intended for natives only, but it had two rooms entirely
open to the front, one containing a long stone platform
with half-a-dozen holes in it for cooking operations.
I have, however, often slept in worse places than
this, and with the help of my mattress, taken out
of the cart, I passed an excellent night and began
the next day’s journey by walking twelve miles before
the sun had risen too high to mar my pleasure. This
is the land of the cocoanut palm, fruit and rice fields,
it being abundantly watered by streams and canals.
Small properties are here the rule, and the country
flourishes from the minute attention bestowed by each
proprietor on his own little farm. There are fine
hedges of the Ixora Cochin-China, bearing a sweet-
scented flower of a peculiar maroon tint, which hitherto
I have not met elsewhere; also ginger and
turmeric are cultivated in these plains.
On the same evening, after one or two difficult
passages through rapid rivers—for bridges I saw none
—I reached Buntwalla on the Mangalore river, the
banks of which are rich in vegetation and picturesque ;
thence most travellers proceed to the coast by b oat;
but visions of mosquitos, whose furious attacks on
inland navigation in the tropics I had some acquaintance
with, decided me to remain the night at this
place, having my bed prepared under the table, as
the rain was pouring through the roof like a sieve,
and about noon next day I found myself comfortably
housed at the Traveller’s bungalow of Mangalore.
This town has not much to boast of in point of
beauty; there is a large native quarter and a considerable
amount of trade, shipping as well as inland. The
harbour smells strongly of fish, which is salted and
packed for export, whilst the dead fish and refuse
are sent by cart to Mysore to serve as manure.
There is at Mangalore as elsewhere a good sprinkling
of mosques and temples, the latter belonging to the
Jain sect, much resembling the usual style of Hindu
architecture. There are now probably, proportionately,
more Jains in Canara than in any other province of
India, excepting perhaps Chota Nagpur. Their exact
origin is still involved in obscurity; they seceded
from the Brahmins at a somewhat later period than
the Buddhists, say about the fourth century B.C.,
and they have much in common with the latter,
excepting that they admit into their religious system
the worship of some of the favourite Hindu
divinities and also retain caste, to which they
owed part of their popularity, whilst the followers
of Buddha have dwindled down to a very narrow
circle, if indeed they can be said to exist at all in
India.