboreal life is taken into 
 account. Many of them are as large as a retriever 
 dog, and must weigh seventy or eighty pounds at the 
 least. One that I shot was a monster, who taxed all 
 my energies to get the carcass back half a mile to 
 the bungalow, and when I threw him down in the 
 verandah, I vowed he could be little under a hundred 
 pounds. In colour they are jet black; the old males, 
 however, carry a white frill round the neck and a 
 white front. Their tails are long as long as the 
 body, but never used, as far as I have observed, for 
 prehension ; in fact, they are generally dragged be- 
 hind their possessor in a careless sort of way, and 
 when the monkey runs along a branch they wave to 
 and fro in a very aimless manner. Their skins form 
 excellent carriage rugs and mats, but are too coarse 
 for wraps or cloaks. There is also a very considerable
 
 BUILDINa TABERNACLES. 209 
 
 difficulty in preserving and drying them properly in 
 the jungle, owing to the continual dampness of the 
 atmosphere, which makes anything resembling leather 
 very mouldy in a short time. 
 
 Monkeys are numbered amongst the foes of the 
 coffee planter, as they make free with the sweet ripe 
 berries, the stones of which are frequently found dry 
 and clean, in lines, under branches and fallen trees, 
 having passed uninjured through their digestive ar- 
 rangements ; and such seeds, old planters will tell 
 you, make the very choicest coffee. The coolies eat 
 monkey flesh quite freely a sure proof their religion 
 is not that of the Hindoos and whenever my gun 
 brought one down, there was a great deal of salaaming 
 around me, and anxious inquiries as to how I in- 
 tended to dispose of the body. Indeed, I tried the 
 " devilled " leg of a young monkey myself at break- 
 fast one morning, and it was not bad; probably a 
 hungry man might enjoy it very much. The native 
 superintendent of the Dewan of Cochin's estate, the 
 next one to the north of ours, employed a boy to 
 wander about in the jungles with a rusty musket, 
 with which he shot the monkeys as they fed in the 
 tree-tops, and got a small reward per skin. One day 
 he came to my hut to know if I had any skins to sell 
 him, but our commercial positions were reversed, as I 
 bought all the fifteen which he had with him for a 
 couple of rupees considerably more than he would 
 have obtained from the Dewan. 
 
 Another creature which only puts in an appearance 
 when the days are growing brighter and hotter, is 
 the gay little striped squirrel, a first cousin of the 
 palm-squirrel of the plains, but rather darker in 
 colour, and known to science by the name of Sciurus 
 trivittatus. This does little harm to new estates, as 
 it confines its attention, like the monkeys, to the ripe 
 berries, and I was always glad to note their small 
 
 p
 
 210 ON THE INDIAN HILLS. 
 
 lithe forms darting along the fallen timber, pulling 
 up for half a moment to see what the enemy is doing, 
 and then, with a flick of the bushy grey tail and a 
 few sharp chirrups, vanishing into some hollow or 
 broken bough. They make themselves wonderfully 
 at home, especially on the outskirts of the clearings, 
 where the timber is half overgrown by weeds and 
 bushes ; but curiously, though I have seen scores in 
 such places, I never observed one climbing a standing 
 tree a sign they are not actually the same as the 
 lowland squirrel, who spends all his time on the trunk 
 and branches of his arboreal home. 
 
 Pardagherry Mountain, opposite to my hut, grew 
 greener and greener every day of the Indian spring, 
 as a vast expanse of mingled rocks and grass, with 
 here a patch of jungle or reeds fringing some water- 
 course, and there a sheer precipice of some hundred 
 feet high, over which a foaming stream was for ever 
 falling in a silver streak. 
 
 That same hill-top, though but seldom visited, has 
 been on one of those rare occasions the scene of a sad 
 event, which deprived the world of a brave English 
 lady. Even her name is unknown to me, but, as I 
 heard the story, she was the wife of a collector, or 
 perhaps forest overseer, and with her husband and a 
 few servants had ascended to the unknown wilds 
 
 which overhang the estates of S , about three 
 
 miles from Pardagherry. As sunset was coming on 
 one day, the Englishman rode on ahead to choose a 
 camping-ground, leaving the lady, also mounted, to 
 follow more leisurely. The former galloped up to a 
 pleasant spot by a reedy stream, and was just con- 
 gratulating himself on such a favoured locality, when 
 a small herd of elephants at rest under the trees hard 
 by saw him, and broke back as fast as they could go 
 by the path hemmed in with rocks on either side, up 
 which the lady was advancing. The panic-stricken
 
 BUILDING TABERNACLES. 211 
 
 herd charged down, and before any warning was 
 given rushed upon the little party in the narrow 
 path. The native servants, being on foot, escaped 
 among the rocks ; but the lady's horse shied, threw 
 her, and fled before the elephants down the pass. 
 The whole herd passed over the unfortunate English- 
 woman, who had so pluckily followed her husband 
 into these wild regions, and she died a few minutes 
 after he came up ; so the sylvan camping-place must 
 have been sorrowful enough that night. 
 
 My friend "Charlie" returned from the lowlands 
 after a time, having recovered from his gun accident, 
 and began to open a small " nursery " for one of the 
 planters on the other side of the Manalora stream, 
 opposite to our territory. Besides him another young 
 
 Englishman, L , turned up and stayed on the 
 
 estate for some time, until he could break more new 
 land to the south of us for another company. Thus 
 southward the course of civilization takes its way, 
 and Pardagherry was no longer Ultima Thule, but 
 
 was left behind by L 's place, which, on account 
 
 of the difficulty of access, its solitude, and deadly 
 
 fever-mists, we named the " Bitter End." L , 
 
 however, was a plucky fellow. He readily left the 
 Varlavachen Bungalow, the eyrie of F , my ac- 
 quaintance of Palghaut, perched upon the summit of 
 a steep mountain, and descended to our low-lying 
 hut, where no one could stay long without contract- 
 ing jungle-fever. 
 
 Though he did not say so, it is obvious he thought 
 very lightly of our style of life ; and, in fact, the four 
 of us were now packed about as tightly as could be 
 in our little hut. We got on well enough during the 
 day, as we were all employed in the jungles except 
 just at meal times ; but when night came and we 
 turned in, it was a tight fit. Our four berths, placed 
 side by side across the sleeping apartment, with the
 
 212 ON THE INDIAN HILLS. 
 
 spaces occupied by the box which did duty for a 
 washing-stand and one shaky chair, completely filled 
 it up. We were always dreadfully tired after the 
 day's work, and soon after dinner retired to our 
 couches, though they were made of nothing softer 
 than unplaned teak-boards supported on biscuit- 
 boxes. Soon four forms might have been seen by the 
 dim light of the lantern swinging overhead, each in a 
 flannel sleeping-suit, and rolled up in grey blankets, 
 
 with a long cheroot between each pair of lips. D 
 
 had an accordion, which he generally brought to bed 
 with him, and in the solemn stillness of the night, 
 when the jungles were buried in darkness, and tigers 
 and elephants roamed about as they listed, the strains 
 of many songs went up in a fitful manner from our 
 hut. If the coolies listened they must have had a 
 
 poor opinion of us as a musical nation, for D was 
 
 only a beginner on his instrument, and rarely got 
 safely through more than two or three notes, when 
 he recommenced, or broke off to tell us we were sing- 
 ing out of tune. It was the most mournful affair 
 trying to follow him, for he had to go very slowly 
 and think beforehand on each note ; so as our cheroots 
 burnt down he had things more and more his own way, 
 till, finding us dozing, he generally attempted a lively 
 " God save the Queen," by way of finale. A sleepy 
 sort of idea that we ought to stand up and take our 
 hats off pervaded us, but, on the whole, we did not 
 think her Majesty would mind the omission, and soon 
 
 silence settled down and suppressed even D 's 
 
 melancholy instrument. 
 
 I have mentioned one evening on which there was 
 an alarm of elephants. On another, as we were all 
 asleep, a great noise suddenly broke out in the coolie 
 " lines," and we heard the natives shouting, " Hatti ! 
 hatti ! " " Elephants ; " so we turned out as quickly 
 as we could. I and L , who were sleeping in
 
 BUILDING TABERNACLES. 213 
 
 neighbouring bunks, being only half awake, and no 
 light burning, by some mischance seized upon the 
 same pair of trousers. He monopolized one leg and 
 I the other, and the natural result was that when we 
 tried to get up we came a heavy cropper on the floor, 
 which effectually woke us, and we sat facing each 
 other for some moments, wondering what was the 
 matter. At last we exclaimed together, " What are 
 
 you doing with my trousers ? " Meanwhile, D 
 
 had taken down a rifle from the pegs, and had run 
 out to get a shot if possible ; but " Charlie " spoiled 
 his chance by groping to the head of my bed, 
 and, without a word of warning, pulling the string 
 attached to the spring gun outside, which he had 
 loaded the day before with a couple of handfuls of 
 native powder and part of an old sock rammed 
 tightly over the bullet. The result was a terrific 
 explosion, which seemed to frighten both the elephants 
 and the coolies equally, for all other sounds died away 
 immediately afterwards, and we were left to finish 
 the evening in peace. 
 
 But an undisturbed night was quite the exception. 
 On one occasion a great cackling arose amongst some 
 cocks and hens that we kept in a small shed, and, 
 turning out with revolvers and sticks, we found an 
 animal about the size of a large cat had broken in 
 and killed three of our fowls, to the great consterna- 
 tion of the others. After a hunt, " Charlie " saw the 
 beast escaping along a bough overhead, and brought 
 him down with a shot from my revolver. We were 
 also considerably troubled with rats, which played 
 nocturnal games on our beds, and even nibbled us 
 when they got the chance; so we borrowed a cat 
 
 from Mrs. F of Varlavachen a real English cat, 
 
 who became a great pet and it kept the rats some- 
 what in order. One night, as I was lying in my cot 
 with the lamp dimly burning, a large rat came out,
 
 214 ON THE INDIAN HILLS. 
 
 and, after wandering about the floor, jumped into a 
 tin bucket. Just at that moment the cat came in y 
 and, catching sight of the disappearing tail, proceeded 
 to stalk the bucket in a very scientific style. Then 
 some slight sound alarmed the rat, and I saw him 
 jump out and run away on the off side. Meanwhile 
 the cat, who felt sure of getting him, and had not 
 observed this, crept to within a couple of paces, and 
 then, gently lashing her tail from side to side and 
 gathering her limbs under her, measured the distance, 
 and with a single bound leapt right into the pail. 
 Of course, there was nothing there, and I never saw 
 a creature look so supremely astonished as she did. 
 On windy nights our sleep was broken by the rubbing 
 of the trees together, and by the long rattan creepers 
 swinging to and fro and striking against each other, 
 with the occasional falling of branches or trees a 
 danger to which we were exposed during the whole 
 of the monsoon. If the elements were at rest, the 
 insect world woke up and treated us to animated 
 concerts of most mingled sounds ; but fatigue is a 
 good narcotic, and we paid at last very small attention 
 to such things. 
 
 An occupation which now took up some of my time 
 was fixing supports to the young coffee trees of two- 
 years old, which were growing into considerable 
 bushes with thick heads of glossy dark green leaves. 
 In spite of the belts of jungle left between the clear- 
 ings, the plants feel the wind more or less, and when 
 the ground is wet it swings them round and round, so- 
 that the stem works an opening in the soil just where 
 it comes above ground. Then, if there should be any 
 breeze on the next hot day, when the ground is baked 
 hard by the sun, the plant chafes against this rim, 
 cuts through its tender young bark, and very speedily 
 dies. So we have to support it by driving in a three- 
 foot stick, sloping towards the plant from the direction
 
 BUILDING TABERNACLES. 215 
 
 of the south-west monsoon, and firmly but gently tying 
 them together with a thin rattan fibre, or the bark of 
 a tree which grows wild in the jungles. 
 
 A considerable number of men were also employed, 
 at various parts of the estate, cutting down young 
 saplings of ten or twelve years' growth, chopping them 
 into lengths of two feet, and then splitting the logs 
 into light pegs, which were to be used for marking 
 
 new pits when more clearings were opened. D 
 
 says each man ought to make three hundred pegs a 
 day, and the assistant superintendent ought to count 
 them ! Quite an impossibility ! but this is the sort of 
 thing one picks up by reading books on coffee plant- 
 ing; a little rough experience, however, takes the 
 gloss off such book learning. My associate had some 
 attacks of fever after arriving at the estate, which 
 kept his liver in a chronic state of disturbance ; in 
 fact, he said no one can stay out in the jungle long 
 without losing his liver altogether. I asked him if 
 that was not rather serious, as the liver, with all its 
 faults, is commonly supposed to be a useful part of 
 one's internal arrangements ; but he averred and he 
 ought to know that one can get on quite comfortably 
 without any. However, he seemed to part with his 
 own reluctantly it would have been a good thing, in 
 fact, if he had had none left for each attack irritated 
 the little he believed there was remaining, and then 
 everybody, from the " cook boy " to the smallest coolie, 
 got into trouble.
 
 216 ON THE INDIAN HILLS. 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 THE TRACKLESS WOODS. 
 
 I SPENT some spare hours in decorating the interior of 
 my new hut, as much as circumstances would permit, 
 with pictures, pipe-racks, guns, and all the parapher- 
 nalia of a sportsman. When this aesthetic effort 
 suddenly burst upon the view of a new native servant 
 whom I had engaged, he stood spell-bound ; he clearly 
 thought it was the most beautiful abode ever built, 
 for he was only a "country servant," hailing from 
 Wallenghay. The coolies too, when they were mustered 
 in front of my open door in the morning, were silent 
 with astonishment, and seemed to fancy it a sort of 
 international exhibition. The pictures attracted the 
 Tamils very much they like anything coloured ; so 
 I at once gave them some vividly tinted English 
 advertisements, with blue and white bills bearing the 
 inscription "Daily Telegraph, Largest Circulation in 
 the World," and these they forthwith hung up in their 
 " lines." I also showed some of the maistries one or 
 two of the full-page engravings in numbers of the 
 Graphic and Illustrated London News, representing 
 fights between Turks and Russians on the Danube. 
 They were immensely interested, crowding round each 
 picture in a dense circle of black faces, and nodding 
 their heads and pointing to each incident in the 
 picture with their dusky fingers. Only one of them, 
 however, Jowra, the headman of the estate, had any 
 idea of who the combatants really were; the others 
 recognized some as " Inglish " by their pale faces, and 
 the Turks were supposed to be outer barbarians of a 
 distant country with whom the sahibs had some un- 
 known quarrel. I put them on the straight track
 
 TEE TRACKLESS WOODS. 217 
 
 with the help of my new " boy," who spoke English 
 well, besides his native Tamil, and they seemed to be 
 much impressed. 
 
 My luggage and new furniture for the hut also now 
 came up. It is usual for a company to supply the 
 assistant superintendent with furniture and bedding, 
 of which he has the free use, but such things are con- 
 sidered fixtures of the estate, and pass from successor 
 to successor. It was a very welcome sight when the 
 long string of coolies came winding down the jungle 
 path with chairs, bedsteads, washing-stands, tables, etc., 
 slung on poles, and upon their arrival there was a 
 grand unpacking forthwith. Everything was made 
 of the bright yellow jackwood, which is abundant, 
 works well, and does not shrink ; but the article which 
 pleased me most was a silk-cotton mattress, which I 
 thought a bed fit for an emperor, and thoroughly 
 appreciated that night, after two months of sleeping 
 on bare planks. 
 
 On the 12th of December we commenced a road to 
 be carried from the southern slope of Bungalow Hill 
 right away, without pause or turn, to the head of the 
 ghaut. It had already been " traced " for some dis- 
 tance, and half formed through the jungle separating 
 our estate from the next one to the northward. This 
 bit, which follows the winding of the Manalora stream, 
 was about the most picturesque spot in the neighbour- 
 hood, and best satisfied my idea of what a glade in 
 the tropics ought to look like. Hitherto, I must 
 confess, I had been considerably disappointed with 
 the " gorgeous East," which had never seemed to me 
 quite up to the mark : but this road presented a much 
 richer variety of ferns and vegetation than almost any 
 other spot yet visited. The way wound along the 
 steep side of a " hanger," as Gilbert White would call 
 it a high ridge, on the crest of which, but completely 
 hidden by the forest, is the old " Top Entrance Road,"
 
 218 ON THE INDIAN HILLS. 
 
 this new path being designated by the name of the 
 "Lower Entrance Road." On the other side, a few 
 feet below, our mountain river, like a Scotch torrent, 
 went dashing and tumbling, now plunging into dense 
 thickets of tangled herbage and feathery bamboos, 
 where it was quite invisible, though it could be heard 
 murmuring along, and then again sparkling out into 
 the sunshine and breaking into twenty little streamlets 
 among the rocks, only to reunite again and continue 
 its progress among beds of waving reeds and tall 
 grasses, beneath shady banks, where it ran more 
 slowly under the graceful tree-ferns that swung their 
 fronds over the water and, Narcissus-like, spent their 
 existence in watching their own reflections. In one 
 place a great tree had fallen across, dragging down to 
 ruin with it three smaller ones, and together their 
 leafless branches choked up the stream with a barrier 
 impassable to anything larger than water-snakes ; but 
 the kingfishers found this a very convenient watch- 
 tower, so that there were always a pair of them 
 lovely little sky-blue birds perched among the twigs, 
 their beautiful plumage contrasting well with the 
 decaying branches. But they were shy and did not 
 like visitors, dropping off their perches and skimming 
 down the stream with lightning-like speed when any 
 one approached. If I were a little fish, I thought as 
 I watched them, I would rather be eaten by a bright 
 bird than by a gormandizing old pike. The stream 
 did not glide along in untroubled stillness, but its 
 course was broken in many places by waterfalls of 
 varying dimensions, all picturesque, and scores of 
 little rivulets falling into the main stream on either 
 side. These troubled us in an unromantic way when 
 they were on our bank, as they washed away the soil 
 and left deep hollows, which we had some difficulty 
 in passing, as they were too small to be regularly 
 bridged. We generally got over the difficulty by
 
 THE TRACKLESS WOODS. 219 
 
 cutting down two trees, laying them across the gap, 
 and crossing them with logs placed side by side, which 
 did very well as a temporary arrangement. 
 
 Every day for two weeks I was busy on this work 
 with a hundred and fifty men armed with mamoties- 
 and axes a small army, which it took a great amount 
 of exercise to thoroughly look after, as, owing to their 
 beino- scattered in twos and threes at intervals of ten 
 
 o 
 
 or fifteen paces, and out of sight of each other, it was 
 necessary to be going constantly backwards and for- 
 wards. Even with this large force the road progressed 
 slowly on the margins of the clearings, where the 
 fallen trees were piled three or four deep, and each 
 had to be cut in two places and rolled away no light 
 labour, as may be understood. In fact, on one occa- 
 sion the whole force at my disposal, working from 
 sunrise to sunset, only cleared fifty yards of ground 
 eight feet wide ; and as long as the " trace " ran 
 through the felled ground, the pace remained very 
 slow. After a time the unopened jungle on the 
 borders of our plantation was reached, and, the trees 
 here still standing, we got on better. But then arose 
 new difficulties. First of all, the leeches swarmed 
 amongst the dead leaves until these had been scraped 
 away, and my socks were crimsoned with my own 
 blood every day when I returned to breakfast, while 
 the poor coolies spent half their time picking the vile 
 creatures off their legs. Besides leeches, there lurked 
 here numbers of snakes, for which the natives were 
 constantly on the look out ; but they were a matter 
 of indifference to me, being in thick shooting-boots 
 and leggings. The most deadly snakes, however, are 
 said to be tree-climbers, occasionally dropping down on 
 a person passing beneath rather an unpleasant idea, 
 the only remedy against which would be to keep an 
 umbrella constantly up. But though one may have 
 to look below and aloft at the same time for snakes,
 
 220 ON TEE INDIAN HILLS. 
 
 and it may not be agreeable to feel numerous holes 
 bored in one's legs by bloodthirsty leeches, neither of 
 these troubles are to be compared to the results of 
 breaking into the nest of a thriving colony of large 
 black ants, which was once my misfortune. We came 
 upon them quite suddenly. One of m}*- axemen pulled 
 up a small bush by the roots, and disclosed a large 
 hollow space, as big as a game-hamper, formed entirely 
 by the industrious little people mentioned, and nearly 
 filled with a great nest of papier-mache-like material 
 of a greyish colour, neatly arranged in terraces, one 
 above the other, with corridors and numerous entrances 
 to the inner parts. For one moment the sudden re- 
 moval of the wall of their home showed the busy 
 citizens stroking each other with their antennae 
 some collected in groups round those, who may per- 
 haps have been lecturing on domestic economy and 
 kindred ant-subjects ; while a few were walking up 
 and down the passages with unhatched or imperfect 
 baby ants in their jaws clearly the nurses giving 
 their charges a little fresh air. Others were putting 
 things in order and executing a few necessary house- 
 hold repairs; while some seemed to be on guard at 
 the mouths of the passages which led to the most 
 secluded portions of the palace, perhaps the suite of 
 rooms set apart for their much-loved queen. But 
 after the first dazzling effect of the light had passed 
 away, every citizen of the hitherto peaceful state 
 boiled over with wrath. Clearly they had been work- 
 ing, like the ancient Jews, "with hammers in their 
 hands and javelins by their sides." Never was army 
 mobilized so quickly ! While some hurried the young 
 and feeble into the shelter of the citadel, and others 
 ran to call up the troops from the rear and give the 
 alarm through the rest of the city, the remainder, 
 several thousands strong, poured forth to offer battle 
 to the invaders, and, apparently without generals or
 
 THE TRACKLESS WOODS. 221 
 
 captains, every warrior with the same object dashed 
 at us, and, utterly regardless of life and limb, sought 
 to fasten on our flesh and clothes. What a grand 
 history would lie before the two-legged nation that 
 could boast of such a people ! Was ever any Roman 
 braver than the ant who charged up my boot, and 
 fixed his jaws so firmly into the calf of my leg, that 
 when I pulled at him, he parted with his head rather 
 than let go his hold ? The small patriots, into whose 
 town we had broken on this occasion, were certainly 
 the stronger party, and I and my followers fled before 
 them, ignominiously turning to work in another place, 
 until, venturing back in half an hour, I found the 
 whole colony had moved away with all the honours 
 of war to the neighbouring jungle, where I sincerely 
 hoped they were able to found a second city. 
 
 Another disadvantage of making a dug-out road 
 through the jungle is the curious fact that the newly 
 turned earth gives the coolies fever with great cer- 
 tainty. Man after man had to strike work and go 
 back to the " lines " as we toiled each day. Perhaps 
 it was owing to the chill which hangs about the moist 
 fresh mould, or to the stores of decomposed vegetable 
 gases which are set free. Certainly even I, who was 
 yet too fresh from England to get actual fever, 
 often felt very sick and uncomfortable as the work 
 proceeded. 
 
 But, in spite of all these difficulties, we forged 
 ahead gradually every day adding a hundred yards 
 or so of neatly smoothed road, fit for bandy traffic 
 by the side of the sparkling Manalora, with the thick 
 forest trees of the upper bank arching over and 
 shading us from the midday sun, and creepers and 
 rattan canes hanging in graceful festoons from tree- 
 top to tree-top. They never flower, these climbing- 
 plants, or not in a demonstrative way, and in this I 
 was considerably disappointed, as "flowering creepers"
 
 222 ON THE INDIAN HILLS. 
 
 formed one of the most important items in my old 
 ideas of tropical vegetation. 
 
 One evening, when sunset came and relieved us 
 from our toil, I congratulated myself on having added 
 a hundred yards of roadway to the total. Truly it 
 was somewhat soft, and, though as smoothly raked as 
 a flower-bed, it would be necessary to let it settle and 
 consolidate before it would be fit for heavy use. But 
 fate was unkind, and on arriving next morning we 
 found the whole of our work of the day before in a 
 most terrible mess, broken away in places and full of 
 great holes. A closer examination showed that two 
 or three elephants had been down during the dark- 
 ness to inspect the operations, which it is quite pos- 
 sible they had been watching during the daytime; 
 and, finding the surface smooth and pleasant, had 
 been promenading up and down, sinking their enor- 
 mous feet deep into the fresh mould at every step, 
 and in places bringing down the sides with a run. 
 It was interesting, as showing the inquisitive and 
 meddlesome nature of the animals, but woeful from 
 a coffee planter's point of view. 
 
 On Sunday, the day being fine and hot, I and 
 " Charlie " agreed to take our guns and call upon 
 
 S , of Nillacothy estate. So after breakfast we 
 
 armed and booted ourselves, and walked over to 
 Polyampara, shooting a couple of jungle fowl by the 
 way, which we carried forward to replenish our 
 
 friend's larder. Midway, after dropping in on W , 
 
 who was as usual smoking a big cheroot with his feet 
 on the back of a neighbouring chair, we passed 
 through the strong-grown ten-year-old coffee of his 
 estate, and, gaining the jungle again, continued our 
 walk down a rough " trace," or boundary line, made 
 by lopping the underwood but leaving the big trees 
 standing, until we came to a place where the stem of 
 a huge fig tree, blown down in some previous monsoon
 
 THE TRACKLESS WOODS. 223 
 
 and falling from bank to bank of the Manalora, formed 
 a natural bridge. This we crossed with the help of 
 some notches cut in the upper part to make it a little 
 less slippery, and on the other side found ourselves in 
 our friend's " nursery," and soon after met him in all 
 the glory of clean Sunday clothes and newly blacked 
 boots. 
 
 Of all the estates which I had seen, this one seemed 
 to me most typical, and best to fulfil my ideas of what 
 a coffee garden should look like. It was much more 
 picturesquely situated than any of the others, the 
 ground more broken and rocky, and the young plants, 
 which were set out in beautifully even rows from 
 jungle to jungle, were neither so old nor ragged as 
 those of the more northerly plantations, nor so juve- 
 nile and straggling as our own. Then the " lines " 
 were neatly built in two rows on the crown of a little 
 hillock, with a " writer's " bungalow at one end, and 
 looked many times more healthy and pleasant than 
 those amongst which my lot was cast. 
 
 Crossing the estate, our host led us through the 
 jungle, where, for the first time in India, I saw a real 
 flowering forest tree, covered with white camellia-like 
 blossoms, which the light breeze shook down on us, 
 as we passed beneath, in a sweet-scented shower, and 
 then a little further on we emerged into the open. 
 After two months of the close dim jungle, and the 
 small clearings walled in all round by dense belts of 
 trees, it would be difficult to describe my feelings of 
 joy on getting upon a wide grass plateau three 
 thousand feet above the sea, with a cool wind waving 
 the long lemon-grass and invigorating our enervated 
 frames. The prospect was so delightful I sank down 
 on a rock and expressed my intention of remaining 
 
 there all day, but S assured us there were better 
 
 things higher up ; so we continued our climb till we 
 scaled a steep bank, and reached the verandah of a
 
 224 ON TEE INDIAN HILLS. 
 
 neat little bungalow, with white chunam walls and 
 thick thatch roof, standing close under the towering 
 grey cliff which gives it its name. Here we break- 
 fasted, and listened to our host's stories of the animals 
 which roam at night round his lonely cabin. 
 
 He tells us there is a pool a hundred yards higher 
 up, on the northward side of the mountain, which is 
 a favourite place with the elephants, and many a 
 night he has been unable to sleep for the noise they 
 make bathing and trumpeting to each other. Some- 
 times a leopard comes down, and carries away chickens, 
 or a goat, if there is one about. As for ibex and sam- 
 bour deer, they are always plentiful, but wild. Our 
 host had a dog with a touch of deerhound in him, 
 and seeing the other day a sambour and its fawn 
 feeding by the elephant pool, where there is some 
 level grass, he slipped the dog at them, and witnessed 
 an interesting spectacle. The old sambour could have 
 escaped easily, but the young one could not go so 
 fast, and the dog soon came up to them, and would 
 have made short work of the little creature, but for 
 the resolute way in which the mother kept off its 
 attacks, walking round and round, and gradually 
 edging towards the friendly shelter of the nearest 
 jungle, which when once gained, they had it all their 
 own way, and the dog came back crestfallen and 
 beaten. Despite these splendid opportunities for 
 
 sport, S does not hunt, for two good reasons 
 
 because he has no rifle, and because he says he is too 
 near-sighted to shoot straight. 
 
 After tiffin, the prospect of a magnificent view over 
 the plains tempted us to climb the lowest spur of the 
 precipice, about two hundred feet above the bungalow ; 
 and with our guns slung on our backs, we scrambled 
 up, getting a footing among the veins of quartz, 
 which run at all angles in the face of the rock, and 
 look as if they might hold gold ; also grasping the
 
 THE TRACKLESS WOODS. 225 
 
 roots of grasses, which occasionally gave way, and 
 threatened to send us rolling back to the bungalow. 
 But the highest possible point once gained, we were 
 well repaid for our exertions. The Nillacothy Rock, 
 the summit of which is four thousand feet above the 
 sea, presents two perpendicular faces one towards 
 the upland valley of the coffee estates, which is, per- 
 haps, three hundred and fifty feet above the Manalora 
 stream, and forms a most conspicuous object from 
 every part of the " district ; " and the other face, 
 looking due northward, is on the very edge of the 
 ghaut, and has a sharp fall of between eight hundred 
 and a thousand feet a magnificent drop, which can 
 be seen from the railway carriage windows far away 
 on the Palghaut line. Standing as we did at the 
 corner, we had a view such as the eagles only enjoy, 
 and as extensive as the eye could take in. The low- 
 lands stretched away beneath us in a vast chequered 
 plain, mottled with tawny paddy-fields and palm 
 clumps, every little village and Wallenghay nearest 
 of all showing up a tiny grey patch with a framing 
 of emerald green, which we knew to be the broad- 
 leaved bananas in the gardens round the straw- 
 thatched huts. The tonka caught the sunlight and 
 sparkled, and where the streams were broken up and 
 led among the growing rice by numerous channels, 
 there was a fine lacework of silver threads. We 
 might have seen Calicut on the Indian Ocean, and 
 Madras itself on the Bay of Bengal, if our eyesight 
 had been sufficient ; but we could only look east and 
 west till the plains mingled with the sky, and north- 
 ward across the great Indian hollow to where the 
 Wynnaad Ghauts and Neilgherries rose in lofty ridges 
 at an elevation even greater than our own. 
 
