398 DINDIGUL. Chap. XXIV. 



were cultivated in the surrounding fields, and from the top of 

 a ridge of rocks overhanging the village there is an extensive 

 view of open country covered with waving eholum, and bounded 

 by the broken outline of the Pulney hills. Near the village 

 there is the ruin of a square brick fort, with bastions at the 

 angles, entirely overgrown with bushes. One of the hap- 

 piest signs of English rule is to be found in the number of 

 ruined forts scattered over the country, once the lurking- 

 places of brutal robbers who extorted half the crops from a 

 wretched peasantry, whose descendants now reap the fruits of 

 their labour in peace. 



In taking a walk near Pulkanooth I encountered a mar- 

 riage procession. Fu'st came a man with a drum, then two 

 more with a goug of skin stretched on wooden hoops, then a 

 man with a large game-cock under his arm, then a bullock 

 led by a woman, then four women covered with bracelets and 

 anklets, then a pony ridden by a boy about twelve, with 

 nothing on but a red tm*ban and gold necklace and bracelets, 

 with a little girl about five in front, whom he clasped round 

 the waist ; then more men and women, another drum, and 

 lastly a small boy mounted on a large cow. They appeared 

 to have come from a distance, as they stopped to rest under 

 a peepul-tree, by the road-side. 



Another night journey took me to the town of Dindigul, a 

 pretty little place at the foot of an isolated mass of primitive 

 rock, whose perpendicular sides are crowned by a dismantled 

 fort, said to have been erected in the days of Dupleix and 

 French ambition, and to have been occupied and long held 

 by Hyder Ali of Mysore. Here the plains are chiefly covered 

 with eholum and cumhoo ; and between the town and the 

 rock there is a grassy esplanade, a grove of cocoanut and 

 betel-palms, and a neat little temple to Ganesa. Troops of 

 young girls were drawing water from a tank near the espla- 

 nade. Their slight graceful figures, supporting chatties on 



