500 JOURNEY ACROSS THE 



branches or projections from each horn. Reached P audita at sunset. It 

 is situated immediately under the hills, and is in fact the frontier village. 

 Here is a small fort, and a company of Sepoys to keep the hill people in 

 check. From hence the Castas obtain their rice, cloth, salt, and in fact 

 all the necessaries of life, in exchange for honey, wax, oranges, cinna- 

 mon, betelnut, &c, the produce of their hills. 



27th. After some trouble succeeded in making a start at about 

 eight a. m., my baggage and tent carried by about twenty Castas, 

 and myself mounted on a pony. At nine reached Ramsing's house — 

 where a tent was pitched. Observed a forest tree, covered with a 

 very large description of green caterpillar; a native with a bow and 

 arrow, was keeping watch, and driving off the birds, to prevent the 

 destruction of the insects. These caterpillars produce a coarse kind of 

 yellow silk, called " Manga" from which cloth is made by the Castas. 

 When they have devoured the foliage of one tree, (as they had nearly 

 done of this) they are carefully removed to another. From hence the 

 ground begins to rise. Passed along a tolerable path, through a grove of 

 orange and areca trees, — crossed the bed of the P audita Nala three or 

 four times, over sand and round stones — now began to ascend in earnest. 

 Proceeded through groves of orange and citron trees, loaded with fruit, 

 interspersed among the broad-leaved plaintain and stately betel, with an 

 underwood of flowering shrubs, and the prickly pine-apple obtruding its 

 fruit across the path. Nothing can be more beautiful than these cool and 

 shady groves, soothed by the murmurs of distant torrents, and refreshed 

 by numerous crystal streams. A group of Cdsia women passed by, 

 bearing at their backs conical baskets, suspended from their foreheads by 

 bands of matting, and heavily laden with lumps of smelted iron ore. 

 My baggage was carried in the same manner. The women are the best 

 porters, and young boys and girls also bear their appropriate loads. 



