36 7 
from Europe. This comparison seems to give force and beauty 
to a passage in the prophecy of Jeremiah, denouncing judgment 
on the Jews ; “ shall iron break the northern iron and the steel?” 
Salt-pans, or rather salt-fields, are formed in Travencore, as in 
most other parts of the Malabar coast: they are large reservoirs 
enclosed by mounds of earth, into which the sea flows at high 
tides; from whence, by a simple process, the water is conveyed 
into a range of small enclosures, where in the course of the day 
the fluid is evaporated, and the salt gathered in the evening. 
These reservoirs are most productive in the hot months preceding 
\ the rainy season; and from every part of the coast salt forms the 
chief article of inland commerce. 
These salt-pans being generally near populous towns and vil- 
lages, the men employed there are not more exposed to tigers and 
beasts of prey, than those occupied in the usual pursuits of hus- 
bandry: not so the Molungies, or salt-boilers, in the Sunderbunds, 
or wild regions of Bengal; who, of all the castes and tribes through- 
out the whole extent of Hindostan, seem to have the hardest fate: 
I would rather be a Pariah or Chandala, subject to their most 
ignominious treatment, and cruel oppression, than one of these 
unfortunate Molungies living in constant terror from the fiercest 
tigers, without any means of safety or redress. Their situation 
had often been represented to me by gentlemen from Bengal, 
and as often excited my commiseration; but 1 had no idea of 
their complete misery until I read the account of the Sunder- 
bunds by captain Williamson; where, he says, “ the royal tigers 
are often seen swimming across the various rivers which form 