 As we lay in the long grass, buried in silence and 
 admiration, which life in our deep jungles made all 
 the sincerer, there was a harsh cry, a rush of wings, 
 
 Q
 
 226 ON THE INDIAN HILLS. 
 
 and a black eagle came down like a thunderbolt from 
 behind perhaps to see if we were dead and fit to be 
 eaten but, shifting his course when within twenty 
 yards of us, he went sailing away over the jungle 
 below with widespread wings. The temptation was 
 irresistible. My rifle was unslung, raised, and fired in 
 a second, but the only result was one big pinion 
 feather cut out of the eagle's wing, which came flut- 
 tering and twisting down to the ground, while the 
 owner continued his course unmoved. Had I used the 
 more accurate " express," instead of the short carbine 
 that lay nearest to hand, the result might have been 
 different, and the noble bird who now reigns supreme 
 on those mountain-tops, the terror of all young deer 
 and ibex kids, might surmount nothing higher than a 
 hat-stand ! Fate hangs on such little things ! 
 
 We noticed in descending that the ground about a 
 small nullah was pounded into clay by the feet of 
 many animals who came there nightly to drink. There 
 were the great plate-like " spoor " of the elephants, 
 with the marks made all round the front edge by the 
 hard horny toenails, the round cowlike prints of bison, 
 and the finer pointed hoof-stamps of the sambour 
 
 deer, of which S showed us how to make a guess 
 
 at the ages by noting the spread of the heel and the 
 size of the gap between the points of the hoof. There 
 were also signs of the hill ibex in abundance, and the 
 tiny little imprints made by hog-deer. When I first 
 saw these they are no larger than a dint made by the 
 little finger of a man's hand I passed them over, but 
 my companion called attention to them, and, stooping- 
 down, I made out the clear impress of the tiny hoofs. 
 Getting back down this much-spoored nullah was a 
 regular scramble, in which we were continually falling- 
 over logs and masses of hidden rocks, or had to force 
 our way by sheer strength through the tangled reeds 
 and rushes. " Charlie," whose toe still pained him
 
 THE TRACKLESS WOODS. 227 
 
 occasionally, being the shortest of the party, was 
 quite hidden many times, and his whereabouts only 
 to be guessed by the waving of the rank herbage. 
 But though we beat right down the stream to where 
 
 it runs by S 's door, we put up no game, and only 
 
 succeeded in making ourselves so thoroughly tired 
 that we were glad to accept our host's pressing invita- 
 tion to stay the night ; and after dinner and the 
 usual smoke, we rolled ourselves up in rugs till we 
 looked like Egyptian mummies, and slept soundly on 
 the floor till the first daylight appeared. 
 
 I had not been so cold as I was that next morning 
 at daybreak for a long time. The rain was coming 
 down after the Scotch fashion in thick drizzle, and 
 light fleecy clouds were wandering about the hillside 
 like flocks of masterless sheep. Some of these little 
 clouds, which seemed to be the fragments of larger 
 ones driven against the hillside and broken up, came 
 floating across the grass outside and slipping amongst 
 the trees almost as though they were animated 
 creatures, and if I had possessed any feeling in my 
 nose or my finger-tips, the scene would have been very 
 enjoyable ; but, as it was, my whole attention was 
 
 given to helping S with a brew of coffee, which 
 
 very interesting operation we performed ourselves, 
 as the " boy " was stupefied by the temperature and 
 quite useless. I asked our entertainer if the elevation 
 of his bungalow some 3500 feet above the sea level 
 did not make him secure against the attacks of jungle 
 fever, but he said, " Nothing of the sort." Undoubtedly 
 no fever could possibly be caught up here ; but then, 
 wherever the planter's bungalow may be, he must 
 spend all the daytime in the valleys low down amongst 
 the coffee, and he is sure to contract fever there, 
 sooner or later, and bring it home with him. Of 
 course a high-built bungalow is much better than a low 
 one, as the air is purer, the planter is kept in better
 
 228 ON THE INDIAN BILLS. 
 
 health and spirits, and his attacks of fever pass off 
 sooner ; but it is certainly not a complete safeguard. 
 
 I pointed out to him that our mutual friend L 
 
 had spent a year at Varlavachen, across the valley, at 
 an elevation of three thousand feet, and had never 
 
 had fever as long as he was up there ; but this, S 
 
 believed, was because he was fresh from England and 
 did no work lower down. It was hard work and 
 exposure to the sun and chills necessities of a 
 planter's life which brought on fever, and he said 
 the only thing to be done was to brave it out, and in 
 course of time one would get rid of one's liver and 
 become acclimatized or find a quiet bed in the 
 jungle, which would at least free you from the need 
 of ever working again. 
 
 Breakfast over, we said good-bye and descended 
 into the valley. The rain came down ceaselessly 
 heavier even in the coffee estates than on the open 
 hillsides and on getting back to Pardagherry bunga- 
 low I found there was no work being done, the wet 
 keeping the coolies shivering in the " lines," whence 
 thin jets of blue smoke wound upwards and hung 
 under the thick roof of leaves. So the rest of the 
 day was spent indoors, reading, writing, and smoking, 
 huddled up in a woolly ulster, which I wore with as 
 great satisfaction as I had done not many months 
 before in the Scotch highlands. 
 
 The next day was much the same. We attempted 
 to muster the coolies in a heavy downpour at half- 
 past five in the morning, but none turned out except 
 the maistries and two or three old women; so we 
 gave these half pay and dismissed them to the " lines," 
 getting on as best we could, till the evening relieved 
 us from our desperate state of ennui and enabled us 
 to turn in. 
 
 The succeeding day was brighter, and the coolies 
 mustered in force, wishing to get something to their
 
 THE TRACKLESS WOODS. 229 
 
 credit before pay-day caine round. So I and D 
 
 divided them as usual, he taking his lot to the 
 southern jungle, where he was marking out some 
 new clearings, and I proceeding to put the finishing 
 touches to the new road, which had now got past the 
 intervening forest and emerged into the Dewan's 
 estate, through which we had made arrangements for 
 carrying it. 
 
 Walking down through the mist, still thick under 
 the trees, I suddenly came upon the marks of a very 
 large old bison, probably a "rogue," the footmarks 
 being five or six inches across, and so fresh that the 
 water was still welling up into them. Having nothing 
 with me but an umbrella, I proceeded cautiously 
 along, expecting to see the great animal loom through 
 the fog every minute, or to hear him snort and charge 
 back on me; but he kept ahead, and after a few 
 hundred yards went down to the river and forded it, 
 the water being still disturbed and muddy when I 
 got to the margin. That these animals are sometimes 
 dangerous, more often, in fact, than any other creature 
 in these jungles, there was sufficient proof even on 
 the estate. As one came down the "Top Entrance 
 Road " through the belt of trees on the way to the 
 settlement, there was a gloomy spot, always damp 
 and chilly in the brightest weather, where a road 
 wound up from the Manalora side of the ridge and 
 joined our main thoroughfare at right angles. This 
 was called " Bison Gap," and one of the trees standing 
 a little way back had a rough cross cut into the bark 
 
 to mark the place of a bad accident. When B. 
 
 first opened the estate, some time before I joined, this 
 was a very wild locality, in undisputed possession of 
 the elephants and big game of all sorts. Especially 
 there was one rogue bison of whom many stories 
 were told. He was known by having uneven horns, 
 one tending upwards and the other downwards, and
 
 230 ON THE INDIAN HILLS. 
 
 this made him particularly bad tempered, so that the 
 coolies were in constant dread of meeting him. 
 
 One misty evening they were streaming home after 
 the day's work, with their tools on their shoulders 
 and a maistry in front, when they came to this ill- 
 omened spot, and there, in front of them and rubbing 
 his horns, was the great terror of the jungle, his huge 
 black body completely blocking the path and keeping 
 the coolies from their homes. The natives threw 
 down their loads and hid themselves behind trees, the 
 maistry behind the trunk which now bears a cross ; 
 but as the bison did not move, and seemed sulkily 
 determined to stay in the path, he came forward after 
 a few minutes, and, waving his turban, tried to 
 frighten the beast away. It was a fatal attempt, for 
 the animal suddenly roused itself, and, resenting this 
 familiarity, gave a deep snort and charged the un- 
 fortunate man. He fled to the shelter of the tree, but 
 just as he was getting behind the bison rushed upon 
 him and dashed him heavily against the trunk. It 
 is to be hoped that this rendered him insensible, for 
 the coolies from their surrounding] retreats saw the 
 savage animal pound him against the stem of the tree 
 and amongst the roots, till he bore no resemblance to 
 the human form ; and then the beast, with its fore- 
 head drenched with blood and shreds of torn clothing 
 on its horns, turned and stalked away into the thickest 
 of the jungle. 
 
 But the poor maistry was soon avenged. At that 
 
 time E, had as " cook boy " an old Madras shikarry, 
 
 and the very next day the coolies brought him word 
 that the same animal was standing under a clump of 
 bamboo, just above what is now No. 3 clearing; so, 
 borrowing the old long Snider a percussion gun 
 
 which forms H 's whole battery he loaded it 
 
 with powder and two bullets, and then set out alone 
 to interview the bison. He found him as the coolies
 
 JUNGLE SOCIETY. 231 
 
 had said, and, crawling for an hour and a half on his 
 hands and knees, got close up to him. I believe that 
 the bison brought his fate on himself by his sulky 
 indifference to the presence of human beings as long 
 as they did not molest him ; for the shikarry seems 
 to have crept within a dozen yards, when, resting the 
 muzzle of the gun on a rock, he aimed at the broad 
 heavy forehead of the bull, and when he pulled the 
 trigger and the smoke cleared away, the bison was 
 lying dead on the rocks. The company's agents at 
 Calicut very properly gave him a reward of ten rupees 
 for this plucky deed. 
 
 CHAPTER XIY. 
 
 JUNGLE SOCIETY. 
 
 WHEN the weather grew drier, we turned our atten- 
 tion in a new direction, and pegging, lining, and 
 pitting (all very important operations in the coffee 
 planter's list) took up the chief part of our time. 
 
 The first is an extremely tedious operation, and one 
 which the new hand will find very difficult in thick 
 jungle. It consists in marking out the exact spots 
 where every coffee bush is to stand on a plot of wood- 
 land which has been only slightly cleared, and has 
 been traced out by the trees, on what will eventually 
 be the margin, having been notched, or the leaves 
 and rubbish scraped away. Supposing the space thus 
 enclosed is ten acres in extent, and putting the coffee 
 at six feet apart in each direction, there will be room 
 for about twenty-two thousand plants ; and as the 
 position of each has to be accurately noted with a 
 peg stuck into the ground, the labour can be imagined.
 
 232 ON THE INDIAN HILLS. 
 
 The necessary number of pegs having been split some 
 time before and piled in heaps along the future clear- 
 ing, the planter goes to work with his men, and the 
 first thing to be done is to strike a base line right 
 across the ground. To do this, a " level " mounted on 
 a pointed staff, and two men with other staffs painted 
 red and white, are needed, besides trustworthy coolies, 
 who have hold of the opposite ends of a long fifty- 
 foot rope, divided into six-foot lengths by tags of 
 tape or coloured rag, as well as numerous attendants 
 with armfuls of pegs to mark the site of the holes to 
 be dug. The Englishman then, starting from the edge 
 of the future belt, directs the two line coolies to hold 
 the rope taut in the direction which the instrument 
 tells him is straight for the opposite side of the marked- 
 out space, and as soon as this is satisfactorily accom- 
 plished the coolies stick in pegs directly under each 
 six-foot mark. Then the line is taken forward again 
 to the last peg, and another set measured off. This 
 is all very well when the ground is clear and there 
 are nothing but big trees to obstruct the view a sure 
 sign that the soil is good for coffee but occasionally 
 there are clumps of bamboo, thickets of thorny bushes, 
 or, worst of all, deep nullahs ; and these offer immense 
 obstacles, not so much to the first or base line as to 
 the subsequent ones, and if the planter's temper is at 
 all quick, here is the work which will try it to the 
 utmost. My companion, who was rather uncertain 
 in that respect, gave himself several attacks of fever 
 in trying to set the base lines out properly in the 
 new clearings, and used to make it lively for the poor 
 coolies, who were really not to be blamed, and had to 
 get through places with bare legs which we ourselves 
 did not much fancy, though heavily booted and clothed. 
 We came to one place, while working together, where 
 the rocks, cropping up close to the surface, left not 
 enough soil to support many large trees, though there
 
 JUNGLE SOCIETY. 233 
 
 was a dense patch of thicket upon it, the growth of 
 centuries, all matted together into a wild tangle. It 
 may perhaps be thought that it was useless to " peg " 
 out such a place, as it could never be planted; but 
 the truth is, every bit of a clearing must be measured 
 off in order that the proportion between the succeed- 
 ing lines shall be ascertained, and so a way had to be 
 made through the thorny labyrinth at all costs. The 
 billmen dived in, and by vigorous exertions cut out a 
 sort of large rabbit-run ; but when they were in the 
 centre, it was not possible to keep them straight, and 
 three or four times they diverged to the right or left, 
 and their hard-won drives had to be abandoned. At 
 
 last I called out for D and the compass, and he 
 
 crawled in on hands and knees, making remarks about 
 the thorns, at every yard, more noticeable for their 
 emphasis than grace, and then we progressed better. 
 
 Before we got through the thicket, D at one place 
 
 was on his knees, bending over the instrument, and 
 I close behind, when I saw a long grey snake, which 
 I recognized at once as the broad-headed and very 
 deadly tic-polonga 'the worst reptile in these jungles 
 hanging down from a bush, with its ugly jaws within 
 a short distance of the back of my companion's neck. 
 He did not notice it, and the probabilities were it 
 would strike him directly he made a move ; so, taking 
 a stick from a coolie, I crawled up, and, getting within 
 striking distance, made a blow which killed the snake, 
 and considerably astonished D , who, however, ex- 
 pressed his gratitude very handsomely, considering 
 his frame of mind, when he saw his dead enemy. 
 
 Another sort of obstruction which makes "lining" 
 difficult in unfelled jungle are the deep and rocky 
 watercourses or nullahs. It does not do to stretch the 
 measuring line straight from bank to bank, as that 
 would distort the position of subsequent lines, but it 
 has to accurately follow the fall of the ground, which
 
 234 ON THE INDIAN HILLS. 
 
 would be an easy matter with trained English 
 labourers, but with such poor thick-headed natives 
 as ours proved a matter of great difficulty, and took 
 up much time. For my part, I never could under- 
 stand the necessity of having the lines of coffee plants 
 so exactly even that, from any point in the clearing, 
 one can look up four neat roads only terminated by 
 the belts of forest ; but it is the custom, and is rigor- 
 ously insisted upon in most estates, though probably 
 it consumes more time and money than its few ad- 
 vantages repay. 
 
 At this work, with very little intermission or 
 variety to enliven the monotony, the first two weeks 
 of December were passed ; and as the weather became 
 hotter in the jungles every day, people at home 
 were doubtless building up larger and larger fires, 
 and making preparations for Christmas festivities. 
 Although the English skies may be dull, and but 
 little of the sun to be seen, yet even on the Indian 
 hills we at this season were not in continual bright- 
 ness, for the forests were often buried in mists and 
 vapours all day, which made it decidedly cold and 
 uncomfortable ; or if the sun did come out, the wet 
 jungle steamed like a damp blanket, and the heat was 
 oppressive and unwholesome. In the morning I found 
 it pleasant to go to work in a wrap of some kind, 
 which was most welcome up to about ten o'clock, 
 then the influence of the sun began to be felt, and 
 the forests had nearly finished steaming for the day. 
 After that hour an umbrella was more suitable in the 
 clearings, or when superintending the work on new 
 roads, etc. But the planter's toil is so varied and 
 rough that he has to take things very much as he 
 finds them, and adapt himself as he may to the most 
 rapid changes, from cold moist shade to the burning 
 glare of the midday sunshine. 
 
 Occasional!}* a little adventure would happen to
 
 JUNGLE SOCIETY. 235 
 
 enliven the sameness of the work, and give us some- 
 thing to talk about at breakfast. For instance, one 
 morning I was " pegging " in a fifteen-acre clearing on 
 the side of a very steep hill, and had taken up my 
 stand on the broken stump of a tree struck by light- 
 ning a few years before, in order to get a better view 
 of some coolies who were working in a nullah below. 
 After staying there some time and " pitching into " 
 the coolies in the liveliest language I could think of, 
 I got down and went higher up the hillside, to see 
 what another gang were doing. It was a fresh morn- 
 ing, and a strong breeze, though we could feel nothing 
 of it below, was obviously blowing up above, we could 
 see, from the way in which the trees were swinging 
 about. Hardly had I gone twenty yards up the hill- 
 side when a groan echoed through the aisles of the 
 forest, and the coolies, who seemed to know what it 
 meant, fled right and left. Then there was another 
 and another such sound, and I saw a great tree, a 
 hundred feet high, tottering. I was so close, I could 
 hear the strong fibres in the stem snapping with a 
 sound like pistol-shots, and then came a crack the 
 bark parted all round, and slowly the huge tree 
 toppled over, bringing down another that was lashed 
 to it with rattan creepers, and leaving a great gap in 
 the forest roof, through which the sun shone brightly, 
 the giant trunk falling with such a rush and thud to 
 earth as made the ground vibrate. The stump on 
 which I had been standing a few seconds before was 
 cleft into three huge splinters by one of the branches ; 
 and all round, for a space of twenty yards, lay a 
 mass of broken timber and leaves, affording us con- 
 siderable occupation when it became necessary to 
 continue the " pegging." 
 
 Besides trifling adventures of this sort, on Sundays 
 we got an occasional chance of visiting our neigh- 
 bours, as we called them, though the nearest was a
 
 236 ON TEE INDIAN HILLS. 
 
 long way off. On one occasion, Sunday being bright 
 and fine, all the coolies away at a weekly bazaar at 
 
 the head of the ghaut, and D and Charlie having 
 
 gone to spend the day with C. H , of Polyampara, 
 
 I and L made up our minds by no means an 
 
 easy thing after a hard week's work to call upon 
 
 F and his wife in their bungalow, the only house 
 
 in the district I had not yet visited. So, bestowing 
 more care upon our " get up " than we had done for a 
 long time, we shouldered our rifles and marched down 
 
 the well-known " Sircar " road as far as W 's 
 
 estate. Then, following the guidance of L , we 
 
 crossed a belt of jungle, where he once shot a hog- 
 deer at fifty yards with a charge of No. 6 shot, and 
 
 saw F shortly afterwards kill a python, eighteen 
 
 feet long, as it lay curled up on a branch overhead, 
 we next passed through an abandoned nursery of 
 coffee plants, some for which there had fallen no use, 
 and, being planted very close together, they had run 
 up to a height of twelve or fifteen feet. Beyond this 
 our climb commenced, and as we threaded our way 
 mile after mile through the trees, the path rose rapidly 
 by zigzags, at times so steep that we mounted up 
 natural steps of rocks until we had little strength 
 left in us, and I was just making up my mind to call 
 
 a halt, when L shouted to me to come on " one 
 
 struggle more and we are free." So, with a final effort 
 we scrambled up a bush-grown bank, and, emerging 
 from the shade of the trees on the top, perceived we 
 were at our destination. It would be difficult to 
 describe my delight, after two months and more of 
 " roughing it," to find myself suddenly in a beautiful 
 English -looking garden, full of roses and geraniums, 
 and verdant with green lawns of short grass, the like 
 of which I had not seen since leaving England. And 
 then, too, there was an English lady a rare species 
 in the jungle standing under the verandah, with
 
 JUNGLE SOCIETY. 237 
 
 some small children playing about, who looked 
 astonishingly white and rosy to me after seeing so 
 much of the chocolate-coloured coolie babies. We 
 were cordially welcomed, and being joined soon after 
 
 by F and S from the opposite side of the 
 
 valley, we sat down to a real English meal, at a table 
 with a cloth and silver teapots and sugar basins, all 
 of which deeply impressed us, while we ate all sorts 
 of forgotten luxuries brought up from Madras and 
 Bombay by our charming hostess. 
 
 Such days in the planter's life were only too short. 
 When we had looked over all the new English books 
 and read the magazines, we went out and walked 
 round the " terrace." The bungalow occupies an un- 
 usually commanding position, being perched upon the 
 very summit of a rock which rises out of the forest 
 as a volcanic island from a green sea. The forest 
 trees come nearly to the verandah on the western 
 side, but on every other face the ground slopes down, 
 and is covered with a dense growth of lemon-grass, 
 which waves in the wind like an autumn cornfield in 
 delightful England. To lessen the danger to the 
 bungalow of being surrounded and engulfed in one 
 of the hill fires which consume the long grass every 
 
 year, F has made a garden all round the house, 
 
 and then cut a broad smooth road in a complete ring 
 about his castle ; so that, were the fire to come up the 
 hill, he would make his first stand against it there, 
 and believes he could keep it at bay until burnt out. 
 The constant necessity of having this wide terrace 
 perfectly free from weeds and vegetation makes it 
 delightful to walk upon, and we spent half the time 
 circumnavigating the bungalow and admiring the 
 view truly a magnificent one. 
 
 When we stood in front of the house we looked 
 down on our coffee valley, with all its scattered plan- 
 tations, seeing W 's white bungalow, with its two
 
 238 ON THE INDIAN HILLS. 
 
 palms in the courtyard, and the little Swiss chateau 
 
 of S , where we had spent the previous Sunday, 
 
 and far away to the southward Ootcha Mulla and the 
 clearings of our own estate. Then, wandering round 
 to the other side of the hill, we looked down another 
 slope of the ridge, upon a wide uninhabited valley 
 stretching away as far as the eye could see to the 
 east and southward a wonderful stretch of unopened 
 forest land where the white man has rarely been 
 the home of the bison and elephant who have things 
 all their own way down there. The green of the 
 forest here was broken by widespreading patches of 
 yellow and brown vegetation formed by great ex- 
 panses of bamboos, which, according to the custom of 
 that curious plant, had seeded during the last twelve 
 months for the first time in sixty years, and then died 
 out. The old generation far and wide was withered 
 and dead, and underneath them the ground was emerald 
 with the shoots of young plants. Some of the stems 
 in this valley, I heard, are of enormous size, sixty or 
 seventy feet high, and a foot thick. 
 
 I should have much liked to have investigated these 
 wonderful solitudes, but it was not possible that day ; 
 so, after lingering on the pleasant hill-tops as long as 
 we could, and taking tea with our hostess, we were 
 reluctantly obliged to make a start back for our own 
 encampment just as dusk was coming on. By the 
 time we had left the last estates behind us, and had 
 entered the Ootcha Mulla jungle, darkness came down 
 suddenly and enveloped everything, so that we had 
 one of the roughest walks I can ever remember. The 
 track, which in daylight is a mere beaten footpath, 
 with dense forest on either side, and encumbered by 
 fallen trees and short stumps sticking up at every 
 step, in the gloom was terribly difficult to find. For- 
 tunately both of us were clad in white from head to 
 foot, and by keeping together we could just make out
 
 JUNGLE SOCIETY. 239 
 
 our respective forms. First, L came a " cropper " 
 
 over a stump, and bruised himself considerably. Then 
 my turn arrived, and, without any apparent reason, I 
 found myself rolling over among the dead leaves and 
 weeds, but was up again immediately and proceeding 
 cautiously forward. It was very ridiculous, and my 
 companion laughed uproariously every time I came 
 in collision with a log or stump ; while, if there were 
 any tigers in the neighbourhood, they must have 
 thought us the most light-hearted of benighted travel- 
 lers. After innumerable tumbles, at last we saw the 
 twinkling lights of the natives' watch-fires gleaming 
 through the trees below us, and soon after were 
 seated comfortably at supper in our tiny hut, which, 
 however, seemed a palace of light after the dense 
 darkness of the jungle. Before we turned in, we 
 declared that it had been a jolly day, and that 
 
 F 's bungalow was worth a longer and even 
 
 rougher walk. 
 
 Another occupation of the coffee planter on a new 
 estate is " pitting," of which there are several methods. 
 Our own was to pit each clearing before the forest is 
 felled, and for this purpose I used to start out each 
 morning at daybreak, with perhaps two hundred men 
 following in Indian file at my heels, and proceed to 
 the jungles, which had been already pegged and 
 marked out. Each coolie brought with him a mam- 
 moty, an axe for cutting roots, and a long iron bar 
 pointed at one end and flattened out into a spud at 
 the other, chiefly used for removing heavy stones and 
 loosening the soil. We then went to work, in a long- 
 straight line so far as was possible, but to get the 
 hands into any sort of order in heavy jungle is much 
 more easy to talk of than to effect, as it is not easy 
 to see more than ten men at a time, and each man 
 wants to work where the ground is softest and there 
 are fewest roots. The daily task of each is supposed
 
 240 ON THE INDIAN SILLS. 
 
 to be twenty-five pits of regulation size, and the 
 superintendent has to see this properly done. Per- 
 haps he places a mark where each man begins, at the 
 last pit of yesterday's work, and then goes to the 
 other end of the line, half a mile away. When he 
 returns, he is surprised and pleased to find the first 
 men have already finished half their tasks, but on 
 investigating he sees the " mild Hindoos " have moved 
 his pegs back so as to include ten or twelve of yester- 
 day's pits, and then he grows wrathful, and perhaps, 
 if his temper be hasty, " pitches into " the worst 
 offenders. At another place a poor famine-stricken 
 wretch, who has hardly strength to lift his mam- 
 moty, has scraped a few wretched holes scarcely big 
 enough to plant a seed in, and much too small for a 
 coffee bush, and the exertion having proved too great, 
 he is lying shivering on the ground in the cold stage 
 of fever. 
 
 What is the unhappy Englishman to do ? If he 
 maintains strict discipline and insists on the full 
 task, the coolie cannot do it ; or attempts it and dies, 
 and is buried himself in a hole in the jungle. I am 
 sure most planters would follow the more humane 
 course, and deal gently with the sick and feeble, if 
 they were working on their own land; but when 
 working with the money of much-respected " share- 
 holders," and with a vigilant agent on the look out 
 to see where every anna goes, the superintendent is 
 obliged by his official position to put humanity on 
 one side and look at everything from a business point 
 of view. Besides the coolies who scamp their al- 
 lotted tasks from sickness, there are many others 
 who give a vast amount of trouble by their stupidity 
 in making pits out of the straight line, or just too 
 small to pass muster the regulation size being two 
 feet deep by eighteen inches square, measured across 
 from the level of the surface of the ground. The holes
 
 JUNGLE SOCIETY. 241 
 
 should have right-angled corners, as experienced 
 planters believe that if a tree be set in a circular 
 hole, the roots follow the limits of the soil which has 
 been disturbed, and become as much " pot-bound " as 
 though they grew in stone jars ; but when the pit is 
 square the roots grow into the angles, and, finding 
 themselves faced by walls of earth, are obliged to 
 penetrate them and spread into the surrounding soil. 
 
 This sort of work took up my whole attention 
 during the week before Christmas, and it was im- 
 possible to call it enjoyable ; in fact, it was dreadfully 
 monotonous. By the time the pits began to be num- 
 bered by thousands, the ground also presented a 
 curious aspect something as if the jungle had been 
 overrun by monstrous land-crabs, which had dug out 
 their underground houses in every direction ; but the 
 walking was better than usual, owing to the pits 
 being in straight lines and the timber still standing, 
 instead of cumbering the ground, as it did in the 
 planted clearings. I also found these holes were very 
 productive traps for all sorts of strange creatures 
 beetles and lizards especially though once or twice 
 I have seen small snakes imprisoned in them. Early 
 in the morning nearly every excavation is tenanted, 
 often by insects and animals having natural anti- 
 pathies to each other, and the results are fierce battles, 
 in which all the combatants fight bravely, as they 
 seem to know there is no escape for the vanquished. 
 The lizards especially, whose wandering propensities 
 often lead them down the crumbling sides of these 
 pitfalls, contend like bull-dogs, and I have watched 
 several well-sustained combats, in which the pug- 
 nacious creatures bit and kicked and shook each 
 other with the greatest fury ; but when either of the 
 combatants was getting much the worst of it, I 
 generally exercised my authority by suddenly seizing 
 him by the tail and drawing him out of his arena, 
 
 R
 
 242 ON THE INDIAN HILLS. 
 
 putting the little beast, to cool down and recover his 
 senses, on the neighbouring moss. 
 
 Anything which breaks the current of such 
 monotonous work as " pitting " is welcome, so it 
 may be guessed with what satisfaction I received a 
 
 pleasant note from Mrs. F , to say that a picnic 
 
 had been organized for Christmas Day at a waterfall 
 close to S 's bungalow. 
 
 When that day came, having started the coolies to 
 work, I put on my full "war-paint," i.e. new white 
 clothes, top-boots, and a sun helmet ; and, mounting 
 the estate pony, set off for "W 's. By the time I 
 got there, there were several horses in the courtyard, 
 being led about by their syces ; and giving mine to 
 the ghorawallah, who had been running behind me 
 with my rifle, I joined the party in the verandah, 
 which consisted of all the English settlers of the dis- 
 trict (with the exception of D ), some eight gentle- 
 men and one lady, and we soon made a move forward ; 
 the provisions, borne in baskets on the heads of coolies, 
 leading the way, and we following more leisurely. 
 
 Mrs. F was carried in a chair lashed to two strong 
 
 bamboos and supported by four picked natives, who 
 seemed very proud of their duty ; indeed, their head- 
 man, an old Canarese maistry with clean shaven head 
 and snowy waistcloth, nearly went frantic in his en- 
 deavours to make himself useful to the " mem sahib." 
 He carried a small axe in his hand and ran on ahead, 
 and whenever he saw a creeper or rattan cane likely 
 to get in the way, hurled himself upon it and cut it 
 into small pieces, and then salaamed and scudded on 
 again. In this way we proceeded towards Nillacothy 
 
 Rock, following the winding path down W 's 
 
 " trace," which, by the way, he had had cleared of 
 leaves and sticks for the first time in five years, in 
 order to make the journey smoother for the English 
 lady. We crossed the Manalora by a fallen fig tree
 
 JUNGLE SOCIETY. 243 
 
 an undertaking which Mrs. F - faced with great 
 courage, though she could scarcely have felt comfort- 
 able in her swinging-chair so high above the water 
 and then, passing through the Nillacothy estate, took 
 our way to a beautiful spot, where a mountain torrent 
 came foaming down from the hills, and, after forming 
 a deep still basin, went on down a shady avenue of 
 forest trees, towards the valley. Here we found the 
 cloth already spread, and several scarlet-turbaned 
 servants busy boiling water in a kettle and making 
 the food ready. 
 
