98 



Journal of an Expedition [no. 3, new series, 



hundred families on the banks of the Oracumbum, but I did not, as 

 it chanced, fall in with any. 



It was a great disappointment to me to see nothing of this wild 

 race, who like the tribes that inhabit the mountain regions of the 

 world in general, are in all human probability the first possessors 

 of the plains. They have been fugitives from the invader of their 

 country, too proud it may be, to bear the slavery they were threat- 

 ened with : and contented rather to brave the miseries of the pre- 

 viously untrodden forest, than to take the place of menials to their 

 conquerors. This well-founded supposition gives a peculiar inter- 

 est to the people of the forest every where ; and if the accounts of 

 the " Kader tribe' ' are true, they have, after an unknown length 

 of time passed in banishment from all that civilized man considers 

 the commonest necessaries of life, still retained some of the finest 

 feelings the human race can boast of. 



Since writing the diary from which this abstract is made, I have 

 had some intercourse with the wild people of the Annamullays, and 

 my acquaintance with them enables me to bear witness to their 

 many good and agreeable qualities. They are gentle in their man- 

 ners, kind and courteous, and always ready to help the stranger 

 who meets them in their forest. And if the shelter they have to 

 offer is but indifferent, their hospitality is greater in proportion to 

 their mean3, than that of more civilized races ; for they will at any 

 moment, and in any spot, build a new house for the travellers, and 

 furnish it completely. 



The little houses built on such occasions, are curious specimens 

 of simple ingenuity. They are made entirely of twigs and leaves 

 and grass ; and there is not a stick in them an inch in diameter. 

 Light straight wands are stuck in the ground, enclosing a space 

 al>out 10 feet by 6. The sticks which are to help in forming the 

 sides of the house are about 5 feet high, while the two which are 

 to support the ridge of the roof may be 7 feet in length. Cross 

 sticks are tied by strips of bark to support the uprights, and form 

 a network for holding the leaves or grass which is to form the wall. 

 The roof has gable ends, and is composed like the sides, of cross 



