CHINCHONA CHAHUARGUERA.(From Howard's 'Nueva Quinologia de Pavon.')Page 329.
CHINCHONA CHAHUARGUERA.(From Howard's 'Nueva Quinologia de Pavon.')Page 329.
Besides the seeds of theC. Condaminea, which is identical with theC. Chahuarguera(Pavon), Mr. Cross succeeded in collecting a few seeds ofC. crispa(Tafalla) after several long journeys up the mountains. He found this kind growing at a great elevation, in a deposit of peat, where the temperature sometimes falls to 27° Fahr. This species of chinchona yields thecascarilla crespilla negra, one of the most esteemed forms of Loxa bark. Mr. Howard[382]mentions that theJosephianabears the same relation to the normalC. Calisayaas theCrespillabark at Loxa does to the normal and full-grownC. Chahuarguera.
Mr. Cross did his work right well, and in December, 1861, he returned to Guayaquil with nearly 100,000 seeds ofC. Chahuarguera, and a smaller parcel ofC. crispa, which were forwarded to India by way of Southampton.[383]
Thus were the various operations which I organized for procuring the valuable species of chinchona-trees in South America satisfactorily completed; and the labours of Mr. Spruce, Dr. Taylor, Mr. Pritchett, Mr. Cross, and Mr. Weir, though differing in value and importance, all deserve the warmest recognition, for all those intrepid and courageous explorers worked zealously and successfully, and did good service in furthering this most important public enterprise.
CONVEYANCE OF CHINCHONA-PLANTS AND SEEDS FROM SOUTH AMERICA TO INDIA.
Transmission of dried specimens—Voyages of plants in Wardian cases—Arrival of plants and seeds in India—Depôt at Kew—Treatment of plants in Wardian cases—Effects of introduction of chinchona-plants into India on trade in South America—Neilgherry hills.
Transmission of dried specimens—Voyages of plants in Wardian cases—Arrival of plants and seeds in India—Depôt at Kew—Treatment of plants in Wardian cases—Effects of introduction of chinchona-plants into India on trade in South America—Neilgherry hills.
Theattempt to make simultaneous collections of seeds and plants of all the valuable species of chinchonæ was thus crowned with almost complete success. Out of my original scheme theC. lancifoliaof New Granada was the only one which had not been procured. It is unnecessary to say more respecting the numerous difficulties and dangers which were encountered by the collectors, for the narrative of the proceedings detailed in previous chapters will have made these sufficiently obvious. So far as the labours in South America were concerned, all obstacles were surmounted, and the objects of this great enterprise were fully attained. Not only were plants and seeds safely brought to the coast, but, in every instance, the collectors took care to provide themselves with botanical specimens from the chinchona-trees. Thus the leaves, flowers, fruit, and bark of each species, which were brought to England, placed the identity of the valuable species to which the plants and seeds belonged beyond the remotest possibility of a doubt.[384]But in conveying these precious mule-loads to the coast of Peru, and safely embarking them, only half the difficulties had been overcome; and I could not but feel that some failures and disappointments must be expected before the chinchona-plants were fairly established in India.
There was not much reason for apprehension with regard to the seeds; but the plants, in the absence of any provision for conveying them direct across the Pacific, had to undergo an ordeal of unprecedented duration. Yet the great advantage of introducing plants as well as seeds, in the immense start they would give to the young plantations in India, was strongly felt, and the complete success that attended the hazardous transit of at least one relay, which came under peculiarly favourable circumstances, fully justified the attempt.
I gave directions to Mr. Spruce and Mr. Pritchett to send small parcels of seeds of each species to Jamaica and Trinidad, in obedience to an order received from England, so that quinine-yielding trees might also be introduced into our West Indian colonies; and the results of the experiment in those islands will be given in a future chapter. The great bulk of the collections, however, were despatched to India, by the roundabout way of Southampton, directly they arrived on the coast of the Pacific.
The thirty Wardian cases which I sent out round Cape Horn were three feet two inches long, ten feet ten inches broad, and three feet two inches high; and, with soil and plants, each case weighed a little over three hundredweight. The collection of plants ofC. Calisaya,C. ovata, andC.micranthafilled fifteen cases; and the other fifteen received the collection ofC. succirubraat Guayaquil. I also had six cases of somewhat smaller dimensions constructed at Lima for the plants from Huanuco. The fifteen cases containing the collection of chinchona-plants from Caravaya sailed from the port of Islay on the 23rd of June, and reached Panama on the 6th of July, 1860, when 207 had already begun to throw out green shoots. On their arrival in England, in August, these 207 plants were in a most flourishing and healthy condition, and continued so until their arrival at Alexandria early in September. But the intense heat of the Red Sea, where the thermometer ranged from 99° in the night to 107° in the day-time, proved too much for them, and the damage was increased by a detention of a week at Bombay. Their roots were attacked by rot, yet, on their arrival in the Neilgherry hills, their leaves still looked fresh, and several hundred green cuttings were obtained from them, which, however, failed to strike. The cases containing the chinchona-plants from Huanuco left Lima in September, and were also in a most promising state when they reached England, but on their arrival in India they were all dead. The "red-bark" collection, under the able management of Mr. Cross, sailed from Guayaquil on the 2nd of January, 1861. On their arrival in England in excellent order, six of them were left at Kew as a precaution, and replaced by six plants ofC. Calisayasupplied by Sir W. Hooker. At that season the climate of the Red Sea is cool, and, owing to this circumstance and still more to the intelligent watchfulness of a good practical gardener, 463 plants ofC. succirubraand six ofC. Calisayawere handed over to the superintendent on the Neilgherry hills, in as vigorous and healthy a condition as could possibly have been hoped for after such a voyage.
The "grey-bark" seeds arrived in the Neilgherry hills early in January, 1861, and the "red-bark" in the followingMarch, and both collections came up abundantly. The supply of seeds ofC. Condamineareached their destination in Southern India in February 1862. In order to guard against all accidents, a portion of the seeds of each species was left in England, and a depôt of young chinchona-plants has thus been formed at Kew Gardens, with a view to fall back upon them in the event of possible failures or misfortunes in India.[385]Seeds of each of the species were also sent to Ceylon, to which Sir W. Hooker added a few plants ofC. Calisayafrom his stock at Kew.
Thus, in spite of one or two disappointments, the great object of the undertaking sanctioned by the Secretary of State for India was fully attained. By the spring of 1861 a large supply of plants and young seedlings was established in the Neilgherry hills; and at the present moment we have thousands of chinchona-plants, of all the valuable species, flourishing and multiplying rapidly in Southern India, and in Ceylon. When the unprecedented length of the voyages and the numerous trans-shipments are taken into consideration, the wonder is that any of the plants should have been successfully conveyed from the slopes of the Andes in South America to the ghauts in Southern India, over thousands of miles, through every variety of climate, and subject to the risk of crossing the isthmus of Panama, of changing steamers at the island of St. Thomas, at Southampton, at Suez, and at Bombay, and of the journey through Egypt.
