THE KANAKAPPILLAL 
off a man, or set of men fo any work, under the low ^ .. 
grumbling growl of “ Mametti Then cam i-* the 
I institution of the office "of '^canakappilloi, which « 
means literally the account-boy. IT^ had charge of 0/ / 
^ the tools, wiiif'h he issued eveiy morning, taking 
down the names of the recipients, and at 4 o clock p.iin 4:#w 
when W'>rk was done, he was in waiting with his 
tool book at the store to take back all the morning’s 
i?sue. If any failed to deliver the tools issued to them 
in the morning they \^ere reported to the master to 
be dealt with as he might deem expedient. Ir was 
neces ary for the kanakappilJai to be a sharp clever 
writer, as it was often necessary for him to take jot- 
tings and notes with great rapidi;y. In despatching 
coffee out of the store, it might be to carts many miles 
off, he took down the names of all the men who were 
loaded and sent off with the coffee baas ; he then pro- 
ceeded down to the carts, and checked the delivery 
of the coffee there. If this was not done, we had no 
security that the coffee would be all delivered at the 
carts, thus : Suppose we sent off fiom the stores 100 
bags, and the cartmen . came up and reported having 
only received 99 — how were we to lind out who the 
missing man was ? Not that there was much risk of 
him stealing or running off with coffee, the greater 
prol)ahility being that,~tinding himself unequal to the 
load, he would deposit it somew^here, and quietly lie 
dowm, or go home without saying a woi’d, so that we 
had to undergo all the trouble and anxiety of search- 
ing out for the missing bag, which would have been 
quite prevented, had the cooly briefly reported the 
ease at head-quarters ; hut no, he would not do that, 
the master might not believe him, would probably 
call him a lazy fellow, and stop his pay. Thus the 
great importance of cooly having confidence in their 
masters. Let the master be as strict as he likes, the 
cooly will never find fault with that so long as be 
is jiist. A cooly never finds fault with justice, even 
when it goes against himself. 
The kanakappillai had also to measure out rice 
from the store to the various gangs on an order froin 
the master. Ke also received arsd measured the rice 
when brought up by the coolies from the carts. This 
was & necessary check upon the coolie, for, if the 
certainty of this was not before him, he would be apt 
to purloin on th© road, leaving a few’ handfuls at I 
some wayside hut, having an equivalent in the shape 
of currystuffs, or perhaps aj^^raek . On some of these ]: 
measurements I have knoW^^'as^much as a quarter of d " J 
a bushe] short— -out of one — and no amoujit of threats 
could elicit any explanation as to wl)ere it had gone I 
to, or at most the bag was bad, it was badly sewn, or \ 
c ' 
