154 SOUTH CAXARA — M A N(;A I.ORH. 



intended for natives only, hut it iiad two rooms entirely 

 open to the front, one containing a long stone platform 

 with half-a-dozen holes in it for cooking operations. 

 I have, howevei', often slept in \vorse places than 

 this, and with the help of my mattress, taken out 

 of the cart, I passed an excellent night and began 

 the next day's journey by walking twelve miles before 

 the sun had risen too high to mar my pleasure. This 

 is the land of the cocoanut palm, fruit and rice fields, 

 it being abundantly watered by streams and canals. 

 Small properties are here the rule, and the country 

 flourishes from the minute attention bestowed by each 

 proprietor on his own little farm. There are fine 

 hedges of the Ixora Cochin- Chvia, bearing a sweet- 

 scented flower of a peculiar maroon tint, which hither- 

 to I have not met elsewhere ; also ginger and 

 turmeric are cultivated in these plains. 



On the same eveninof, after one or two difficult 

 passages through rapid rivers — for bridges I saw none 

 • — I reached Bunt walla on the Mangalore river, the 

 banks of which are lich in vegetation and picturesque ; 

 thence most travellers pi-oceed to the coast by boat ; 

 but visions of mosquitos, whose furious attacks on 

 inland navigation in the tropics I had some acquaint- 

 ance with, decided me to remain the night at tliis 

 place, having my bed prepared under the table, as 