The most important introduction of plants into India, by means of Wardian cases, previous to the arrival of the chinchonas, was that of the tea from China in 1849 and following years by Mr. Fortune. On those occasions the cases were strongly and coarsely made, the glass shades firmly fixed, and the glass itself thick, and glazed in pieces of moderate size.The frames were protected by a grating of iron wire, with a canvas covering capable of being unrolled so as to screen the plants from the direct rays of the sun, if necessary. The soil was not less than eight or ten inches deep, and kept down by cross-battens, and the plants were fairly established in it before starting. In 1849 Mr. Fortune sowed large quantities of seeds in the cases, between rows of young plants, which germinated on their way from China to India, and reached their destination in the Himalayas in good condition. Out of 250 tea-plants, 215 arrived in perfect order.[386]
But it was an easy process to convey plants by the short voyage from China to Calcutta, when compared with the introduction of plants from the western coast of South America into India; and the performance of the latter feat, in the case of the chinchona-plants under Mr. Cross's care, is undoubtedly the most extraordinary success of the kind that has yet been achieved.
A few remarks on the treatment of plants in Wardian cases were supplied to me by Mr. Weir and Mr. Cross, who acquired their experience in the voyages from South America to India; and by Mr. McIvor, who received the plants on the Neilgherry hills. The cases were filled with soil to a depth of nine to ten inches, in which the chinchonas were planted in rows, from the back to the front of the case. The distance from plant to plant was regulated by their size, but, in the case of their having much foliage, they should be rather wide apart, for the crowding of foliage is always injurious, and often brings on mildew or mould. After having been planted they were well watered, and shaded from the glare of the mid-day sun. On the surface of the soil, between each row of plants, a batten was placed, extending from the back to the front of the case, and held firmly down by two longerbattens extending lengthways. By this means the soil and plants are not disturbed in the operation of moving the cases. When the cases are finally closed the soil should be in a medium state as regards moisture, and all dead foliage should be removed. The cases should be made as air-tight as possible by filling the seams with putty, and every precaution must be taken to preserve the plants from the slightest contact with salt water.[387]Mr. McIvor strongly recommends that the cases should be furnished with a false bottom, raised about two or three inches above the true bottom, by bars of wood of the required thickness being nailed on the underside. The false bottom should have holes bored in it at regular intervals, with a few broken pieces of pot and a layer of moss placed over them. He considers that the best sort of soil is formed of equal parts of leaf-mould, turfy loam, and sand, mixed in a dry state, and spread out and exposed to the action of the sun for a few days before being placed in the cases. During the voyage the plants should have plenty of light and air, one side of the case being left open for two or three hours, morning and evening, during fine weather, when dead leaves should be picked off, and water administered to any plant which may require it. The soil should be turned up on the surface to the depth of about half an inch with a small pointed stick every three or four days, and always kept rough on the surface, so as to allow the air to circulate in the soil. This circulation of air is also facilitated by the false bottom. The action of the air on the soil keeps the roots in fine condition, and entirely preventsthe formation of mildew and damp; but the principal object of the false bottom is to allow any excess of water to drain off into a place where it cannotsourthe soil, and yet will not be lost. Then, as the soil becomes dry above, the water will be attracted to it.
With the exception of the false bottom, all the above suggestions were carefully attended to by the gardeners who were in charge of the chinchona-plants during the voyage to India; the partial failures which attended some of the relays from South America could not, under the circumstances, have been avoided by any human foresight; and, as the general result of my arrangements has been to introduce all the valuable kinds of quinine-yielding plants into India, we have every reason to congratulate ourselves on the success of our labours.
With the chinchona-plants I brought from Peru a supply of seeds of the chirimoya, of aji-pepper, and of theSchinus molle, all of which are coming up well on the Neilgherry hills.[388]They have most of the other kinds ofAnonasin India, but the chirimoya fruit, the most exquisite of all, has yet to be raised. He who has not tasted the chirimoya has yet to learn what fruit is. "The pine-apple, the mangosteen, and the chirimoya," says Dr. Seemann, "are considered the finest fruits in the world. I have tasted them in those localities in which they are supposed to attain their highest perfection—the pine-apple in Guayaquil, the mangosteen in the Indian archipelago, and the chirimoya on the slopes of the Andes; and, if I were called upon to act the part of a Paris, I would without hesitation assign the apple to the chirimoya. Its taste indeed surpasses that of every other fruit, and Haenke was quite right when he called it the masterpiece of nature."[389]
In obtaining plants and seeds of these valuable chinchonas from South America, it would be a source of deep regret to me if that measure was attended by any injury to the people or the commerce of Peru or Ecuador, countries in the welfare of which I have for years taken the deepest interest. But I have no apprehension that such will be the result of the cultivation of these plants in other parts of the world. The demand for quinine will always be in excess of the supply from South America; and the result of chinchona cultivation in India and Java will have the effect of lowering the price, and bringing this inestimable febrifuge within the reach of a vast number of people who are now excluded from its use, without in any way injuring the trade of Peru and Ecuador. I trust that not only will this measure do no injury to the South Americans, but that it may be hereafter productive of good to them, as well as to the rest of mankind. Hitherto they have destroyed the chinchona-trees in a spirit of reckless short-sightedness, and thus done more injury to their own interests than could possibly have arisen from any commercial competition; but it may be that the influence of peace and education will inaugurate a new system in time to come, that more enlightened views will prevail, and that they themselves may undertake the cultivation of a plant which is indigenous to their forests, but which, up to this time, they have so foolishly neglected. It will then be a pleasure to supply them with the information which will have been gained by the experience of cultivators in India, and thus to assist them in the establishment of plantations on the slopes of the eastern Andes.
Under any circumstances the South Americans, who owe to India the staple food of millions of their people, and to the Old World most of their valuable products—wheat, barley, apples, peaches, sugar-cane, the vine, rice, the olive, sheep,cattle, and horses—have no right to desire to withhold from India a product which is so essentially necessary to her welfare. Nor do I believe that the better conditioned Peruvians have any such desire. On the contrary, many of them have shown themselves willing to promote a friendly interchange of the products of the New and Old Worlds; and the foolish decree issued in Ecuador on the 1st of May, 1861, as well as the numerous obstructions thrown in my way in southern Peru, may be imputed either to the narrow-minded selfishness of half-educated officials, or to the ignorant patriotism of backwoodsmen. These are feelings which are not shared by either the educated few, or by the Indian population.
After much careful consideration it had been decided that the best place for commencing the experimental cultivation of chinchona-plants in India would be the Neilgherry hills, in the Madras Presidency. Here are to be found a climate, an amount of moisture, a vegetation, and an elevation above the sea, more analogous to those of the chinchona forests in South America than can be met with in any other part of India. In the Government gardens at Ootacamund, on the Neilgherries, there were the necessary conveniences for propagating plants and raising seedlings; and in Mr. William G. McIvor, the Superintendent, was to be found a zealous, intelligent, and practical gardener, who had carefully studied the botany of the chinchona genus, and under whose care the cultivation would be commenced with the best possible guarantees for its success.
From the Neilgherries the chinchona-plants will, it is hoped, be introduced into such other hill districts of Southern India as, after examination, may be found suitable for their growth; and it was a part of my duty to visit the most promising localities, and, in conjunction with Mr. McIvor, toselect the sites for chinchona plantations on the Neilgherry hills. With this object in view we landed at the port of Calicut, on the coast of Malabar, on the 7th of October, 1861.
MALABAR.
