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consumption of toddy (fermented palm juice), notwithstand- 

 ing that the use of liquors was strictly forbidden by the 

 Muhammadan religion. Among the Hindus, drinking ap- 

 pears to have been general among the lower classes of the 

 population and especially the aboriginal tribes from the 

 earliest times. In a letter, written in 1683, by Father John 

 DeBritto, of the Madura Jesuit Mission, to the General of 

 the Society at Rome, he states : " The King of Marava 

 encamped with his army, offered the wonted sacrifice to the 

 mother of the gods and did not fail, according to his custom, 

 to satisfy his devotion heartily with the liquor of the palm, 

 which he styled piously the milk of the goddess. It must 

 be observed that the Maravars do not think themselves 

 bound to keep the law which so sternly forbids the nobler 

 castes the use of intoxicating liquor. So they have taken 

 care to dignify in name this liquor which the other castes call 

 the devil's drink (petannir)." Tippu Sultan endeavoured to 

 carry out the injunctions of the Muhammadan religion by 

 issuing an order to the effect that all the palm trees within 

 his dominions should be cut down. The order was obeyed 

 only in the neighbourhood of his capital. No special mea- 

 sures were taken by the English Government until about 

 1870 to check the consumption of liquors beyond farming out 

 places of sale. Since then the liquor traffic has been brought 

 under regulation, and consumption checked by the gradual 

 enhancement of duty levied both on liquors manufactured 

 in the country and imported from abroad. A detailed 

 account of the various measures adopted for this purpose 

 and of the success which has attended them is given in a 

 note printed as appendix Y.-E. (g) to this memorandum, and 

 it is unnecessary to repeat here what is there fully stated. 

 The facts and statistics given in the note will show beyond 

 doubt that the allegations, sometimes made, to the effect that 

 drunkenness is spreading both among the higher and the 

 lower classes, and that the Government is directly interested 

 in extending the consumption and not in checking it, are 

 entirely untrue, so far at all events as this Presidency is 

 concerned. As a matter of fact, the quantity of country 

 liquor now consumed is about 5 per cent, more than what it 

 was in 1875 as shown by the returns of liquor which has paid 

 excise duty, while the population has increased by about 10 

 per cent. The real diminution in consumption is very much 

 more than this, for there was no special preventive agency 

 employed prior to 1884 to check illicit consumption which 

 was then very prevalent. In Malabar, for instance, which is 

 ^uU of palm groves, the consumption of liquor was formerly 



