ROUGHING IT IN SOUTHERN INDIA 79 



dividual natures and way of looking at things, as natives 

 have a genius for finding out how the wind blows, and 

 trimming their sails accordingly. In places where F. was 

 paramount such sights as those instanced above were not 

 obtruded ; and a few other customs, such as the extortion 

 of confessions by torture, which we English, at any rate, 

 have outgrown, were not practised. They were kept in 

 abeyance ; to change them was beyond the power of any 

 man. 



Another thing of a different kind, horrifying to our eyes, 

 though having a good motive, is to be seen in these bazaars 

 of Malabar amongst the Mahommedan Moplahs, a fine, 

 manly set of people. During certain festivals, or rather 

 on the days of penance therewith connected, or in fulfilment 

 of some vow, they attend to their business as oil, grain, or 

 calico merchants, as the case may be, haggling and jabber- 

 ing for hours over the value of half a farthing while blood 

 is dropping from, or has dried upon, a gaping wound in the 

 cheek through which a piece of wood has been thrust, kept 

 in the wound too, there being no intention of letting it heal 

 as yet, the men behaving all the time exactly as if the self- 

 inflicted and purely voluntary torture did not exist. 



In these shops the merchant sits on his narrow verandah 

 with his wares displayed behind him on shelves, on the 

 floor, or on a tiny stool raised not more than three inches 

 from the ground. He would not hesitate to leave his 

 property unguarded for hours if he had business elsewhere ; 

 no one would meddle with anything there. These Moplah 

 merchants will drive a very hard bargain, but they are 

 honourable in business, scrupulously carrying out their 

 part of a contract whether in dealing amongst themselves or 

 with Europeans. F. had many opportunities of observing 

 this in their timber and produce transactions with the 

 Forest Department, and he always spoke of their strict 

 integrity as contrasting favourably with the less rigid honesty 