Calicut—Houses and gardens—Population of Malabar—Namburi Brahmins—Nairs—Tiars—Slaves—Moplahs—Assessment of rice-fields, of gardens, of dry crops—Other taxes—Voyage up the Beypoor river—The Conolly teak plantations—Wundoor—Backwood cultivation—Sholacul—Sispara ghaut—Black-wood—Scenery—Sispara—View of the Nellemboor valley—Avalanche—Arrival at Ootacamund.
Calicut—Houses and gardens—Population of Malabar—Namburi Brahmins—Nairs—Tiars—Slaves—Moplahs—Assessment of rice-fields, of gardens, of dry crops—Other taxes—Voyage up the Beypoor river—The Conolly teak plantations—Wundoor—Backwood cultivation—Sholacul—Sispara ghaut—Black-wood—Scenery—Sispara—View of the Nellemboor valley—Avalanche—Arrival at Ootacamund.
Hewho would desire to receive the most pleasant impression of India, on a first arrival, must follow in the wake of Vasco de Gama, and land on the coast of Malabar, the garden of the peninsula. Here Nature is clad in her brightest and most inviting robes, the scenery is magnificent, the fields and gardens speak of plenty, and the dwellings of the people are substantial and comfortable.
As we steamed into the anchorage at Calicut, on board the little yacht 'Pleiad,' no appearance of any town was visible, and no building except a tall white lighthouse. Thick groves of cocoanut-trees line the shore, and are divided from the sea by a belt of sand; while undulating green hills rise up behind, and the background of mountains was hidden by banks of clouds. The whole scene bore a close resemblance to one of the Sandwich or Society Islands, down to the canoes which came off to us the moment the anchor was let go. They are hewn out of the trunk of the jack-tree, with an upper bulwark fastened with coir twine; and the canoe-men were naked athletic-looking fellows, with enormous hats made of a frond of the tallipot palm (Corypha umbraculifera). When we shoved off from the 'Pleiad' a handsome fish-hawk, with white head and breast, was perched on the fore-topsail yard-arm, and sea-snakes were playing in the water alongside. In-shore there were a few native craft, calledpattamars, at anchor. Pattamars are the vessels which have carried on the coasting trade on the western side of India from time immemorial. As in the days of Sinbad the sailor, their planks are not nailed, but sewn together with coir-twine, and they have high sterns and bows sheering rapidly aft. The deepest part is at the stem, whence the bottom curves inwards to the stern. A pattamar has two masts raking forward, with long picturesque lateen yards slung with one-third part before the mast, and two-thirds abaft. They never attempt to tack, but always ware, and if taken aback there is no alternative but either to wait until she comes round, or to capsize.
On landing at Calicut, a carriage drawn by two white bullocks was, through the hospitality of Mr. Patrick Grant, the Collector of Malabar, waiting for us on the sandy beach, to convey us to his house; a drive of about two miles. The excellent road, of a bright red colour from the soil being composed of laterite, passes through groves of cocoanut-trees, interspersed with many houses, each surrounded by its garden of mangos, nux vomica trees, jacks with pepper-vines creeping over them, and palm-trees. The houses are all substantial and comfortable-looking, built of square blocks of laterite joined withchunam, or lime made from calcined sea-shells, and roofed with tiles. The laterite or iron-clay is a rock full of cavities and pores like coral, overlying the granite which forms the basis of Malabar. When excluded from the air it is so soft that any iron instrument can readily cut it, and is dug up in square masses with a pickaxe, and afterwards shaped into blocks with a knife or trowel. After exposure it soon becomes as hard, and is as durable as bricks.Each house has a cocoanut safe or store-room on one side, of open wood-work. Many people were walking along the road, naked men with huge tallipot-palm hats, and women with nothing on but bright-coloured petticoats, looking picturesque in the foreground and middle distance of the palm-shaded vistas. At intervals the cocoanut groves were broken by fields of vivid green paddy, and tanks filled with red lotus-flowers.
From Mr. Grant's house, on the top of a rounded grassy hill, there is an extensive and very beautiful view of the undulating hills and dales of Malabar, generally covered with forest; with the ocean on one side, and the Wynaad mountains on the other. Malabar is 188 miles long, 25 miles broad in the northern, and 70 in the southern half, and contains 6262 square miles. It is divided into 17Talooksor districts, and has a population of 1,602,914 souls; of whom 1,165,174 are Hindus, 414,126 Moplahs, and 23,614 Christians.
The people of Malabar are a thriving active race, the men well built and handsome, and the women remarkable for their beauty. The highest caste among the Hindus is that of the Namburi Brahmins, who claim all the land below the ghauts, and appear to have actually possessed a large portion of it previous to the invasion of Hyder Ali of Mysore. They declare that when Parasu Rama, one of the incarnations of Vishnu, hurled his axe from the mountains, the ocean receded, leaving the land of Kerala, as Malabar, Cochin, and Travancore were called; which he gave to the Namburi Brahmins. It is true that the undulating flat-topped hills, which cover the part of Malabar near Calicut, are like the waves of the sea, and appear as if the ocean in receding had forced channels, and thus formed the intervening valleys. The Namburis are fast dying out: they are landed proprietors, and perform such offices as bestowing holy water and ashes, or performingpoojahor worship for the other Hindus, but never enter the public service.
The most important portion of the population is included in the eleven classes of Nairs,[390]a race of pure Sudra caste. They pretend to be born soldiers, and formed the armies of the Zamorin and Cochin Rajahs, the lower castes not being allowed to bear arms. The Nairs now hold most of the land in Malabar, and are frequently very rich. Both the Zamorin of Calicut and the Rajah of Cochin are Nairs; and the origin of their rule is said to have been as follows. About a thousand years ago, a Viceroy of the Sholum Rajah ruled over Malabar, named Cheruman Permal, who made himself independent, and divided the country among his nobles, of whom five were of the Kshatri caste, and seven were Nairs. After the division it was found that one of his bravest officers, the ancestor of the present Zamorin or Tamori Rajah, had been left out; Cheruman Permal, therefore, gave him his sword, and all the territory in which a cock crowing at a certain small temple could be heard. Hence Calicut, fromColicodu, a cock-crowing.[391]Down to the time of Tippoo the whole of Malabar was governed by the descendants of the sisters of these thirteen Nair chiefs. The Zamorin of Calicut has some influence, though he is much reduced in wealth and importance since the days of Vasco de Gama.
The Nairs live under the remarkable institution calledmurroo-muka-tayum. Sisters never leave their homes, butreceive visits from male acquaintances, and the brothers go out to other houses, to their lady-loves, but live with their sisters. If a younger brother settles in a new house, he takes his favourite sister with him, and not the woman who, according to the custom in all other countries, should keep house for him. The man's mother manages the house, and after her death his eldest sister takes her place; but no man has any idea who his father is, and the children of his sisters are his heirs. Moveable property is divided amongst the children of the sisters of the deceased equally, and the land is managed by the eldest male of the family, but each individual has a right to a share in the income.
This strange custom gives the women an important position; and as they are pretty, and take pains with their personal appearance, their influence is very great. The Nairs are addicted to drink, and may eat venison, fowls, and fish; and the families are fond of gaiety, and of visiting among people of their own rank, when there is much talking and singing. Most of the men, as well as the women, read and write in their own character, and there is a Government Gazette printed in the Malayalim language. The Collector was anxious, also, to establish a paper in Malayalim, containing general information, which would no doubt have an excellent effect, but the difficulty is to find a good native editor.
