Gambar halaman
PDF
ePub

A CURIOUS CONTEST.

219

head and curvature of the neck resemble a horse; from whence a short swelling body gradually tapers to the extremity of the tail: some parts of its form are quadrangular, others hexangular, and the body has seven or eight divisions; the whole separated by ridges, and furnished with fins, to shape its course in its own element.

A principal amusement, during the rainy season, was to assemble at the bar of Anjengo river, to behold a curious contest, not only between the deities of the sea and the river, but also between the finny race in their respective dominions. In those months when the south-west monsoon blows with the greatest violence, the floods pour down from the mountains, swell the rivers, inundate the plains, and with astonishing rapidity, carry trees, houses, men, and beasts, to the ocean the finny tribes, disturbed in their calm retreats, are impelled to the embouchure of the river: where, led by instinct, or accidentally driven by the monsoon winds, they meet the monsters of the deep ready to devour them. The floods from the mountains impetuously rush to this outlet, and there meet a sandy bar, accumulated by the western surges, which presents a formidable barrier between the contending waters. Neptune's terrific billows dash furiously against the river streams, precipitating over the bar, and present a scene easier to conceive than describe. The floods contain immense shoals of fish, which, unused to such violent convulsions, attempt to escape the noise and fury by leaping over the bar, into the distended jaws of the tyrants waiting to devour their timid prey. An alligator is sometimes involuntarily impelled to act a part in this extraordinary gymnasium; and of course perishes in the ocean.

218

TRAVENCORE.

CHAPTER XII.

Travencore-Cultivation of Pepper-Cassia Lignea, and Cinnamon-Oil Plants-Olive Tree-Silk Cotton-Wild AnimalsCivet Cat; Crocodile and Alligator-Ichneumon-Seal-BirdsCrescent Snake--Black Amphisbona-Number of Noxious Reptiles-Termites, or White Ants-Gold Dust in Malabar Rivers-Iron Mines, Forges, and Smelting-houses-SaltpansMolungies or Salt-boilers of Bengal,

DURING my residence at Anjengo, I endeavoured to acquire a topographical knowledge of that part of Malabar; and the manners and customs of the natives of Travencore: its natural history opens a very ample field for investigation, and the inhabitants differ in many respects from the northern Hindoos.

Although not partial to Anjengo as a residence, I never made a distant excursion without being charmed with the variety of its rivers: sometimes we glide through narrow devious channels, between steep craggy rocks, with woody summits, where the branches, uniting over the stream, form a verdant canopy, impervious to the tropical sun: from these dark recesses we suddenly emerge into an extensive lake

"pure as the expanse of heaven;

[ocr errors]

again we enter a romantic scene of rocks and woods, or pursue the serpentine course of a broad gentle river fringed by odoriferous plants, and encircling many verdant islands, some inhabited, others woody and

MAGNIFICENT LANDSCAPE.

219

wild: these scenes are animated by beautiful birds; and the waters abound with excellent fish. Cultivation extends to some distance eastward of the rivers; from thence to the foot of the Gaut mountains the country is an entire forest, never frequented by travellers, and little known even by those who live in its vicinity: there, amid the solemn stillness of uncultivated nature, I have ranged for miles, rapt in solitary musings.

These excursions were my chief enjoyment at Anjengo: the fertile plains, the hills clothed by mango, cashew, and cassia trees, bounded by the stupendous Gauts towering in rude magnificence, formed a landscape not often exceeded. Its grandeur was augmented when seen from the heights of Eddova and Quilone; where I have often beheld the sun majestically rising above the summit of the eastern mountains, and throwing a broad expanse of light over the western sea. In such situations we experience the truth of Addison's remark, that "our imagination loves to be filled with an object, or to grasp at any thing that is too big for our capacity: we are flung into a pleasing astonishment at such unbounded views, and feel a delightful stillness and amazement in the soul, at the apprehension of them."

Among the various productions of the southern districts in Malabar are the pepper-vine, and cassia, (piper nigrum, & laurus cassia, Lin.) The former is a staple commodity at Anjengo, and grows on a beautiful vine, which, incapable of supporting itself, entwines round poles prepared for it; or, as is more common in the Travencore plantations, the pepper-vines are planted near mango and other trees of straight high stems, which being stripped of the lower branches, the vine

220

THE PEPPER PLANT.

embraces the trunk, covering it with elegant festoons; and rich bunches of fruit, in the picturesque style of the vineyards in Campagna Felice. The mango and jac trees are generally used for this purpose; few pepper gardens contain more than eight or ten trees: the vines are planted near the trunk, and led to it while young; the stem is tough, knotty, and strong: some begin to bear in the fourth year, others not till the sixth; they are in perfection about the ninth or tenth year, and continue bearing as many years longer, if in a congenial soil; from that period the vine gradually decays; a new soil is then prepared for a considerable depth round the tree, for the reception of fresh shoots from flourishing vines.

:

The leaf of the pepper plant is large, and of a bright green; the blossoms appear in June, soon after the commencement of the rains; they are small, of a greenish white; succeeded by bunches of green berries, which turn brown and hard as they ripen the pepper is gathered in February, and has the same appearance as in Europe. The flavour of pepper is more or less communicated to the fruit of the tree which supports it; a circumstance not at all relished by the proprietor, as many mangoes taste strong of turpentine, and are not improved by the additional pungency of pepper.

Assiduity and cleanliness are essentially necessary in a pepper garden; not a weed is permitted to grow; the produce, however, amply compensates for the trouble for although the Anjengo pepper is not so much esteemed as that produced at Onore and Carwar, it is sold, on an average, at eighty rupees a candy; five hundred and sixty English pounds weight. It is trea

[blocks in formation]

son to destroy a pepper-vine in Travencore, where the king monopolizes that branch of commerce; but permits the merchants of Anjengo to have a free trade with his subjects in cassia, coir, cables and cordage, made from the outer husk of the cocoa-nut.

The cassia resembles the bay-tree, of which it is a species: it is called cassia lignea, to distinguish it from the laurus-cinnamomum, or true cinnamon, to which it is very inferior: the finest cassia sometimes possesses the peculiar properties of that valuable spice, but is in general of a coarser texture and less delicate flavour. The real cinnamon seems indigenous to Ceylon; there are some trees in the Company's garden at Anjengo, as a curiosity. The leaves of the cassia are smaller than the laurel, and more pointed; those of cinnamon still more delicate: the blossoms of both, like the flowers of the arbutus, hang in bunches, white and fragrant; the fruit resembles a small acorn. The young leaves and tender shoots are of a bright red, changing to green as they approach maturity; they taste of cinnamon, but the only valuable part of the tree is the inner bark; which, being separated from the exterior is cut into pieces, and exposed to the sun, when it dries and curls up, and is packed in cases for foreign markets. The tree decaying on being deprived of its bark, is cut down, and new shoots spring from the root; it is also raised from seed.

The Travencore country abounds with indigenous trees, whose blossoms and foliage have a pleasing and diversified appearance; most of the fruit and seeds produce oil; one by way of distinction is called the olivetree, and bears a fruit in shape, size, and taste like the olive; and the oil is rather pleasant; but the leaf and

« SebelumnyaLanjutkan »