442 THE LACCADIVES AND THE WEST COAST. 
The islands are under the jurisdiction of the Collector of South 
Canara. Mr. Robinson* visited and reported on them in 1844 
and 1845. No Huropean officer again visited them, I think till 
1863, since when Assistant-Collectors from South Canara have 
made visits of inspection three or four times. The real Govern- 
ment of the place consists of a Monégar or Native Magistrate, 
who resided at Amini, and till recently, I believe, drew the liberal 
salary of £25 a year ; heis now, however, “ passing rich on £40 
a year,’ and is assisted by an executive of eight or ten peons 
scattered about the islands, who enjoy salaries of £7 or £8 per 
annum. 
Feeble as this administration may appear, it is found, supple- 
mented as itis by a sort of local municipal organization, to 
answer all the requirements of the place. 
There are, in all the islands, a certain number of Mukhtessars, 
more or less strictly hereditary, headmen, who each exercise 
a certain rather undefined paternal jurisdiction over a certain 
number of households, and who form juries assisting the Native 
Magistrate and his peons in the discharge of their public duties, 
one of the most important of which consists in assembling the 
whole male population for a “ Koot.”’ 
What isa Koot? Well Anglice, itis a Rat Hunt. We allin 
this life have our trials and crosses, and our peculiar bugbears, 
and to the Islanders here the special bé¢e noir of existence is the 
cocoanut palin rat. So, once a fortnight in one island, once a 
week in another, and once in every two, three, or four days in 
others according to the intensity of the pest, the people assemble 
and mob the rats, the younger and more active men scale all the 
palms and drive the vermin out.of the crowns. The rats 
scurry from tree to tree along the interlacing fronds, but, 
except at the margin of the clump which is being worked, they 
find a fresh foe in every tree; some.are killed above, some 
fall and are killed by the people below, and though many escape 
the numbers are kept down successfully by these periodic assaults 
en masse. 
The people do not pay any land-revenue to Government for the 
land on which their cocoanut trees, &ec., grow, as they do in 
most other parts of India. A primitive mode of taxation, 
which, on the whole, appears to suit the people for the present 
better than any other, here survives. The Government retains 
the coir monopoly, that is to say, the Islanders are obliged to 
* Many of the facts herein stated in regard to the islands will be found in the 
excellent report then submitted by Mr. Robinson, but they had all been independent- 
ly ascertained by myself by local enquiries, as I did not get his report till long after 
my return, and my figures, which represent the existing state of affairs, will be 
found to differ materially in some cases from his.—A. O. H. 