Next in rank to the Nairs come theTiarsorShanars, a stout, good-looking, hard-working race, who do not pretend to Sudra origin. Formerly the Nairs exacted deference from the Tiars with extreme cruelty and arrogance, treating them more like brutes than men; and if a Tiar defiled a Nair by touching him, he was instantly cut down. But British rule is gradually uprooting these caste barbarisms, and the position of the Tiars is improving. Some of them hold appointments as clerks in Government offices, and they are protectedby just and equal laws. The Tiars form the mass of the field labourers; but the proper duty of their caste is to extract juice from the palm-tree, and either boil it intojaggery(unrefined sugar), or distil it. Their women are exceedingly pretty, with masses of long hair; but there is a prevalent custom for all the brothers of a family to have but one wife amongst them to save expense, which leads to most disastrous consequences. Below the Tiars there are several outcast tribes; among them theChurmasor slaves, a miserable and down-trodden race, possibly the remnant of the aboriginal inhabitants. Even now they are slow to understand that they are not slaves, and land on which there are mostChurmasstill sells at the highest price.
TheMoplahs, or Mohammedans of Malabar, are descended from Arab mariners and traders by native women, and hence their name, fromMah-pilla"son of the mother." They have certainly been established in Malabar for a thousand years, if not more, as it is on record that the Viceroy Cheruman Permal, who then divided the country amongst his chiefs, was converted by a Moplah, and sailed for Mecca. All the sympathies of the Moplahs are with Arabia and the Red Sea, and they frequently undertake pilgrimages to Mecca. Respecting their creed they are fanatical, and are easily roused to fury by an insult, or an attempt on the part of the Nairs to treat them as a lower caste. On these occasions they run mucks; but in ordinary times they are hard-working, intelligent, abstemious, excellent boatmen, and capital backwoodsmen. Many of the Moplahs are very wealthy. Their mosques, however, are poor edifices, not to be distinguished from ordinary dwelling-houses, and the temples of the Hindus are no better. There is no attempt at ornamental architecture in the religious buildings of Malabar.
One-fifth of the collectorate of Malabar is taken up with rice and garden cultivation, the remaining four-fifths being coveredwith forest, or cleared for dry grains and coffee plantations. The land revenue, taking the average of five years ending in 1858-59, is 255,000l.The assessment of the rice-lands is essentially the same as that fixed by the Government of Tippoo Sultan of Mysore in 1783-84. Though unequal, and in some places burdensome, it is on the whole light, and, except in two of the Talooks,[392]it is lighter in the north than in the south. As an example of the inequality of the land-tax, I may mention that the district of Pattaumby, on the river Ponany, is very highly and unfairly assessed, as it is said, from the following cause. Before the invasion of Tippoo all the land in Malabar was in the hands of feudal chiefs; there was no land-tax, and the Zamorin and other Rajahs were supported by the produce of their own estates. The first ruler who imposed a land-tax was the Mysore conqueror. Any village which offended his officers was highly assessed; and hence the present inequalities, which will, however, be corrected by the new Survey and Assessment Commission. In the case of Pattaumby the accountant quarrelled with the landowners, and threatened to impose a heavy assessment, and, when they attempted to murder him, he escaped to Wynaad, and sent in his report to Tippoo.
All land in Malabar is private property, and the landlord gets 20 to 40 per cent. of the net rent, the remainder being the Government demand. From the gross produce of the rice-fields 20 per cent. is deducted for reaping and other small charges calledpuddum, the remainder being available gross rent. From the gross rent one-third is deducted as the expense of cultivation, calledvitoo vally; one third as the cultivator's share, orkoshoo labon, whether he be ajemakaror proprietor, akanomkaror mortgagee, or apattamkaror renter; and the remaining third is thepattom, net produce,or rent. Of this last third the Government share is 65 per cent., leaving 35 per cent. as the share of the proprietor. The Government share is thus a little less than a quarter of the gross produce.
The assessment is not calculated on the extent of land, but on the amount of seed required to sow a given space, according to the quality of the soil, which is divided into three classes, namelypasma(clay),rasee pasma(sand and clay), andrasee(sand). On an average the soil does not yield more than tenfold, and most of it bears only one crop. Some lands are sown in April or May, and the crops cut in August or September. These are chiefly in the coast Talooks. Others are sown in September and October, and the crops cut in January and February. The seeds are raised on small pieces of land, and the plants, when young, removed by hand, and planted in the paddy-fields.
The garden assessment, as it is called, on cocoanut-trees, the great wealth of Malabar, betel-palms, and jacks, was fixed in 1820.
The cocoanut-trees are divided according to their situations and soils into five classes—the first and second classes beingattivepoo, or sea-coast; and the third, fourth, and fifth,karavepoo, or inland cocoanut-trees. Each tree pays, on an average, eighteen pies,[393]those which are unproductive from age or youth being excluded. The betel-nut palms pay, on an average, six pies, and the jack-trees twenty-eight pies; but the tax on gardens is not more than forty per cent. of the landlord's rent. A cocoanut-tree is estimated to bear at least sixteen to forty nuts in the year, according to its site; and the owner of a plantation derives profit from the leaves as well as from the husks and shells of the nut. The leaves, used for covering houses, sell at two and a half to five Rs. thethousand, each tree yielding ten to fifteen annually; and the husks, for coir ropes, fetch six annas the thousand.[394]
The betel-nut palm (Areca catechu), which is also taxed has a long slender smooth stem, and graceful curving fronds. I have seen palm-trees in the South Sea islands, many kinds in the forests of South America, and in India; but, of the whole tribe, the betel-nut palm is certainly the most elegant and beautiful. Dr. Hooker likens it "to an arrow shot from heaven, raising its graceful head and feathery crown in luxuriance and beauty above the verdant slopes." A tree will produce 300 nuts in the year, and continues to bear for twenty-five years. The nut is very hard, the size of a cherry, and is chewed by all the natives of India with the leaves of the betel-pepper (Chavica betel) spread withchunam. It is cut into long narrow pieces, and rolled up in the leaves of the betel-pepper or pawn. It makes the mouth and teeth red, and gives the chewer a disgusting appearance. The consumption must be enormous, for it is chewed by 50,000,000 of men, and, next to tobacco, is the most extensively used narcotic; but it has none of the excellent properties of the coca-leaf of the Peruvians.
The jack (Artocarpus integrifolius), the only other tree which is taxed in Malabar, grows to a considerable size, and the wood is much used for furniture of all kinds. The fruit, a favourite article of food, is of enormous dimensions, and grows out of the trunk. In Travancore they put the whole fruit in the ground, and, when the young shoots grow up, the stems are tied together with straw, and by degrees they form one stem, bearing fruit in six or seven years.[395]Besides the taxed trees, the gardens round Calicut generally contain mangos and nux vomica.