 It was indeed a beautiful spot for this wild banquet 
 of ours a little tinkling waterfall above, the still 
 deep pool at our side, and overhead tall, graceful, 
 green tree-ferns, shading us from the sun and com- 
 pletely roofing in our dining-room. Lower down its 
 quiet vista, the stream flowed amongst rocks and 
 little sandy beaches, where a couple of grey-and-white 
 stints were busy searching for insects among the 
 stones, paying no more attention to us than if we 
 had been a company of the elephants on whose haunts 
 we were trespassing. But besides the little harmless 
 birds and elephants, this was a noted spot for tigers ; 
 and as the sudden appearance of one of those striped 
 brutes, as an unbidden guest, would have been worse 
 than the proverbial wasp which puts in an unwelcome 
 
 visit at English picnics, Mrs. F begged me to fire 
 
 my rifle to frighten anything that might be in the 
 neighbourhood, and the woods and rocks accordingly 
 ran at the report with a hundred echoes. Then we 
 sat down to a pleasant meal, booted and spurred as 
 we were, and the stores of good things which in- 
 hedged our amiable hostess crumbled down and dis- 
 appeared before our attacks ; the last of all to vanish 
 being a mountainous sponge-cake, with sugar ram- 
 parts and turrets, which we ate like schoolboys. 
 
 But the happiest hour must even end, and when
 
 244 ON TEE INDIAN HILLS. 
 
 the gentlemen had smoked their cheroots and finished 
 their last story, a move homeward was proposed just 
 as it was growing dusk, and we walked slowly down 
 the narrow path, followed by the servants, who had 
 industriously finished off everything eatable and 
 drinkable while we chatted, and so brought back 
 with them nothing but china and empty bottles. 
 
 Darkness descended before we reached W 's, 
 
 and poor Mrs. F had a rough walk through the 
 
 jungle and over the fallen trees, as her chair was 
 useless, since the bearers could no longer keep together. 
 Of course, we did what we could, but I fear we rather 
 embarrassed her by the persistency with which we 
 each tried to be useful. One helping hand is all very 
 well in scrambling over a log, but seven or eight are- 
 too many. 
 
 The festivities, however, were not yet over, for 
 
 W had prepared a big dinner for us, with a real 
 
 turkey and a veritable tinned plum-pudding, of which 
 we partook, and then sat up till late, drinking punch 
 and champagne-cup in the verandah ; so late, in fact, 
 that it was "to-morrow" before we could think of 
 separating. And then those amongst us who were 
 
 furthest from their own places accepted W 's and 
 
 his assistant C. H 's hospitality, and shook them- 
 selves down as best they might in hammocks and on 
 sofas. 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 HARD AT WORK. 
 
 FOR the next few days I was entirely alone on the 
 
 clearing, D being away picnicking at Palghaut, 
 
 and L and " Charlie " visiting on other estates- 
 It happened that at this time our pay-sheet contained
 
 HARD AT WORK, 245 
 
 the names of more men than had probably ever before 
 been in these jungles since they first sprouted up, and 
 certainly of the largest number under any one leader. 
 My own personal coolies, living in the huts round 
 me and within fifty yards, numbered a little over 
 three hundred men, women, and children, and besides 
 these there were two hundred "contract coolies" 
 encamped in the middle of No. 1 clearing, making in 
 all over five hundred natives under my orders. Such 
 a condition of things is not usual on an estate of the 
 size of ours, but we had been very desirous to force 
 things on at a rapid pace, in order to get a large 
 acreage planted during the season to tickle the 
 imagination of the shareholders at home, and this 
 accounts for the small army mentioned. 
 
 The " contract coolies " were not so much trouble 
 to me as the others. They came up from Madura 
 under their own maistries, and had been lodged in 
 two parallel rows of huts among the coffee in the 
 north-west clearing. Their chief headman was named 
 Yaneta, a venerable, grey-bearded old patriarch, and 
 every morning he stalked out with his flowing white 
 garments and a long staff in his hand, to lead his men 
 to the work, which he had contracted to finish by a 
 certain date. The only concern which I had with 
 this division was to visit them two or three times a 
 day, and see that the operations chiefly " pitting " 
 were conducted well and up to regulation standard. 
 They also visited me in considerable numbers to be 
 doctored every evening, and seemed to have consider- 
 able faith in my prescriptions, though I must confess 
 these were more distinguished for simplicity than 
 depth of medicinal knowledge. 
 
 But the coolies lodged around me, who belonged to 
 the estate, were a great anxiety. First of all, they 
 lived fearfully crowded some three hundred human 
 beings squeezed into five " lines " of low huts all close
 
 246 ON THE INDIAN HILLS. 
 
 together, and only a few yards above the stream from 
 which we got our drinking water. Inside, I am 
 bound to say, the natives keep their huts very clean, 
 and the constant pattering about of bare feet smooths 
 and hardens the mud floors until they shine like 
 marble; but, unfortunately, the tidiness ceases at 
 their doorsteps, and beyond this their habits are 
 horrible and knowledge of the plain rudiments of 
 sanitation very slight. In fact, the " settlement " was 
 in the most atrocious state of neglect. There had 
 been no attempt at drainage or any necessary arrange- 
 ments, and, having been inhabited by large numbers 
 of the lowest orders of India for two years, its con- 
 dition may be better imagined than described. I 
 several tunes proposed to turn our attention for a 
 spell to building better " lines " in a more elevated 
 and healthy spot, but the reply was always to hurry 
 forward the planting operations, and when those were 
 completed to look after the coolies, undoubtedly the 
 right plan to follow when the first object is to get a 
 dividend as big and as soon as possible. This is the 
 worst of the best of " Corporations," they have no 
 souls to be saved and no bodies to be kicked. So 
 there we were still, and as the weather grew hotter, 
 the danger of an epidemic became greater. Already 
 there were five or six deaths every week, and the 
 jungle round about was becoming thickly marked 
 with the little hillocks which denoted the last resting- 
 place of the poor wretches. 
 
 The coolies seemed to be very callous to suffering, 
 and even to the death of their nearest relations. It 
 may not be so in reality, but their conduct appeared 
 such to an outsider like myself. For instance, one 
 very hot day I appointed myself sanitary inspector, 
 and went through the " lines " to see if anything 
 might be done to render them more healthy. The 
 coolies were at work, but from one hut rose a thin
 
 HARD AT WORK. 247 
 
 wisp of light blue smoke, not from a chimney, needless 
 to say, but percolating through the thatch. Approach- 
 ing to see who was inside, supposing it might be some 
 sick person too ill to work, I went up to the low door, 
 and, stooping down, looked in. There was a fearful 
 odour about the place, and, accustomed as I had grown 
 to strong smells, it was as much as I could do to keep 
 my place. In the centre of the floor was a low stone 
 fireplace, and a woman sat boiling rice in an earthen 
 chatty over the embers. In the far corner lay some- 
 thing wrapped up in a coarse cumbley or shawl, and 
 pushed as much out of the way as possible. Guessing 
 this was the cause of the fearful taint, I asked, " What 
 on earth have you got there ? " " Oh," said the woman, 
 as she squatted on her heels and leisurely stirred and 
 tasted the conjee she was boiling, "that's my husband; 
 he died five days ago." When I asked why she had 
 not had him buried, instead of keeping him in such a 
 shocking condition, she merely said she had been 
 waiting for me to send men to do it. Half an hour 
 afterwards, two men with mammoties were scraping 
 a shallow hole in the jungle, under a sacred fig tree, 
 and having made it about three feet deep, they rested 
 from their work, when, after admiring the grave for 
 a little time and rolling themselves a chew of betel- 
 nut, they fetched the dead man and laid him in. The 
 earth was replaced and trodden down, and there was 
 an end of him ; and when I read over his name at 
 roll-call that evening and he did not answer, my 
 pencil was drawn through it. So he had disappeared 
 entirely hopes, feelings, and ambitions (if he ever 
 had any) ; Heaven only knows where all went to ! 
 Not even to his consort did his memory remain long 
 green, for the same evening one of the men who had 
 buried him seems to have hinted to her that there 
 was room in his hut still vacant, and she moved across 
 the next morning to his dwelling with all her worldly
 
 248 ON TEE INDIAN HILLS. 
 
 belongings a palm-leaf mat to sleep upon, two clay 
 chatties, some oil for her hair in an empty soda-water 
 bottle, and two handsful of rice in an old piece of 
 sackcloth. May her second matrimonial venture be 
 more fortunate than her first ! 
 
 And yet these coolies were undoubtedly honest, 
 and very courteous and reverential towards their 
 superiors. When I spoke to a maistry, very likely a 
 venerable old grey-beard three times as old as I was, 
 he listened in silence, and when I had done salaamed 
 profoundly by placing both hands over his face and 
 bowing down almost to the ground. At first this was 
 rather overwhelming, but one soon gets accustomed 
 to it, and it is undoubtedly agreeable to be bowed to. 
 As Sancho Panza says, " It is good to know one's self 
 master even though it be but of a flock of sheep." 
 Then as to their honesty : my hut was always open 
 in fact, there was no fastening to the door at all, but 
 a " bobbin ; " and as my things must have seemed an 
 immense wealth to so poor a people, they showed 
 great forbearance in leaving them alone. Several 
 times I returned from work and found my breakfast 
 spread on the table, and three or four hungry and 
 thin coolies crouched in my verandah messengers 
 from the other estates, or maistries eyeing my pro- 
 vender and discussing the absent sahib's household 
 arrangements, though no one ventured across the 
 threshold. Perhaps my servant purloined a little that 
 did not belong to him, but doubtless he looked upon 
 all that as perquisites, and this habit is not entirely 
 unknown in England. 
 
 As to heavier crimes and any violence towards my- 
 self or each other, it never seemed to enter the native 
 head, as far as my limited experience went. Alone in 
 the jungles, and surrounded by all these men, with a 
 great number of rupees in the iron safe at my elbow, 
 the keys of which hung at my belt, the wide woods
 
 HARD AT WORK. 249 
 
 around where any number of fugitives from justice 
 might find safe and certain refuge, yet I slept every 
 night as calmly and undisturbed as I might have done 
 in the best guarded English town. Policemen or laws 
 were practically unknown. Of course they existed, 
 &nd I was still under the broad shield of English pro- 
 tection, but nothing was seen or heard of Government 
 authority. Never since my arrival had I viewed an 
 official of any kind, or paid " tribute " to any sircar. 
 
 Pleasant as it is to be thus " monarch of all you 
 survey " for a time the novelty wears off by degrees, 
 and then there comes a longing to speak one's own 
 language and see white faces again, and one's thoughts 
 wander away to the old home country, while the 
 gorgeousness of the tropics grows dull and tedious, 
 till one becomes regularly homesick a state of mind 
 very bad at the time, but in turn it passes off slowly. 
 
 On New Year's Eve, 1877, 1 was, I believe, the only 
 Englishman in the district, every one else being away 
 in the lowlands. Some day, when the Annamullies 
 are a thriving corner of the Madras Presidency, with 
 numerous English stations, good roads, and maybe a 
 railway, it will hardly be believed that on the eve of 
 that year of grace the sole representative of the 
 dominant race was one " griffin," alone by himself in 
 a, " tooth-pick and brown paper " hut ; and yet so it 
 happened. 
 
 My attempts to commemorate the advent of the 
 New Year were confined to making myself an extra 
 good dinner the usual way in which an Anglo-Saxon 
 celebrates an anniversary of any sort. He does not 
 discriminate, but banquets equally at the death of the 
 old year or to hail the new one. In the evening he 
 drinks to the departed, and in the morning the same 
 "bowl is full again to hail the new-comer. In Italy 
 they would wave flags, or masquerade and march up 
 and down the streets in gay throngs ; the Frenchman
 
 250 ON THE INDIAN HILLS. 
 
 would put on his best plumage and patronize the 
 boulevards, supremely happy in staring and being- 
 stared at, and the American goes in for torchlight 
 processions and visiting, but the Briton cannot get 
 beyond dining. The red-letter days in his calendar 
 ought to be marked with a saucepan and gridiron 
 satire-wise. 
 
 As may be supposed, I was scarcely sorry when my 
 reign of undivided power came to an end on the return 
 of the revellers from the lowlands. For to look after 
 five hundred men and women in thick forest ; to 
 muster them, doctor them, and superintend every- 
 thing; to be engineer, carpenter, cook, surveyor, 
 horticulturist, doctor, accountant, and chief inspector 
 of drainage in turn, with the thermometer varying 
 from 40 to 90 every six hours, is exceptionally 
 trying work. 
 
 Besides, we had at last finished " pitting " one 
 clearing, and I was beginning to wonder what opera- 
 tions would come next, when D arrived, and, 
 
 taking advantage of his superior experience, I con- 
 sulted him. He at once said, that the next thing to 
 be done, after having carefully dug these twenty-two 
 thousand pits, was to fill them up again ! At first, I 
 naturally thought he must be joking, but the truth is 
 the forest under which we had been so industriously 
 scratching these holes for the last three weeks had 
 now to be felled and burnt, and the sufficient reason 
 for refilling the pits was that the valuable top soil, 
 which contains the best nourishment, might be saved 
 from the flames, which would bake it to a sort of 
 brick a result which should be avoided, if possible, 
 yet which would assuredly happen if the " pitting " 
 were delayed until after burning. So we set to work 
 again, and with the same industry which we displayed 
 before, filled up the holes far and wide, my chief care 
 being to see that the top soil really went to the
 
 HARD AT WORK. 251 
 
 bottom of the pit, as the coolies are apt to scrape the 
 soil in just as it lies. After the burn, we should be 
 able to tell the position of each pit by the soil being 
 a little higher over it than elsewhere. 
 
 Our larder had been replenished in a most satisfac- 
 tory way by G. D , of Polyampara. One night it 
 
 happened that he was seated in the verandah of 
 
 S 's bungalow, meditating over an after-dinner 
 
 cigar, when a sambour deer came out of the gloom of 
 the woods by the stream, and, after sniffing the air, 
 
 began to graze in the bright moonlight. D , who 
 
 is fond of venison and a good shot, stole into the 
 house, and getting his rifle, reached a crag above the 
 spot, unobserved; then, firing at his leisure at a 
 hundred and fifty yards, the ball struck the sambour 
 full between the horns, and it rolled over dead a very 
 creditable performance, as shooting by moonlight is 
 much more difficult than in the daytime. The result 
 of this shot was that for the next four or five days 
 the whole district lived on venison, the animal being 
 as large as a cow. I have tasted the best haunches of 
 Scottish stags, the wild mouflon of Corsica, the thick- 
 coated reindeer of Norway, and the sambour of the 
 Indian jungles, and my choice is for the latter; but I 
 say so with diffidence, as three months of the strong- 
 fleshed Indian sheep had doubtless made me very 
 ready to admire anything a wee bit more tender. 
 
 It is astonishing how little one sees of big game in 
 these jungles, although their fresh footmarks every- 
 where show they are numerous and come forth regu- 
 larly to feed in the open every evening. I fear a 
 place like " the settlement," low down and surrounded 
 by dense forest, was the worst situation that could be 
 
 for a sportsman, as no view is obtained, and S on 
 
 his wood- fringed grass plateau, or F on his hill- 
 top, were in much better positions. Myself and L 
 
 made a valiant attempt to climb the green Pardagherry
 
 252 ON THE INDIAN HILLS. 
 
 the " hill of wonder " one day in search of game 
 with our rifles ; but the jungle was absolutely im- 
 penetrable without billmen, and after reducing our 
 clothes to a fearful condition, which cost us many 
 hours of hard sewing to put right, we finally came to 
 a standstill about half a mile from where the grass 
 begins on top, and had to beat an ignominious 
 retreat. 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 BIRDS, BEASTS, AND SAVAGES. 
 
 WHEN the weather grew warmer in February, animal 
 life became more varied in our jungles, and at our 
 great elevation above the hot Indian plains there was 
 much to remind me of the fauna and flora of England. 
 Among the insects the most common was a small 
 brown dragon-fly exactly resembling the English 
 species. This was abundant everywhere in the open- 
 ings of the forest and by every stream, but neither 
 striking in colour nor peculiar to the country. 
 Another familiar object was the bracken fern. On 
 very estate more than two years old it grew in the 
 greatest profusion. Poothpara, ten years old, was in 
 parts hidden by it, and as I wandered through the 
 dense ferns knee-deep, it was easy to imagine myself 
 at home again on a Surrey hillside. The strange thing 
 is, it never grows in the jungle or on the grass hills. 
 There was not a root of it on our estate, or on the 
 next youngest, Nillacothy ; but on the others it was 
 the most vigorous of weeds, and seemed to have risen 
 by spontaneous generation, as it is almost impossible 
 it should have been imported, and equally difficult to
 
 BIRDS, BEASTS, AND SAVAGES. 253 
 
 think the seeds or roots had lain dormant since the 
 jungle first grew up. 
 
 Again, the commonest of our spring birds was a 
 small species exactly resembling in habits and plumage 
 the yellow wagtail so well known at home. I never 
 passed along the stony bed of a nullah without dis- 
 turbing two or three of these lively little birds, and 
 they twittered as they flew, and jerked their slender 
 tails in their search for insects and small beetles, after 
 the fashion so familiar to any one who has given 
 attention to English country sights and sounds. 
 
 Amongst the native butterflies, Papiliopolymnestor, 
 which was common during the damp weather at the 
 close of the wet monsoon, almost disappeared when the 
 dry weather came, and the very handsome black-and- 
 gold Papilio pompeius took its place an insect with 
 wings five or six inches from tip to tip, looking more 
 like a good-sized bird when flying than a simple 
 butterfly. There is another beautiful species, known 
 scientifically as Hestia lynceus, of even wider expanse 
 of wing, and yielding in grace of flight and habits to 
 none. I had left some specimens behind me amongst 
 my collections in England, but what a poor idea they 
 give of the insect in its native home ! Truly in the 
 " specimen " it is possible to admire their thin, semi- 
 transparent, pearly white wings, marked out with 
 numerous black velvet-like blotches, but " at home " 
 the creature looked doubly beautiful. They are 
 essentially water-loving, and the new road by the side 
 of the Manalora was the best place to watch their love- 
 play. Here the trees grow up in steep banks on 
 either side, with the stream beneath and the blue sky 
 overhead, and the lynceus revelled amongst the foliage 
 on which their larvae fed. Their habit was to lazily 
 flap their wings while ascending to the tops of the 
 trees, and then, keeping their wings spread out to the 
 full on either side, they let themselves come slowly
 
 254 ON THE INDIAN HILLS. 
 
 sailing down in wide circles, like large white blossoms, 
 until just at the surface of the water, when they flutter 
 over their own bright reflection for a moment, and 
 again rise up to the tree-tops a happy, lazy sort of 
 way of spending existence, which I was generally 
 reluctant to disturb, not being one of those naturalists 
 so enthusiastic that they deem no creature has reached 
 the goal of its existence until it has found a place in 
 their cabinets. 
 
 It may be wondered how we obtained provisions 
 and the necessaries of life, but the mode was really 
 simple. Our ordinary everyday needs were supplied 
 from Wallenghay, at the foot of the ghaut, and Pal- 
 ghaut on the railway. At each of these places we had 
 a native agent, who received ten or twelve rupees a 
 month, and sent up by estate-tapal or special coolie 
 everything we ordered. Eggs were four for the value 
 of an English penny cheap, but very small ; butter 
 was also cheap, but, being made of buffalo milk, was 
 white and tasteless. It came in little pats, wrapped 
 up in banana leaves, in the tapal-basket from Wallen- 
 ghay. Bread in small square loaves, mutton at two- 
 pence a pound, and vegetables, came from Palghaut. 
 Sometimes, when there was a considerable demand, 
 the butchers sent up an unfortunate brown sheep, 
 which was slaughtered at one of the bungalows, and 
 the meat distributed to " subscribers." No beef or 
 pork could be had nearer than Ootocamund or Banga- 
 lore ; and if we wanted any luxuries, such as cheese, 
 sugar, tea, coffee, etc., we wrote down to the English 
 stores, the price-lists of which we took care to have by 
 us, at Madras or Calicut ; and they were sent by train 
 and coolie, which naturally made the cost heavy. It 
 was possible to get wines and spirits from the native 
 shopkeepers in the lowlands, but we sadly mistrusted 
 them, and bought our beer, wine, and brandy from the 
 coast. The bottled ale cost, by the time it reached my
 
 BIRDS, BEASTS, AND SAVAGES. 255 
 
 bungalow, about one and fourpence a bottle of the 
 smallest size, and yet every one in the district drank 
 it very freely. It is said that if the English left 
 India to-morrow, all that would remain to mark their 
 raj would be railways and mountains of empty 
 bottles ; and, though exaggerated, there is a good 
 deal of truth in this. Even on our hills in every 
 courtyard the beer-bottles stood in great heaps, and 
 nobody utilized them except the wasps, which made 
 nests in their necks. On the whole, the household 
 expenses of the chik-doree are not heavy. If he spends 
 more than usual for superfluities, he gets the necessities 
 of life very cheaply. He pays no house-rent, as his 
 bungalow almost always belongs to the estate. There 
 are no taxes or licences ; he dresses as he likes ; and, 
 as there are no shops, he cannot fritter away his in- 
 come. There once lay a solitary rupee at the bottom 
 of my pocket for three months ; it was of no good to 
 me, and I had overlooked its existence, and if it had 
 not been for paying the coolies on Saturday evenings, 
 I should have forgotten the very aspect of money, as 
 all our transactions with the agents were settled every 
 month by cheque. Living quite comfortably, with 
 one servant, wines, beer, food, and everything else cost 
 me between Us. 100 and Us. 125 per month ; but one 
 or two other assistants, who were more abstemious, 
 did not smoke, and so on, kept their expenses within 
 Us. 100, which is less than 10 per month. 
 
 As the hot weather advanced and we began " to hate 
 the sun," the grass hills dried and withered. Parda- 
 gherry especially changed its emerald livery for one of 
 dusky brown, and we expected every day the jungle- 
 men would set fire to the grass, and then we should 
 see a mountain in flames. 
 
 Some mention should be made of these Cardars, or 
 forest-men. They seem to be allied to the Gonds of 
 Central India and the Yeddahs of Ceylon, but from
 
 256 ON THE INDIAN HILLS. 
 
 what little I know of the three races, I think they 
 are all slightly different in form and habits. These 
 tribes are the wildest of the wild, and it is almost as 
 hard to learn anything about their ways as to catch 
 a leopard asleep. My first meeting with one of them 
 happened when walking slowly down the new road - r 
 and my footsteps making no sound on the fresh earth, 
 on turning a corner I suddenly came in sight of a 
 small brown man fishing in the river below. He was 
 sitting on his heels on a rock in the centre of the 
 stream, with his back towards me, deeply intent upon 
 watching a shoal of small fish playing about the line 
 which hung from the long slender bamboo in his 
 hand. He seemed to be of most diminutive size, not 
 more than four feet six inches in height, and of the 
 darkest brown colour, though well made and comfort- 
 ably sleek of flesh ; but the thing which gave him the 
 most comical appearance was that his entire raiment 
 consisted of a Scotch cap, which, there could be no 
 doubt, had once hung in the shop- window of a booth 
 in " Auld Reekie." How he came by it is difficult to 
 say. It may have been dropped in the jungle, or 
 found its way to him through some native bazaar, but 
 there it was on the curly head of this otherwise 
 entirely unclad savage. For a minute or so I admired 
 him unobserved; but when I moved he caught the 
 sound of my footfall, and, hastily springing up, gave 
 one look at me ; and, though I called out to him in 
 Tamil and Hindustani to stop, he sprang lightly from 
 rock to rock, and disappeared in the jungle on the 
 far side. On another occasion, walking down this 
 same road and turning a corner abruptly, I met three 
 jungle-men face to face. They were very much 
 frightened ; but, as there was a steep bank on one 
 side and a drop on the other, they had to walk by 
 me. The tallest of them was not five feet high, so I 
 towered over him by twelve inches. They were all
 
 BIRDS, BEASTS, AND SAVAGES. 257 
 
 as black as charcoal, with woolly heads and thick 
 noses of a negroid type. They bore no weapons with 
 them, but were carrying some sort of fruit, wrapped 
 up in banana leaves, on their heads. 
 
 In the jungles we sometimes came upon traces of 
 them, such as holes where they had been digging up 
 the ginger roots, or their little sheep-like tracks over 
 the dead leaves and in and out of the tree stems the 
 highways of this small, shy people ! In one spot, 
 under a wild fig tree, in the hot weather, I found the 
 remains of one of their villages, consisting of three 
 huts made by slanting sticks together and thatching 
 them with boughs and grass ; but the poor little 
 structures had been almost destroyed by wind and 
 rain, and no other traces of the builders existed 
 except a few fire-blackened stones. But the relics of 
 their work which impressed me most, were the 
 wonderful ladders they made and left behind them 
 when raiding the nests of the wild bees. Let us 
 suppose a jungle-man, wandering about, finds a nest 
 with a swarm in it high up, perhaps a hundred feet 
 above the ground, on the branch of a forest tree. 
 
 He forthwith sets to work, and out of the stem of 
 full-grown bamboos cuts himself several hundred pegs, 
 wedge-shaped at one end and slightly notched at the 
 other, taking care that the nodes of the bamboo shall 
 be at the notched end of the peg, so that they shall 
 be less liable to split when hammered. Then he 
 waits until nightfall, when he proceeds, with some 
 clansmen, to the tree and commences his dangerous 
 climb. Numerous young saplings, of the thickness of 
 a man's thumb, are cut down and trimmed from twigs, 
 and some rattan canes split into thin fibres, and the 
 party set to work. With a rude wooden mallet the 
 first bamboo peg is driven into the tree-trunk, about 
 two feet from the ground, and the butt of the first 
 sapling is lashed to it with fibres. Then the "jungle- 
 
 s
 
 258 ON THE INDIAN HILLS. 
 
 wallah " mounts on to this peg, which does not stick 
 out from the tree more than four inches, and drives 
 another in at about the height of his chest, and again 
 fastens the slender sapling to it. Then, holding pegs, 
 mallet, and fibres in his mouth or slung on his back, 
 he again steps upwards in some marvellous manner, 
 and another peg is driven, until the end of the first 
 sapling is reached, when another is passed to him 
 from below, and the wonderful ladder carried on. It 
 must be remembered all this is done at the dead of 
 night, for not even a Cardar could look down from so 
 great a height as he presently reaches and so slender 
 a perch without becoming giddy ; and darkness is 
 essential to prevent him seeing below. But it must 
 also hinder his view of his work, and to my idea 
 there could scarcely be a more uncomfortable position 
 than standing on a clothes' -peg, with one's nose to 
 the smooth trunk of a tree, a hundred feet or more 
 above the ground on a dark and perhaps windy night, 
 and, worst of all, nothing to hold to ! But these little 
 men do not seem to mind it much, and they generally 
 reach the first branch in safety. After that it is 
 comparatively plain sailing, though very often the 
 ladders have to be continued again and again. When 
 the nest is reached, the bees are driven out by smoke, 
 and a rich reward then awaits the adventurer, who 
 slings the honeycomb on his back and perhaps eats a 
 little by way of refreshment, of which he must stand 
 much in need, retracing his steps slowly downwards, 
 feeling for each peg and holding on to the slight 
 sticks lashed to them. Let us hope the bees permit 
 him to descend in peace, and that he regains his 
 friends and terra firma with ample spoil and no bones 
 broken. Truly a fair booty makes a brave thief ! 
 
 Work went on much as usual during this pleasant 
 season, and by the time we got home each evening 
 we cared to do little but sit still and smoke. Occa-
 
 BIRDS, BEASTS, AND SAVAGES. 259 
 
 sionally, however, we had some shooting, for which 
 it was not necessary to go further than the verandah ; 
 for above our hut grew a far-spreading fig tree, the 
 fruit of which seemed to be ripe about March. Then, 
 every evening, flocks of a beautiful pigeon, with 
 claret-coloured back and wings and yellow-green 
 body, repaired to roost and sup amongst the figs. So 
 we brought out our guns, and made as much noise as 
 if we were at a warm corner of a covert on the 1st 
 of October; but the tree being high, and the birds 
 very small, we did little damage. It was wonderful 
 how difficult it became to see the pigeons when once 
 they had perched. Their under parts, being pale 
 yellow, matched almost exactly with the slender fig- 
 leaves ; and sometimes, although there were a hundred 
 of them in the tree, none of us could make out a 
 single bird, until they began to move and feed, and 
 send the figs rattling to the ground. 
 
 When darkness settled down, and we lay silent in 
 our armchairs, with our cheroots gleaming and the 
 guns idle at our sides, the flying foxes (squirrels they 
 really are) sallied forth, and skimmed, with wide- 
 spread limbs, from tree to tree. We watched for 
 them, and when one crossed a patch of sky above, 
 some one fired, and the silent forest re-echoed with 
 the sound. But that was generally the only result, 
 for the light in the evening was so misleading, I be- 
 lieve we often fired at the shadows of the animals. 
 Yet, though dark at first, when the moon came out, 
 and the silver light streamed down through the tree- 
 tops and illuminated some things and threw others 
 into deep shadow, the effect was most soft and beau- 
 tiful. But, alas! we could not safely enjoy it, for 
 with the moon rose the fever-mist, a death-cloud ; it 
 could be seen, a thin white web of transparent light, 
 down among the rocks that lined the bed of the nullah ; 
 and we knew that behind that glistening veil hid the
 
 260 ON TEE INDIAN HILLS. 
 
 face of the fever and ague. So we retired to the poor 
 protection of our hut, and lit the lamp and drew a 
 red curtain over the doorway, in order, as well as 
 might be, to shut out foreboding thought and make 
 the best of the present. 
 
 For my part, although I had almost given up hopes 
 of any really good shooting, yet, one day when work 
 
 was slack, I arranged with L to start at daybreak 
 
 the next morning, and explore the far side of the 
 ridge at the end of which lies the Varlavachen bun- 
 galow. So at dawn he was in my hut and asking 
 what we were going to look for. I proposed elephants, 
 and it was agreed, although only my express rifle was 
 serviceable, as there was no ammunition for the other 
 
 guns. However, L , who was a desperate smoker, 
 
 took a tin of " bird's-eye " in one pocket, some sand- 
 wiches in the other, his beloved meerschaum in his 
 mouth, and a revolver and hunting-knife in his belt, 
 and declared he was ready to go anywhere. I was 
 equally ready, and we started just as the sun was 
 rising. But the sun gets up very quickly in India, 
 and by the time we had threaded our way through 
 the rocky clearing, now green with the guinea grass 
 we planted two months ago, it was beginning to be 
 very hot, and we were glad of the friendly shelter of 
 a belt of jungle, through which we picked our way, 
 noticing the hoof-prints of sambour and hog-deer 
 everywhere, and the marks of a leopard or young 
 tiger who had been out for a constitutional just before 
 us. We were considerably startled by a troop of 
 twenty large black monkeys, who fled from branch to 
 branch at our approach, and made the forest resound 
 with their cries. 
 
