Chap. XXI. POPULATION OF MALABxVU. 343 



Each bouse has a cocoanut safe or store-room on one side, ol' 

 open wood-work. Many people were walking along the road, 

 naked men with liugo tallipot-palm hats, and women with 

 uothiug on but bright-coloured petticoats, looking picturesque 

 in the foreground and middle distance of the palm-shaded 

 vistas. At inten^als 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 gi"assy 

 hill, there is an extensive and very beautiful view of the 

 undulating hills and dales of Malabar, generally covered 

 with forest; Anth 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 G262 square miles. It is divided into 17 Taloohs 

 or districts, and has a population of 1,602,914 souls; of 

 whom 1,105,174 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 Jirahmius, who claim all the land below the ghauts, 

 and ai)pear to have actually possessed a large portion of it 

 pi-evious to tlie invasion of Hyder Ali of Mysore. They declare 

 that when Parasu Kama, one of the incarnations of Vishnu, 

 hurled his axe from the mountains, the ocean receded, leaving 

 the land of Kerala, as Malabar, Cochm, and Travancore Avere 

 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 

 ofdces as bestowing holy water and aslies, or peiforming 