In addition to the rice or wet cultivation, and the above-mentioned trees, the upland or dry cultivation of rice and sesame or gingelee oil-seed is assessed on an annual inspection: forty per cent. of the gross produce of the former being deducted, on account of the peculiar labour and probable loss, and twenty per cent. of the remainder being the Government share. The sesame cultivation has no deduction from the gross produce; and ginger, pepper, and some other dry crops are free of land-tax. The pepper cultivation is chiefly carried on in northern Malabar, and ginger in the Shernaad district, south of Calicut, by the Moplahs.[396]
The other taxes areabkarry, or the privilege of selling liquors, which is either farmed by public sale, or levied from the toddy-drawers, when it is calledkutty-chatty(knife and pot) tax;mohturfaon houses, shops, fishing-boats, oil-mills, and looms; licences, stamps, and the salt monopoly; the whole revenue of Malabar in 1859 having been 266,860l.The income-tax had not yet been levied at the time of our visit, but its nature had been carefully explained to the people, it had been stripped of everything that was offensive or inquisitorial, and no difficulty was anticipated in its introduction, although it was very generally considered that it was unwise and impolitic, and that it would be unproductive. In the matter of taxes there was a striking contrast between Peru, whence we had just come, and where they are scarcely known, and this land of manifold imposts.
On the whole, however, Malabar is a splendid possession; the people are very flourishing, the population increasing,and cultivation rapidly encroaching on the forests. There is no gang robbery, but occasional housebreaking, and a good many murders, often caused by jealousy, the criminals usually making a full confession, and thus saving much trouble.
In the evening we embarked in a canoe which had been prepared for us near the fine timber bridge over the Calicut river, on the road to Beypoor. The setting sun and banks of rosy clouds were visible through the graceful fronds of the cocoanut-trees as we drove along the shady road, with occasional glimpses of the sea. The canoe was very long, and cut out of one trunk, with raised bow and stern, ornamentally carved. It was pulled by four tall wiry-looking Moplahs, with nothing on but clouts and huge umbrella-hats, made of the tallipot palm;[397]and a fifth steered with a paddle. Their oars were long bamboos, with circular boards fastened to one end by neat coir seizings. We started a little after sunset, and passed from the Calicut river by a backwater into the Beypoor, where there were many shallow places, and the Moplahs had constantly to jump out and drag the canoe over them. The banks of the river are wooded down to the water's edge, with groves of slender betel-nut palms rising aloft, and standing out against the starry sky. The foliage was covered with brilliant fire-flies, and here and there we passed a hut, with its owner standing on the shore, waving a burning brand. All night the boatmen sang noisy glees, and in the morning we reached the landing-place at Eddiwanna, forty miles from Calicut, and near the Government teak plantations of Nellamboor.
These plantations were originated by Mr. Conolly, the late Collector of Malabar, with a view to the establishment ofnurseries for replenishing the teak forests, as nearly all the fine timber had been felled many years ago. There is a great deal in North Canara of small size, and still more in Cochin and Travancore; but the reckless system of felling threatened the same results as has already overtaken the supply of chinchona-bark in South America. The only forests containing teak, in Malabar, in which Government has a proprietary right, are 25 square miles in the Palghat talook, where all the mature trees have long since gone to the Bombay dockyard; but in 1842 leases of forest-land were obtained from the Zamorin for the cultivation of teak, 70 to 80 square miles in extent, chiefly in the Ernaad talook, near Nellamboor. This most important and now successful measure is due to the zeal and perseverance of Mr. Conolly, and there is a good prospect of the stock of teak-timber in these forests being eventually replenished. The trees, however, require a growth of 60 or 80 years to reach a maturity fitting the wood for shipbuilding; but it is then unequalled by any other known timber; it does not injure iron, and is not liable to shrink in width.
It was some time before the method of inducing the teak-seeds to germinate was discovered, and several experiments were tried. In the forests it was observed that the seeds were prepared for growth by losing the hard outer shell through the warmth caused by fires which annually consume the brushwood. Mr. Conolly, therefore, burnt a coating of hay over the ground where the seeds were sown. This trial was unsuccessful, and in 1843 it was found that the best method was to steep the nuts in water for thirty-six hours, then sow them in holes four inches apart, and half an inch under the surface, covering the beds with straw, so as to prevent evaporation, and gently watering them every evening. By following this plan the seeds germinated, and sprouted in from four to eight weeks. In 1844 as many as50,000 young trees, raised in the adjacent nurseries, were planted, eight feet apart, in the cleared ground near Nellamboor, along the banks of the Beypoor river, which had been cleared of jungle. The seedlings are transplanted from the nursery at the age of three months, and for the first seven or eight years they sprout up very fast, but afterwards they grow slowly. From 1843 to 1859 as many as 1,200,000 trees have been put down, and they are now planted at the rate of 70,000 a year. Much care is required in systematic thinning and pruning, and, for the superintendence of this important work, an annual visit is paid to the plantations by Mr. McIvor, who is now so ably conducting the chinchona experiment on the Neilgherry hills.
We were met by Mr. McIvor at Eddiwanna, and started for the village of Wundoor, six miles distant, inmunsheelsor hammocks, slung to bamboos with a shade over them, and carried by six men, who kept up unearthly yells the whole time. The road leads through rice-cultivation and groves of betel-nut palms, jacks, and mangos. Wundoor is a pretty village, with an avenue of sumach-trees[398]leading up to the post-house or travellers' bungalow. These post-houses, which are erected by the Government at easy stages along all the roads in India, for the convenience of travellers, are exceedingly comfortable, and render travelling in India as easy and commodious as it is the reverse in Peru and other parts of South America. At Wundoor the first bungalow we had seen put an end to all idea of having to rough it while travelling in India. The building contained several clean rooms, with cane-bottom sofas, arm-chairs, and tables; and outside there was a pleasant verandah, with a glorious view of the Koondah mountains, which it was necessary toascend on our road to the Neilgherries. A clump of trees, consisting of jacks, mangos, and peepuls, formed a huge arch, through which there was an enchanting landscape of smiling hill and dale, with the dense forest beyond, crowned by the broken outline of the distant mountains.
We set out from Wundoor at daybreak, and passed a house just outside the village, where, a few days before, a tiger had carried off a child before the eyes of its parents. Next day the brute had the temerity to come again and try to force open the door, when a man shot it from the window. For some hours we rode through a country where the jungle alternated with cultivation in open glades, which in their natural state are covered withPandanus, but the people here, as in other parts of Malabar, are fast encroaching on the forest, and converting these glades into paddy-fields. As we approached the foot of the mountains cultivation at last entirely ceased, and the road led through a dense forest of enormous bamboos, teak-trees with their large coarse leaves, black-wood, and other fine timber. At noon we reached the post-house of Sholacul, at the foot of the Sispara ghaut, which leads up to the summit of the Koondahs, a western continuation of the Neilgherries.
The building at Sholacul was surrounded by a very stout pallisade, to protect it from the wild elephants, who strongly object to all encroachments on their domain; and even take the trouble of pulling up the wooden milestones by the side of the roads. We found all the roads which we travelled over in Malabar excellent, and the ascent of the Sispara ghaut, though only a zigzag bridle-path, is in very good order. After leaving Sholacul the road first passes through a region of gigantic reeds, and then through a belt of black-wood, palms, and tree-ferns, with an undergrowth ofCurcumas, ferns, and a brilliant purple flower (Torenia Asiatica). The black or rose-wood tree (Dalbergia latifolia) grows to aheight of about fifty feet, with handsome spreading branches, and pinnate leaves. The timber is very valuable; it is extensively used in Bombay for making beautiful carved furniture, and planks are sometimes obtained four feet broad, after the sap-wood has been removed. In consequence of the increasing price, Dr. Cleghorn, the able and energetic Conservator of Forests in the Madras Presidency, has caused a number of seedlings to be planted at Nellamboor; and plantations have also been formed in N. Canara and Mysore.
