ROUGHING IT IN SOUTHERN INDIA 167 



CHAPTER XV 



The wet season in The Wyn&d and Malabar — Land wind — Dinah — Pintu 

 — Punch — Scenery of the west coast — Native houses — Government 

 monopolies — Sardines — Pearl fisheries — Cliff bees — The apiary at 

 Manantavadi — Silk-cotton — Varying climates of India. 



On or about the 3rd of June was the time for the monsoon 

 to break, sometimes heralded by a grand storm, at others 

 beginning gently, with soft showers hardly to be recognised 

 for the longingly expected rains ; then for six months, 

 though not always raining, it was so frightfully damp that 

 one's piano (if one were lucky enough to have one), book- 

 cases, wardrobes (always called almirahs), had to be fitted 

 with tin pipes through them, with an outlet at the top, while 

 at the lower end, on the ground, burnt small oil lamps never 

 allowed to go out. In no other way could anything be saved 

 at all. 



Nearer the coast, and on sea-level, the fearful heat and 

 damp of the rainy season tell on the health of Europeans 

 in a far more trying way than would a dry, even if higher, 

 temperature. 



We were eight years on the coast ; not right through, of 

 course — no one could have weathered such an unbroken 

 spell — but for most of the time. On first going there I 

 was possessed of a quite respectable singing voice, after 

 an amateur fashion, but in a short time it went, never to 

 be recovered, so relaxing was the atmosphere. That it 

 was not unusual for throat and chest to be so affected in 

 that climate I learned from other instances. 



Furniture had to be specially constructed to suit the 

 climate, tables, couches, chairs, etc., being put together 



