COORGs 
103 
CHAPTER VIII. 
COORG. ROBBERS HANGED. — PHAN SIGARS. 
We now descended the ghauts through a very pic- 
turesque country,, and pitched our tents in the territo- 
ries of the Coorg Rajah. As he was an ally of the 
British government,, to which he was much attached, 
we expected to be well received by him ; nor were 
we disappointed. The morning after we had made 
the descent of the ghauts, I was on horseback a 
little after daylight, when, suddenly turning an angle 
of the road, my horse started at something which 
appeared to obstruct its further progress. As the 
light was not yet very perfect, from the unexpected 
wheeling of the animal, I could not for the moment 
discover what had alarmed it, but, upon a nearer in- 
spection, I found it to be the body of a man suspend- 
ed from the arm of a tree that nearly extended 
across the road. It was in a dreadful state of decay ,* 
but so common are offensive odours of all kinds in 
India, that the traveller is never surprised at being 
half suffocated without seeing anything to account for 
his annoyance. Thus, though I had for some time 
breathed an atmosphere neither wholesome nor agree- 
able, I had nevertheless not the slightest suspicion of 
my proximity to such a loathsome object. I turned 
