TRAVELS IN INDIA. 



CHAPTEK XXI. 



JIALABAR. 



Calicut — Houses and gardens — Population of Malabar — Namburi Biahmins — 

 Nairs — Tiars — Slaves — Moplahs — Assessment of rice-fields, of gardens, 

 of tliy crojjs — Other taxes — Voyage up the Bejrpoor river — The Conolly 

 teak plantations — Wundoor — Backwood cultivation — Sholacul — Sispani 

 ghaut — Black- wood — Sceneiy — Sispara — View of the Nellemboor valley 

 — Avalanche — Arrival at Ootacamund. 



He Avho woiild desire to receive the most pleasant impression 

 of India, on a first arrival, must follow in tlie 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 he^vn out of the trunk of the jack-tree, 

 with an uj^per bulwark fastened with coir twine ; and the 

 canoe-men were naked athletic-looking fellows, with enormous 

 hats made of a frond of the tallijtot palm iCorypha umbracu- 



