306 DR. HOOKER'S MISSION TO INDIA. 
hard by a little village, and the bearers coolly smoking their hookahs 
under a tree (it was raining hard) : they had carried me the length of 
their stage, twelve miles, and there were no others to take me on. I had . 
paid £24 for my dawk, from Caragola to the hills, and had already 
bribed these men; so (very naturally I maintain) I lost all patience. 
After waiting and entreating several hours, I found the head-man of the 
village, and again bribed six out of the twelve bearers to carry the 
empty palkee, whilst I should walk to the next stage; or till we 
should meet some others. They agreed, and cutting the thick and 
spongy sheaths of the Banana, used them for shoulder-pads. They also 
wrapped them round the palkee-poles, to ease their aching clavicles. 
Walking along, I picked up a few more small plants, and at fourteen 
miles came to another village, Kallyagunje, on the banks of the Maha- 
nuddy, which is here a middling-sized stream, with pebbles and small 
boulders of some pounds weight in its bed, brought so far from the 
hills (about thirty miles distant). Several bushes, new to me, grew 
on its banks; but the luggage-bearers were astern, and I could only 
take the smallest bits. Here, again, I had to apply to the head-man 
of the village, and bribe bearers to take me to Titalya, the next stage 
(fourteen miles). Some curious Jong low sheds at Kallyagunje 
puzzled me very much, and on examining them they proved to be for 
the growth of Paun, or Betel-pepper, which I here for the first time 
saw cultivated,—another indication of the moisture of the climate. These 
sheds are twenty to fifty yards long, eight or twelve or so broad, and 
scarcely five high ; they are made of Bamboo, wattled all round and 
over the top. Slender rods are placed a few feet apart, inside, up 
which the Betel Vine, alias Pepper, climbs, and quickly fills the place 
with its deep green glossy foliage. The native enters every morning 
by a little door, and carefully cleans the plants. Constant heat, damp, 
and moisture, shelter from solar beams, scorching heat, and nocturnal 
radiation, are thus all procured for the creeper, which would certainly 
not live twenty-four hours, if exposed to the climate of this treeless dis- 
trict. Great attention is paid to the cultivation, which is very profitable. 
Snakes frequently take up their quarters in these hot-houses, and cause 
fatal accidents. i; 
Titalya is a place of some importance: it was once a military station, 
and from its proximity to the hills has been selected by Dr. Campbell 
(the Superintendent of Darjeeling) as the site for an annual fair, 