The occasional openings in the forests, at turns in the road, afforded us views of the mountains below us covered with the richest vegetation, and of the rice-fields of Malabar stretching away to the faintly indicated blending of sea and haze on the horizon; which almost equalled in beauty the finest parts of the eastern Andes. From about 1000 to 5000 feet above the sea the jungle is covered with innumerable leeches, which eagerly fasten on their prey, whether men, horses, or dogs, and make a journey through this region, in the wet season, exceedingly disagreeable. Within this leech-zone there is a considerable clearing called Walla-ghaut, planted with coffee, which is in a ruinous and abandoned state, chiefly owing to the difficulty of inducing labourers to venture among the leeches. As we continued the ascent, the scenery increased in magnificence, the views became more extensive, and there were mountain-tops crowned with glorious forest trees far below us. At 6000 feet mosses appear, then lilies, brambles, and wild strawberries, and occasionally we crossed noisy little streams overshadowed by the trees. We reached the Sispara bungalow, on the summit of the ghaut, 6742 feet above the level of the sea, late in the afternoon.
The Sispara ghaut takes the traveller from the tropical plains to the temperate climate of the hills, where the face of nature is entirely changed. Here the hills are covered withgrass, and the ravines only are filled with trees, forming thickets calledsholas. In the rear of the bungalow there is an almost unrivalled view of the Malabar plains, from the edge of a precipice. The Koondah hills sweep round until they join the Wynaads, half encircling the Nellamboor valley, which was thousands of feet below us, and is covered with forest, intersected in all directions by open glades of a rich light green. The Koondahs rise up from Malabar like perpendicular walls, so steep that even a cat could not scale them in any part, for a distance of forty miles; and the grandeur of the view from this point, with these sublime cliffs, and the vast expanse of forest-covered plain below, is very striking.
At daylight next morning we left the Sispara bungalow, and rode for several miles through a valley interspersed withsholasof rhododendron-trees. Eighteen miles from Sispara is the Avalanche bungalow, 6720 feet above the sea, whence there is a good carriage-road to Ootacamund, the chief European station on the Neilgherry hills. At Avalanche the Koondah range is considered to cease, and the Neilgherry hills to commence, but the nature of the country is the same. Between Avalanche and Ootacamund, a distance of 15 miles, the country consists of grassy undulating rounded hills, divided from each other by woodedsholas. Herds of fine buffaloes were grazing by the roadside, and here and there we saw patches of millet (Setaria Italica) near the huts of the natives of these hills. As we rode round the artificial lake, and, passing several pretty little houses surrounded by shrubberies, stopped at the door of Dawson's hotel at Ootacamund, it was difficult to persuade ourselves that we were not again in England. The garden in front of the house was stocked with mignonette, wallflowers, and fuchsias, but the immense bushes of heliotrope covered with flowers, ten feet high and at least twenty in circumference, could not have attained such dimensions in an English climate. Ootacamund is nearly in the centre of the table-land of the Neilgherries, at the foot of the western face of the peak of Dodabetta, and, except to the N.W., the station is completely surrounded by grass-covered hills. Houses are scattered about under the shelter of the hills, with gardens and plantations ofEucalyptusandAcacia heterophylla, trees introduced from Australia, around them; and the broad excellent roads are bordered byCassia glaucabushes with a bright orange flower, honeysuckles, fox-gloves, geraniums, roses, and masses of the tallLobelia excelsa. A graceful white iris is also common.
This charming spot, now that the roads are planted with tall trees, and the hedges filled with all the familiar flowers introduced from old England, while curling smoke ascends through the foliage, and suggests the idea of chimneys and warm firesides, is as unlike India, and as like an English watering-place, as can be imagined. The tower of the church, seen from many points of view, increases the resemblance, which is certainly not lessened by the rosy cheeks and healthy looks of the children, and the fresh invigorating mountain air. But when a few miles from the station, and out of sight of all English associations, there was much that reminded me of thepajonalesin the chinchona region of Caravaya at a first glance: and I felt sanguine that all thepajonalchinchona-trees would thrive in most of thesholason the Neilgherry hills, while suitable sites for those species which require a warmer climate would be found in the forest slopes which overlook the plains. A closer inspection confirmed me in this opinion.
NEILGHERRY HILLS.
Extent—Formation—Soil—Climate—Flora—Hill tribes—Todars—Antiquities—Badagas—Koters—Kurumbers—Irulas—English stations—Kotergherry—Ootacamund—Coonoor—Jakatalla—Government gardens at Ootacamund and Kalhutty—Mr. McIvor—Coffee cultivation—Rules for sale of waste lands—Forest conservancy.
Extent—Formation—Soil—Climate—Flora—Hill tribes—Todars—Antiquities—Badagas—Koters—Kurumbers—Irulas—English stations—Kotergherry—Ootacamund—Coonoor—Jakatalla—Government gardens at Ootacamund and Kalhutty—Mr. McIvor—Coffee cultivation—Rules for sale of waste lands—Forest conservancy.
The Neilgherry[399]hills, between latitude 11° 10' and 11° 32' N., and longitude 76° 59' and 77° 31' E., form the most elevated mountain mass in India, south of the Himalayas; the highest peak, that of Dodabetta, being 8610 feet above the level of the sea. They are isolated on three sides, and rise up abruptly from the plains of Coimbatore on the south, and from the table-lands of Wynaad and Mysore on the north and east, to a height of 6000 feet above the former, and 2000 to 3000 above the latter; from which they are divided by the broad ravine of the river Moyaar. On the west they are united with the Koondah range, which is a continuation of the western ghauts. The area of the Neilgherries contains 268,494 acres, of which 24,000 are under cultivation.
The formation consists of syenitic granite, with veins of basaltic rock, hornblende, and quartz, while, in some parts, half-decomposed laterite underlies the soil. The plateau is not a flat table-land, but a succession of undulating hills and intervening grassy valleys, with ravines thickly wooded, numerous streams, and occasional rocky ridges running up into fine mountain-peaks. The streams all goto swell the great river Cauvery, by its tributaries the Moyaar and Bowany; the Moyaar descending from the hills by a fine waterfall at Neddiwuttum, on the northern slope; and the Bowany flowing down between the Koondahs and Neilgherries to the south. The soil of the plateau is very rich, being formed by the decomposition of basaltic and hornblende rocks, mixed with the clayey products of the granite, and much decomposed vegetable matter. The latter consists of the grass killed down to the roots by the frost, washed in by the succeeding rains, and mixed with the subsoil, increasing its richness and depth season after season. The richest land is on the lower slopes, where there are accumulations of soil washed from the hills above:[400]and there are extensive deposits of peat in the valleys, which afford supplies of fuel. The chief defect in the soil is the absence of lime.
