330 COFFEE. 



tion, as well as entertainment, and the " dak," or post carriage, is 

 still maintained in many parts of India, while these refreshment 

 or post stations are commonly known as " dak bungalows." The 

 word bungalow is a very common one, not only in India, but 

 throughout the tropical countries of the East ; where it originated 

 I do not know, but, in India, it means a one-story house, generally 

 constructed with very thick walls of masonry, and the roof thickly 

 thatched with straw, projecting several feet on every side, form- 

 ing a sort of porch or veranda to shade the entrances. 



The natives of Southern India are tall in stature, of erect and 

 graceful carriage, and, although quite black, having a European 

 type of feature. Dressed in their flowing white robe and turban 

 they present quite a picturesque appearance, and, as they stood 

 gazing at our train as it went whirling by in the dusk of the even- 

 ing, many of them were positively statuesque. The women are 

 not in general as fine-looking as the men, and render themselves 

 hideous by wearing immense rings in their noses, on these rings 

 stringing all their available wealth in the shape of jewels and 

 precious stones. In some instances I saw women who, in all 

 other respects, bore every sign of poverty, thus wearing pearls 

 which were worth many hundreds of dollars. To some extent 

 also this practice of carrying their wealth about them in the 

 shape of jewels prevails with the men ; at Trichinopoly the 

 station-master wore, as earrings, two solitaire diamonds which 

 could not have been worth less than one thousand dollars each. 

 This custom cannot be attributed entirely to personal vanity, but 

 is largely due to the uncertainty of ownership which formerly at- 

 tached to all forms of property which were not portable and 

 which could not be concealed at a moment's notice. 



I proceeded from Trichinopoly to Madras, between three 

 and four hundred miles, through a rather imprepossessing coun- 

 try, and taking steamer from that port proceeded direct to Cal- 

 cutta. Madras, formerly the most important European city in 

 India, has made comparatively little progress during the past half 

 century, and is now quite overshadowed in importance by both 

 Calcutta and Bombay. Calcutta is situated on the Eiver Hooghly 

 — one of the mouths of the Ganges — a hundred or more miles 

 from its outlet. At the entrance of the river the coast is flat 



