16 
NOTE ON A TOUR IN MYSORE. 
combs, pen-racks, card-cases, paper-knives, &c. An ex- 
quisite specimen of tlie Gudigar's skill — a box supported 
on recumbent elephants — is reproduced in autotype at plate 
29 of Hawke's ' Photographs of Madras Art Ware.' The 
Gudigars are, I am told, now working for European Firms 
from patterns sent from Europe. 
From Shimoga I returned, without a halt, to Bangalore, 
and, from there, w-ent by train to Mysore, where I made 
sundry purchases from a firm of Muhammadans, Ali 
Muhammad and Muhammad Makdum, who manufacture 
well executed articles in "rose-wood" {Dalbergia Satifolia) 
and Ebony inlaid with ivor3^ 
The articles consist of flower-stands, boxes, teapoys^ walk- 
ing-sticks, easels, blotting-pads, cups, photograph frames, 
watch-stands, pen-racks, &c. Very fine specimens of this 
inlaid work are to be seen in a door of the Maharaja's palace 
at Bangalore and the doors of Tipu Sultan's Mausoleum at 
Seringapatam. The same firm also make vina-handJes 
carved in rosewood, and copper figures of various Hindu 
Deities under brass conopies. In the Mysore bazar some 
quaint specimens of brass-ware were picked up. 
From Mysore I proceeded by way of Huusur, Peria- 
pattaua and Fraserpet to Mercara. At Fraserpet, where 
the Kaveri — the home of the otter and crocodile — is crossed, 
the Coorg Province is entered. The first part of the road 
from Fraserpet to Mercara, where travellers are sometimes 
boycotted by elephants, leads through thick bamboo jungle 
with clearings for coffee, the Plantain, and the "Sago 
Palm" {Garyota urens), the fibre of which is used, in the 
Madras Ordnance Department, for the manufacture of 
stable brushes ;^ the fibre being procured from Ceylon at 
^ Detailed information concerning tlie fibre of Caryotri urens for bnisli- 
makiug is given in my ' Hand-book of Commercial Products,' Imperial 
Institute, No. 12, 1S93'. 