 Then into the sun again ; and we were on the far 
 side of the ridge, our view wandering over the won- 
 derful Poothpara Thund. A most extensive view ! 
 It was impossible to look over this region without a
 
 BIRDS, BEASTS, AND SAVAGES. 261 
 
 feeling of satisfaction, in these days of dense popula- 
 tions, that there was still so much land to spare, and 
 unopened even, for the myriads of India. For my 
 part, I do not think we are within measurable dis- 
 tance of the time when the whole world will be a 
 town an idea dreadful to think of. Population un- 
 doubtedly increases to an alarming extent in every 
 quarter of the globe, but an industrious calculator 
 tells us the whole human race could still find standing 
 room on the Isle of Wight, and while there are such 
 tracts as these Indian hills to be opened and cultivated, 
 we cannot call ourselves cramped for room. 
 
 Right away from our feet the great valley stretched 
 as far as we could see, a vast expanse of undulating 
 forest, as smooth and close as velvet, but formed in 
 reality of countless thousands of mighty trees and 
 labyrinths of creepers. One small hill which looked 
 so close, in comparison to the wide expanse, that it 
 seemed one might walk to it in half an hour my 
 friend told me, was two days' journey away on horse- 
 back ; so how far must it have been to the great wall 
 of rocks which rose above the ocean of green jungle 
 on the horizon to the south and westward ? Even 
 there our view did not stop, for those remote cliffs 
 were crowned with wide fields of waving grass and 
 darker patches of jungle and trees. I think I never 
 saw a scene which impressed me more with its vast- 
 ness and its silent, deep loneliness; for our glance 
 passed over no habitation of men, only the fastnesses 
 of the jungle- wallahs and the haunts of elephants. 
 
 It was a long time before we could continue our 
 walk, so enchanting was the scene ; and when we did, 
 it was to talk of what effect the newly rediscovered 
 gold mines of the Palghaut river would have on this 
 district, and to speculate as to whether there was any 
 gold up here. L feared the gold mining opera- 
 tions would be very bad for the plantations by draw-
 
 262 ON THE INDIAN HILLS. 
 
 ing away all the labour and making everything too 
 expensive ; and, so chatting, we made our way along 
 the side of the ridge. 
 
 But it was by no means easy progress. The tall 
 dry grass grew up to our shoulders, and we looked 
 more as if we were swimming than walking on hard 
 ground. Nothing was to be seen of my companion 
 but his face, his helmet, and his hand occasionally, 
 making desperate efforts to part the grass stems in 
 front, and at every few steps he suddenly disappeared 
 altogether, having stumbled over a stone, in which I 
 frequently kept him company. The broken limestone 
 rocks were scattered everywhere amongst the grass 
 roots, so that our way was as unpleasant as going a 
 pilgrimage with unboiled peas in one's shoes, until 
 we, by good luck, hit upon a new elephant trail, and 
 then, the grass being trampled flat by the huge beasts, 
 we could at least see where we were stepping. The 
 trail we followed seemed to have been made by fifteen 
 or twenty elephants marching in single file the night 
 
 before, and L was all hot to catch them up and 
 
 get a shot with the rifle I carried ; so we made the 
 best pace we could, pushing through thickets of dwarf 
 date-palm which, by the way, only grow on these 
 open hillsides scrambling often on hands and knees 
 over bare ledges of rocks, where the heat of the mid- 
 day sun above and the radiation from the hard surface 
 nearly roasted us. My companion would give me no 
 rest, but led me on, in and out of nullahs, over rocks, 
 through thickets, until the trail entered the jungle 
 on top of the ridge, and a few minutes' more hard 
 scrambling brought us to a beautiful bit of green- 
 sward under a patriarchal fig tree, from which many 
 creepers hung down in graceful festoons, and gay little 
 butterflies hovered about in the stray gleams of sun- 
 shine which found their way through the thick green 
 roof of foliage. It was one of those pleasant spots al ways-
 
 BIRDS, BEASTS, AND SAVAGES. 263 
 
 associated with woodland countries, but which, when, 
 found in India, artists sketch and take home to the 
 old country with them, and say, " Behold the tropics!" 
 whereat the stay-at-home " Britisher " is much edified, 
 and concludes every part of India is as pleasant. 
 
 Here the elephants had been taking their noonday 
 rest, for the ground was trampled down and many 
 branches broken, etc. In fact, it may have been our 
 own footsteps which frightened them away; they 
 certainly had not been gone long. But it was useless 
 and dangerous to follow them into the thick jungle; 
 so we let ourselves cool down, and then regained the 
 grassy hillside and continued our swimming walk. 
 At last we found the work was too hard under such 
 a powerful sun ; so we camped a little after midday 
 by the side of a tree-grown watercourse, and pro- 
 ceeded to make our modest tiffin. The spot was a 
 very likely one for tigers just the kind of place 
 they choose to spend the hot hours in and hardly 
 had we sat down, and I was spreading some mustard 
 with scientific accuracy on a mutton sandwich, when 
 my companion called out suddenly, " Look sharp ! " 
 Down went the sandwich into the dust, and I sprang 
 up, gun in hand. Some big animal undoubtedly 
 broke away from the nullah, and came up through 
 the long grass at us, for we saw the grass wave and 
 part before it like water under the bows of a ship in 
 full sail, though we could not see the beast itself. 
 
 But when it was within thirty yards of us, L 
 
 suddenly raised the revolver he carried, and fired, and 
 the animal forthwith changed its course and gained 
 the jungle without showing the colour of its hide. 
 Perhaps it was fortunate for us it did so, as there was 
 no open ground in front, and consequently a snap shot 
 would have been all I could have got. 
 
 Very little proper shooting can be done in this 
 way. We started too late in the day. Had we been
 
 264 ON TEE INDIAN HILLS. 
 
 by this nullah and up a tree at daybreak, we should 
 have stood a good chance of a shot or two ; but all 
 the big game more careful of themselves than such 
 reckless young Englishmen as we creep into the 
 cool jungle when the sun grows hot, and leave the 
 hillsides to the lizards. We saw, however, plenty of 
 traces of game ; the most numerous being the little 
 holes scraped by bears when searching for roots and, 
 as I expect, the nests of honey-making ground bees ; 
 and also the places where sambour deer had been 
 lying out under the willow-like wild gooseberry tree, 
 the fruit of which is their special delight. At the 
 margins of the nullahs, bison, wild dog, and elephant 
 " spoor " of all ages was numerous ; so the country 
 was clearly " gamey." 
 
 We finished our repast in peace, and took a de- 
 lightful siesta, lying at full length under the shade 
 of the trees, and gazing over the mighty forests, 
 through the curling blue smoke of our pipes a 
 "bird's-eye" view, perhaps I might dare to say. 
 till the sun began to fall low in the sky, and then we 
 gathered up our traps, and proceeded to retrace our 
 steps through the long grass a most toilsome and 
 tedious process, which set us thinking how it might 
 be overcome. In a little time a bright idea occurred 
 
 to me, and calling out to L , who was up to his 
 
 eyes in dry herbage, I proposed, as there did not seem 
 to be anybody but ourselves on the hills, to set fire 
 to the grass. No sooner said than done. My com- 
 panion was on his knees in a moment with a box of 
 matches, and as soon as he had put a light into the 
 grass, a bright crimson flame shot high into the air, 
 and we turned and ran for our lives to windward. I 
 never saw anything burn as that hill did. In half a 
 minute the fire was twenty yards wide and utterly 
 beyond human control. In a minute it was a seething 
 mass of flame, stretching far to the right and left;
 
 BIRDS, BEASTS, AND SAVAGES. 265 
 
 and then, under the influence of a fresh breeze, it ad- 
 vanced leaping and crackling up the hillside, like the 
 long line of an army, beneath a dense canopy of smoke. 
 Nothing could resist it ! Before it lay the long yellow 
 grass that had been drying for a month under a fierce 
 Indian sun, and as the fire roared up the mountain, 
 the herbage burst into yellow flame ; the rocks split 
 with dull thuds amongst showers of sparks ; tall bam- 
 boos struggled for a moment while the flame twined 
 round them like a bright-flowered creeper, and then 
 came crashing down ; until at last the jungle on top 
 of the ridge was reached, and the flames surged 
 against the dense green barrier, leaping to the tops 
 of the trees and frightening out scores of (bewildered 
 birds, while the bushes and stems, too green to burn, 
 snapped and withered. Just as the waves during a 
 gale rush on a rock-bound coast, and leap up and 
 burst in spray against the unshaken wall of cliff, so 
 the long array of flame hurled itself in sheets on the 
 face of the forest, and then, finding all its endeavours 
 useless, made a few final spurts, and died away as 
 suddenly as it had risen. 
 
 The measure was most successful as far as we were 
 concerned, for the hillside, which had been such toil- 
 some walking in the morning, was now as bare as 
 the clean-shaven head of a Hindoo; and instead of 
 swimming in long grass, we marched along over a 
 light layer of charcoal, and, seeing the rocks and 
 stones, were enabled to save ourselves from many 
 tumbles. 
 
 One curious thing was that, although we had 
 walked all the early part of the day without noticing 
 more than two or three hawks far up in the sky, no 
 sooner was the wide black flag of the smoke unfurled 
 over the hill, than birds of prey of all sizes appeared 
 on every side of us, and commenced hawking along 
 the line in rear of the fire. Who shall say they have
 
 266 ON THE INDIAN HILLS. 
 
 no reason? They must have benefited by many 
 other jungle fires, and treasured their knowledge like 
 any human beings ; for when the smoke rose, they 
 gathered from all parts, by tens and scores, to pick 
 up the snakes and lizards. It really seemed as though 
 they were born of the smoke, for they came shooting 
 down through it, where none had been visible before. 
 Thus our walk ended ; and though our bag was nil, 
 owing to the late start, the noble country and pleasant 
 mountain air will not easily be forgotten by either 
 of us. 
 
 CHAPTEK XVII. 
 
 THE FEVER-FIEND. 
 
 WHEN anything unpleasant is in store for me, I like 
 to face it as soon as possible; and consequently, as 
 there was no hope of escaping altogether from the 
 jungle fever, I had been rather impatient for the first 
 attack. On the 14th of February it came on, and I 
 was able to say my curiosity was thoroughly satisfied. 
 The first symptoms showed about breakfast-time, when 
 a bad headache was rapidly succeeded by a fit of 
 ague, which set me shivering until it was scarcely 
 possible to stand up, and quite impossible to do any 
 work while it lasted, which was about two hours. 
 Then succeeded the hot stage, with sharp pains in 
 every limb and joint, accompanied by a fierce throb- 
 bing headache and a terrible thirst, which no amount 
 of drink could allay. In fact, from twelve o'clock 
 to midnight I was too ill to speak ; but then the 
 attack passed off, and by five the next morning, 
 though still weak, I was able to get to work. 
 
 Unfortunately this work was particularly trying,
 
 THE FEVER-FIEND. 2G7 
 
 and taxed my endurance to the utmost. Our contract 
 coolies had some time before felled half a dozen small 
 clearings on the far side of Bungalow Hill, and about 
 a mile from the settlement. These it was now neces- 
 sary to lop and burn ; but the latter operation, when 
 it had been attempted, proved a decided failure, owing 
 to the wood not having been sufficiently dried, so the 
 former duty became doubly laborious. Every mom- 
 ing the weary pilgrimage had to be made up the 
 slope of Bungalow Hill, over its shoulder, and down 
 the winding rocky path on the far side to the new 
 land close by the Manalora, our Ultima, Thule. For 
 a little while after our arrival things were well 
 enough, since the dew hung about, and the sun coming 
 above the trees just warmed us with its early beams, 
 while the thin columns of blue smoke from yester- 
 day's fires mounted straight up into the air, telling us 
 how little wind there was and how hot it would be 
 presently. And, truly, the place soon became a Pan- 
 demonium. The ground lay six inches deep in hot 
 white ashes, and littered with still smouldering logs 
 of wood. At midday thirty or forty fires were roar- 
 ing all round us, enveloping everything in dense 
 yellow smoke, while overhead the sun blazed down as 
 he only can in India. The coolies, gleaming with per- 
 spiration and white with ashes, piled up wood on the 
 fires, appearing and disappearing through the smoke, 
 while they shouted to each other in their uncouth 
 tongues, like imps of darkness. They did not seem to 
 mind it much ; but to me, roasted from above, below, 
 and on all sides, it was purgatorial. My head used 
 to spin, and everything danced before my eyes ; but 
 there was no help, since I could never bring myself to 
 stand in the shade while my men worked in the open. 
 Thus the long morning had to be got through, and 
 afterwards came the heavy tramp home to breakfast, 
 the fording of the settlement stream, and the climb
 
 268 ON TEE INDIAN HILLS. 
 
 through the evil-smelling coolie " lines " to my own 
 small bungalow on top. Then the scarcely tasted 
 breakfast was pushed away and a fresh start made, 
 another long walk and another good roasting, and so 
 back again to muster ; and at last the day ended. 
 
 On top of all this, and perhaps resulting from it, I 
 had fever three or four times, and began to feel my 
 strength ebbing fast. Generally a sense of oppression 
 about the head and pains in every limb heralded the 
 approach of an attack, when I sought the shelter of 
 the hut, and lay shivering or burning all through the 
 long hours of the hot midday, while the creepers 
 swung monotonously to and fro, and the jungle cicadse 
 set the forest vibrating with their horrid music. But 
 once I was caught by my enemy when out at work, 
 and felt the full force of his power in a way not easily 
 forgotten. I had risen at dawn as usual, and, in par- 
 ticularly good spirits, accompanied the coolies to our 
 daily purgatory; but experience was beginning to 
 teach me that " whistling before breakfast means cry- 
 ing before supper," and a light heart in the morning 
 was the certain sign of a heavy head at bedtime. The 
 sun had scarcely topped the trees when I felt the fever 
 coming on again, and had to make tracks for my 
 bungalow ; but too late. I took a short cut through 
 the jungle and over some newly burnt clearings, where 
 the coolies were not yet at work ; but as I went the 
 fever increased, my head throbbed and swam, and my 
 teeth began to chatter, though there was a burning 
 sky overhead. StiU I pushed on, crawling under some 
 logs and scrambling over others ; but the two miles 
 were more than I could manage, and in the middle 
 of a big clearing my strength ran out, and I sank 
 down by a log, sensible only that for all the riches 
 which Croesus ever owned, I could not move another 
 step. 
 
 Then came the cold fit, and the midday sun glared
 
 THE FEVER-FIEND. 269 
 
 down on me for a couple of hours without for a 
 moment checking the " shivers," which shook me from 
 head to foot. This was again succeeded by the hot 
 stage, when I felt my blood throbbing backwards and 
 forwards like molten lead, and a consuming thirst 
 drove me half mad ; but there was not a drop of water 
 to be had anywhere, and not a living thing in sight 
 nothing but the hot, glaring white ashes on which I 
 was lying ; and the last thing I remembered was 
 sitting up and shouting out for water at the top of my 
 voice. I must have fallen asleep after this, for when 
 I roused myself the sun was low down behind the 
 trees ; and limp, weak, and fearfully dirty, I staggered 
 to my feet. Half an hour afterwards, a dejected- 
 looking Englishman might have been seen mustering 
 his thick ring of dark-skinned coolies. How it was 
 got through goodness only knows. I have an in- 
 distinct remembrance of placing a finger on each long 
 native name, and reading it over three or four times 
 to get the right sound, while everything swam before 
 me ; and when the end of the column came suddenly, 
 I went straight to my hut, locked myself in, and, just 
 as I was, got supperless to bed. 
 
 It is curious to see how distinctly the races of the 
 natives are marked off', although they have been living- 
 side by side for many years. Now, most of our coolies 
 were Canarese, and a miserable, dirty, gaunt race of 
 scarecrows ; but the men of Wallenghay, who are 
 Tamils and come up here on contract, showed a much 
 finer set, tall, muscular, and of a pleasant coffee colour. 
 Their women in the plains go about clad in purple 
 and fine raiment, with bangles tinkling on their ankles 
 and big nose-rings an ornament, by the way, which 
 the Canarese women do not wear. The very fact of 
 the Wallenghay men only taking contract work shows 
 they like to be their own masters and to do as they 
 please. They are also great sawyers, and we had
 
 270 ON TEE INDIAN HILLS. 
 
 several couples at work cutting up logs into planks 
 for permanent buildings, for which they were highly 
 paid. Another race are the Malayalims, of which I 
 had come across none until, by special invitation, I 
 
 went with L to the " Bitter End," to see three 
 
 women of that type, and was much impressed. We 
 found them watering the young plants in the nursery, 
 and they were noticeable directly by the way in which 
 they kept close together and shunned the other coolies. 
 One was an old woman, bent with age and grey- 
 haired ; another was a matron of middle age ; and the 
 last was a really good-looking girl of sixteen or seven- 
 teen. Their skins were much lighter than those of 
 any other natives I ever saw, more approaching the 
 tint of a native of Southern Europe than of the tropics, 
 and their features were more finely cut than the 
 Canarese or Tamils. Their dress, or rather lack of it, 
 was the same ; but I noticed they made the most of 
 their scanty sarees when we approached them a 
 thing the other women never do, apparently deeming 
 clothes are simply to keep one in fashion, and needless 
 
 for any other purpose. L says he had considerable 
 
 difficulty with these three Malayalims, as he knew 
 nothing of their language, and neither did his maistries. 
 Where their men were he cannot tell, as they came on 
 to his place with fifty ordinary coolies, and he knew 
 nothing else of them. Poor creatures ! they never 
 went more than fifteen yards away from each other, 
 and seemed very solitary. 
 
 L told me one thing which amused me much. 
 
 His Christian name happened to be Samuel, and when 
 a new lot of coolies came up to his place, he set them 
 to work and gave the head man some orders, at which 
 he salaamed, and replied, "All right, Samy; it shall 
 be as you say." This familiarity took my friend 
 considerably aback; but he said nothing, until 
 presently, giving a fresh order, a small coolie girl,
 
 THE FEVER-FIEND. 271 
 
 fresh from her native village, observed, in reply to his 
 mandate, " Very well, Samy." This was too much, 
 and there would have been a disturbance, but fortu- 
 nately it occurred to him suddenly that it was " Swami," 
 the Canarese for " Lord of Wisdom," by which they 
 were calling him ; and such turned out to be the truth. 
 
 Beyond our estate there was a wonderful view down 
 the Manalora river, here of quite a respectable breadth, 
 with dense green banks of trees on either side, and 
 tall ferns and creepers overhanging the water ; but 
 the jungle grew so thickly it was scarcely possible to 
 
 penetrate any distance without bill-men. L said 
 
 there was one red cedar tree on top of a hill near here, 
 the only one he had ever seen. The trees we called 
 " white cedars " were plentiful enough, and amongst 
 our largest timber. I roughly measured one as it lay 
 on the ground, and found it was a hundred and ten 
 feet from where it had been cut through to the first 
 branch. The total height of the tree must have been 
 nearly double. It was, perhaps, fortunate nobody 
 took any interest in keeping the course of the Mana- 
 lora open and free from obstruction, or my friend 
 might have chanced to get reprimanded, since he had 
 made a clearing in one place directly on the edge of 
 the stream, and all his big trunks had fallen headlong 
 into the water, where, of course, they would not burn. 
 So for the next five years or so the channel will be a 
 wild tangle of branches. 
 
 Amongst this debris, on the day of my visit, I 
 noticed a pair of beautiful little black-and-white birds, 
 which were probably the rare Parus nuchalis of 
 Jerdon, besides some small blue kingfishers, a small 
 heron, and a sandpiper. But, in truth, no part of 
 these jungles is very productive in bird life : a morn- 
 ing in the plains shows one twice as many new species 
 as a month up here. 
 
 A large tiger had just been killed on Pardagherry,
 
 272 ON TEE INDIAN HILLS. 
 
 in a patch of jungle which I could see quite plainly 
 from the windows of my hut. It seemed he was an 
 old and well-known animal, with a decided taste for 
 fresh beef, and had already made considerable havoc 
 amongst the herd of cattle belonging to the native 
 estate next to ours. One day the cows were driven 
 up in the morning, according to custom, to graze on 
 the grass hill under charge of a Tamil cow-boy. All 
 went well until three o'clock in the afternoon, when 
 the animals were spread out and their guardian was 
 resting under a tree, dozing in the warm shade. At 
 that time he was soon roughly aroused, for a sleek, 
 well-fed red heifer, intent on the most succulent young 
 grass, strayed away from the others, and wandered 
 along the margin of a shola, or patch of low jungle. 
 It was strolling towards death ! There was a fierce 
 growl something yellow and black rushed forth 
 and the petrified cowherd saw the animal roll over 
 with the tiger on top of it, its back broken by a single 
 stroke from those mighty paws. But the "royal 
 animal " does not like his meat too new, so he lapped 
 a little blood, and then left the body for supper. 
 Meanwhile the native had driven away the other 
 cattle, and told the tale to a sporting maistry of the 
 Dewan's estate, who forthwith took his rifle, and, 
 getting to the dead cow, climbed a tree at dusk and 
 waited. He sat there for several hours, but at last 
 his patience was rewarded ; for the tiger stalked out 
 of the jungle into the moonlight, and, after sniffing 
 the air, was about to commence his repast, when a 
 single well-directed shot from the tree-top caught him 
 between the shoulders, and ended his hunting for ever. 
 
 Of course L and I were disgusted at having lost 
 
 such a chance, and sent our servant over to know if 
 the skin was to be bought ; but we found the Dewan 
 of Cochin had desired his agent to keep it for him, so 
 we had to wait another opportunity.
 
 TEE FEVER-FIEND. 273 
 
 That same rocky hill must be a gamey place, as I 
 saw a very fine bison up there a few mornings after- 
 wards, and watched him through my glass as he 
 stalked slowly down among the date palms, stopping 
 every now and then to graze, or whisk his long tail 
 about to frighten away the flies. His hide was shining 
 black, and his horns of splendid proportions ; but he 
 was quite safe from me at that distance, so he still 
 wanders in his native wilds. On that morning I was too 
 far, on a former one I was too near to one of these noble 
 animals ; for, walking on the latter occasion silently 
 down a deserted trace, with nothing but a light gun 
 loaded with small shot, I suddenly put up a large 
 solitary bison, who immediately charged at random. 
 For a moment it was impossible to say in which 
 direction he was moving, as the jungle was dense and 
 nothing could be heard but the breaking of the 
 branches and snapping of bamboos; consequently I 
 was naturally much relieved when I caught a glimpse 
 of the animal galloping down the valley below, and 
 saw the tall bamboos shaking as he broke through 
 them further and further away. Had he charged me 
 there can be little doubt that this account would 
 never have been penned. 
 
 An institution very usual in most districts is the 
 Sunday outing already alluded to on which day 
 the planters don their best clothes, and ride to some 
 central spot where the bungalow of a sociable neigh- 
 bour serves them for the occasion as a club-house, and 
 they sit about chatting and smoking, till the short 
 Indian twilight warns them to get home again. On 
 our hills there were, unfortunately, so few English, 
 and most of the estates were so new and required so 
 much attention, that we had not yet started a proper 
 
 club, but contented ourselves with utilizing W 's 
 
 bungalow. Thus, when Sunday morning came, we 
 converged from all parts to Palm-tree Bungalow, and 
 
 T
 
 274 
 
 ON THE INDIAN HILLS. 
 
 made ourselves completely at home. W was 
 
 always in the same position, with his heels on the 
 back of a neighbouring chair, and a cheroot invariably 
 in full blast between his lips. He nodded to each 
 new arrival, and waved his hand towards the table, 
 on which stood the cigar-box and brandy and water. 
 This was the utmost he could manage; but if ab- 
 solutely forced to say anything, he replied in mono- 
 
 THK SUNDAY RENDEZVOUS. 
 
 syllables, and at once enveloped himself in a cloud of 
 smoke. So we had to entertain ourselves, and were 
 generally successful. 
 
 While the sahibs derived what amusement they 
 could in this way each Sunday, their coolies were also 
 enjoying themselves after a fashion, and laying in a 
 store of provisions for the next week. They had 
 received pay on Saturday afternoon, so when Sunday 
 morning came they put some castor oil on their hair,
 
 TEE FEVER-FIEND. 275 
 
 decked out their persons with all the bangles and 
 finery they possessed, and then, with empty gunny 
 bags and cocoa-nut shells, they streamed by my hut - 
 men, women, and children on their way to the head 
 of the ghaut, where a great weekly bazaar was held, 
 and merchants and grain dealers from the lowlands 
 came up with strings of white, rice-laden bullocks and 
 packs of gay-coloured cloths and native jewellery. 
 They also brought up with them what we should 
 have been better pleased if they had left behind, 
 namely, plentiful supplies of arrack a coarse sort of 
 rum distilled from the palm tree and cheap and bad 
 but very fiery brandy ; and on these dreadful liquors 
 the coolies spent their hard-won annas, and drank in 
 a day what should support them for a week. The 
 result was that on Monday our morning muster was 
 always very thinly attended, and we never hoped to 
 get much work done. At these fairs the coolies 
 bought their rice and chillies for the next week, and 
 the maistries even purchased sheep and chickens 
 occasionally ; but the only form of animal food which 
 I ever saw a coolie purchase was a badly cured fish, 
 which looked much like a pike that had been split open 
 and roughly dried between boards. Once I walked 
 home behind a party of workmen who possessed one 
 of these " appetisers " amongst their other provisions, 
 and it was an experience never to be forgotten. It 
 would not have surprised me if all the tigers, wolves, 
 and foxes in the neighbouring jungles had been 
 attracted by the scent, and come sniffing after us. 
 
 It seemed these bazaars, with their fatal supplies 
 of arrack and cheap brandy, stirred even the mild- 
 tempered coolies up to deeds of violence; and free 
 fights sometimes took place. Of this we had an 
 unpleasant proof once, for while at breakfast, I was 
 astonished to see three native peons and a sergeant 
 come into my verandah and make their salaams. The
 
 276 ON THE INDIAN HILLS. 
 
 head-man was dressed in black, with scarlet braid and 
 a scarlet turban. He had a long curved talwar at his 
 side, while his satellites were equally well dressed and 
 armed. They presented me with a document written 
 in English and Tamil, to the effect that there had been 
 considerable disturbances in the last bazaar at the head 
 of the ghaut, in which "sundry and several" Par- 
 dagherry coolies had attacked the stall of a grain 
 dealer suspected of giving bad measures, and had 
 stolen the grain and beaten the native merchant; 
 wherefore the Englishman in charge of the said estate 
 was requested to hand over the "undermentioned 
 natives " to the Raja's peons who brought the warrant. 
 Then followed the names of many of our men and of 
 all the maistries. Now, we could spare a few men, 
 but the maistries were too valuable, and I told the 
 officer so ; whereupon he said, " What the sahib wished 
 must be." So the coolies were mustered, and then 
 the peons secured their astonished prey. I was 
 sorry for them, but it was not civil to disregard the 
 warrant, as the authorities had taken the trouble ta 
 send it up, and our coolies shortly afterwards returned 
 to the hills none the worse for a short detention. 
 
 Perhaps the reader will say " toujours Pardagherry " 
 if I write anything more about that big mountain; 
 but the truth was it formed so prominent a feature in 
 our landscape, that we could not be indifferent to its 
 various changes. In the monsoon it was emerald 
 green and ribbed with white stripes of falling streams ; 
 and when the hot weather came and dried up the 
 shallow soil, the grass seeded, withered, and turned 
 brown, and we knew sooner or later it would be 
 burned. Perhaps the jungle-men might fire it, or 
 two bamboos, dry and brittle, rubbed together by the 
 north-west breezes might kindle the flame, while our 
 recent experiences in firing another grass hill told 
 how quickly the conflagration would spread. So an
 
 THE FEVER-FIEND. 277 
 
 eager watch was kept; and sure enough, returning 
 from work one evening, a heavy column of smoke was 
 ascending into the sky from the very summit of the 
 grey old hill. As darkness came on the fire rolled 
 into sight, and we sat long in the verandah in our 
 armchairs, watching the beautiful scene. The flame 
 sprang over the hill, dyeing the moonless black sky a 
 blood red, and then advanced slowly down the cliff- 
 side in a wide semicircle. But it was actually going 
 against the wind, and, consequently, there was not 
 the furious rush which I have mentioned in a similar 
 instance. Instead of this, the long array of crimson 
 light fought its way down yard by yard, now going 
 out in one place, and anon shooting up high and bright 
 from a thicket of date-palms and cuscus grass, and then 
 rallying its forces and carrying in a sudden rush the 
 patches it had left unburnt. At one time a thousand 
 separate fires were gleaming in the blackness of the 
 night, and it looked like nothing so much as a big 
 camp. Again the hill was encircled with a complete 
 halo of blaze, all reflected on the smoke overhead ; 
 and then the flames would creep into the dry bed of 
 a grass-grown nullah, and, finding there plenty of 
 fuel, would outstrip the rest of the advancing line, 
 and pour rapidly down towards the valley, like a 
 stream of molten lava. All night long the hill flared, 
 and its crimson reflection still lit up our rooms when 
 we fell asleep. But the conflagration was over by the 
 next morning, and there was our stout old friend, 
 scorched, blackened, and naked from head to foot, the 
 ugliest object that could be, his shamefaced head 
 hidden in a shroud of thick smoke. We were posi- 
 tively downhearted about it, and L expressed our 
 
 common feelings when he said mournfully, " Poor old 
 mountain! I wish it would rain, so that he might 
 get himself another green coat. It is shocking to see 
 him so!"
 
 278 ON TEE INDIAN SILLS. 
 
 When the hills burn the planters know the worst 
 of the fever season is at hand. Already we had heard 
 from the Wynnaad that three-fourths of the men there 
 were down with fever, and our own jungles were very 
 
 unhealthy. D and L had fever constantly, 
 
 and the former assured us cheerfully that in May we 
 should be able to " cut the malaria with a knife," and 
 might expect an attack of fever every other twenty- 
 four hours. This set me thinking of a holiday, in 
 order to recruit my energies for the encounter ; and, 
 
 as D had been away again at Palghaut this time 
 
 to celebrate his birthday leaving me to look after 
 four or five hundred coolies, I was beginning to think 
 my " outing " should come next. 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 JUNGLE FESTIVITIES. 
 
 THE coolie is not entirely without religion, though it 
 is one chiefly made up of superstitions and deeply 
 contaminated with the strange and fantastic fetish 
 worship of the aboriginal tribes peoples who have 
 roamed these jungles since the remotest ages, and 
 have been overcome by succeeding waves of northern 
 invaders. But these wild superstitions are grafted on 
 the stock of Hinduism, which is the prevailing religion 
 of the south of India. Thus, our coolies wore the red 
 spots and parti-coloured trident of Vishnu on their 
 forehead, and would yet eat the flesh of monkeys, 
 when they could get it, or drink strong spirits with- 
 out a misgiving. Perhaps on our hills they were on 
 their worst behaviour, and the famine had made them
 
 JUNGLE FESTIVITIES. 279 
 
 careless of strict rules it is very hard to be virtuous 
 on an empty stomach. 
 
