1848.] 



The Neilgherry Mountains. 



67 



ally assumes a more aggravated form through the cessation of the 

 action of the skin, after a short residence, and compels the patient to 

 proceed to sea as the only alternative. 



Education and mode Amongst the Hill tribes it may be said that 

 of pursuing it. there is no education whatever. The German 

 missionaries, referred to in a preceding section, are now endeavouring 

 to establish schools amongst the Burghers, and to prevail upon the 

 parents to send their children to them, but I believe with very indif- 

 ferent success. They have so little ambition or desire to see their 

 children rise beyond the position in which they are born, that reading 

 and writing are looked upon as very unnecessary accomplishments ; 

 and as an illustration of this I may mention that a philanthropical 

 gentleman who has settled on these Hills, and who devotes much of 

 his time to the task of attempting the moral regeneration of the Bur- 

 ghers, is only able to draw children to a school which he has establish- 

 ed, by the payment of 1 anna daily to each ! The Kothers, Erulars 

 and Coorumburs are all equally degraded in regard to education, or 

 to the desire to acquire it, and with the Todars it is, of course, quite 

 out of the question. 



Amongst the native settlers from the plains the case is very differ- 

 ent ; in the settlement of Ootacamund there are five native schools, 

 which are attended by many of the children whose parents can afford 

 the small fee payable to the schoolmaster. 



The instruction imparted in these schools is, of course, confined to 

 reading, writing, and a sort of arithmetic. 



There is also a very g-ood school conducted by 

 European Schools, ° 



an European, for the education of the sons ot 



Europeans and East Indians, which is supported by voluntary contri- 

 butions; and is under the general superintendence of the chaplain of 

 the station for the time being. It is situated in Ootacamund, where 

 also two seminaries have been recently established for the children of 

 the better class, one for boys and one for girls, both of which, I believe, 

 are well supported, and prove of great advantage to officers and others, 

 whose means will not admit of their sending their offspring to England, 

 when they have attained the age beyond which it is considered un- 

 safe to keep them in the plains. 



It has been in contemplation to establish a 

 ^^SchooU proprietary school upon a large scale on these 



Hills, with a view to rendering the expense to 



