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are annually exported. Charge the maund half a Rupee, in lieu of land-rent and you will have Rs. 25,000 per annum to expend upon roads. "Dreadful idea! The Coorgs paid nothing for Coffee in ancient days (for there was none). They would not like to have a new tax." To be sure, they would not like to part with their money; but why they should be taxed so lightly, compared with other subjects of the Company, I cannot understand. If their like or dislike is to be the rule, you had better tax them not at all, and pension them for making salaam to you. This arrangement they would no doubt like well enough. I feel assured, if the country were taxed more heavily, and if the larger revenue were spent upon improvements, the Coorgs would be gainers every year in hard cash. for their additional payment to Government. The greater part of the country might be turned into a Coffee garden, and produce 5,000,000 of maunds of Coffee instead of 50,000, as it now does. A number of good roads would draw trade and population into the interior of the principality. The value of property would rise, the indolent would be stimulated into industry; the industrious and enterprizing would rise to wealth, the waters of Coorg would be turned to account during the dry season, morasses and other unhealthy localities would be cleared and turned into fruitful and pleasant gardens. The country would scarcely know its own face after twenty years.

The Cardamom-plantations have been mentioned. Few persons are acquainted with the particulars of this singular branch of jungle-horticulture. A description of the establishment of a Cardamom-garden may be acceptable. The natural history of this grateful and aromatic spice has attracted much attention of late years. The Coorg Cardamoms, known as Wynaad Cardamoms, are most esteemed.

G

In the fair season, some time in February a party of Coorgs, in some western Náđu, (all the people that can be spared from home) will start for the western mountains. They select some convenient place under a large tree for their abode during the working season. Having arranged every thing at the halting place, they set out early next morning for the chosen Cardamomground. The steepest declivities of the mountains are chosen. The slope must face west, or still better, north. Eastern or southern slopes are two much expos ed to the east winds and the sun. One of the largest trees is marked. There are gigantic specimens to be met with in those forest solitudes. Some tree of 150 or 200 feet in height having been fixed upon, the ground at its foot is cleared of brushwood and thorns to a length of 250 or 350 feet, according to the height of the giant, and to a breadth of thirty or forty feet. This preparation being completed, the party sets out next morning very early, carrying four good adzes. A platform is erected between the stem of the tree, at a height of some twelve feet, and the side of the mountain rising behind. Upon this platform a pair of cutters stand, hewing with all their might into the tree right and left, until, they are exhausted. Then they change places with their comrades, until these also must descend for rest. Thus they cut the tree to a sufficient depth. Their work must be finished by noon-tide, or they are unlucky. At noon the front-part of the tree is cut, and at last some strokes are given to the side facing the mountain. The tree now shakes, bends, sinks, and falls from the height of its trunk down the side of the mountain, head foremost, carrying down in the great crash a number of smaller trees and rushing on a long way towards the deep valley below. sound of the tree striking the ground resembles the discharge of cannon or a loud peal of thunder, the

The

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ground trembles; the bold wood-cutters cling to some tree standing higher than the scene of terror.

The men go. Their work is done for the present. Within three months after the felling of the tree, Car damom-plants show their heads all over the ground shaken by the fall of the giant. They make their appearance during the first rains of the monsoon. During the rains they grow to a height of two or three feet, when the ground is carefully and softly cleared of weeds, thorns and small bushes, that may have sprung up. The Cardamoms must not be disturbed. The garden is now left again to itself for a year. Twenty months after the felling of the tree, in October, during the Kávéri month, when the Cardamom-plants have reached the height of a man, the party sets out again and clears the whole ground thoroughly. After six months more (April) the low fruit-bearing branches shoot forth. They become covered with clusters of beautiful flowers and afterwards with oval trivalvular eapsules. Other five months pass, and in the following October the first crop is gathered. A full harvest, however, is collected only a year afterwards, in the twenty-third month from the commencement of the plantation. The harvests continue good for six or seven years. When they begin to diminish, another large tree must be cut down on the plantation ground.

The yearly gathering of the Cardamoms is attended with great hardships. The harvest time falls in the month of October, when the grass in the mountains is very high and very sharp. The people, who go to the work, have their hands, feet and faces sorely cut. Besides, the wet grass is peopled with leeches innumerable. These are not the little tiny things, yon meet with in other monntainous districts during, or immediately after, the rainy season. They are full grown, good-sized animals, which give a good bite, and take a

good draught, and leave a sore wound. The Cardamomgatherers first set up a camp in some less inhospitable and less dreaded part of the mountains. A hut is erected. The thick long grass offers excellent thatch. A fire is kindled at night, and the men sleep sung and warm in the cold and damp forest. Early next morning they go to the Cardamom garden. The fruit-branches are cut with the fruit upon them; they spread like panicum dactylon (the creeper grass, which horses like so well,) upon the ground, netwise. Snakes, especially the poisonous Mandóli serpent, which is said to be peculiarly fond of the Cardamoms, abound among the creepers, and deal a bad bite, when they are disturbed. Frogs also jump from between the Cardamoms, frightened by the intrusion of human hands into their own domain. Each man gathers a good load, in time to reach the place of rendezvous before sunset. For no one could venture out during night time, when the great forests and mountains are full of wild beasts, or what is worse, of ghosts and demons without number. Having refreshed themselves by a hearty meal, the men commence a new work. They pick the Cardamom-capsules from the branches. It is often midnight, or later, before they have done. The master of the house labors with his sons and slaves. Those who are very active, are sometimes rewarded by being permitted to pick Cardamoms for themselves, when they have finished a good task. As soon as daylight glimmers in the morning, the men set out again for the plantation. At noon the women of the house arrive at the picking station, fill the Cardamoms into bags and carry them home. They have sometimes to march ten or twelve miles to the station, and to carry heavy loads back before night-fall. In company with the Coorgs, Páleyas, Kudiyas, Jeravas and Kurubas engage in the labors of the Cardamom harvest; but Holeyas* are not permitted to set their foot on those

*The glebae adsripti of Coorg.

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grounds. The whole business from, as it appears to the Coorg, the seedless springing up of the Cardamomplants to the harvest work, is strangely mixed up with superstitions. A good garden is a mine to its possessor. Some Nálkanádu families gather twenty and thirty maunds annually, worth 600-1,000 rupees. A few houses make fifty and sixty maunds. At the time of the Cardamom-harvest, Mápli traders will set out for the western districts with a good stock of bright handkerchiefs and other articles attractive to the Coorg-women and maids, and many a good bargain is made with the produce of Manchester, or Birmingham, for spicy Cardamoms sprung up in Coorg-glens, never penetrated by the sun's ray, during the bright winter or the cloudy

monsoon.

No accurate account can be given of the population. The last official census was made in 1839-40 when it was stated, that there were in Coorg 17,096 Coorgs, and 64,341 people of other castes. According to my own calculation I estimate the number of Coorgs now at 25,000 or 26,000. Their numbers have considerably increased in these twenty years of peace under the indulgent rule of the Company. This would give about five thousand fighting men. In the Rájéndranáma this is the highest number of Coorgs engaged in battles. Judging from information derived from different quarters, I suppose, that besides the 25,000 Coorgs, there is in the country an agricultural population amounting to about 60,000. The rest of the people living in Coorg may be 40,000 to 50,000; total: 1,25,000 to 1,35,600 souls.

The lives and properties of all these people are pretty well taken care off; that is, robbery and other crimes are repressed. But otherwise the merits of the Company's rule must not be estimated too highly. Though the Coorgs suffer severely every year from fever, and