 All over the estate there were samee trees at con- 
 spicuous spots, and generally at cross-roads. Under 
 these, strange little shrines were built just big enough 
 for a man to kneel in, and made of green boughs 
 plastered over with mud. The figures inside varied 
 considerably. In one close to my hut there was a 
 slab of wood with a roughly carved image of a cross- 
 legged deity on it, and a three-pronged fork with the 
 two outer prongs painted white, and the inner one 
 red, stuck in the ground by the side. This lay right 
 in our track as we went to work every day, and each 
 coolie, as he or she passed, salaamed to the little idol 
 a proceeding which hindered the march, but they 
 would not work well until it had been gone through. 
 In another little temple, not so well endowed as the 
 former, there were two small mud cones on the floor, 
 on the top of one of which white paint was poured, 
 and on the other red. At this shrine a bit of ground 
 had been cleared of weeds and leaves, and there every 
 Tuesday afternoon (apparently the coolie Sunday) 
 they congregated and killed a chicken or a sheep, if 
 they had one, and made a burra puja, or offering, 
 afterwards salaaming and rubbing their foreheads on 
 the ground in front of the mud pyramids, which, 
 however, it should be clearly remembered, they no 
 more worshipped than a Christian worships the altar 
 when he kneels down in front of it. It was simply 
 that the shrine was the abode of a divinity, and they 
 represented the Invisible according to their means. 
 
 For myself, I always reverenced these little places, 
 and would no more have thought of disarranging one 
 than I would blow out the tiny votive lamp of an 
 Italian wayside chapel. The men killed sheep and 
 ate them there, but the women also made small offer- 
 ings ; and on a pointed stick by the entrance of the
 
 280 ON THE INDIAN HILLS. 
 
 temple were a number of glass bangles freshly taken 
 from the wrists of the votaries ; these remained there 
 untouched by any hand for many months. Whether 
 or not coolies had much faith in charms was difficult 
 to say ; they did not wear them about their persons ; 
 but there was a handsome brown-and-yellow flower, 
 the Indian marigold, which seemed to find especial 
 favour, and one of the prettiest habits of the native 
 women was the way in which they twined bunches 
 of these gay buds amongst their shining black tresses. 
 The effect was very pleasing. These flowers did not 
 grow wild in the forests, but there were plenty of 
 them about the older bungalows, whence they were 
 fetched on grand occasions, to deck the women-folk 
 and strew the floor of the temples. 
 
 As for birth, marriage, or death ceremonies, I can 
 say very little from observation. The population of 
 the " lines" had been increased by various small brown 
 babies, but without any visible rejoicings. As for 
 marriages, they were probably put off until better 
 times ; and though there had been very many subjects 
 for burying, these were interred with few funeral 
 honours. In fact, even the nearest kindred of a 
 departed coolie seemed to think the sooner he was 
 forgotten the better, for they raised no memorials over 
 his narrow cell. There seemed to be some sort of ill- 
 defined desire to put the dead on a peninsula with 
 running water on as many sides as might be a trace, 
 perhaps, of that wide-spread and strange idea that a 
 stream is a safeguard against evil spirits, whereof 
 there are fragments in the legends and superstitions of 
 every land, from the " bush " of Australia to the 
 forests of North America. 
 
 A veritable " burra tumasha," however, came under 
 my notice once, and was an interesting spectacle. 
 The time for which some two hundred of our coolies 
 stood engaged having expired, their headman begged
 
 JUNGLE FESTIVITIES. 281 
 
 permission to go away, with all their belongings, and 
 plant rice in their own country. This was granted, 
 3,nd they informed us of their intention of holding a 
 grand feast before they left ; so Saturday was a holi- 
 day, and, having received all arrears of pay on Friday 
 afternoon, they owned plenty of rupees. Myself and 
 
 L were away all day, but, getting back at dusk, 
 
 we found a large square of ground at the top of the 
 ridge overlooking the settlement carefully prepared 
 and raked as smooth as a flower bed. This was the 
 banqueting hall, and was thickly hedged round with 
 green branches, while some three hundred little holes 
 were made in lines inside the plates of the expected 
 guests. Adjoining this was another enclosure for a 
 kitchen, with ten stone fireplaces, and here all day 
 long twenty men had been at work cooking rice and 
 various curry stuffs in red clay chatties, and as they 
 were done, piling them up in huge heaps on palm-leaf 
 mats, the odour from which was really so satisfactory 
 -as we walked by hungry and tired, that we wished we 
 
 had been invited. L dined in my hut, and we 
 
 missed the first act, which consisted of dressing a 
 coolie up in satanic costume to represent the evil 
 spirits of the jungle, and, after subjecting him to all 
 sorts of indignities, expelling him from the lines, by 
 beating and kicking him until he took refuge in the 
 forest beyond. But though we only heard the noise 
 and the shouting, our servant explained this opening 
 to us, and we hurried through our meal to be in time 
 for the next scene. 
 
 Just as our cheroots were lighted, the uproar at the 
 " lines " increased, and a procession came up the hill 
 towards us, escorted by several hundred coolies, a 
 ouple of hundred of whom were bearing lighted 
 torches. At the head of the column were five men, 
 wearing all but no clothing, armed with long bamboos, 
 with which they fenced with each other and beat the
 
 282 ON THE INDIAN SILLS. 
 
 ground, all the while shouting and dancing in the 
 wildest manner until the perspiration poured off them. 
 Next came the handsomest coolie boy on the estate, 
 Bulgoor Jowra, with all the male finery the "lines" 
 could muster piled on his little body, and the broad 
 trident of the mighty Vishnu painted clear and fresh 
 on his forehead. He looked very sedate and calm, 
 keeping a perfect control of his countenance, all his 
 individuality being sternly merged in the character 
 assumed. By the hand he led the prettiest little 
 brown-skinned girl we possessed, by name Jowrie, and 
 about fourteen years old. She was equally sedate, 
 and came wrapped in a brilliant scarlet saree, with 
 silver and glass bangles all up her arms and on her 
 ankles, her black hair done up in a tight knot behind 
 and adorned with bright samee flowers ; on her head 
 a broad shining brass lotah, piled up with jungle fruit 
 and bright leaves, and in her nose and ears bright gold 
 stud-like ornaments. She looked very fascinating 
 under the flaring light of the torches a real brown 
 rural goddess. Meantime, tomtoms were beaten, 
 crackers fired, and rockets let off, the coolies shouting 
 at the top of their voices, and everybody dancing 
 wildly, except the grave little pair in the centre, while 
 the procession went up the hill and took its way to 
 each samee place in turn. At every fifteen yards 
 little platters of green banana leaves were placed in a 
 line on the ground, and a small quantity of boiled rice 
 piled up on each. When the advance-guard of bamboo 
 men reached these, they left off shouting and caper- 
 ing for a moment, and, stooping down, ate the 
 grain from the leaves, carefully keeping their 
 hands behind their backs meanwhile. At last, but 
 not till near midnight, the procession reached the 
 banqueting floor, where the torches were stuck in the 
 walls of green boughs, and the three hundred coolies 
 sat down to a grand feast ; and for a long time we,
 
 JUNGLE FESTIVITIES. 283 
 
 the lonely masters, listened to their simple merriment, 
 and watched the happy shadows under the brightly 
 illuminated forest trees, glad to see our people for once 
 so "jolly." 
 
 I slept very well until about 3 a.m., when the 
 revellers came back on their way to the " lines," and 
 the idea occurred to them to serenade me, which they 
 proceeded to do, Vishnu and his little associate stand- 
 ing in my verandah and singing an impromptu song 
 about my little-worthy self, which I thought so very 
 courteous of two such exalted individuals, that I rose 
 to make them salaams and gave them some bright 
 new silver rupees, thereby pleasing the small deities 
 considerably. 
 
 There was not much novelty now in the estate 
 work. The pitting was almost done for the season, 
 most of the fresh clearings had been burnt, and 
 presently we should begin to think of planting and 
 opening new roads, the usual wet weather labour. 
 My own experiences swung backwards and forwards 
 between heavy daily work and frequent attacks of 
 fever, which left me hardly strength to walk. On one 
 of these occasions, being half delirious in the hot stage, 
 I called my boy in, and, giving him a pair of lamp 
 scissors, ordered him to cut my hair off. He w T as not, 
 however, a gifted hairdresser ; and though the process 
 was refreshing at the time, I was not fit to be photo- 
 graphed for some while afterwards. In spite of the 
 fever, it was necessary to look after the whole estate, 
 
 as D went away again to Calicut, to see the 
 
 doctor about his liver, which always had something 
 wrong with it. After a month of very severe work, 
 things, however, became considerably easier, owing to 
 the departure of two hundred of our coolies for their 
 own country, and the arrival of the superintendent, 
 with his family, from a long absence in the lowlands. 
 They quartered themselves on Bungalow Hill, in a
 
 284 ON THE INDIAN SILLS. 
 
 rough wooden shed which had been hastily run up for 
 them ; and thus there were now two ladies in our 
 
 jungle, Mrs. F and Mrs. R , with two small 
 
 children of the latter. 
 
 The heat of the noonday was only equalled by the 
 chilliness of the early morning even in this hot season. 
 Thus, turning out on the 3rd of April at 5.30, the 
 whole forest was enveloped in a dense white veil of 
 mist, impenetrable to the eye at ten or twelve yards' 
 -distance. As it happened, this was the Telugu New 
 Year's Day, and the coolies, always glad of any pre- 
 tence for a holiday, had " struck " in a body. No one 
 would do a bit of work, so I went up Bungalow Hill 
 
 to pay my respects to Mrs. R . Following the 
 
 winding upward track which had recently been made, 
 the mist grew thinner as the elevation increased, until, 
 reaching the clearing in the centre of which the bunga- 
 low stands, the sun was shining brightly overhead 
 and the air blew fresh and pleasant. But looking 
 back a most singular and beautiful sight was seen. 
 The whole of our district, lying like a huge ditch 
 between two great ridges, was enveloped in grey mist, 
 nothing being visible of the forest, but all its dark 
 folds hidden in a smooth milk-white sea of vapour. 
 Far away, however, to the northward, like islands in 
 a deep bay, stood out the bungalows of Polyarnpara, 
 Poothpara, Comlocoda, and Varlavachen, each on its 
 hill. In fact, it looked exactly like a Norwegian fiord 
 at sunrise the mist most perfectly resembling water, 
 and the great mountains on either side hedging it as 
 high cliffs shut in those inlets. This lasted a long 
 time, even after the sun was well up in the sky ; and 
 when at last the fog melted and the trees gradually 
 appeared, the forest stood dripping with moisture, and 
 the moss and ferns were as bright, fresh, and green 
 as after the first monsoon shower. 
 
 Among the vegetation fed by this moisture is a
 
 JUNGLE FESTIVITIES. 285 
 
 broad-leafed bush, which comes into life in a most 
 curious way wherever light is let into the jungle ; in- 
 deed, the powers of suspended vitality possessed by 
 its germs would be an interesting study for a better 
 botanist than myself. Even the fall of a tree and 
 the consequent gap created in the sun-proof ceiling 
 of the forest causes this bush to spring up on the spot, 
 but it is to be seen in greatest profusion along the 
 sides of the older clearings, where it grows in undis- 
 turbed peace, its light green foliage forming a wide 
 ribbon between the brown soil and the darker tree- 
 tops. 
 
 Another plant following the planter's footsteps, and 
 hateful to him from the persistency with which it 
 grows amongst the coffee, is the Spanish-needle, a 
 plant imported, like many other things, by the Portu- 
 guese. Unfortunately it has outlasted the raj of that 
 nation, and has established itself firmly in its adopted 
 country. Being provided by nature with seeds armed 
 with innumerable small hooked spines, every passing 
 animal or human being assists in propagating it by 
 carrying to " fresh fields and pastures new " the un- 
 welcome germs, which, once established, are anything 
 but easy to eradicate. But the great dread of the 
 coolies in the jungle is another plant of quite a 
 different kind a tall, pale-stemmed, sickly looking 
 bush, with long-pointed, whitish-green leaves. Woe 
 to the luckless mortal who lets those same harmless- 
 looking leaves touch his bare flesh ! He will not 
 forget it for many a day, for this bush is the dreaded 
 Mealum-ma, or stinging shrub the nettle of Timor, 
 or "Devil's leaf" which here, as in the forests of 
 Nepal, produces deadly effects on any person brushing 
 against it. Our coolies said they got fever if stung 
 only very lightly, and they consequently avoided the 
 bush with the utmost circumspection. 
 
 Up amongst the branches, and well-nigh out of sight,
 
 286 ON THE INDIAN HILLS. 
 
 there hung many orchids Dendrobia and parasitical 
 plants but they are not commonly beautiful. If the 
 orchids somewhat fail to strike the observer, there 
 are lovelier vegetable products on the ground which 
 deserve his attention, and if he be a specialist in that 
 way, he will find plenty of employment amongst the 
 fungi and moulds. The most common of these was 
 
 o 
 
 a small branching fungus which might be mistaken 
 for moss by a careless observer. It was very con- 
 spicuous, as its own colour was a pearly white, and it 
 throve nowhere, according to my observations, except 
 on the black and charred logs of wood lying about the 
 clearings. These relics of the fallen forest it decked 
 with sheets of the finest and most delicate white lace, 
 prettier and more faultless than anything man could 
 make. Other fungi were purple or vermilion, and 
 clustered thick on the stems of dying trees; and a 
 small white variety, with a hair-like stem and a very 
 mobile bell-shaped head, sprang from trunks already 
 returning to mother earth. Wherever such a stem 
 lay on the ground covered with leaves and moss, the 
 little fairy stools grew up along it, and accurately 
 marked out its grave to the passer-by. Then there 
 were larger and more striking sorts, one of which was 
 a spongy-stemmed structure with a bright vermilion 
 head, shaped much like an inverted teacup, from the 
 rim of which hung down a most curious crinoline of 
 open lace-like material, with meshes too small for a 
 bee to get through, but not so close as to prevent the 
 stem in the centre from being seen. 
 
 At this season or a little later the weather is apt 
 to be very treacherous in our mountain passes. I 
 remember once, returning in a bullock bandy to the 
 forests after a brief holiday run, having been com- 
 pletely overwhelmed in a sudden storm. We had 
 left Palghaut late in the evening, and scarcely had we 
 got so far from the town as to make it useless to turn
 
 JUNGLE FESTIVITIES. 287 
 
 back, when the sky became overcast, and it was 
 obvious we were in for a monsoon storm, which in 
 another ten minutes duly began. The sky grew black 
 as pitch, and the rain descended in torrents and found 
 its way through the bamboo matting overhead with- 
 out any difficulty. It was so dark, as we plodded 
 slowly along, that I could only just make out the 
 outlines of the white bullocks in front, while the 
 dusky form of the native driver was quite swallowed 
 up, although he had deserted his usual uncomfortable 
 perch on the pole and backed into the bandy to try 
 and get some shelter. In this way we wandered along 
 all the early part of the night, jolting fearfully, and 
 getting our wheels first into one rut and then into 
 another, every now and then running into the bank 
 or a fig tree, and going elsewhere, goodness only 
 knows whither. At midnight the storm seemed at 
 its worst, and the thunder and lightning raged in- 
 cessant, so that I was wet through and profoundly 
 uncomfortable. While wondering how it would end, 
 suddenly a flash of lightning illuminated the whole 
 district ; I say a flash, but it seemed as if the whole 
 sky split open from east to west, and a river of blue 
 flame poured forth. For one moment everything leapt 
 into view. The wide lonely rice land all around, with 
 miles of watery swamps; the black outlines of the 
 grove of fig trees in which we were ; the two white 
 bullocks with their gleaming wet hides ; the cowering 
 driver, and the road cut up with gurgling streamlets 
 all were as visible as though it were midday for 
 an instant, and then everything vanished in pro- 
 foundest darkness, and the thunder broke out directly 
 -overhead with as wild and awful a sound as the 
 lightning had been a terrible sight. 
 
 To add to the unpleasantness of the situation, the 
 driver whined out that he had lost the road did the 
 sahib know where they were ? But the sahib hadn't
 
 288 ON THE INDIAN HILLS. 
 
 an idea, so ordered the man to go on straight ahead, in 
 the hope of finding some village where shelter might 
 be obtained. It must have been nearly one o'clock 
 when the dim outlines of a hut were made out at the 
 roadside, and, pulling up in front, I jumped down and 
 went to get our " bearings " from the owners. But all 
 was dark and silent. Groping my way to the door, I 
 was just entering when there was heard a most un- 
 earthly hoot ; I saw the gleaming of two pale-green 
 eyes, and some big bird an owl, probably, that had 
 been sheltering from the storm dashed out into the 
 dark night. Judging from this the place was empty, 
 I walked inside, but before I had gone many feet, 
 tripped over something heavy on the ground, which 
 from the feel and particularly "high" odour, I judged 
 must be a coolie ; so I stirred him up again with the 
 toe of my boot, and called out to him to wake ; but he 
 never moved. Thinking this strange, a wisp of rice 
 straw from the bandy was lighted, and by that uncertain 
 torch, held above my head, I made out the bare mud 
 walls, the palm-leaf roof, and mud floor of the deserted 
 hut, and at my feet a bundle of dreadful rags, wrapt 
 round the thin form of a coolie. Poor fellow ! it will 
 be a long time before he wakes again; for when I 
 turned him over to see why he slept so soundly, I saw 
 he was dead dead of starvation, and had crept in 
 here, lonely and forgotten, to finish his life. While I 
 looked at him the straw went out, and we were in 
 darkness again, with the certainty of having to stay 
 there for the present. The bandy man was crouched 
 under the cart, with all his clothing round his head 
 the usual way in which a native keeps himself warm 
 and for a time I tried walking up and down under 
 the eaves of the hut, and watching the moon struggling 
 with the watery rear-guards of the army of clouds ; 
 but, being dreadfully sleepy, I made up my mind that, 
 dead man, or no dead man, I would lie down inside, so
 
 JUNGLE FESTIVITIES. 289 
 
 entered the hut, pushed the poor old coolie into the 
 most remote corner, and, wrapping myself in a rug, 
 with a revolver conveniently at hand in my belt (for 
 my departed friend against the opposite wall was odori- 
 ferous enough to attract all the jackals in the neigh- 
 bourhood), I stretched myself on the bare floor, and 
 was soon sleeping delightfully, with pleasant dreams 
 of fair English homes flitting through my mind. 
 
 Needless to say, we did not linger long in these 
 quarters, but with the first pink streaks of the fresh 
 welcome dawn we " harnessed to " and followed the 
 road to the southward, keeping the lightest parts 
 of the sky on our left. This, by the way, was my 
 birthday, but I was almost forgetting it myself 
 until it suddenly occurred to me as an odd sort of 
 celebration. 
 
 Presently we fell in with some landmarks which the 
 bandy- wallah knew, and so bore gaily up for Wal- 
 langhay, while the sun dried my wet clothes, and 
 things looked much more cheerful than they had ap- 
 peared last night. Finally, about 10 a.m., the Vladimir 
 Bungalow was reached ; and after a substantial break- 
 fast, for I had eaten scarcely anything since the morn* 
 ing before, I lay down for a rest on the shaky charpoy 
 which formed almost the only article of furniture in 
 the widow's guest-room. 
 
 The evening was spent in company with D , 
 
 Cecil H , S , and L , who were all bound 
 
 for Palghaut, to attend the funeral of an old English- 
 man who had died there the day before. Poor L 
 
 was a mere scarecrow of skin and bones, after a month's 
 fever, and scarcely able to stand, while the others were 
 all more or less shaky and hollow-eyed. They described 
 the malaria up above as fearful. Nevertheless we 
 spent a pleasant evening, seated round the rickety 
 table in the little bungalow, drinking bottled beer and 
 punch out of cracked cups and saucers, while the widow 
 
 u
 
 290 ON THE INDIAN HILLS. 
 
 and her little daughter trotted backwards and forwards 
 in the moonlight outside, with their bangles tinkling 
 and their slim forms wrapped in white sarees, attend- 
 ing to our wants, until the time came for the others to 
 start northward. Then, with a lot of " good nights," 
 they tumbled into the line of bandies standing in the 
 road, and went off down the deserted native street, 
 leaving me to my meditations not very pleasant ones, 
 perhaps, as I foresaw a certainty of sickness in store 
 for me, and lately the fever had considerably under- 
 mined my strength. But the night was beautiful, and it 
 was impossible to be gloomy under such a lovely sky. 
 High overhead the moon soared, shining amid count- 
 less stars, as big and bright as they only are in the 
 tropics ; and, descending to our tiny earth, the little 
 village was asleep from one end to the other. Even 
 the bananas round each compound hung down their 
 broad leaves, and for once had ceased fluttering, for 
 there stirred not a breath of air, and the fields of tall 
 green rice stretching away to the foot of the forest- 
 clad Annamullies were still and deserted by every sign 
 of life except the fireflies. Of these there flickered 
 countless myriads ; if the rice had seeded and every 
 grain grown luminous with pale-green fire, the sight 
 would not have been more wonderful. It was like 
 nothing so much as the phosphorescence to be seen on 
 a calm night at sea, and I smoked my long cheroot, 
 watching the oscillating swarms of little lamplighters, 
 and thinking how much a man may bear without 
 losing heart or the enjoyment of life.
 
 ( 291 ) 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 DEATH AND BRIGHT LIFE. 
 
 ONCE more in harness and at the hard grind which 
 usually falls to the lot of the coffee planter in new 
 districts, I was now entering on all the discomforts of 
 iny second wet monsoon. 
 
 The coffee had just finished flowering on the older 
 estates, and it was a fine sight while it lasted. I have 
 said that the trees are about three or four feet high, 
 and densely covered with broad, glossy, dark-green 
 leaves, very much like those of the orange. From the 
 junction of each of these leaves with the twig bursts 
 forth a great cluster of ten or twelve blossoms, also 
 closely resembling the orange flower in colour and 
 form ; yet not, alas ! in odour. The former is delight- 
 ful, but the latter is faint and sickly ; the coolies 
 declare the scent gives them fever, and those that had 
 to carry my messages through the flowering estates 
 begged double pay, as though it were a service of 
 danger. The scent is undoubtedly unpleasant, though 
 the sight of a wide extent of clearing covered with a 
 carpet of green leaves and a wealth of snow-white 
 blossoms is very pleasing, and reminds one of the 
 country at home when the hawthorn hedges are in 
 full bloom. 
 
 The malaria at that time was wonderfully bad, 
 worse than anything I had known before. Every 
 time the sun came up, and when he went down 
 again, the heavy fever mist was drawn out of its 
 lurking-places amongst the decayed vegetation, and 
 rolled over the ground in bluish-grey sheets. All 
 day long it lay in the deep glens and river hollows, 
 and became so dense as to be perfectly nauseous to
 
 292 ON THE INDIAN HILLS. 
 
 breathe. Once, while crossing the jungle, I came 
 to the steep banks of a reedy nullah, and descended 
 to wade across ; but no sooner was I down into the 
 fog than my head swam, my breathing grew painful, 
 and my throat rough and dry, so that I was glad to 
 scramble back before my senses left me, as they were 
 rapidly doing. In this same nullah, hanging from 
 the trees overhead, was a wonderful creeper, which 
 is rare in these jungles. Its leaves, as usual, were so 
 high up as to be an undistinguishable green mass, 
 but the stem, as thick as a man's arm, was covered 
 with big grey knobs, all rough and thorny. These 
 creepers are very useful to the monkeys, who employ 
 them as though they were ropes, and climb up them 
 in a most extraordinary manner. 
 
 Of course this weather affected the coolies even 
 more than the Englishmen, and my sick list every 
 
 evening was a heavy one, while, as D was very 
 
 unwell himself on Bungalow Hill, and R away 
 
 collecting coolies in Madura, though we had five 
 hundred already, I rapidly acquired some fresh prac- 
 tical medical skill in the diseases most common on the 
 estate. Then the " lines " were in a vile condition, 
 and we were so hard at work road-making and 
 planting, that we could spare no time to construct 
 fresh ones. The natural result was that small-pox 
 and cholera soon appeared. Very few of the coolies 
 were vaccinated, and we had no means of performing 
 the operation for them, so we jogged along as well as 
 we could. 
 
 One morning, while sitting at breakfast, I heard a 
 tinkle of bangles in the porch, and, getting up, found 
 a coolie girl a very comely girl as coolies go of 
 about seventeen or eighteen, kneeling on the ground. 
 When she saw me, she threw herself down full length 
 and cried out something in Tamil so unintelligible 
 that, calling my "boy," I asked what she wante^
 
 DEATH AND B EIGHT LIFE. 293 
 
 whereon she lifted her head a few inches from the 
 ground, and again spoke in her own language. 
 "Sahib," said the boy, translating with his usual 
 total disregard of genders, " this girl here he say he 
 has had small-pox very bad. He's too sick, too thin 
 to do any more work, and has got no food. He say 
 no one will help him but the sahib, and if he doesn't 
 get food, he is going to sit on the sahib's doorstep and 
 die." And truly the girl was thin and haggard, 
 and the few glass bangles on her arms slipped up and 
 down them as though they were sticks. She, how- 
 ever, was more in need of food than medicine ; so, by 
 way of commencement, I gave her a substantial 
 breakfast, subsequently placing her in my private 
 relief camp, in which were included all ages and both 
 sexes ; she rapidly picked up strength, and was at 
 work again two weeks afterwards. 
 
 The cholera was even more serious, and many 
 coolies died of it, though it did not spread rapidly, 
 but contented itself with a few victims each week. 
 The stables, a few yards from my hut, furnished the 
 hospital, and I am bound to say " the stoker " took 
 the greatest interest in the patients, who con- 
 siderately enough either died or got better in a 
 very few days, and so made room for more. He 
 borrowed all my chatties to cook them conjee in 
 needless to say, I never asked for the chatties back 
 and even told my servant to look after them. This 
 was too much for that poor wretch, and so one night, 
 after placing my dinner on the table, he stood in 
 front of me, shuffling about with his feet, his face a 
 bluish tint, until, asking him what was the matter, 
 he said he was frightened of the cholera. He had 
 seen two men die that afternoon, and he wished to 
 start for the lowlands the next morning, where his 
 wife and child were. Not a very pleasant prospect 
 for me to have to cook for myself after each day's
 
 294 ON THE INDIAN HILLS. 
 
 hard work, but I saw he was just in the right way to 
 get the disease if he stayed, so I told him he might 
 go for a week, and the next morning he went. 
 
 When I came back from work that day at noon 
 and flung myself into an armchair, forgetting for a 
 moment the state of affairs, I called out, " Boy, break- 
 fast quickly ! " but there was no answer, and the 
 misery of my position dawned upon me. Carlyle has 
 said the great distinction between man and beasts is 
 that the former only uses implements ; and, allowing 
 this, I should add that the chief distinction between 
 savages and the civilized was that the latter employed 
 others to cook for them. Certainly I never felt so 
 barbarous as I did that morning, when I crouched in 
 the grubby little hut that served as a kitchen, blow- 
 ing hard at a stubborn fire, and half choked with the 
 dense wood smoke, which enveloped and made my 
 originally white clothes terribly black. But, some- 
 how or other, I cooked a chop in great discomfort by 
 running a stick through it and twisting it over the 
 fire, and then bolted to the hut with it and ate it, all 
 booted and unwashed as I was; after which some 
 water was boiled in an empty beef tin and a rough 
 brew of tea made. I was extremely uncomfortable 
 that week, and learned by bitter experience how 
 much of one's enjoyment depends on the domestic 
 department. The breakfasts were not so bad, for 
 there was at least enough light then for my opera- 
 tions ; but cooking the dinner in the dusk after a 
 long day's toil, and being sickened with the smoke, 
 and, after all, having to be contented with a little 
 dirty, underdone meat, was not the least of many 
 drawbacks to a "frontier" life. 
 
 The coolie graves in the jungle near by were at 
 this time growing terribly numerous ; there were 
 more already than we had opened of acres, and the 
 number increased daily, but even they did not
 
 DEATH AND BEIGET LIFE. 295 
 
 represent the complete total of deaths, as I was 
 sometimes only too well aware. For instance, a 
 coolie woman died, and I ordered her to be buried in 
 the jungle by two of her kinsmen, and paid them the 
 usual two rupees to do it. But they had a mind to 
 save themselves trouble, and so took her down to 
 the Manalora stream, when there happened to be a 
 freshet in it, and threw her in. She floated a little 
 way, but was caught on the limb of a tree, and then 
 the river sank into a single thread of water. About 
 two weeks afterwards, I was walking up the nearly 
 dry nullah bed, when my olfactory nerves told me 
 there was something wrong, and going a little further 
 I found out the cause it was the body of the poor 
 coolie woman still hanging to the branch ! Then, 
 again, many of the graves were made shockingly 
 shallow, and the wild dogs and wolves tore them 
 open and partly disinterred the inmates. In fact, I 
 saw things which will not bear describing ; and, 
 pretty well hardened as I became, my breakfast was 
 often left untasted, and, with gun on my shoulder, 
 I wandered away to the open grass hills, to freshen 
 myself up by a little sweet air and undefiled nature, 
 after some such dreadful sights and experiences. 
 
 But to turn to pleasanter subjects. This was the 
 season for the entomologist. It was a sort of border 
 time between the dry and wet monsoons, and the 
 Lepidoptera of the former and the Coleoptera of the 
 latter were in almost equal abundance. My collections 
 grew rapidly whenever I was fortunate enough to get 
 a couple of hours' holiday, and amounted to some two 
 thousand beetles and a couple of hundred butterflies, 
 captured on odd occasions. On a single occasion I 
 secured six varieties of Bacteria trophinus, or walk- 
 ing-stick insects, in half an hour, of most wonderful 
 forms and shapes some so like dried twigs that it 
 was impossible at first to recognize them, and others
 
 29 G ON THE INDIAN HILLS. 
 
 so accurately resembling green leaves that they would 
 have been safe from my search, had I not sent them 
 tumbling into an open umbrella beneath the bush in 
 which they lodged by a few vigorous strokes with 
 a stick. These insects seem to find their curious 
 vegetable appearance useful in two ways. Firstly, it 
 protects them from their foes amongst the birds ; and, 
 secondly, enables them better to obtain their food 
 by surprise. Indeed, one of the most noticeable 
 points in the insect world of the jungles was the 
 way in which each small creature was protected by 
 nature from its foes in some ingenious manner. The 
 instances of this which I observed were well-nigh in- 
 numerable, and would fill a long chapter. Thus, when 
 I have been searching under the bark of dead trees, it 
 has been very observable that all the beetles harbour- 
 ing there, and most of the other insects, have let 
 themselves fall immediately they have felt the dis- 
 turbance, and have become lost amongst the long 
 herbage below. The success of this ruse when they 
 are attacked by their chief foe, the woodpecker, is 
 obvious. Many species of Heteroptera are so strongly 
 scented, that doubtless no bird of any delicacy would 
 think for a moment of eating them. One large brown 
 specimen scented my hand with an odour of bitter 
 almonds for several days, and another had a won- 
 derfully strong smell of musk about it. Besides these 
 scents, they are ungainly looking things, with spikes 
 and thorns on the thorax, enough to make a bird's 
 throat feel rough even to look at them. Another little 
 beetle, one of the Phytophagce, though its " Christian " 
 name' is unknown to me, lived on the leaves of a small 
 jungle shrub, in close companionship with a gaily 
 striped yellow-and-black caterpillar. The beetle was 
 steel-blue, and about the size of a pea, but a most 
 curious thing was the trust it placed in its strange 
 associates as watchmen. " A little more than kin and
 
 DEATH AND BRIGHT LIFE. 297 
 
 less than kind " does not apply here, for the cater- 
 pillars are less than kith and more than kind. Several 
 times I have approached one of these bushes, but no 
 sooner have I shown myself to one of the caterpillars 
 than it has left off feeding, thrown itself back on its 
 rear claspers, and violently swung its body from side 
 to side. At this strange movement, which might alone 
 repel a bird, a gentle vibration has been communicated 
 to the neighbouring twigs and leaves, and the blind- 
 looking beetles have hastily let themselves drop to the 
 ground, where they are quite safe ; while, after pass- 
 ing the signal rapidly round the bush, so that every 
 twig at last was in a tremble, the caterpillars would 
 each take a turn round the nearest belaying-pin, and 
 let themselves down after their strange associates by 
 a thousand silken threads. 
 
