The native Christians do not constitute a large or influential portion of the community in this part of India, although the Nestorians in very early times settled and planted their faith on the western coast of the peninsula. About the towns of Cannanore and Tellichery, there are a few fishermen and palanquin bearers, called Kolakar and Pandee, said to have migrated from the Travancore country. The other “Nussuranee (Nazarene) Moplahs,” as the Christians are styled by the Heathen, are almost all Catholics, either the descendants of the Portuguese, or converted by them to Romanism. They reside principally in the large towns upon the coast: unlike their brethren in Canara, they imitate the European costume, and occupy themselves either with trade, or in the government courts and cutcherries. They are notorious for dishonesty and habitual intoxication.[132]
Amongst the many social usages and customs peculiar to the natives of Malabar, the two following deserve some mention. There is a kind of general meeting, called Chengathee koree, or the “Society of friends,” established for the purposes of discussing particular subjects, and for inquiring into the conduct of individuals. It is supported by the monthly subscriptions of the members, and all must in regular turn—the order being settled by lots—give an entertainment of rice, flesh, and fruit to the whole party. As the entertainer is entitled to the amount of money in deposit for the month, and the feast does not cost half that sum, each member is anxious to draw the ticket with his name upon it as soon as possible. In some places these convivial meetings are heterogeneously composed of Nairs, Moplahs, and Tiyars; when such is the case, the master of the house provides those of the other faith with raw food, which they cook and serve up for and by themselves.
The way in which “dinner parties” are given show some talent in the combination of hospitality with economy. A feast is prepared, and all the guests are expected to present a small sum of money, and a certain number of cocoa-nuts, plantains, betel-nuts or pepper-vine leaves to the master of the house. An account of each offering is regularly kept, and a return of the invitation is considered de rigueur. Should any member of society betray an unwillingness to make the expected requital, or to neglect the gifts with which he ought to come provided, they despatch a little potful of arrack, and the bone of a fowl, desiring the recusant in derision to make merry upon such small cheer. The taunt is, generally speaking, severe enough to ensure compliance with the established usages of society.
CHAPTER XIV.
THE LAND JOURNEY.
Being desirous of seeing as much as possible of the country we preferred the route which winds along the sea-shore to Poonanee, and then striking westward ascends the Blue Hills, to the short mountain-cut up the Koondah Range. Our curiosity, however, more than doubled the length of the march.[133]
No detailed account of the ten stages[134] will be inflicted upon the peruser of these pages. The journey as far as Poonanee was a most uninteresting one: we have literally nothing to record, except the ever-recurring annoyances of being ferried over backwaters, riding through hot sand fetlock deep, enduring an amount of glare enough to blind anything but a Mucwa or a wild beast; and at the end of our long rides almost invariably missing the halting place. Arrived at the head-quarter village of Paulghaut, the victims of its deceptive nomenclature,[135] we instituted a diligent inquiry for any objects of curiosity the neighbourhood might offer; and having courted deceit we were deceived accordingly. A “native gentleman” informed us that the Yemoor Malay Hills, a long range lying about ten miles to the north of the town, contains a variety of splendid points de vue, and a magnificent cataract, which every traveller is in duty bound to visit. Moreover, said the Hindoo, all those peaks are sacred to Parwati, the mountain deity, who visited them in person, and directed a number of small shrines to be erected there in honour of her goddesship.