138 



CAPTAIN NELSON'S REPORT ON CERTAIN 



enough in their uniform appearance and small bone, how the breed has 

 become deteriorated. 



With any attention to select breeding, these districts could produce 

 admirable cattle, as the supply of grass all the year round is inexhausti- 

 ble, and a hilly rocky country is favorable to the development of strong 

 limbs and feet, activity and general hardihood. 



Spotted^deer, &c, are very numerous, and consequently the herds do not 

 suffer severely from tigers. Altogether it is a first rate cattle country, 



2. Page 130. 



From this place, and as far as Nagalooty, the Poolery tax is raised by a 

 contractor who pays 600 Rupees per annum for it. 



Emam Sahib, the contractor, generally collects t wo thousand Rupees 

 per annum, and if untiring energy in travelling from Pentah to Pentah at 

 all seasons of the year and in the face ot a deadly fever, ought to go for 

 any thing, he certainly fairly earns his handsome profit. He appears 

 popular among the Lumbadies and Chenchowars, which is much in his 

 favor, but I heard many complaiuts from the latter of the rapacity of his 

 peons, who, even in this season of scarcity, were laying an embargo upon 

 the wild mangoes, the only food which these poor people had to subsist 

 upon, and which of course had nothing to do with the Poolery contract. 

 The Chenchowars might give trouble. 



PURWUTTUM. 



Note 3, Page 132. 



In 1839-40, when Kurnoolfell, the Commissioner was induced to get into 

 his palanqueen and visit this extraordinary place. 



I am told that he then gave the Temple to one Sunkaray Charry, a Tem- 

 ple Brahmin, living in the neighbourhood of Jungoovarpully, reserving, 

 however, the endowments on the part of Government. The Temple ex- 

 penses amount to two thousand Rupees per annum, the assets generally to 

 between 7 and 10 thousand Rupees per annum. Sunkaray Charry, lets 

 the place to a contractor, a Brahmin, who defrays the expenses of the 

 Pagoda, servants 3 wages, &c, and pays a rent of 500 Rupees per annum to 

 Sunkaray Charry. This contractor, a man of no religious sentiment, has 

 brought the place down a great deal by his irreligious conduct, urging the 

 Poojaries to dig in the most sacred spots for treasure, and establishing 

 cordons of tax-gatherers, one within another, in the country round the 

 Temple and on all the roads by which the pilgrims arrive. 



The feast of Purwuttum lasts for two months ; i. e., from the new moon 

 in February until the new moon in April. All pilgrims, except Byragies, 

 religious medicants, &c-, pay about sixty Rupees per head per mensem for 

 the privilege of residing within the temple enclosure, and visiting daily 

 the holiest part of the temple in private prayer. Pour servants belonging 

 to the contractor, viz., a Brahmin, a Byraghee and two Teloogoo Poojaries, 

 remain in close attendance during the day near the images before whom 

 offerings are laid ■ The said offerings, whieh generally consist of eyes and 

 limbs in solid gold, offered either in gratitude for a supposed cure, or as an 

 inducement to perform one, are, on the retirement of the devotee, seized 

 and placed in a treasure chest which is kept on the spot. 



When the temple is closed at 9 p. m., the four abovementioned servants 

 are carefully searched, and the treasure chest is carried to the Cutcherry, just 

 outside the temple. Next morning the seals are broken and the contents 

 of the chest valued, frc. Each pilgrim desirous of entering the temple for 