 A much larger beetle, of a grey colour with a few 
 orange spots, known to science as Batocera rubus, had 
 the curious habit of squeaking loudly when touched, 
 and doubtless this afforded it protection from some of 
 its enemies. Now, the first time I caught a specimen 
 of this beetle the squeaking puzzled me, since no insect 
 has the power of making any sound from its throat 
 and mouth, as vertebrate animals do. Every noise 
 coming from an insect rises in its exterior parts from 
 its wings, its legs, or, as in the cicada, from drums or 
 threads which it causes to vibrate ; but none of these 
 would explain the sound arising from my beetle. So 
 I took him home and investigated. He squeaked most 
 strangely all the time, moving his head backward and 
 forwards and waving his antennse. This gave me a 
 clue ; and I dipped a small feather in oil, and passed 
 it lightly round the junction of the head and thorax, 
 and in a moment all sounds ceased, though the insect 
 still continued his movements, and it was plain the 
 sound had been caused by friction of his head and 
 neck.
 
 298 ON THE INDIAN HILLS. 
 
 Then there is the mighty Spi/roeireptes cinctatus, 
 as long as a man's hand, and belonging to the same 
 family as the common English millipede, but of giant 
 proportions, and, when touched, giving out from every 
 ring of its body a thick yellow fluid, equally unpleasant 
 to sight and smell, though I never found it to cause 
 any physical pain, as is sometimes supposed. Another 
 of these strange jungle creatures bears much resem- 
 blance to an English woodlouse, but when rolled up, 
 as it always is when anything approaches, it equals in 
 size a hen's egg ; and if it happens to be on a fallen 
 tree-trunk or on sloping ground, it rolls away, and it 
 is ten to one that it cannot be caught. 
 
 Among the Lepidoptera there does not seem to be 
 quite so much mimicry, though there exists a brown 
 butterfly which flits amongst the low herbage, and on 
 being alarmed shuts its upper wings and lets them lie 
 under the lower pair, then becoming so exactly like a 
 dead leaf, that even when captured and lying on white 
 paper, it is a matter of considerable difficulty to say 
 whether it be insect or vegetable. But, as a rule, 
 Nature has endowed this order with gay wings and 
 great powers of flight. In general, they flit singly in 
 sunny glades, and along the borders of the clearings, 
 but occasionally I have come across marvellous com- 
 panies of these bright insects. On one occasion, in 
 the hot weather, when the streams were at their 
 smallest, and everything lay dry and baked under 
 the fierce sun, while all the trees and plants sagged 
 down their leaves for want of moisture, I lit upon 
 a quiet nullah meandering through the jungle. The 
 bed, by chance, just there was broad and sandy, and 
 the stream a single thread that seemed every moment 
 in danger of vanishing. But to my astonished eyes 
 the whole place appeared a garden of flowers of a 
 thousand colours, and crowded so close by the water 
 that the sand could scarcely be seen. I looked and
 
 DEATH AND BEIGHT LIFE. 299 
 
 looked again, and then stepped down to observe the 
 parterre closer ; but as I did so these animated blos- 
 soms sprang into the air in a vast cloud, and the truth 
 was plain that they were a countless host of thirsty 
 butterflies, collected from the forest all round to drink 
 at this thread of liquid. The sight was wonderful as 
 they wheeled round and round amongst the hanging 
 creepers, and enough, in itself, to delight any natu- 
 ralist hundreds of varieties and tens of thousands of 
 specimens, all intertwining in mazy gambols ; every 
 size and shape and colour was there, and as they flew 
 backwards and forwards in the sunlight, with their 
 wings shining and flashing, it was like a shower of 
 jewels. I had often seen a few drinking before, but 
 never such a mighty concourse. Perhaps the popu- 
 larity of the stream was owing to the ease with which 
 the flat sandy bed enabled them to come at the water. 
 
 Some may say that there is not much coffee plant- 
 ing in all this, but the truth is on an estate the 
 work remains very much the same for the first three 
 seasons. It has been mentioned how we planted out 
 the young coffee shrubs, during the previous monsoon, 
 first into baskets, and then into the square holes in 
 the already felled and burnt clearings where they 
 were to continue ; and now again we were hard at 
 work at the same thing, i.e. planting up the new 
 enclosures made during the hot weather. 
 
 Some of our trees, however, in the oldest clearing 
 were now nearly full-sized, and had even made a few 
 attempts at flowering, but of course there was no crop 
 worth picking ; yet as they grew it became necessary 
 to remove all shoots and suckers likely to interfere 
 with the uniform shape of the plant, and this was 
 done by small parties of our most trustworthy coolies, 
 armed with short curved knives the chief portions 
 to be cut away being all suckers coming up from the 
 ground round the chief stem, and any secondary
 
 300 ON THE INDIAN HILLS. 
 
 " ascending axis " which would tend to make the 
 centre of the bush too thick ; for the great thing to 
 aim at is to have a neat round tree, nicely filling the 
 space of ground allotted to it, and with the branches 
 so disposed as to let each get a fair supply of air. 
 
 This was our own idea; but on F 's estate and 
 
 another the bushes were under " shade," i.e. a few of 
 the forest trees, here and there, had been left standing 
 and protected the plants from the direct glare of the 
 sun. Of course, on these estates the clearings were 
 never burnt, as the fire would have destroyed the 
 shade trees; but instead, the forest was felled, and 
 the lighter material carried away to the borders by 
 hand labour a long process, which, however, is said 
 to leave the valuable top soil of vegetable debris 
 uninjured ; though against this we thought that that 
 same debris harboured a world of insects hurtful to 
 the coffee plants which a good "burn" would kill, 
 and also promoted the dreaded leaf disease so common 
 in Ceylon. But I do not pretend, with my short 
 experience, to say which may be the best way, though 
 since coffee in its wild state grows in the deep jungle, 
 it seems natural that a certain amount of shade should 
 be good for it. Let those interested look the subject 
 up in some of the numerous technical works, such as 
 Spon's " Tropical Agriculture," or " The Experiences 
 of a Coffee Planter in the Jungles of Mysore," by 
 R. H. Elliot. The latter, though written many years 
 ago, is an excellent book, containing a vast amount of 
 good advice, and should be in the outfit of every 
 coffee planter, as it was in mine.
 
 ( 301 ) 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 ROAD-MAKING, 
 
 ROAD-MAKING now came also jnto full swing again, 
 and most of my time was taken up in carrying on the 
 new ghaut trail, which during the hot weather had 
 been at a standstill, past the borders of the next 
 estate, through it and all the others, to the head of 
 the ghaut. This, of course, was hard work both for 
 the men and myself, as we now had a long walk in 
 the early morning before we reached work, and a long- 
 trudge back in the evening. It was also feverish, as 
 we kept close along the side of the Manalora stream, 
 in order to make the road as level as might be, and 
 the malaria which rose as we worked was often 
 sickening. It proved, however, interesting, as my 
 bill-men broke into untrodden nooks and corners of 
 the virgin woods at every fresh spell of work ; and 
 we were in very gamey parts too, though the noise 
 of the axes and choppers frightened every wild thing 
 away as we advanced. One day we broke full into 
 a tiger's lair a smooth, hard hollow at the foot of a 
 shady tree, littered all about with bones and shreds 
 of flesh and hair, amongst which there were some 
 relics astonishingly like human ones. They may well 
 have been such, for not long ago one of our planters 
 rode up the ghaut late at night, and at the top, hear- 
 ing a woman moaning, he dismounted, and found it 
 was an old coolie too sick to move. He did all he 
 could; he gave her some water from the nearest 
 stream in his helmet, and the next morning sent some 
 of his men to fetch her in, but she was gone, and 
 from the marks round about it was plain a tiger had 
 carried her off. As for the sambour and bison tracks, 
 they were so numerous that when I went half a mile
 
 302 ON THE INDIAN HILLS. 
 
 ahead and set a trace with a few men, the main body, 
 who followed behind with mamooties and spades, often 
 turned off to the right or left, and took their work 
 up one of these bypaths, under the impression that I 
 had just made it. To show how numerous the game 
 was, and what good sport might be had by any one 
 who could spare sufficient time, I may say that going 
 to work one morning over the fresh, smooth earth of 
 yesterday's road, there, all newly stamped in the same 
 narrow passage, were a tiger cub's footmarks as big 
 as saucers, the hoof-marks of a full-grown bison sunk 
 deep into the soil, and also those of a sambour and a 
 jungle sheep. All these various animals must have 
 come down to examine our operations during the few 
 hours of darkness. But this abundance of game was 
 of no use to hard-working planters like ourselves, for 
 a shot is only to be had late in the evening or early 
 in the morning, and our exertions during the day left 
 
 us little inclination for that sort of thing. L and 
 
 I did, indeed, sit up all one night in the jungle, on a 
 rough framework of boughs, by a stream where deer 
 often came to drink, but L smoked so much bird's- 
 eye to keep the fever mists away, that probably the 
 animals scented us half a mile off. Certainly nothing 
 came near us, and we got horribly bitten by mos- 
 quitoes, and were so very bad-tempered next day that 
 we gave it up in disgust, and came to the conclusion 
 that little is to be done in the shooting way until an 
 estate is several years old, or unless one likes to devote 
 the few and precious holidays to it. 
 
 Birds, too, were numerous along this new road, and 
 here I saw the only green paroquets noticed in the 
 jungle. I was standing by the stem of a small dead 
 tree, gaunt, withered, and brown, without a leaf to 
 boast of, and my white clothes were partly hidden 
 from above by a flowering creeper, when there was a 
 rush of wings, a loud screeching, and a flock of at least
 
 ROAD-MAKING. 303 
 
 a couple of hundred of these emerald-green birds came 
 up, wheeled twice round the dead tree, and then settled 
 altogether in a cloud. The contrast was very striking ; 
 for whereas a moment ago the branches were bare and 
 leafless, they now seemed buried in green foliage from 
 the highest to the lowest, and the tree had regained 
 its youthful beauty as rapidly as though touched by 
 the wand of an enchanter. But the delusion did not 
 last long, for I was soon noticed by one of the many 
 pairs of sharp eyes, and, with a chorus of deafening 
 shrieks, the whole covey took to flight. 
 
 This road-making was dangerous work, on account 
 of the snakes which we often dislodged from the low 
 herbage and rubbish. Many of these I caught and 
 took home, much to the disgust of the coolies. Some 
 of them were agile little creatures, with grey skins 
 banded with black ; others as long as whip-thongs, 
 and of the loveliest grass-green, with sparkling gold 
 eyes. These are said to hide in bushes, and dart out 
 at the face of any one approaching, but, as far as my 
 experience goes, they make the best of every oppor- 
 tunity to escape. One big snake I caught and killed, 
 as I thought, and took him back with me in my coat 
 pocket. I subsequently rolled him up very neatly, 
 and tied a label round his neck, with his scientific 
 name, and putting him into a bottle of spirits, corked 
 it up. But the spirits seemed to have revived him, 
 for in the night he drank up the greater part, pushed 
 the cork out of the bottle, and returned to his native 
 jungles none the worse for his little adventure. How 
 astonished some one will be if he catches him again 
 with that label round his neck and smelling strongly 
 of native brandy ! 
 
 Although never actually meeting with an accident, 
 I have killed several deadly snakes at close quarters. 
 
 On one occasion Mrs. R 's smallest boy, very fond 
 
 of collecting for me, brought me a small grey snake
 
 304 ON THE INDIAN HILLS. 
 
 with a square head, which he was holding by the tip 
 of the tail. Directly I saw it I knew it was the 
 deadly tic-polonga, and, though a small specimen, 
 possessed of poison powerful enough to kill a horse. 
 I took it safely from him, but it was a dangerous 
 moment for the little fellow. On another occasion, 
 
 when walking down a jungle-path with L , my 
 
 companion actually strode right across a black cobra, 
 five feet long, which was lying across the path. This 
 
 snake gave chase to L , who " made tracks " as 
 
 fast as he could go, until I got a chance and killed the 
 enemy with a single shot from my rifle. His skin, 
 though not brilliant, was very striking, blue-black 
 with a velvety spectacle-like mark behind the head. 
 
 Sometimes, however, the snake gets the best of the 
 encounter. I once lent some coolies to a surveyor 
 working on the other side of the river, and one of 
 these men trod on a tic-polonga some four feet long, 
 whereupon the reptile turned at once and struck him 
 in the ankle. The Englishman's remedy was prompt 
 and effectual, but terribly painful. He at once cut 
 away the flesh all round the wound, as though he 
 were operating on an apple, and then poured in boil- 
 ing water from the camp kettle. This rough treat- 
 ment was successful. The man was sent back to me 
 to be nursed ; and although he subsequently came out 
 all over his body with spots, as though he had con- 
 tracted smallpox, and spent the greater part of his 
 time in a state of coma, he eventually recovered, and 
 went away well to his own country. 
 
 When the sun was at its hottest and straight over- 
 head, though we still worked on at our road-making, 
 most of the birds hid themselves in the thickest gloom 
 of the jungle, and the woods were very silent and 
 gloomy, with only the sound of our own ringing axes 
 to be heard. Yet there was twittering and singing 
 enough in the early morning. One big hawk sailed
 
 ROAD- MAKING. 305 
 
 over us for many days, no matter what the heat was, 
 until at last I got to look out regularly for his graceful 
 flight and wide-barred wings high up over our heads. 
 In the evening the birds came out again as we wan- 
 dered homewards, and the curious rocket-bird, with 
 leathers in his tail twice as long as his body, thin and 
 thread-thin up to the tip, where there was a paddle- 
 like enlargement, played about on the tops of the 
 trees, and enlivened the scene with its gambols. 
 
 One evening, instead of returning with the coolies, 
 I sent them home, and, mounting a pony which had 
 
 been brought over for me, rode away to W 's, to 
 
 have a look at the newspapers and see how our friends 
 at home were getting on. I did not mount to return 
 till late, as by chance my host seemed not so sleepy 
 as usual. But at last I was in the saddle, and by the 
 time his estate was left behind the sun had set and 
 the jungles were buried in profound gloom, which the 
 full moon did little to dissipate. However, I pressed 
 on, and the horse willingly made for his stables. We 
 brushed through the dewy coffee of a couple of estates, 
 forded a moonlight nullah, and frightened a fox out 
 of his wits as he was coming down to drink. We can- 
 tered downhill and scrambled up the rises, thoroughly 
 enjoying the cool fresh air and the silent darkness, 
 until we came to a lonely hollow, through which a 
 little rill ran tinkling downwards, and the forest trees 
 crowded in and shut out all the light, while the wild 
 sago waved about, as it seemed, of its own accord. 
 This place was supposed to be haunted, as six coolies 
 had died of cholera by the side of the little stream, 
 and a robbery had been committed there some years 
 before. Besides that, it was a great place for bears, 
 who have a liking for horseflesh ; and my little "tat " 
 seemed to know this, for he snorted and shook his 
 head, and, without a word from me, started off" at a 
 canter up the rocky path. At one place the bridle- 
 
 x
 
 306 ON THE INDIAN HILLS. 
 
 track passed under a strange fantastic pile of rocks, 
 looking silent and grim under the occasional rays of 
 the moon ; and I was just thinking what an excellent 
 post it would make for dacoits, and letting the pony 
 have all the rein he wanted, when, without a moment's 
 warning, a rope was thrown over my neck, and I was 
 dragged right back to the crupper of the saddle. To 
 say I " saw stars " would be putting it very mildly. 
 The whole sky seemed to burst into a blaze of comets, 
 and my own eyes seemed to flame with blue light. 
 But I kept in the saddle, and reined the horse right 
 back on his haunches, at the same time drawing a 
 long hunting-knife from my belt, the only thing I had 
 with me. Of course, I expected it was dacoits what 
 else could it have been ? but they did not put in an 
 appearance, and, lifting up my hand after a moment 
 of suspense, I found something round my neck, very 
 rope-like, but not twisted, and hard and smooth, which 
 a little more investigation showed to be the long 
 pliant stem of a rattan creeper. Thus the mystery 
 was solved ; I had run my neck into the loop of one 
 of the creepers which hang in graceful curves from 
 tree to tree everywhere in the forest. But I suffered 
 from a sore throat for a week afterwards, and, as may 
 be supposed, finished that dark ride at a more moderate 
 pace. 
 
 No clearer or sadder proof could be required of the 
 feebleness of the coolies, and the constitutional ruin 
 wrought on them by the famine, than the way in 
 which they succumbed to fever and sickness. There 
 was no other reason why I should hold out better 
 than they did, for my hut was almost eave by eave 
 with their "lines," and we both shared the same 
 weather, and yet they died around me from simple 
 attacks of fever which only staggered me for a day 
 or so. Lately they had been going off at an astonish- 
 ing and piteous rate. A great number of Tamils came
 
 ROAD-MAKING. 307 
 
 up during my absence in Bombay miserable famine- 
 stricken wretches, thin and weak. They had been 
 too suddenly exposed to the deadly air of our jungles, 
 and half of them had died in less than a month. On 
 one side of the Bungalow Hill stream there was a 
 living population above ground, and on the other an 
 almost equally large population underground. 
 
 The remainder of the coolies, very naturally, had 
 enough of this sort of thing, and feeling a "foolish 
 hankering for existence," they took all their small 
 belongings with them to the bazaar at the head of 
 the ghaut one Sunday, and when the fair was over, 
 instead of returning to us and dying like straight- 
 forward folk according to their agreements, they went 
 away to their own country and dissolved amongst the 
 lowland villages of Mysore. I had seen them start 
 that Sunday morning, for I was sitting in my 
 verandah, according to custom, reading, with a gay 
 English nag flying from a staff above the hut, and I 
 noticed that several of the old coolies and maistries 
 to whom I had been kind salaamed lower than usual 
 as they passed me, but attached no importance to it. 
 However, the next morning D and I were sur- 
 prised to see how few natives mustered when we rang 
 the big bell. We rang again and again, and "the 
 stoker" got wild with rage, but as the coolies were 
 thirty miles away by that time no wonder they did 
 not hear. This was rather a loss to the company, as 
 each coolie took away the cumbly or coarse goafs- 
 hair shawl we lent him by way of monsoon clothing, 
 and nearly all had gone away owing the estate the 
 two or three rupees' advance which had been made 
 not long before to induce them to come up to the 
 jungles. I should put this loss at about Rs. 1500, 
 twice as much as it would have cost to build the poor 
 wretches good " lines " and keep them on the estate. 
 After this, operations came to rather a standstill, and
 
 ON TOE INDIAN HILLS. 
 
 we were forced to wait until R sent us up two or 
 
 three hundred men Canarese this time by way of a 
 change from the lowlands. 
 
 Meanwhile, I was beginning to wonder how long I 
 could hold out myself Hitherto I had accepted the 
 repeated attacks of fever as a thing which must be, 
 and had anxiously watched to find them decreasing 
 in strength, but they got worse and worse. I had 
 been delirious twice, and had now had fever often and 
 badly. 
 
 This I could have stood perhaps, were it not for the 
 leeches, but those wretched things were "the most 
 unkindest cut of aH," and very nearly reduced me to 
 the condition of skin and bones. I bore them, as a 
 naturalist, no particular or personal antipathy, but 
 their conduct in return was outrageous, and their 
 bloodthirstiness insatiable. Nothing checked them; 
 nothing satisfied " I tried against their assaults top- 
 boots, gaiters, two pairs of socks, and tying the 
 bottoms of the legs of my trousers with string; I 
 even painted my boots with tar, oil, and lime; but 
 they laughed everything to scorn, and the jungles 
 swarmed with their thirsty armies. They attacked 
 me directly I went out, and it was hopeless to escape 
 them. They were so numerous that, if one stopped 
 in the shadow of the trees, they might be seen con- 
 verging from all points, and regularly racing to get 
 the first suck at the stranger. It is a melancholy fact. 
 but I have felt my own blood squelching in my boots 
 as I have walked home after a long morning in the 
 jungle; and any one who has had the misfortune 
 to feel a single half-dozen of leeches applied for 
 medicinal purposes will understand how the lo*> 
 blood affected me. When my hut was reached. I 
 could do nothing but fall into the nearest chair, while 
 a servant pulled off my boots and crimsoned so. 
 and then the horrible bloated creatures rolled about
 
 ROAD-MAKING. 309 
 
 the floor like ripe cherries, little thin streams of blood 
 meandering down my feet for half an hour afterwards. 
 On one occasion I took eight leeches off one leg, and 
 eleven off the other, but many others had fed and 
 rolled away. Of course, it is impossible to eat much 
 breakfast under such circumstances, and mine was 
 often left scarcely tasted, though I felt always wonder- 
 fully thirsty. There would follow a brief respite for 
 writing letters and reading, but then the sodden 
 boots had to be pulled on again, and I went forth to 
 hobble through the forest, about as comfortable as 
 though I were walking on red-hot plates. 
 
 This sort of thing had gone on for a long time, 
 until at last the fever came on my bloodless frame 
 very badly one day. Xo amount of quinine would 
 stop it; I was alone and unattended in my little hut, 
 tossing about in all the miseries of the hot stage, and 
 feeling, to tell the truth, considerably " played out " 
 
 and broken down, when by a fortunate chance F 
 
 came over on his white pony, and dismounted at my 
 verandah. He showed himself, as usual, cheery and 
 considerate, but said he considered me very ill, and 
 advised me to come away with him to Varlavachen 
 Bungalow. I explained that I could not leave every- 
 thing to D , who was then on the estate, without 
 
 warning ; so F stayed by me a little longer, and 
 
 then rode away, and I relapsed into my former con- 
 dition. But in half an hour F was back. He 
 
 had galloped up Bungalow Hill, interviewed D , 
 
 told him I was really very ill and persuaded him to 
 take care of everything for a few days, and now 
 came down with violent kindness on me would not 
 listen to my protests for a moment, but wrapped me 
 up in an astonishing number of coats, put me on the 
 pony, and walked at the side as we made for his eyrie. 
 A curious thing about the fever is that, though it 
 saps the strength and greatly disarranges one's in-
 
 310 ON THE INDIAN HILLS. 
 
 ternal economy, for a little time after each attack one 
 feels very well, and has an excellent appetite. Thus 
 a night on F 's mountain-top, and a good break- 
 fast with all the little comforts which only flourish 
 where a lady presides, set me up, and I could hardly 
 believe I had been so ill the night before. Even 
 
 F noticed the improvement, and, wishing to 
 
 make the most of my short holiday, invited me to 
 come and try for an ibex with him on the nearest 
 grass hill ; and we started, though I was conscious it 
 was a rash enterprise on my part. 
 
 We crossed two valleys to the southward, with 
 some coolies behind carrying our rifles, and presently 
 found ourselves on a grassy ridge at the edge of the 
 ghaut overlooking the lowlands. Here, as I might 
 have expected, the exertion told sharply, and I felt 
 the well-known fever creeping back over me. There 
 was nothing to be done but let it take its course ; so 
 
 F went ahead with the coolies and guns, and I 
 
 lay down on a sloping slab of rock, on which the sun 
 was shining fiercely, making it much too hot even for 
 the lizards. But as long as the cold stage lasted I 
 shivered and shook in a frightful manner, with no 
 power to keep myself still; and then suddenly a 
 change arrived, and the hot stage set me perspiring 
 and half mad with the heat, though I had been 
 freezing a few minutes before. Thus things continued 
 
 until F came back, having seen three ibex, but 
 
 lost the chance owing to the cartridges missing lire 
 in both barrels. The walk back before the fever 
 had left me was a woeful experience; the headache 
 left by the hot fit was intense, and every joint in my 
 limbs worked rustily with rheumatism. The last 
 hill all but finished me. It was a very rough 
 experience, and I have never suffered more than I did 
 in mounting that rocky slope, with my head reeling, 
 my blood boiling and shooting to and fro in my veins.
 
 BOAD-MAK1NG. 311 
 
 But at length we gained the Varlavachen plateau, 
 
 and a coolie F had sent ahead for brandy and 
 
 water hove in sight. I had drunk nothing all day, 
 and my thirst was intense. Once I had filled my 
 helmet at a stream ; but the water was bright green 
 concentrated essence of decayed vegetation and I 
 had poured it back untasted, so my feelings may be 
 guessed when the brandy-pawnee arrived. I asked 
 
 F if he wanted any, and he looked at me and 
 
 shook his head; so I took the silver tankard, and 
 tilted it up and up until I could see the kites in the 
 sky overhead through the glass bottom, and I 
 never before tasted so bitterly earned or so delightful 
 a draught. 
 
 This bungalow, which I have described before, is a 
 delightful place, but it had one drawback, which was 
 the rats. Even down in my own hut they were very 
 numerous, and a trap, which I set every night, often 
 sprang with a clap before I had left it a minute, so 
 that I was constantly hopping in and out of my cot 
 to remove the victims and reset it. But up at 
 
 F 's the rats simply swarmed, and at night they 
 
 came forth from their hiding-places and ate up every- 
 thing left within their reach. On the evening after 
 the ibex expedition, no sooner had I put out the 
 lights and rolled myself up comfortably, than they 
 were pattering all over the bed ; and though I kicked 
 vigorously every now and then, it only caused a 
 temporary scare. I fired off all the boots and slippers 
 
 in reach, a lot of hats and helmets, all F 's shaving 
 
 materials, and several brushes and combs, then the 
 pillow, and finally the bolster, which brought down 
 some crockery, and drove them away for a good ten 
 minutes ; when, making use of the opportunity, I 
 went to sleep. But they soon returned to the charge, 
 getting so bold that one woke me up by actually 
 sitting on my forehead. There was no mistake about
 
 312 ON TEE INDIAN HILLS. 
 
 this, for I seized him there, and threw him to the 
 other end of the room. However, they are harmless 
 creatures, though remarkably inquisitive; so that, 
 after the first novelty of the thing had worn 
 off, their gambols over my couch and reckless leaps 
 about the furniture did not long keep me awake. 
 
 The next and subsequent days were spent reading 
 in the verandah, though I had two more sharp attacks, 
 which even the fresh mountain air could not mitigate ; 
 
 and F earnestly advised a long holiday at Oota- 
 
 camund, on the healthy Neilgherry Hills, or even a 
 return to England, as I had come to that state in 
 which my strength no more rebounded after each 
 attack. I passed now each interval in a strange sort 
 of sleepy condition, careless of everything around, and 
 doing everything in a listless, lackadaisical style, which 
 my kind host said was a very bad sign. 
 
 My exercise was confined to circumnavigating the 
 terrace round the hilltop and revelling in the wide 
 prospect. From my chair I saw one morning a string 
 of six wild elephants cross the brow of a hill four or 
 five miles away, and disappear over the sky-line. 
 They looked like great brown mice, and followed one 
 another in Indian file to their distant retreats. Had 
 I been well, we would have given chase to them, and 
 made a nearer acquaintance with these jungle monsters. 
 Another time, while meditating on the wonderful 
 expanse of virgin forests to the eastward, a brown 
 cloud, like the smoke of burning bamboos, appeared 
 in the valley below, and rolled rapidly up the hillside, 
 accompanied by a strange humming sound. When it 
 came nearer, it developed into a mighty swarm of 
 wild bees, so large that, in all my apian experience, I 
 had never seen the like. As they were taking a 
 " bee-line " nothing indeed could be straighter than 
 their flight towards my position, I stooped down on 
 one knee, and soon they were spinning overhead like
 
 ROAD-MAKING. 313 
 
 a brown hailstorm, and actually dimming the light of 
 the sun. There must have been many thousands all 
 following in the flight of the queen-bee, and I watched 
 them until they were lost in the forests beyond. 
 
 On the fourth morning of my visit, having had no 
 fever during the night, I felt duty-bound to get back 
 to my own jungles, and take some of the work off 
 
 D 's shoulders ; so, breakfast over, and due thanks 
 
 having been paid to my generous entertainers, I slung 
 my rifle, took a last look round and a long breath of 
 fresh air, and plunged down into the fatal jungle. 
 That same rifle had grown wondrously heavy lately. 
 Not so long before, it hung light as a feather at my 
 back, but now it felt a ponderous mass of wood and 
 iron, and I shifted its position twenty times in a mile. 
 
 The jungles were fearfully hot and close after 
 Varlavachen, though it was just the weather for the 
 collector. Insects of all sorts were abundant, and 
 enjoying themselves while the warm weather lasted, 
 for we were on the brink of the wet monsoon, and 
 they would soon have to hybernate or die. One dead 
 tree was a magnificent sight, being surrounded by 
 hundreds of the lovely brass-green Chrysochroo, 
 fidgida, an almond-shaped beetle nearly two inches 
 in length, and each green wing-case adorned with a 
 rosy stripe running down it. As these insects flew 
 round and round the withered stem, they made a 
 beautiful display in the bright sunlight, and one not 
 easily to be forgotten. 
 
 Then I came across a bright emerald-coated lizard 
 of large size, with gold eyes and a wonderful pris- 
 matic throat, sky-blue, orange-yellow, and vivid red, 
 all fading into each other ; but the gaudiness of this 
 dandy lacertan made him shy, and he would not stop 
 to be closely investigated. The smaller grey lizards 
 were, as ever, very common, and glided over and 
 under the fallen timber in every direction. One
 
 314 ON THE INDIAN HILLS. 
 
 attracted my attention particularly by his violent 
 contortions, and, capturing him easily with my hand, 
 I found a very large, soft-bodied beetle was firmly 
 fixed in his mouth. He could not swallow it, as it 
 was stuck in his teeth, and could not eject it for the 
 same reason ; so, not liking to leave him in such an 
 uncomfortable predicament, I took the liberty of 
 pushing the beetle down his throat with a grass stem, 
 for which he seemed very much obliged when placed 
 in freedom once more. 
 
