ROUGHING IT IN SOUTHERN INDIA 23 



intoxicatingly sweet. The ' geranium tree ' is just what 

 its name describes, a great forest tree with the loveliest 

 geranium flowers, in velvety pink or mauve, like pelar- 

 goniums. 



And the rhododendrons ! The full splendour of these 

 trees is indeed unknown till seen, as here, in their native 

 land, where they are not so much forest trees as the very 

 forest itself : a whole hillside will be clothed with them. 

 I have in my mind just now certain slopes on the Nilgiris. 

 Their growth is that of an oak — spreading ; their foliage is 

 of a deep, shining green, which in season is enamelled with 

 clustered blossom effulgent with glowing crimson or white 

 as driven snow. The remembrance of their glory is a 

 possession rather than a memory. 



It was late when we reached the top — or the first place 

 we came to that was sufficiently level to serve for a night's 

 halt. There is no twilight in the tropics, and it is dark at 

 noonday in those forest depths. F. decided to go no 

 farther, chancing it that four jungle paths met just there, 

 showing these to be regular routes for wild animals. Up 

 there men would be rare indeed ; there is nothing to take them 

 there, except at such times as the ingathering of the carda- 

 mom crop, and then only authorised persons, in bands ; 

 singly they would not venture into such solitudes on any 

 account — too many pishashas, or devils, about ! For 

 Europeans there is never anything to be feared at any time, 

 except from the chance and rare presence of a solitary 

 1 tusker ' or ' man-eater ' tiger. 



Very soon the cook was to be seen squatting before his 

 notion of a range — a row of stones placed at suitable dis- 

 tances for the accommodation of the various cooking pots, 

 each with its fire of crackling sticks beneath. Dinner-time 

 being eight o'clock at home he would contrive, if possible, 

 even amidst the exigences of travel, that we should find 

 no difference. The cooking was his sole business, nothing 



