april — june, 1857.] over the Annamullay Mountains. 87 



He did not know the name or nation of the man who died there, 

 but seemed to have some reverence for the spot and spoke of the 

 murder as a martyrdom. 



Our road to this had been due north, or nearly so, and by our 

 reckoning we had travelled 10 J miles. "We now turned to east, 

 north east, and left the river, though by the printed map the 

 stream flows very parallel to the course we took. The path was 

 well trodden all the way, and there were fresh notches on the trees 

 showing that the smuggler had passed it the day before. This 

 plan of notching the trees as they pass along must have been 

 adopted by the smugglers when the path was less open than it is 

 at present; for the road is now so clear that a horseman might 

 canter along the whole of it. The traces of elephants though seen 

 everywhere, were none of them very recent, proving beyond doubt 

 that we were not near the banks of the large river. This had 

 one advantage that it saved us from the risk we had run in rid- 

 ing to Attripully, of going when we least expected it, into well 

 secreted pitfalls ; which here and there, so completely " opened'* 

 the road to all that came, that we had cause to doubt from step to 

 step the ground our horses trod upon. The pitfalls are of course 

 dug where the elephants most frequent the forest^ and at this 

 season, as the minor rivulets are dry, their haunts are by the larg- 

 est streams. After riding five miles we came upon a heap of 

 teak timber, which had been cut a few years ago by the Cochin 

 Circar, and left there, after they gave up working the forests. Now 

 this, our guide, said was cut in a place called Nelliampoyd, but 

 where that was he did not know. This was bad news, in one res- 

 pect, for it showed me beyond a doubt that if I followed him I was 

 not to go the path I wished most to see, that which led west 

 of Annamullay. There was however, nothing to be done, the 

 guide knew one way only, and that of course led to where tobacco 

 was grown in greatest abundance east of the town of Annamul- 

 lay. 



In the first part of our ride there was a sad want of water, and 

 when the trees did not meet over head, the heat was excessive ; 

 but where the shade was good, the temperature was most agreea- 