 In many places the sandy drifts were pitted with 
 the little hollows made by the ant-lions, the curious 
 little larvse of a clear-winged fly. At the bottom of 
 each excavation crouched the small lobster-shaped 
 creature, buried up to his eyes in sand, with nothing- 
 showing but a long and sharp pair of forceps. Woe 
 to the foraging ant that ventured on the brink of 
 that treacherous pit, for he is sure to slip in and be 
 devoured by the vigilant monster below, who sits 
 expectant all day, with a good appetite always at 
 command against the time when a victim arrives. 
 
 Then there were many birds about a fine black 
 thrush haunting the underwood, whence, when dis- 
 turbed, he rose with a long-drawn and melancholy 
 whistle. Although his general colour was the deepest 
 velvety black, he had on each shoulder an epaulet of 
 bright sky-blue feathers, wonderfully conspicuous by 
 contrast. This was the Myiophonus Horsfieldii of 
 science, a well-known bird of Southern India. A 
 brisk little nut-hatch, of a slaty blue colour (Dendro- 
 phila frontalis), was also very busy about the decay- 
 ing trees, and exhibited all the wonderful clinging 
 and climbing capabilities of his family. Really it 
 seemed to be a matter of the most profound indiffer- 
 ence to him which way his head was when he swal- 
 lowed a fat grub or a juicy beetle, and he appeared 
 to gaily defy even the law of gravitation.
 
 ROAD-MAKING. 315 
 
 But the most remarkable and beautiful birds seen 
 during this walk were those of a family of six jet- 
 black woodpeckers, with flaming crimson crests, which 
 were hard at work hammering at a dead tree as I 
 passed. These birds were probably the Picus 
 Hodgsoni, though there are two or three Southern 
 Indian varieties of woodpeckers very much alike in 
 general plumage, and it was only the second time I 
 had observed them in these jungles. 
 
 During the next few days after my return, two 
 hundred Canarese coolies arrived on the estate, and 
 
 R came back with them. They were a poor lot, 
 
 even worse than the Tamils who had recently run 
 away; but when the superintendent showed them 
 the deserted " lines," and told them to take up their 
 quarters there, they said they were much too dirty, 
 and would not move into them until they were 
 thoroughly cleaned out an expression of opinion 
 
 which made R doubtless feel small, but pleased 
 
 and amused me. By the way, while the " lines " 
 were being cleaned, all these men and women camped 
 round my hut, and, having no servant just then, and 
 nothing but a latch on the door, they could have made 
 off with anything they wished during my absence ; 
 but nothing was touched. 
 
 When that " boy " of mine did come back, after 
 having got over his fear of the cholera, I was very 
 glad, as he relieved me of the distasteful job of cook- 
 ing my own meals. He had asked permission to get 
 his wife and baby up from the lowlands, which I had 
 readily given, as he assured me his wife was " very 
 small," and would not eat much of my food ; so one 
 morning my breakfast was interrupted by the arrival 
 of a very diminutive woman, half hidden under a 
 load of cooking-pots and sleeping-mats, with a brown 
 baby perched on top. " Who is this ? " I inquired. 
 " Oh, sahib," said the " boy," " he's my wife." So we
 
 316 ON THE INDIAN HILLS. 
 
 exchanged salaams, and the new additions to my 
 household took up their quarters in the rear. It 
 was a matter of some curiosity to me how they 
 lodged in the tiny kitchen, until, going to doctor my 
 servant one day, when he was ill with fever, I found 
 him and his better half coiled up like a couple of 
 squirrels on the two rough boards which served as 
 dresser and table, and the baby suspended from the 
 roof in a shawl. On that day the " boy " was too ill 
 to cook me any dinner, so it was done, and done very 
 well, by his wife. But she was much too shy to place 
 it on my table, and instead seized the opportunity, 
 when I was having a wash, to put dishes, crockery, 
 etc., just inside the door, and, placing the cloth on 
 top, bolted back to the kitchen ; so the arranging was 
 left to myself. 
 
 The brown baby was very inquisitive, and occa- 
 sionally crawled into my verandah to take a good 
 stare at the burra sahib, whom he seemed to think a 
 most curious object; but his mother generally inter- 
 rupted the contemplation by snatching him up by his 
 waistcloth and bearing him howling away. His 
 parents were equally amusing. For instance, for 
 about a week everything sent in to me was roasted or 
 fried, nothing was ever boiled ; and when I came to 
 ask an explanation, it appeared that my servant had 
 imported some chickens from the lowlands, and one 
 hen had undertaken to make a nest and hatch some 
 eggs in my only saucepan; so the "boy," not liking 
 te disturb her, had resolved to do all my cooking in a 
 fryingpan or before the fire. On another day his wife 
 volunteered to prepare me some soup for breakfast, as 
 her husband was ill again ; but by mischance, instead 
 of taking a cake of preserved soup, she got hold of a 
 square of brown Windsor soap, and knowing nothing 
 of this material, she carefully boiled it up with carrots 
 and plenty of salt and pepper, and sent it in to me. I
 
 ROAD-MAKING. 317 
 
 shall not easily forget my first and last taste of that 
 horrible saponaceous broth. 
 
 The " boy " seemed to share the usual indifference 
 of the natives for the fate of their countrymen and 
 former friends, and, excepting as it put himself in 
 clanger, seemed totally careless of suffering and sorrow 
 very likely the effect of seeing too much of both. 
 Thus, amongst the creatures I had collected round me 
 to relieve the solitude of the jungle, was a fox-terrier 
 and three half-grown puppies, all of them a present 
 
 from W , of Poothpara. It was an amusing sight 
 
 to see the old dog lead out the young ones to hunt in 
 the jungle, and when I shot them anything they used 
 to go frantic with delight. But they were also much 
 given to foraging on their own account. On one 
 occasion they were out all day, and it was only when 
 I was seated at dinner that there came the patter of 
 canine feet in the verandah, and the truants filed in, 
 and, sneaking under the table, went to sleep at once, 
 appearing to suffer from fearfully bad dreams. "Boy," 
 I said to the servant behind my chair, " how is it my 
 dogs look so full and sleep so badly ? " " The sahib's 
 dogs," he said, " have been hunting in the jungle and 
 found dead coolie. They not want any more dinner 
 for very long time ; " and this he said with perfect 
 placidity, as though it were a very ordinary occurrence. 
 
 Another of my pets was a cat, but she was only 
 nominally mine, although I gave eight annas for her 
 in the lowlands. From the very first she utterly 
 refused to recognize me as her owner, but made herself 
 a nest in the thatch of the roof, whence she sallied 
 forth at night, killed my chickens, upset my lamps, 
 and ate my provisions in a truly lawless way. I only 
 saw her once after I let her out of the basket on her 
 arrival, and then it was to fire at her with a rifle as 
 she was darting up a tree, under the impression she 
 was a new species of wild jungle cat.
 
 318 ON THE INDIAN HILLS. 
 
 Speaking of cats and trees reminds me of a slight 
 adventure I had some time before with a large member 
 of the feline tribe, which might easily have resulted 
 disastrously. The weather was particularly hot, and, 
 having done a long morning's work in some clearings 
 far to the southward, I was slowly taking my way 
 homewards to breakfast ; but, being in no particular 
 hurry, I thought I would rest a little under a beautiful 
 spreading tree which grew close beside a dry nullah, 
 nearly choked with long reeds and wild sago. I shut 
 my umbrella up, placing it against the trunk, and 
 then, for want of something better to do, took out my 
 pocket-knife and proceeded in the British way to 
 carve my initials on the smooth bark. I am rather 
 skilful at carving initials, the result of practice, per- 
 haps, and it was five minutes or more before those of 
 mine pleased me sufficiently to be thought finished. 
 But when there was nothing else to be done to them, 
 I shut the knife with a click, and slipping it into my 
 pocket, let my eyes wander up the beautiful smooth 
 trunk of the tree. Judge of my feelings when I saw 
 crouching on a branch scarcely six feet above my 
 head, so low, indeed, I could have poked it with the 
 ferule of my umbrella, a full-grown and gleaming-eyed 
 panther. His body was partly hidden by the branch, 
 but his tail hung over one side, and his head looked 
 over the other, and in the deep shade his eyes shone 
 like opals. When our glances met, his lips curled up 
 slowly into a fierce snarl, showing all his white teeth, 
 and I saw his claws grip into the green bark ready 
 for a spring, and instinctively my hand went down to 
 the hunting-knife in my belt. For a moment things 
 hung in suspense, and the next second might have 
 pitted his vast strength, great weight, and superior 
 position against my knife and fever-wasted muscles. 
 But he kept his place, though his eyes watched every 
 movement ; so I judged discretion was in this case the
 
 THROUGH WATER AND FIRE. 321 
 
 best part of valour, and, slowly taking up my umbrella 
 and keeping my eyes full on his, I backed off until the 
 tree was hidden by others, and then took a swift "bee- 
 line " for my hut to fetch a rifle. But by the time I 
 was armed and back at the tree, the panther was gone, 
 and I never saw him again. Had he chanced to be 
 hungry, or a fraction more ready for a fight, he would 
 doubtless have saved you, courteous reader, all the 
 trouble of wading through this chapter, by putting a 
 final stop to the author's wanderings in the jungle. 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 THROUGH WATER AND FIRE. 
 
 AT last the hot weather ended, and the ragged grey 
 clouds, which had been hurrying over the sky like the 
 skirmishers of a vast army, banked themselves up and 
 flooded the thirsty land. The first few heavy drops 
 
 fell one day while L and I were smoking in my 
 
 verandah, but they were only the forerunners of the 
 great downpour, though they made the withered 
 leaves on the ground hop and rustle, and frightened 
 the lizards horribly before they stopped, leaving the 
 air full of a wonderfully fragrant smell, as of wet 
 wine-coolers. 
 
 But the monsoon burst that night in serious earnest. 
 It was impossible to get to sleep the air was very 
 dense and hot, and the mosquitoes were busy and 
 furious in every direction. Up to eleven o'clock there 
 was a profound hush outside, and I was almost asleep, 
 when there came a blinding flash of lightning, and 
 immediately afterwards a loud peal of thunder, and 
 the wind crept up from the valley and began to rock 
 
 Y
 
 322 ON THE INDIAN HILLS. 
 
 the tree-tops. Then down came the rain in con- 
 tinuous sheets, followed by white lightning which 
 enabled me to catch glimpses of the path and hillside 
 streaming with water, the tree-trunks shining as 
 though they were carved out of silver, and everything 
 far and near dripping and hanging down limp under 
 the tropical midnight downpour. I sat wondering 
 what the monkeys were doing outside, and all the 
 dry- weather creatures, but soon found that charity 
 begins at home, and that it was quite unnecessary to 
 pride myself on being safe under shelter. The thatch 
 of my roof had been put on early in the year, and 
 during the dry weather it had shrunk considerably, 
 so that, instead of forming a compact mass, as old 
 thatch should, it was more like fresh straw loosely 
 laid down. Consequently, when the rain began to 
 descend in earnest, it found its way through into my 
 sleeping compartment with very little difficulty. 
 
 I was sitting up in my charpoy listening to the 
 howling of the wind, by this time blowing a regular 
 hurricane, and watching the bright long forks of 
 lightning playing about the tree-tops, when I was 
 suddenly aware of a little trickle of water running 
 down my back, and then another and another rivulet 
 developing. It was necessary to act promptly; so, 
 springing up, I rolled all the bed-things into a mass, 
 and covered them with a waterproof. Then, opening 
 an umbrella, I sat on top in my flannel sleeping-suit, 
 and calmly watched my property being flooded. It 
 was a profoundly uncomfortable night, and my posi- 
 tion was both cold and ridiculous. The rain came in 
 everywhere, and soon everything was afloat, while as 
 fast as I lit lamp after lamp, the rain-water put them 
 out and left me in darkness. When the roof of your 
 house plays you false, it is hopeless to contend against 
 the elements. I made two or three attempts, and 
 found a little shelter for some of my best books under
 
 THROUGH WATER AND FIRE. 323 
 
 the dining table, but the greater part of my belongings 
 were soon hopelessly saturated. My bed was also 
 converted into a sort of tent, more or less dry, by 
 crossing cords from the four posts and throwing coats 
 and shawls over them. Into this harbour of refuge I 
 crept, and watched the water coming down the walls 
 and descending lin cascades from the roof, for there 
 was no sleep for me. The tempest howled overhead, 
 and the trees rocked and groaned, until every moment 
 I expected one to come crashing through the roof of 
 my deluged hut. Indeed, a great trunk did fall a 
 little higher up the ridge, and I could feel the con- 
 cussion, so near was it. Then another matter kept 
 me awake. My hut, like every house in India, was a 
 great harbourage for all sorts of strange creatures in 
 the insect way, besides bats, snakes, rats, lizards, and 
 so on. All these creatures were flooded out of my 
 walls and roofs, and wandered aimlessly about the 
 furniture and floor. Such a chance was not to be lost, 
 and, careless of being wetted through and through, 
 every now and then I emerged from under the shelter 
 of my tent to secure and box a strange centipede, or 
 give chase to a big spider, or to paddle about with 
 bare feet after a lizard which looked something out of 
 the ordinary. In this way I made some considerable 
 additions to my collection that night, and with the 
 exception of being wet through all the time, with no 
 chance of sleeping, I was not so desperate as may be 
 supposed. Nevertheless, I felt glad when dawn broke 
 and daylight made it possible to move about freely, 
 and, finally, a good breakfast with plenty of hot coffee 
 set me up again. 
 
 With the breaking of another monsoon the work 
 relapsed into its old channels, and nothing was done 
 now but constant " planting out " of the young seed- 
 lings in the places they were to occupy a dreadfully 
 monotonous labour, which goes on day after day
 
 324 ON THE INDIAN HILLS. 
 
 without stop or variety. Thus we had passed through 
 a whole year of a new estate, and some idea of the 
 round of operations may be gathered. Afterwards it 
 would become more varied, and when there arises a 
 prospect of a crop it is necessary to build " pulping 
 houses," where the ripe cherry-like berries are sub- 
 jected to constant streams of water and freed from the 
 soft fleshy outer part, the hard stone inside (which is 
 the coffee of commerce) being roughly dried on care- 
 fully levelled plots of ground, and sent down to 
 Calicut or elsewhere, on the backs of bullocks, to be 
 divested of a thin silvery skin which still enwraps 
 the bean. Thus it is prepared for exportation and 
 consumption in the European markets ; and little the 
 comfortable homefolk, as they sip their after-dinner 
 cafb noir, think or know by what hard work the 
 rough material has been grown and prepared for 
 their use ! 
 
 On July 21 an accident happened which forced a 
 holiday upon me, whether I would or no. Perhaps it 
 was even fortunate it occurred, as otherwise I should 
 not have left the jungles until perchance carried down 
 the ghauts feet foremost. 
 
 I was busy writing, and the evening being cold and 
 wet and fever still hanging about me, on that eventful 
 day I had made a fire in the stove in my little hut, 
 the chimney of which passed up through the thatch 
 of the roof. The dinner was standing ready on the 
 table and the lamp was burning brightly, but, as the 
 next day was mail day, I wrote on and on, absorbed 
 in my occupation. The temperature of the room sud- 
 denly increased very rapidly, and a sort of red glow 
 came on the paper, which I remembered afterwards, 
 but at the time thought little of. However, the heat 
 became so noticeable, that I at last started up to 
 attend to the stove, which I supposed was the culprit ; 
 but, to my dismay and astonishment, directly my
 
 THROUGH WATER AND FIRE. 325 
 
 eyes were raised, I saw the whole roof of my hut 
 already in flames, and burning fiercely under a wind 
 which was howling through the trees outside. 
 
 What followed was very brief and decisive. My 
 " boy " was just coming round from the kitchen with 
 a dish of curry, but when he saw this astonishing 
 sight he stood spell-bound for a moment, and then 
 down went the curry, and he flew to the big bell 
 hanging on a tree close by, and rang a peal which 
 brought the coolies swarming up the hill in a dusky 
 yelling crowd from their " lines." Half a glance 
 showed me it was impossible to save the hut, for it 
 was now well alight, and the strong wind increased 
 the flames every moment, while the nearest water 
 was at the bottom of the hill, and I knew well that 
 before we could collect chatties and organize a fire 
 brigade, it would be all over. So I proceeded to save 
 what was possible. The estate books were got out 
 first, along with a lot of my own, which will bear 
 the marks of the jungle mud, into which they were 
 thrown, as long as they last ; and then I unlocked some 
 drawers and salvaged several parcels of money. By this 
 time the place was like an oven and burning " fore 
 and aft," and the wild-looking crowd of coolies outside 
 
 ' O 
 
 were yelling and dancing about quite at their wits' 
 end. One old woman rushed bravely in, and making 
 for my sleeping compartment, seized a blanket and 
 pillow, which she gripped tight in her dusky arms 
 and carried about with her for the rest of the evening, 
 being much too excited to put them down anywhere. 
 Fired by this example, some coolies made a rush into 
 the porch. Unfortunately, my door opened outwards, 
 and in the scuffle it banged to and was kept hard shut 
 in my face by the great crowd outside, of whom the 
 men nearest the door were pressed close against it 
 by the others further away. In vain I kicked and 
 shouted; it was shut firm, and the dense yellow
 
 326 ON THE INDIAN HILLS. 
 
 smoke was blinding me and getting down my throat. 
 At length I called out to the head native maistry, 
 who I knew was outside, " Jowra maistry, knock some 
 of those fools down and clear my door." Then there 
 came the refreshing " whack, whack ! " of his stick, 
 and the crowd parted and the door opened, but not a 
 moment too soon. Already the flaming mass of the 
 roof overhead was rocking on the slender uprights 
 which supported it. Any moment it might fall. The 
 last I saw of the interior of my jungle hut was the 
 ready-set table, the lamp still burning placidly in 
 the thick yellow smoke, the white tablecloth on fire 
 in twenty places, and big flakes of matting falling, 
 smoking, to right and left. Scarcely had the door 
 opened and freed me, when I heard the sharp crack 
 of my revolver, which hung up loaded at the side of 
 my bed, and the bullet whistled overhead. The pistol 
 had become red-hot, and now added to the general 
 confusion by falling to the ground, and every now and 
 then leaping up and firing a shot promiscuously into 
 the crowd. This reminded me of my unfortunate 
 guns, which there had been no time to save, and 
 they, in turn, reminded me of a new, unopened five- 
 gallon tin of kerosene oil which stood in my bedroom. 
 I would have fetched it out, though it were red-hot, 
 had there been any chance of its staying the fire; 
 but, as it was, I was so disgusted with the loss of my 
 property, I thought it might as well take its chance 
 and end the tomaska, by a grand final firework. And 
 so it did ! The coolies had scarcely obeyed my warn- 
 ing and got behind trees, when there was a terrific 
 thud, which was heard right up on top of Bungalow 
 Hill; a great column of smoke, flames, and sparks 
 leapt up to the tree-tops, singeing the leaves; and 
 then, dying down, the roof fell in, followed by what 
 remained of the walls. For a moment everything 
 was brightly illuminated, and then the fire went out
 
 VANQUISHED BY FEVER. 327 
 
 with a sudden swirl, and I was standing in my 
 slippers, bareheaded, in the rain, falling fast now, by 
 the smoking cinders of the poor little shed which had 
 sheltered me for ten or eleven months. 
 
 That night I slept rolled up in a blanket on the 
 
 floor of L 's bungalow on the hill, and the next 
 
 morning, after a melancholy search amongst the ruins 
 for treasure trove in which I found rupees and annas 
 fused into lumps, and only the metal-work of my 
 guns remaining I confided my servants, my dogs, 
 all my belongings that could be got together (and the 
 cat if she could be found) to the care of my friend, 
 borrowed a pair of boots and a hat, and, mounting 
 the estate pony, turned my back on the Pardagherry 
 jungles, meaning to go to Calicut to refit and see a 
 doctor, and perhaps take a holiday, if he prescribed 
 one, at that great resort of the broken-down Southern 
 Indians, the Neilgherry Hills. 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 VANQUISHED BY FEVER. 
 
 NEVER was a more melancholy ride than that of mine 
 the day after the disastrous fire which thus forced 
 leave of absence upon me. And yet it has left a very 
 slight impression on my memory ; all that occurs to 
 me when I think of it was that I was racked with 
 pain, and so weak it was difficult to sit in the saddle. 
 I can remember the blinding torrents of rain which 
 poured down unceasingly as the lonely jungle paths 
 leading to the head of the ghaut were paced, and the 
 torrents of water cutting the road up with innumer- 
 able rills. But although wet through before being; in 
 
 *
 
 328 ON TEE INDIAN HILLS. 
 
 the saddle many minutes, it made no difference to me ; 
 all my thoughts were full of regret at leaving the 
 estate unfinished, and turning my back on friends 
 and companions. Whether we went slow or fast, 
 I have no idea ; but presently the horse stopped of 
 its own accord, and, looking up, I saw we were in 
 front of the Comlocoda Bungalow, which lies a little 
 off the main road at the head of the ghaut. A night's 
 lodging was begged of the owner, a brother of my 
 
 lively friend, C. H , and readily granted, and 
 
 together we dined and spent the evening, beguiling 
 
 the time with rival stories of past adventures. H 
 
 gave me a history of all his guns and hunting gear, 
 and the great numbers of animals he had killed in 
 various wanderings. 
 
 I had spent a good many uncomfortable nights 
 lately, but perhaps that at Comlocoda was the worst 
 of all. The only " shake-down " which my host had 
 to offer me was an old sofa which stood in one corner 
 of the room ; and belonging to the straight-backed 
 sort which our forefathers seem to have liked so 
 much, even in its very remote youth it must have 
 been uncomfortable. Now nearly all the stuffing was 
 gone, and there were three deep hollows and three 
 sharp ridges in it. To lie on it full length was most 
 indescribably miserable, and it was almost as bad to 
 repose with your chin between your knees. During 
 the long dreary hours of that stormy night, while the 
 wind howled outside and the rain pelted on the 
 " shingle " roof, I tried every position I knew of to 
 get just so much rest as would let me go to sleep; 
 but it was quite impossible, and the last night of my 
 sojourn in the jungles will never fade from my 
 memory. At last, racked with rheumatism and 
 dysentery, and feeble with long-continued fever, 
 I went out into the verandah, and, sinking into an 
 armchair, felt my sand was nearly run out. It was
 
 VANQUISHED BY FEVER. 329 
 
 a fearful night, the wind howling like legions of 
 ghosts among the dead and fire-blackened trees along 
 the margin of the clearings and the white mist sweep- 
 ing in sheets over the waving coffee, drifting this 
 way and that, and twisting like a monstrous serpent 
 amongst the fallen logs. Once a tall spectral form 
 was seen hurrying up the pathway, with the dead 
 leaves eddying about it, and in the darkness of the 
 night came straight towards me, mounted the steps 
 in so ghostly a way that I had half risen from my 
 chair, when a gust of wind came rattling off the roof 
 and dissolved it into mist. It was in this very chair 
 
 and on this spot that a brother of H 's died, little 
 
 more than a year ago. He was a great shikaree and 
 
 a friend of F 's, who had told me how he came 
 
 out from England and opened this estate single- 
 handed. But the fever found him out, and at last 
 he was so ill that he was obliged to go down to 
 Calicut, where the doctors told him he must stay for 
 a long time ; but he was naturally impatient, started 
 for the jungles before he was completely recovered, 
 and walked up the ghaut from Wallenghay one hot 
 day to his hut. There did not seem to be anything 
 the matter with him when he arrived; nevertheless, 
 half an hour afterwards, when the " boy " brought 
 him the coffee which he had ordered, he was found 
 sitting in this chair, with his head sunk forward and 
 quite dead ! All that night the wind howled and the 
 lightning played about amongst the forest trees, until 
 a little before dawn the moon struggled forth and the 
 
 OO 
 
 rain began to fall more lightly; and when at last 
 the welcome day did break, the sun found our part of 
 the world very misty and dripping with last night's 
 rain, but otherwise quiet and pleasant. 
 
 A light breakfast disposed of, and thanks made for 
 the night's shelter, I found myself in the saddle again, 
 and bound down the ghaut. The only thing of
 
 330 ON THE INDIAN HILLS. 
 
 interest, until the bottom was reached, was a miser- 
 able coolie boy, lying across the path in the hot 
 sunshine and almost hidden by swarms of flies. At 
 first he seemed dead, for it looked almost impossible 
 that such a hideously dirty and skeleton-like frame 
 could hold any life. He had been out all night in. 
 the pelting rain, and the mud and sand was heaped 
 up on one side of him. It would have been best that 
 he were dead, but as I reined in my horse for a 
 moment, he slowly opened his eyes and moved one 
 hand ! What could I do ? I had no food with me, 
 nothing but money, which would have been mockery 
 to him. I might have taken him on the crupper, but 
 the rivers below were all flooded, and I knew it was 
 as much as the horse could do to get across unburdened 
 with anything but myself; so the wretched creature 
 was sadly left behind. 
 
 The smaller streams, though much swollen, were 
 swam without serious difficulty, but when the broad 
 nullah between the foot of the hills and Wallenghay 
 was reached, it was a different matter, and a halt was 
 made on the brink to consider where the passage lay. 
 For, though the stream was a rapid brown flood, 
 scouring down between its banks, and whirling along 
 trunks of trees, dead cattle, and small islands of 
 rubbish, turning back could not be thought of, and 
 the river had to be crossed at all hazards. So I drove 
 my nag in, though he did not like it much, and kept 
 him as well as I might to where the ford seemed to 
 be ; but we went wrong, and getting on the rocks, 
 where the dhobies wash linen in the fine weather, we 
 floundered ahead with the water just up to the 
 stirrups, for a few yards, and then the " tat " missed 
 his footing, staggered forward, and down we plunged 
 into deep water with a prodigious splash. Of course, 
 I was drenched through and up to my waist, while 
 the horse was swimming, and nothing but his head
 
 VANQUISHED BY FEVER. 331 
 
 showed. The turbid river looked wonderfully broad 
 from the centre, and the stream nearly lifted me out 
 of the saddle twenty times, while as we neared the 
 opposite bank the horse began to pant and blow as 
 though the current was becoming too much for him. 
 But he held out well, and, after narrowly missing 
 getting foul of a floating mass of broken boughs and 
 jungle debris, that went swirling by, we climbed on 
 to the far bank, in a very pulpy condition, but with 
 the worst part of the journey over. 
 
 At Wallenghay a woman and small girl came into 
 the compound of Vladimir's bungalow, where I was 
 resting, and, after a deal of salaaming, the woman, who 
 was clearly starving, asked, in a trembling voice, if 
 the sahib, " whose bounty was the refuge of the poor," 
 would buy the little girl of her. She was rather a 
 nice damsel, about twelve years old, and very brown, 
 with big black eyes, and her hair done up in a knot 
 behind ; while to increase her attractiveness the 
 woman had spent their last cowries in cocoa-nut oil, 
 with which she had rubbed her all over, until she 
 shone like a little statue cut out of polished marble. 
 She was clearly much more astonished at the six-foot 
 sahib, all in white clothes, than frightened, and held 
 tight to her mother's saree, while she stared with all 
 her might. I asked how much money would purchase 
 so fascinating a young lady, and, after a moment of 
 hesitation, the woman said I might have her for four 
 rupees not quite seven and sixpence in English 
 coinage ! She was certainly not over-priced ; but I 
 had reluctantly to decline the bargain, and gave the 
 woman a note to one of my friends on the hills, 
 begging him to find work for the unfortunate couple 
 and take special care of the little girl, and then sent 
 them away with enough money to last until they 
 reached the hilltops. From Palghaut the train was 
 taken to Beypore, and an hour's ride through the flat
 
 332 ON TEE INDIAN HILLS. 
 
 rice lands and bamboo clumps subsequently brought 
 me to Calicut. 
 
 I had then no intention whatever of finally leaving 
 the jungles ; but when the English doctor came to my 
 quarters in this quaint Indian seaside town, he did 
 not take long to undeceive me, and, in fact, expressed 
 his opinion that, weakened as I was by constant 
 fever, a delay of a few days more in the jungle might 
 have been fatal. He prescribed a long visit to 
 Ootacamund, and would not hear of my returning to 
 the Annamullies for several months to come. So 
 there was nothing to do but submit. 
 
 A few days were spent in Calicut, partly at the 
 
 club, and partly at the comfortable house of F 
 
 and his family the great centre of the local society ; 
 and then once more the train was whirling me away 
 from Beypore towards Central India, and the scenery, 
 which had become as familiar to me as though it were 
 all my own back garden, flew rapidly by the windows 
 of the carriage. It was strange to pass Palghaut at 
 midday, and see the lofty mountains to the south- 
 ward blue and grey in the distance, on the summits 
 of which I had been living so lately, and then to take 
 a last look at them and be rushing forward over the 
 lower India plains, which seem to lie flat as the bed of 
 an ancient sea between the coasts on the east and west. 
 
 The night was spent in the little waiting-room of 
 the station at Poothanor, whence a branch railway 
 goes nearly due northward through Coirnbatore, a 
 pretty fresh-looking English settlement by the side of 
 a wide river, to Metapolliam, where it ends ; and the 
 traveller getting out and turning his glance to the 
 northwards, sees the lowermost tiers of the Neilgherries, 
 rising one above another in green forest-clad undula- 
 tions, and trending back towards some misty grey 
 hills, which are the topmost peaks of the southern 
 barrier of the plateau.
 
 VANQUISHED BY FEVER. 333 
 
 The very word Metapolliam is associated in my 
 mind with roasting, remorseless heat. What the place 
 must be like in the " hot season " Heaven only knows, 
 for even in the south-west monsoon it is fearful and 
 unbearable. Even the dogs seemed to have rubbed 
 and scratched off most of their shaggy coats after 
 finding them too oppressive, and lie about helpless in 
 the shadows of the station, with their tongues hanging 
 out of their mouths. Imagine a ruinous old building 
 in a stony compound, surrounded by a broken-down 
 wall, and just one ragged old tree hanging in a dejected 
 manner over the fragments of a dried-up well. Such 
 is the Station Hotel ; but unless you can also picture 
 the fierce glare of the sun overhead, making half the 
 ruins black as ink and half dazzling white, you will 
 only form a partial idea of it. 
 
