38 
SCENES IN INDIA. 
tanks and wells, are nearly all dry. A failure in the 
fall of rain during the monsoon is attended with se- 
rious inconvenience — indeed, a partial famine is the 
invariable consequence. 
The population of Madura has greatly decreased 
since its cession to the British government in 1801 : in 
1812 it amounted only to twenty thousand souls. The 
natives, with very few exceptions, are deplorably poor, 
living in small filthy huts, exhibiting all the squalid 
misery of the most destitute condition. The streets 
are narrow and dirty to the last degree — the drains 
obstructed ; and thus, during the rains, pools of stag- 
nant water eveiy where meet the eye, which soon be- 
come extremely offensive and unwholesome. Immense 
quantities of cattle are stalled within the fort ; in con- 
sequence of which filth of all kinds accumulates to an 
insufferable extent. It is also crowded with trees, 
which obstruct the necessary evaporation, at the 
same time infecting the air with noxious exhalations, 
from their decayed leaves ; while the water of the 
tanks, being seldom renewed, becomes putrid, and 
emits a most deleterious effluvia. At Madura there 
is a famous temple, consecrated to the god Vellaya- 
dah, to whom his devotees bring offerings of a singu- 
lar kind : these consist of leather shoes, the shape of 
those worn by the Hindoos, hut much larger and 
more ornamented. The deity of this place being ad- 
dicted to hunting, the shoes are intended to preserve 
his feet when he traverses the jungles.* 
Such is the present state of a city once renowned 
* See Hamilton’s Description of Hindostan, voL ii. p. 472. 
