ROUGHING IT IN SOUTHERN INDIA 155 



CHAPTER XIV 



Manantavadi and malaria — Experimental Garden — Products — A clever 

 thief — Blacksmith- jeweller — A silver chain — System of payment — 

 Wild mangoes — Gold and gold craze. 



That my recollections of The Wynad are not all pleasant 

 will be understood when I mention that it was at Mananta- 

 vadi that I first learned by personal experience the meaning 

 of fever and ague. 



At that time the place had an evil and well-deserved 

 reputation for malaria, the reason for which was not far 

 to seek. Swamps abounded ; there was one to every hill ; 

 but when we took up our abode there F. was not long in 

 having ours drained by planting it with health-breathing 

 eucalyptus, the spongy roots of which act as suckers and 

 do the work thoroughly. By degrees other swamps were 

 similarly treated, and a different state of things introduced. 

 On the first day of clearing our place, by way of an inaugura- 

 tion scene, a huge boar, whose lair it was, caused some 

 commotion ; but in the end he got the worst of it. Presently 

 on the site of the noisome swamp a garden was made, and 

 the waters were utilised by directing them into channels 

 to be stored against the hot, rainless months. More than 

 a mere garden, this developed into the ' Horticultural 

 Experimental Gardens/ where all manner of interesting 

 things were done in the way of trials with foreign plants, 

 flowers, and fruits. It was, indeed, a most comprehensive 

 place — a nursery for many kinds of vegetables, rarities, and 

 curiosities. 



The vanilla vines were especially absorbing. Quite a 



