134 



Notes on Goomsoor. 



XI. — Cursor?/ Notes on Wodiahghur and the adjacent part of 

 Goomsoor, and on the People of that Country. — By W. G. Max- 

 well, Esq. m. d. of the Madras Medical Service. 



The name Wodiahghur seems to arise from the circumstance of the 

 Goomsoor Rajahs having there had a fort, or place of residence, to 

 which they retreated in periods of difficulty or danger. The remains 

 of a small mud fort are still seen, on the east bank of the stream in the 

 open country. The walls are still standing, penetrated with loop 

 holes; — a ditch, partly filled up, surrounds the place, and clumps of 

 bamboos growing from it, denote the pains once taken by the rude 

 chieftains to render it secure. From Nowgaum twenty-five or thirty 

 miles of dark and dreary forest has to be traversed, before the traveller 

 reaches Khondistan ; but then, how delightful the prospect of the 

 sweet and smiling landscape that opens on his view, with scattered vil- 

 lages, and waving crops of grain ! While threading the dark and dank 

 forests below, he breathed only a stagnant, suflTocating and impure at- 

 mosphere ; he now inhales a pure and refreshing breeze. 



The whole of the open country, however, appears once to have been 

 covered with jungle, which, year after year, has been thus far cut down 

 by the mountaineers. The mango trees have alone been left standing ; 

 the mountain sides are, every where, studded with them ; they attain a 

 majestic size, and are then cut down by the mountaineers for domestic 

 uses. The doors of their houses are formed of a whole plank of the 

 wood, often four or five feet broad— such however is the rudeness of 

 their tools and workmanship, that they only procure two planks from 

 one tree. 



The slopes of the hills are allotted for the pasturage of their cattle, 

 the centres of the valleys for the cultivation of rice ; — here there is no 

 occasion for wells or tanks, for the purposes of irrigation there is a 

 continual supply of water from the mountain sides, or from the numer- 

 ous springs that issue from the centre of the valleys. The culti- 

 vation of rice is often continued down the steepest descents, in the 

 form of steps, the height from one to another being often six feet. 



All the uncultivated spots become annually covered with the durha 

 grass ( Poa Cynosuroides), growing to a great height, much impoverish- 

 ing the ground, and completely obstructing the grazing of the cattle. 

 It requires annually to be burnt down just before the rains, and there is 

 soon again abundance of pasturage for the cattle. 