The temperature and amount of humidity vary according to the locality. At Ootacamund, 7300 feet above the sea, the means of the thermometer range from 42° to 68°, while in the two other lower and warmer stations of Coonoor and Kotergherry, about 6000 feet above the sea, the range is from 52° to 71°. The annual rainfall at Ootacamund is sixty inches, at Coonoor fifty-five inches, and at Kotergherry fifty inches. During the south-west monsoon, from May to September, the rain comes down in torrents at Sispara, and in the western parts of the Neilgherries, but their force is somewhat exhausted before reaching Ootacamund, in the centre of the plateau. At that station the rainfall, during the south-west monsoon, is about thirty-four inches; and the range of Dodabetta, which rises up like a wall, immediately to the eastward of Ootacamund, almost entirely screens the eastern part of the hills from the rains of the south-west monsoon, and there the rainfall is only twelve inches from May to September. During the portion of the year from October to April the western parts of the hills are comparatively dry, the prevalent winds are from the north-east, and the rains which they bring with them from the Madras coast do not extend farther west than the neighbourhood of Ootacamund. Kotergherry, and the eastern parts of the hills, receive the full benefit of the rains from the north-east monsoon, but they are not heavy, and the rainfall at Kotergherry, in that season, is thirty-eight inches. Ootacamund also gets some of the rain of the north-east monsoon (thirty-six inches), so that, in that central part of the plateau, there is a belt which receives a moderate supply of rain throughout the year. In January and December there are frosts in the night, and the extreme radiation which goes on in the valleys causes great cold at sunrise; but these frosts are confined to the valleys in the upper plateau, and they never visit the higher slopes, or the well-wooded "sholas."
The climates of the Neilgherry hills are the most delightful in the world; and it may be said of this salubrious region, with its equable seasons, what the Persian poet said of Kung, "the warmth is not heat, and the coolness is not cold."[401]On the open plateau, in the woodedsholas, and in the thick forests of the lower slopes, there is a great variety of beautiful flowering trees and shrubs; and the vegetation of the hills is both varied and luxuriant. First, in the brilliant splendour of its flowers, must be mentioned the tree rhododendron (Rhododendron arboreum), which is very common in all parts of the hills, either forming small thickets or dotted about on the grassy slopes. It grows to a height of twenty feet, with a gnarled stunted trunk, and masses of deep crimson flowers. In the "sholas" are theMichelia nilagiraca, a large tree, with yellowish-white fragrant flowers of great size; theSymplocospulchra, with hairy leaves and snow-white flowers; theIlex Wightiana, a large umbrageous tree, with small white flowers and red berries; the pretty pink-floweredRhodo-myrtus tomentosa, the berries of which are called "hill gooseberries;" theJasminum revolutum, a shrub with sweet yellow flowers; theSapota elingoides, a fine forest-tree, with rough cracked bark, and an edible fruit used in curries;Crotalariæ;Bignoniæ; peppers, cinnamon, a number of chinchonaceous shrubs, and many others.
In the open grassy slopes and near the edges of the wooded ravines are severalVaccinia, especially theVaccinium Leschenaultii, a shrub with pretty rose-coloured flowers; the beautifulOsbeckia Gardneriana, with a profusion of large purple flowers; the handsomeViburnum Wightianum; a number of balsams (Impatiensof several species); theGaultheria Leschenaultiiin great quantities, a pretty little shrub with white flowers and blue berries; theBerberis Mahonia, with its glossy prickly leaves and long slender racemes of yellow flowers; and the bright little pinkIndigofera pulchella; while the climbing passion-flower (Passiflora Leschenaultii) hangs in festoons over the trees, especially in the eastern parts of the hills. Among the more inconspicuous plants are theGallium requienianum; theRubia cordifolia;[402]the thornySolanum ferox, with stem and leaves covered with strong straight prickles; theGirardinia Leschenaultii,[403]or Neilgherry nettle, a most virulent stinger; the tallLobelia excelsa; aJustitia, with a blue flower, which entirely covers some of the hills; some prettySonerilas; several beautifulIpomœasandlilies;elsias; and theHypericum Hookerianum, growing plentifully in the meadows, with large orange flowers; besides ferns, lycopods, and numberless small wild flowers in the grass and underwood.
Enjoying a delightful climate, well supplied with water, and with its gentle undulations of hill and dale in some places clothed with rich pasture, in others presenting woods of fine timber and beautiful flowering shrubs, the Neilgherry hills are eminently fitted for the abode of a thriving and civilized people. Yet for many centuries it would appear that their sole inhabitants were a strange race of cowherds, a people differing in all respects from their neighbours in the plains, and indeed from all the other natives of Hindostan.
These are the Todars, a race numbering less than a thousand souls, who now claim to be the original "Lords of the hills." In times so remote that no record of them remains there are still indications that the Indian peninsula was peopled by races of Scythic origin: and, when the Aryan warriors came forth with their Vedic hymns and grand old civilization from the fastnesses of Sind, they swept irresistibly over Hindostan, and formed as it were an upper stratum of the population. The Scythic element either mixed with, or became subservient to the Aryan in the plains, as the Sudra caste, while in the hill and forest fastnesses a few tribes remained isolated and independent. Such, possibly, may have been the origin of the Todars on the Neilgherries. The Brahmins, characteristically dovetailing every tradition and every race into one or other of their historical myths, declare that the Todars came from the north in the army of Rama, when he marched against the wicked Ravana; and that, deserting their chief, they fled to these hills. They themselves have no tradition of their origin, but believe that they were created on the hills.
They are certainly a very remarkable and interestingpeople, tall, well-proportioned, and athletic, and utterly unlike all other natives of India. They have Jewish features, with aquiline noses, hazel eyes, thick lips, bushy black beards, and immensely thick clusters of glossy hair cut so as to stand in dense masses round the sides of the head, a very necessary protection from the sun, as they never wear any other head-covering. The old men are very handsome, with long white beards and upright gait, looking like the patriarchs of the Old Testament, with their strongly marked Jewish features: but the expressions of the younger men are less agreeable to look upon. The women are very careful of their hair, which hangs down in long glossy ringlets; and both sexes wear nothing but a long piece of coarse cotton cloth, with two broad red stripes round the edges, worn by the men like a Roman toga, which sets off their well-shaped limbs to advantage, and exposes one leg entirely, up to the hip; and by the women so as to form a short petticoat and mantle. They never wash either their persons or their clothes from the day of their birth to the day of their death. They live in small encampments calledmunds, which are scattered over the hills, and consist of five or six huts, and a larger one used as a dairy. The families are in the habit of migrating from onemundto another, at certain seasons of the year; so that we often came upon amundapparently abandoned. A Todar's hut is exactly like the tilt of a waggon, very neatly roofed, with the ends boarded in, and a single low entrance. They are generally surrounded by a stone wall, and the dairy, a larger and more important building, is always a little apart. The only occupation of this singular people is to tend their large herds of fine buffaloes; they live on milk, and on the grain which they collect as a due orgoodoofrom the other hill tribes, and pass the greater part of their time in idleness; lolling about and gossiping in their munds, or strolling over the hills. We passed through one of these munds, about aquarter of a mile from our hotel, almost daily, but I never remember having seen a Todar engaged in any occupation whatever.
