Chap. XXI. VOYAGE UP THE BEYPOOR. 351 



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 occa- 

 sional 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 ; ^ 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 Bey- 

 poor, 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 stand- 

 ing 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 Nel- 

 lamboor. 



These plantations were originated by Mr. Conolly, the late 

 Collector of Malabar, with a view to the establishment of 



8 Tlifi tallipot or fan-palm {Coryphn arc very strong, and are used for hats 

 umhraculifera) has a stem 60 or 70 feet ; and imibrellus. The petiole is seven 

 high, crowned with enormous fon- i feet long, and the blade six feet long 

 shaped leaves, with 40 or 50 pairs of | and tiiirteen feet broad, 

 segments. These fronds, when dried, j 



