MALABAR VILLAGES. 
179 
sentenced to be hanged upon a tree. The sentence was 
accordingly carried into execution, and the boy was 
actually found dead within a few hours after. This 
circumstance caused a great sensation at the time j 
but, from the youth and number of the offenders, it 
was considered inexpedient to proceed against them 
with rigour. Their confederacy, however, was 
broken, their laws were abrogated, and the fear of 
punishment prevented the recurrence of any similar 
extra-judicial acts among these juvenile legislators. 
“ The villages of Malabar,” says Hamilton,* “ are 
the neatest in India, and much embellished by the 
beauty and elegant dress of the Brahmin girls. The 
houses are placed contiguous in a straight line, and 
built of mud, so as generally to occupy two sides 
of a square area, a little raised, and kept clean and 
free from grass. The mud is of excellent quality, 
and in general neatly smoothed, and either white- 
washed or painted ; but the houses being thatched with 
palm-leaves, are extremely combustible. Both ba- 
zaars and cottages have been introduced by foreigners ; 
the Nambouries, Nairs, and all the aboriginal natives 
of Malabar, living in detached houses surrounded by 
gardens, and collectively named Desas. The higher 
ranks use very little clothing, but are remarkably 
clean in their persons, cutaneous distempers being 
never observed, except among the slaves and the very 
lowest castes.” 
In the neighbourhood of Cochin we found a large 
number of persons afflicted with elephantiasis, which 
is scarcely seen in any other part of this coast. Here 
* See “ Description of Hindostan,” &c. 