The women become the wives of all the brothers into whose families they marry, the children being apportioned to husbands according to seniority. This pernicious custom is also common among the Coorg, and the Tiars of Malabar. The Todars, formerly, only allowed one female child to live in each family, the rest being strangled; but the authorities have lately interfered to put a stop to this custom. When a Todar bride is given away, she is brought to the dwelling of her husbands, who each put their feet upon her head; she is then sent to fetch water for cooking, and the ceremony is considered to be complete.
The German missionaries, who have had a good deal of intercourse with these people, say that they worship the "sacred buffalo bell," as a representation ofHiridea, or the chief God, before which they pour libations of milk; and when there is a dispute about wives or buffaloes it is decided by the priest, who becomes possessed by theBell God, rushes frantically about, and pronounces in favour of the richest. Formerly there were seven holymunds, each inhabited by a recluse calledpalaul(milkman), attended upon by akavilaul(herdsman); but three of these are now deserted, and the fourth is rarely frequented. The rest have a herd of holy buffaloes attached to them for the use of the sanctified occupants, and no women may approach them. The only religious festival of any kind celebrated by the Todars, and that scarcely deserves the name, takes place on the occasion of a funeral, when there is much dancing and music. The body is burnt, and buffaloes are slaughtered to go with the spirit, and supply it with milk. This is called the green funeral. A year afterwards there is another ceremony called the dry funeral, when forty or fifty buffaloes were hunted down, andbeaten to death with clubs; but the Government has recently prohibited the immolation of more than two beasts for a rich, and one for a poor Todar. The burial-places are like gigantic extinguishers, twelve feet high, and thatched with grass. The bodies are burnt, and the ashes collected and put into chatties, which are deposited in the extinguisher. The Todars have no other ceremonies, care for nothing but their buffaloes, and leave prayers to thepalaulin his lonely retreat, or to thepalikarpalor dairyman of each mund, who covers his nose with his thumb when he enters the sacred dairy, and says "May all be well!"[404]
The Todar language is a very rude dialect of the old Canarese, and similar to that of the Badagas, another hill tribe. It is very poor in words conveying abstract ideas, as they have few notions beyond their buffaloes; their verbs have generally but one tense, and they express the future and past by means of adverbs of time.[405]
There are many ancient cairns andtumulion the peaks of the Neilgherries, and it has been objected that they cannot be assigned to the ancestors of the Todars, because agricultural implements have been found in them, and these people never cultivate the ground. But it must be remembered that the Todars now extortgoodooor tribute of grain from the other hill tribes, and that it is their only food. It must be inferred, therefore, that, before they discovered this easy mode of procuring food, and previous to the arrival of these weaker agricultural tribes on the hills, the Todars must have been their own cultivators. The hill people attribute all ancient ruins, of the origin of which they know nothing, to the Pandus, the famous heroes of Hindu tradition; and all that can besaid of these Neilgherry cairns is that they are probably the work of an unknown extinct race, who practised Druidical rites.[406]
We visited several of these remains of an ancient people. On the summit of the peak of Kalhutty, on the left hand of the road leading down the Seegoor ghaut to the Mysore plains, whence there is a grand view of mountain scenery, forest-clad slopes, and a wide expanse of country stretching away to the horizon, we found several old cairns. They were of great size, built of immense stones, and hollow in the centre. On another peak, called Ibex Hill, one side of which is a scarped cliff many hundreds of feet in height, overhanging the Seegoor ghaut, we also found two huge cairns, forming a circle about eight feet in diameter. There are many others in different parts of the hills, generally on the highest peaks, and iron spear-heads, bells, sepulchral urns with figures of coiled snakes, tigers, elephants, dogs, and birds on them, sickles and gold rings have been found buried under the piles of stones.
The Todars, as has been said, are the "lords of the hills," and not only all the other hill tribes pay them tribute, but the English Government also pays rent to them for the land on which the stations are situated.[407]But the agricultural tribe of Burghers or Badagas, who came to the hills several centuries after the Todars, and are subject to them, are by far the most numerous, numbering 15,000 souls, and occupying 300 villages. They are divided into eighteen classes or castes, the members of one of which, called the Wodearu Badagas, wear the Brahminical string, are proud and lazy, and inhabit five villages apart from the rest. The villagesof the Badagas are scattered all over the plateau of the hills, and their land occupies two-thirds of its area. They are much darker, and not nearly such fine men as the Todars, wear cotton-cloth turbans and clothing much like other natives of India, and are very superstitious and timid; but they are industrious, though not so much so as the labourers who come up from the plains, and kind and affectionate to their women and children. The Badagas, though they possess herds of buffaloes, are chiefly employed in cultivation. Their crops consist ofraggee(Eleusine corocana), the most prolific of cultivated grasses,[408]which is made into dark brown cakes and porridge;sameeor Italian millet, barley, an amaranth calledkeeray, some pulses, mustard, onions, and potatoes. We often passed through the Badaga villages. The houses are built in a single row, with one thatched roof extending over so as to form a verandah, supported on poles. In front there is a hard mud floor, where the piles of grain are heaped up; and there is generally aSwami-house or temple, with a verandah in front supported by numerous poles, the walls and poles being painted in red and white stripes, the Hindu holy colour. Round the villages there are cultivated patches ofraggeeandsamee, which they were reaping in December. In the centre of the fields there is a small threshing-floor, where we often saw the Badagas sifting the grain from the chaff by shaking it through sieves, and letting the wind blow the chaff away. A Todar was generally squatting near, like an old vulture, waiting for hisgoodoo. The Badagas belong to the Siva sect, their principal deity being Rungaswamy, whose temple is on the summit of the easternmost peak of the Neilgherries; but they also worship 338 other idols orSwamis, such as trees, streams, stone pillars, and even old knives.
Another hill tribe is that of the Koters, who occupy seven large villages calledKotergherry(cowkiller's hill). They are of very low caste, and work as carpenters, smiths, rope-makers, and potters, besides cultivating the ground. The Koters also dress and prepare buffalo-hides, and they are a squalid dirty race, living on the carrion they pick up on the road-sides. They number about five hundred souls, and are the artizans of the hills, repairing the ploughs, hoes, and bill-hooks for the Badagas.
The Kurumbers, another tribe, live on the slopes of the hills, in the most feverish places. They are a short miserable-looking race, and those calledMoolooor jungle Kurumbers are regular wild men of the woods, in no respect raised above the beasts of the forest. The others act as musicians and sorcerers to the Todars and Badagas.
Lastly, the Irulas live low down the slopes of the hills, perform the office of priests in the Badagas' temple on the Rungaswamy peak, and occasionally act plays from the life of Krishna at Badaga festivals.
These five tribes of Todars, Badagas, Koters, Kurumbers, and Irulas, appear for centuries to have had the exclusive enjoyment of the Neilgherry hills; though Tippoo Sultan of Mysore erected a fort at Kalhutty, half-way up the Seegoor ghaut, and another on the Hoolicul-droog, overhanging the Coonoor ghaut, which leads up from the Coimbatore plains. He is said to have used these strongholds for the detention of prisoners, and to enable his officers to extort tribute from the hill tribes. The Neilgherry hills were first discovered by two English civilians who made their way up to the plateau in chasing some Moplah smugglers.[409]