 I had certainly fancied that everything on the road 
 to the fashionable " Ooty," the great holiday place of 
 all the Madras officials, would be well kept and clean ; 
 yet Metapolliam is utterly ruinous, and the changing 
 place at the foot of the hills fearfully dirty, littered up 
 with old and broken-down conveyances of all sorts, 
 while coolies, dogs, and children grovel on all sides in 
 the hot sand. But if man and his works were vile 
 here, Nature was undoubtedly lovely ; and after break- 
 fast I was soon ascending in my comfortable munchiel, 
 borne on the shoulders of a half-dozen Tamils, by a 
 really beautiful road, winding amongst an astonishing 
 tangle of tropical vegetation. It was one continuous 
 thicket of cocoa-palms, plantains, bamboos, and Butea 
 frondosa, all matted together by a wonderful labyrinth 
 of thick or slender creepers, some with bright flowers, 
 and hanging in graceful curves from stem to stem. 
 
 These jungles, although fairy-like, are very danger- 
 ous at night, on account of the fever mists, and the 
 numerous wild animals which wander about the hill- 
 sides ; indeed, before the road was cut and much traffic
 
 334 ON THE INDIAN BILLS. 
 
 disturbed the solitudes, they were the best place for 
 tigers in the south of India, and there are still a con- 
 siderable number of the striped jungle inonarchs in 
 the neighbourhood. So they should be passed in the 
 daytime whenever practicable. As we went ever 
 upward, now backwards, now forwards, according to the 
 winding of the road, the scenery was beyond descrip- 
 tion. At times the path led us along the brow of a 
 ridge, from which we could look far down into a deep 
 valley with a foaming torrent at the bottom, breaking 
 into sheets of silver among the fresh green foliage, and 
 then up the rugged, rocky side of the opposite moun- 
 tain, where, perhaps, the land was being cleared for a 
 coffee plantation. There were telegraph wires along 
 the roadside in places, and strings of birds sat on them, 
 so that at a distance they seemed to be suspended in 
 the sky by some invisible power. Gradually the air 
 grew cooler as we rose above the plains most refresh- 
 ing after the scorching heat in which I had break- 
 fasted. We saw various coffee plantations, until the 
 lowland vegetation gave place to more European-look- 
 ing trees the first I had seen for a very long time ; 
 and at last we were six thousand feet above the sea- 
 level, and entered the outskirts of the upland town of 
 Coonor, having done the nine or ten miles from the 
 plains in three hours, which was good considering the 
 precipitous nature of the ascent. 
 
 Early the next morning, when I arose and threw 
 open my bedroom window, the fresh air was so en- 
 chantingly soft and cool, that it was difficult to think 
 this was India, and not England in May. Truly, 
 amongst all those things which most of us enjoy every 
 day and are rarely thankful for at home, stands fresh 
 air. To me, newly from the Annamullies, where the 
 stuff we breathed was a nauseous compound of decayed 
 vegetation and carbonic acid gas, it was indescribably 
 refreshing. Then, too, everything looked neat and
 
 VANQUISHED BY FEVER. 335 
 
 English, the pretty villas rising one above another 
 up the side of the church-crowned hill, the road with 
 willow-like Eucalyptus globulus on either side, and 
 horses not humped cattle munching the short grass 
 of the banks. Even the flowers were English, and as 
 I drank in their sweet scent the picture was made 
 complete by a bright little English girl coming down 
 the road with her father, her arms full of flowers and 
 convolvuli, the spoils of an early morning walk, and 
 her yellow hair floating on the wind, while she laughed 
 and talked and looked so truly delightful I felt proud 
 to be her countryman. 
 
 Then came a hasty breakfast, and a delightful ride 
 over an undulating road for twelve miles into Ootaca- 
 mund. It was so pleasant, in fact, that my " tat " was 
 allowed to walk the whole way, and the fresh air 
 entered my fever-shrunk veins and exhilarated me in 
 a wonderful manner. Certainly it is a beautiful region. 
 The road winds along the side of steep hills, now 
 grass-covered and swelling with as smooth and even 
 undulations as any English downs, and like them 
 carpeted with close green grass, and then, perhaps, 
 changing for a time to high rocky hills and richly 
 coloured precipices, nourishing a scanty growth of 
 low bushes and tufts of the common bracken, with 
 numerous subalpine flowers and bright lichens cling- 
 ing amongst the rough, disjointed stones. For the 
 greater part of the way the road overhangs a wide 
 valley, where one rubs one's eyes and wonders to see 
 waving fields of yellow barley in real hedge-enclosed 
 English fields. Perhaps the crops were not very 
 heavy, but they delighted me ; and so unlike the 
 usual Indian scenery was it, that with astonishment 
 I saw brown-skinned children frightening away the 
 birds from the ripe corn, or native beggars sitting at 
 the path-side. But undoubtedly the most striking 
 sight was the hedges of geraniums and roses, miles
 
 336 ON TEE INDIAN HILLS. 
 
 long, and as high as the head of a man. Every one 
 who has read of the Neilgherries has heard of those 
 beautiful hedgerows, but they must be seen to be 
 appreciated. How and why these two English-looking 
 plants came to flourish here to such an extent, it is 
 difficult to say. Both were natives of Persia before 
 they were taken to Europe, and perhaps here they 
 have found again a soil and climate much like their 
 old home in the Circassian uplands. At all events, 
 they thrive wonderfully. The roses are not the five- 
 petalled English wild rose, but a pink many-petalled 
 variety, and the geraniums show two or three shades 
 of bright red, with such stems as would not do dis- 
 credit to a stout bush. Thus, when the two, both in 
 full bloom, combine together and fringe the road as 
 far as the eye can note, or frame in the fields of ripe 
 barley, the sight is altogether novel and delightful. 
 
 This charming scenery continues right up to the 
 outskirts of Ootacamund, and then two or three 
 varieties of coniferous trees are met with, for the 
 elevation is now some eight thousand feet above the 
 sea, and at certain seasons, in the early morning, 
 the grass is even covered thickly with hoar-frost on 
 these open downs. 
 
 The town itself is a curious place, the villas and 
 bungalows being scattered about at haphazard, each 
 in their own compounds, and generally separated 
 from their nearest neighbours by a tract of grass or 
 rocky ground. There are good roads in plenty in 
 every direction, but streets nowhere. Government 
 House stands in haughty solitude on top of a green 
 hillock of rising ground, and close by, on another 
 small hill, is the English church, with the handsome 
 Library and Assembly Rooms. Then the main road 
 turns to the right, and leads along the face of the 
 ridge, past the " Ooty " Club, and finally brings one 
 full in front of Sylk's Hotel. Here I soon settled
 
 HOMEWARD SOUND. 337 
 
 down with a comfortable sitting-room, bedroom, and 
 bath-room opening into each other in the " bachelors' 
 quarters," and board and lodging with this accom- 
 modation was Rs. 200 per month. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 HOMEWARD BOUND. 
 
 OOTACAMUXD is really a very pleasant spot, amidst 
 beautiful scenery, and with a delightful climate for 
 the greater part of the year. The mornings are 
 charmingly fresh and pleasant in September, and the 
 early riser throws open his window and, as he inhales 
 the sweet air, his eyes wander over the great undu- 
 lating Neilgherry plateau, extending from the very 
 town itself far away over a long succession of grassy 
 curves, broken by scattered sholas, or patches of 
 brushwood, with tumbled fragments of old rocks, to 
 the distant mountains which form the buttresses of 
 the uplands, and are themselves, under the changing 
 lights of sun and cloud, wonderfully picturesque. 
 Perhaps the best view of all is from the Library, look- 
 ing north-east, where the hills rise up step by step, 
 in even tiers of tree-clad slopes, to the highermost 
 summits. But one can hardly look in any direction 
 without being pleased, and the town of white houses 
 dotted over the green expanse and broken up by 
 clumps of trees always shows fresh and cheerful. 
 
 Neither in the way of society is " Ooty " deficient, 
 and when the Governor-Bahadur and the Madras 
 officials are " on the hills," there are plenty of parties 
 and tumashas every week. There is a capital polo- 
 ground, where many good games are played by officers
 
 338 ON THE INDIAN SILLS. 
 
 and civilians before " store of ladies," whose presence 
 leads to fiercely contested struggles and total disregard 
 of wounds. There is also a concert-room, where 
 auctions are held of the guns and properties of gentle- 
 men " going home," and bazaars, where the English 
 ladies keep stalls for charitable purposes. There is 
 also some good mixed shooting in the neighbourhood, 
 chiefly of snipe, duck, woodcock, and plenty of hares ; 
 while if the sportsman goes beyond the limits of the 
 town and up into the neighbouring hills, there is no 
 knowing what he may not meet. 
 
 Sometimes the shooting is too "mixed." Only a 
 short time ago a party of gentlemen were out snipe 
 shooting about half a mile from the back of Sylk's 
 Hotel, and while the beaters were going through a 
 shola, a fine ten-foot tiger came quietly out a few 
 yards from one of the Englishmen. Being an old 
 shikaree, he knew what to do, and the story is his 
 own quietly substituting ball cartridges for his 
 " No. 8," killed the beast with a single shot as it was 
 staring at him. When out shooting on these hills, 
 one should always be prepared for emergencies such 
 as this. 
 
 Amongst the sporting capabilities of the place are 
 those which the lively hill jackals give for hunting; 
 and a pack of dogs is kept I had almost written for 
 their amusement ; but although the hounds are nomi- 
 nally maintained for the enjoyment of the English 
 residents, they kill so seldom, owing to the swiftness 
 and cunning of their tawny-skinned quarry, that 
 really it is very doubtful if the jackals mind being 
 hunted very much. 
 
 The first meet of the season took place soon after 
 my arrival, and I witnessed a very good morning's 
 sport, though, sub rosd, it was a thing strictly for- 
 bidden by my worthy doctor. It came about in this 
 way. The solitude of the " bachelors' quarters " had
 
 HOMEWARD BOUND. 339 
 
 been broken by the arrival of two or three gentlemen, 
 and amongst them a chik-doree, such as myself, on 
 the way to a distant estate, who brought with him a 
 host of luggage and servants, and two grey " tats," on 
 one of which that morning he offered me a mount. 
 Feeble as I felt, I was yet totally unable to refuse ; 
 and as the dawn was breaking over the distant hills, 
 and half the country lay in shadow and half in the 
 faint grey light, we turned out, swallowed some hot 
 coffee, put biscuits into our pockets, and joined the 
 hounds and red-coated huntsmen as they came 
 through the compound from the kennels on the hill- 
 side above. It was so cold that I could hardly feel 
 the reins at first ; nevertheless, we were met by several 
 plucky ladies and many gentlemen, and ten minutes' 
 ride brought us out into the open beyond the town, 
 where we were soon hard at work. 
 
 As usual, the difficulty was not to find a jackal, 
 but to keep the dogs together ; for they sprang up on 
 every side, and there seemed to be one behind every 
 heap of stones. It was a treat to see the ladies riding 
 amongst the foremost, with their hands down and 
 heads up, and obviously enjoying it thoroughly ; 
 neither did the occasional stone walls or banks of 
 peat turn them from the straight course, and it was 
 plain they had not forgotten the lessons learnt in far- 
 away English fields. I saw one or two saddles 
 emptied in crossing a nullah, but without any serious 
 consequences, and in a short time the field got 
 scattered far and wide, the jackals springing up every 
 now and then under the dogs' noses, until it was im- 
 possible to keep them packed any longer. In a little 
 time I found myself quite alone, with one dog and a 
 wise old jackal ahead of us. As I looked at him and 
 noticed the easy slinging trot at which he was going, 
 though we were doing almost our best, I had to 
 confess to myself that it was very doubtful if I should
 
 340 ON THE INDIAN HILLS. 
 
 carry home his brush with me that morning. He was 
 clearly not in a hurry, and took us up and down and 
 round about for half an hour or more, at one time 
 leading the way through a shola, where I had great 
 difficulty in keeping the hound in view, then down a 
 steep hillside across a nullah, over a wall, through a 
 rose hedge, and up the other side, where I was obliged 
 to jump off and lead the " tat " up, as the incline and 
 heavy dew on the grass made it more than he could 
 do to keep his footing. But we would put the pace 
 on over the next bit of level, and catch up our two 
 friends, the jackal still a few yards ahead and going 
 at a comfortable canter, while the hound was flying 
 signals of distress and obviously doing all he knew. 
 At last the jackal seemed to think it was getting 
 tedious, or that he had given enough sport for the 
 morning; anyhow, he shook himself together, and, 
 lying down to his work, put on a pace which in five 
 short minutes fairly ran his pursuers out of breath, 
 and left them looking very foolish on the slope of 
 a hill, while his tawny form disappeared over the 
 sky-line. I need hardly add that I got the punish- 
 ment I well deserved, and paid the forfeit by being 
 very much knocked up for several clays after. 
 
 But it is as tedious to be ill as to speak of it, and 
 especially distasteful to me in a new district where 
 there was much to be seen and done. Not being 
 permitted to walk more than half a mile at a time, it 
 was impossible to explore the country round about ; 
 I, itching for the fight, had to look on at the polo as 
 though I were an old Greenwich pensioner; tennis 
 was forbidden, though the court was under my very 
 windows ; and the great Marcoorti peak, 8400 feet 
 high, frowned down on me all day long, and tempted 
 me vainly to climb it. 
 
 Sometimes I wandered to the Botanical Gardens, 
 very pretty and neat, but somehow affected with that
 
 HOMEWARD BOUND. 341 
 
 uncomfortable formality which always hangs about 
 British public gardens ; a sense of too much order, and 
 of being requested not to walk on the grass or smoke 
 in the conservatories, oppresses the visitor. Still they 
 were very well kept and richly stocked with plants of 
 various zones of temperature. Here one might see 
 the Eucatypfaa pendula, a tree which exudes a thick 
 gum with a strong smell of peppermint ; besides many 
 others, lovely camellias growing in the open air, and 
 a daisy-like Australian Erigeron. The birds also had 
 an English look, wagtails running about near the 
 ponds, finches in the thickets, and a blackbird (Menda 
 simillima), almost the exact prototype of the British 
 species, feeding on the lawns. 
 
 The handsome new Library deserves and obtains a 
 large share of patronage from the English residents. 
 There one sees all the latest telegrams from England 
 and Europe posted up on the doors, as might be said 
 hot from the journey half round the world, and at 
 tiffin-time we know in this way all that those at home 
 knew while they read their morning papers. Of 
 books in the shelves upstairs there were some six 
 thousand, and works amongst them in every branch 
 of literature, science, and art, though the novels show, 
 perhaps, most signs of wear and tear, and from the 
 way in which they are " dog's-eared " and written 
 upon it was easy to guess that the ladies are their 
 chief patrons. Doubtless they find it very hard to 
 pass the hot midday hours, when they are perforce 
 detained indoors, and so novel-reading is perhaps less 
 blameworthy in India than anywhere else. 
 
 This was my special haunt when the weather 
 changed to wet, as it did some time after my arrival 
 on the hills, and I spent many grateful days amongst 
 the books. 
 
 Of course, messages were sent from the jungle 
 inquiring about my health, and charging me with
 
 342 ON THE INDIAN HILLS. 
 
 plenty of commissions, as I was in a civilized place. 
 Some of my former associates wanted ammunition for 
 guns and rifles; some, sides of bacon and hams 
 luxuries only to be obtained on the Neilgherries. In 
 fact, it taxed my whole abilities to successfully carry 
 out all the various orders. 
 
 L wrote to me to say the coolies on our estate 
 
 were much impressed with the burning of my hut, 
 and the suddenness with which I had vanished from 
 the scene of my former labours. The general feeling- 
 seemed to be that I had mounted to the abodes of the 
 blessed in the smoke of the flaming bungalow, and the 
 coolies applied for leave to build a shrine and kill a 
 chicken at it every week to appease my wandering 
 spirit ! Some of them went so far as to declare they 
 had seen me go up through the tree-tops when the 
 flames were at their fiercest, and the coolies on other 
 estates, that had only heard half the story, firmly 
 believed that the " burra- wallah " disappeared in some 
 supernatural way. 
 
 On one occasion, too long a walk in a tremendous 
 downpour of tropical rain round the Ootacamund lake 
 had brought on a return of the fever, which in my 
 very feeble health told on me considerably, and the 
 next day, when a little recovered, I determined to go 
 to the doctor and take his advice. There was no- 
 carriage to be had, and as walking was out of the 
 question, a powerful brown horse was borrowed from 
 one of the gentlemen staying in the hotel. Climbing 
 into the saddle with great difficulty, we started off at 
 a very orderly walk for Church Hill. Unfortunately, 
 just at the hotel gates was an old coolie woman talk- 
 ing to a gossip, and as I passed she turned round 
 suddenly, letting the chatty in her hand fall to the 
 ground with a loud clash. This was too much for my 
 horse, fresh from the stables and unlimited grain ; 
 he started off as hard as he could go luckily in the
 
 HOMEWARD SOUND. 343 
 
 right direction and I could no more have reduced 
 his desperate pace than stayed a whirlwind ; in fact, 
 my whole energies were spent in remaining "on 
 board." In this wild way we charged past some 
 native huts, half killing some pigs and chickens, and 
 sending the small children howling to right and left 
 past the Club, where the members who happened to 
 be in the verandah must have judged my news was 
 very bad from the pace at which I rode over Church 
 
 Hill and eventually to the point where Dr. F 's 
 
 carriage drive joins the main road. By a great effort 
 I turned the horse up this path, and in a moment 
 more he had come, of his own accord, to a standstill 
 
 in front of the house. Dr. F , who had been 
 
 walking in the garden, said somewhat sarcastically 
 he was glad to see I was so much better ; but I replied 
 with a good deal of awkwardness that my errand was 
 to say I was much worse, though the tale fell rather 
 flat in face of my wild riding. In fact, it is not every 
 one who gallops to fetch their own doctor when 
 seriously ill. 
 
 The crows were nearly as bad up on the hills as 
 they had been in the lowlands. They are little 
 influenced by change of climate, and have none of the 
 virtues usually supposed to be possessed by dwellers 
 on mountains. When I first took up my quarters at 
 " Sylk's," I thought it would be pleasant to have 
 some pets of some sort or other; and there being 
 nothing else handy, I made some friendly advances to 
 the crows, feeding them occasionally with bread and 
 scraps. But the result was anything except satisfac- 
 tory, for in two days at most the news of my philan- 
 thropy seemed to have spread to the whole corvine 
 population of the town ; and no sooner did I venture 
 outside the verandah than all the crows on the roof- 
 ridge began cawing, and the chorus was taken up far 
 and wide, till the trees in the compound rapidly filled
 
 344 ON TEE INDIAN HILLS. 
 
 with crows, all croaking at the top of their voices and 
 following me about ; so that at last I was heartily 
 ashamed of them. Ceasing to feed them was of no 
 use ; I had earned a character for benevolence which 
 was not to be shaken off easily, and my popularity 
 was overwhelming amongst my black friends. At 
 last they became so troublesome and unruly that 
 something had to be done ; so, after trying to lower 
 myself in their good opinions by giving them bread 
 soaked in brandy, which only made the noise worse, 
 I sent down to Madras for a small blow-tube, firing a 
 small charge of powder and a swan-shot. My popu- 
 larity entirely disappeared the day it arrived: and 
 after I had upset two or three birds, and taken some 
 feathers out of the tail of another, they saw that I 
 had changed my mind about petting crows. 
 
 One makes strange friends at these Indian hotels, 
 the majority pleasant, but some few very much the 
 reverse. However, the pleasant ones are much the 
 most numerous, and when Englishmen meet in India 
 they " fraternize " more readily than in perhaps any 
 other country, not even excepting " home," which is a 
 result very likely of nearly every one in the country 
 being on much the same social footing, since, of course, 
 poor or low-class English are very rarely seen " up 
 country," and seldom even in the big towns. The 
 quickness with which friendships are made is astonish- 
 ing. For instance, the silence of the " bachelors' 
 quarters " was broken one day by the arrival of a 
 
 Mr. H. K , a barrister of Calcutta, coming up to 
 
 the Neilgherries for a month's shooting, with tents, 
 ponies, and a number of servants, with which the 
 verandah was soon littered. The request for the loan 
 of a pocket-knife was sufficient to introduce us ; half 
 an hour later, we were hard at work relating shooting 
 adventures, and before we parted for the night Mr. 
 R had taken me by the button-hole, and said,
 
 HOMEWARD BOUND. 345 
 
 " Look here ! you can do something for me. I am 
 going away at daybreak to-morrow with the greater 
 part of my baggage and the tents, and may not be 
 back for two or three weeks. But there are two port- 
 manteaus, full of books and clothes and so on, which I 
 do not want to take with me. Here are my keys. 
 If you will permit those portmanteaus to be placed in 
 your room, and will open them and send me any little 
 things I may write for from time to time, you will 
 place me under an obligation to you." Of course, I 
 expressed my pleasure at being of any use to him, and 
 subsequently received several very interesting accounts 
 of his doings and tent-life. I merely mention this to 
 show how rapidly friendships grow up when strangers 
 have mutual ideas and thoughts. 
 
 But even hotel life at " Ooty " is not without its 
 drawbacks. The charges are very high, and the food 
 not particularly good, though the chief grumblers on 
 that score were the old officers, who make a point of 
 grumbling at anything and everything, and will pro- 
 bably grumble at the fit of their wings in heaven 
 when they some day get them. Thus it took little 
 more than a month to tire me of the town and the 
 hills. I had visited the curious little village of the 
 Todas, or aboriginal inhabitants ; had seen the Mus- 
 sulman burying-ground with its silent city of little 
 white-domed graves ; and " done " everything in the 
 near neighbourhood which was to be done, and at 
 last received, with great satisfaction, the doctor's per- 
 mission to go down to Coonor, on the way to Madras, 
 whence to take steamer home, for I had finally decided 
 the many months of rest declared absolutely essential 
 to the recovery of my health might as well be spent 
 in the dear old country as here in India. 
 
 By half-past seven one bright morning I had taken 
 my place in the mail tonga, with my belongings at my 
 feet ; and with a parting shake of the hands of those
 
 346 ON THE INDIAN HILLS. 
 
 many kind ones who had come to see me off, the 
 driver blew a blast on his horn, and away we went 
 down the road towards Coonor. 
 
 I had chosen the tonga dak because it is a much 
 faster mode of travelling than by private carriage, and 
 the mail-cart being very like an Irish jaunting-car, 
 one gets more fresh air and a better view of the 
 scenery. The pace was certainly not disappointing. 
 Our first pair of horses were young and fresh, and, by 
 way of commencement, ran the pole deep into a high 
 earth bank before we had gone a hundred yards. 
 Freeing ourselves, we dashed down the hill at a 
 gallop, the driver occasionally blowing lively blasts 
 on his horn, which brought every one out to stare at 
 us, until we had threaded the winding roads of the 
 outskirts of the town, by some wonderful chance with- 
 out knocking down any of the old men and women, 
 who would keep in the centre of the road in spite of 
 all the warning we gave them. Here we were free of 
 the town, and began to descend rapidly. Soon a toll- 
 bar came in sight, and a loud blast on the horn brought 
 out the man, who flew to the gate and opened it just 
 as we charged down ; it certainly seemed to me that 
 there were not six inches between our wheel and the 
 gatepost when we passed. However, the driver was 
 expert and experienced ; he kept both horses carefully 
 in hand, and by his side was a powerful brake, to be 
 used on the steeper declines, and an arrangement of 
 screws and levers by which the pole could be raised 
 or lowered at will, according to whether we were going 
 up or down hill. So, feeling an able pilot was at 
 the helm, I was free to enjoy the really beautiful 
 scenery and the fresh morning air. In places the 
 view was like the wildest parts of the Scotch moor- 
 lands, with green swampy valleys and small burns 
 trickling down the hillsides ; in others, precipitous 
 rocks towered above the road, like the Norwegian
 
 HOMEWARD BOUND. 347 
 
 fjelds; and elsewhere were wide-spreading hollows, 
 with fields of barley and little wayside huts amongst 
 the geraniums and roses. 
 
 At one of these little changing-houses we pulled up 
 and got fresh horses, and then continued the rapid 
 descent again. Many times it seemed that we must 
 inevitably come into collision with some of the nume- 
 rous country carts which were toiling up to Oota- 
 carnund with lowland produce in charge of sleepy 
 drivers, who would only wake up just as we were upon 
 them, and then shout to us to stop, or pull the tails of 
 their cattle, who were at least as sleepy as their masters. 
 Of course, we did not stop, but shot by as best we 
 could. On one of these occasions a bandy was passed, 
 out of which a long pole was projecting. We cleared 
 the cart, but the stick caught in the sheet of strong- 
 canvas placed across the side of the dak, scarcely more 
 than a foot from my head, and rent it from side to 
 side. But we never slackened speed for a moment, 
 except to change horses again and for the last time, 
 and then did the remaining stage into Coonor, sweep- 
 ing round the sharp curves of the road, and close to 
 the very brink of deep nullahs, sometimes passing a 
 few sons of the Celestial Empire boring holes in the 
 rocks for blasting purposes with an iron "jumper," 
 and by some very beautiful nooks of tropical vegeta- 
 tion, with bright birds and butterflies on the wing 
 amongst the trees and shrubs. Finally, we pulled up 
 opposite the post-office of the ghaut town. 
 
 The two best hotels are both on top of a high 
 ridge, which necessitates a long climb to reach them ; 
 but the exertion is repaid by the freshness of the air 
 and the beauty of the scenery. The native town and 
 bazaars are seen down below in the hollow, and a 
 long succession of undulating ridges beyond. The 
 " Camel's Hump " mountain, in the distance, rises 
 some ten thousand feet above the sea, and occasional
 
 348 ON THE INDIAN HILLS. 
 
 glimpses open of the flat Madras plains far away to 
 the southward. 
 
 In fact, I think this neighbourhood is much superior 
 to Ootacamund, charming as the latter is, especially 
 in botanical riches, as, being just at the head of the 
 ghaut, and more than a thousand feet lower than that 
 town, the vegetation includes more tropical forms of 
 great beauty, besides European plants and trees. 
 There are some really noble oak trees, which would 
 be a credit to any English wood, growing side by 
 side with the Australian Eucalyptus globulus, which, 
 during the few years since they were first planted, 
 have attained great height and proportions. The 
 roses bloom as plentifully as ever, and the heliotrope 
 forms great hedges and envelops small buildings in 
 clouds of its pale-blue, sweet-scented flowers and 
 leaves. There are also lovely orange gardens on the 
 hillsides, reminding one of the south of France and 
 the islands of the Mediterranean; while, besides all 
 these natural charms, there is plenty of agreeable 
 society, and the arrangements of Grey's Hotel, where 
 I stayed, were everything that could be desired in the 
 way of comfort and convenience. 
 
 Two or three days' rest at this pleasant town some- 
 what accustomed me to a heat greater than that of 
 " Ooty ; " and, though a rather heavy recurrence of 
 fever threw me back, I was able to pay my bill early 
 on the morning of the loth, and, hurrying down the 
 hill, to secure a seat in the mail-cart when it arrived 
 from inland. 
 
 The descent was made by the new road, not the 
 bridle-track by which I had come up, though the 
 sceneiy was much the same ; the most striking thing 
 being the wide views we occasionally obtained of the 
 far-spreading plains below, seeming as even as a 
 billiard table, with a few little mound-like eminences 
 scattered here and there, looking so out of place amid
 
 HOMEWARD BOUND. 349 
 
 the surrounding levels that it was difficult to think 
 they were not human works. 
 
 We passed many English soldiers with nets and 
 boxes, reaping a rich harvest amongst the splendid 
 butterflies and bees of the wayside jungles, which 
 grew hotter and hotter at every turn of the road. 
 
 At last the heat again grew well-nigh intolerable, 
 for midday found us only halfway down the ghauts, 
 and the blazing sun overhead, and the clouds of 
 choking white dust raised by the native carts which 
 we passed, made my eyes and throat smart till I could 
 hardly draw my breath. The guide-books say the 
 road is an excellent one, and so it is as far as concerns 
 the engineering skill which made it ; but the surface 
 in the dry weather is very shifting, and the natives 
 in charge of the upward-bound bandies are constantly 
 stopping and placing stones under the wheels of their 
 carts while they rest. These they never think of 
 removing when they go on, and consequently we were 
 continually going over these obstructions with an 
 amount of jolting which, with the thermometer at 
 100, was more painful than amusing. The driver, 
 a tall, white-clad Mussulman, was continually saying 
 to me, " Now, sahib, hold tight ; " and then we would 
 give a fearful plunge, which would send the mail- 
 bags all down into one corner, and would have 
 undoubtedly " unshipped " us had we not been 
 prepared. 
 
 However, the longest road must come to an end, 
 and by 2 p.m. we reached the lowlands, where every- 
 thing looked terribly dry and withered under the 
 fierce sun. Half an hour's gallop over the blinding 
 white road brought us to Metapolliam, hot, tired, and 
 dusty, but just in time to catch the mail train to 
 Madras, which was standing with steam up, impatiently 
 waiting for the letter-bags. 
 
 There is nothing to record of interest for the
 
 350 ON THE INDIAN HILLS. 
 
 remainder of the journey, but nearly my whole night 
 was spent at the open carriage window, watching the 
 moonlit country as we flew along, and the bright 
 white reflections and deep shadows of the little villages 
 and temples dotted over the land. Never shall I 
 forget, amid all my memories of India, two things 
 the endless beauty of the open country under the 
 moonbeams, and the splendid daybreaks. 
 
 At 6 a.m. we rattled into the station of Madras 
 just twenty-four hours after leaving Coonor, on the 
 summit of the Neilgherries and I immediately took 
 a fly and hurried to the office of the British India 
 Steam Navigation Company, as one of their ships 
 was advertised to sail on the 16th at midday. But 
 I might have spared myself so much haste, for it was 
 only to learn that the steamer had been detained in 
 the Hooghly, and was expected " to-morrow." By a 
 curious coincidence, when I came to inquire what 
 ship was expected, it turned out to be the Almora, 
 my old sea friend ; so, securing a berth in her, I 
 took my way to an hotel facing the beach, and 
 spent a decidedly hot and close night in the open 
 verandah, tormented by mosquitoes. 
 
 There is little more to be said. I watched the 
 horizon of the sea all the morning hours of the 
 following day, and at last my patience was rewarded 
 by a thin line of smoke to the northward. It grew 
 and grew rapidly ; at first the funnels and masts, 
 and then the hull, of the big ship corning into sight, 
 and in an hour more the Almora lay at anchor off the 
 pier. That night we were off the Coromandel coast ; 
 the next day, in the pearl and coral waters of Ceylon; 
 and a month afterwards our anchor rattled down 
 off Gravesend Pier. 
 
 Hie lonyce finis ckartceque viceque.
 
 LONDON : 
 
 PRINTED BT WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS. LIMITED, 
 STA5IFOED STREET AND CHAEING CROSS.
 
 A 000 660 065