THE LACCADIVES AND THE WEST COAST. 445 
through this lump of dough thus extracting the whole of the woody 
fibres, that permeate it; when the string drawn through, every 
portion of the mass fails to bring out a single fibre, the dough 
is rolled and patted into small cakes, which are baked on 
hot ashes, and are both palatable and nutritious. It is only 
in the Nicobars, that this process, simple as it is, seems to be 
understood. They have lots of Pandanus in the straits, but 
it is never utilized there any more than at the Laccadives. 
At the latter, I fully explained it, both here and at Amini, but 
not having time to give a practical illustration of my instruc- 
tions, I fear that nothing will come of them. 
The Common Southern Milk Plant (Calotropis gigantea) was 
noticed here for the first time. There were also Mallow-Worts, 
the small trailing Sida humilis, Miill, and the Abutilon indicum, 
G. Don. Quantities of wild indigo, whole fields of it, if I 
may use the expression, only broken by patches of a scarlet 
flowered Ixora (not the one, we got on St. George’s Island, but 
I. bandhuca, Roxb). Large clumps of a broad-leaved shrub, 
not unlike the common Dak (Butea frondosa), for which I 
think previous visitors have mistaken it, but which is really 
Guettarda speciosa, L. 
A great part of the jungle is composed of a dwarf tree 
a Verbene (Premna integrifolia, L.) closely allied, though very 
different in appearance to the gigantic Teak. A tall fine loose 
flowering grass (Apluda aristata, L.) fills all the outskirts of 
the jungle. A few other insignificant herbs, Wedelia biflora, 
D.C., and Euphorbia pilulifera, L., complete the list of wild 
plants which we first met with here, and to which have to be 
added almost all those found on Betra-Par and Kiltan. 
The population of the island, large as is this latter, does not 
exceed 200. They donot seem nearly so well offin any respect as 
the people of Kiltan. And though the soil is better perhaps than 
that of any of the other of the islands scarcely one-third of 
it is yet planted. Thay have only four mosques against 14 in 
Kiltan and 34 in Amini. They have no Schools, Blacksmiths, 
Barbers or Gold and Silversmiths, which all the other islands 
have. In fact the island is very backward in every way, and 
this partly seems to arise from the fact that all the inhabitants 
are of the lowest caste (for despite their conversion to Mahome- 
danism they keep up certain caste distinctions, specially on 
Amini, where alone any of the highest caste reside) and are in 
a variety of ways kept under and domineered over by the higher 
caste people of Amini, who exercise an undefined but still 
obviously real and depressing feudal influence over them. 
Government have, I believe, been taking measures to remedy 
this evil. Hitherto the people of Cardamum have been 
