Malabar Hill

“ The favourite suburb is Malabar hill, a high ridge running out into the sea, and terraced to the top by handsome houses, which command one of the finest views, of its kind, in the world. Of recent years wealthy natives have been competing with Europeans for the possession of this desirable quarter. To the right of this ridge, looking towards the sea, runs another suburb known as Breach Candy, built close upon the beach and within the refreshing sound of the waves. To the left of Malabar hill lies Back Bay, with a promontory on its farther shore, which marks the site of the old Bombay Fort ”

“ It was nearly a year after the affair on Malabar Hill before I had the heart to return with your mother to Bombay. I had thought all emotion forever dead within me, but, ah! how little do we understand ourselves. Twelve months had not passed, and already I was conscious of a vague ache—a feeling that something, I scarcely knew what, had gone wrong, so terribly wrong! ”

“ Europeans, Malays, Arabs, Chinese, and Hindus frequent the grove. Far into the night this debauchery continues, and I trust the authorities will soon clean it out."
The carriages continued on their way to Malabar Hill, and made a thorough survey of the locality. At the southerly point they came to the village of Walkeshwar, whose pagoda-like towers they had seen from the ship, filled with residences, though not of the magnates of the city. Most of the buildings here were very plain. ”

“ One of the first places we visited in Bombay was Malabar Hill, a lofty piece of ground just outside of the city, upon the apex of which are the five famous "Towers of Silence," constituting the cemetery of the Parsees. Beautiful gardens, kept ever in bloom and loveliness by the most assiduous care, surround these towers, which are the subjects of such sad associations. The oldest of these structures is between two and three centuries in age, and one is solely designed for the bodies of criminals whose bones are not permitted to mingle with those of the just. ”

“ The drive along Queen's Road is a dream of beauty. The private residences, each with fine grounds, are many and tasteful, those along Queen's Road being usually occupied by the military class or by officials in the civil service. Malabar Hill is also a residential centre, and a drive there affords one an extended view of the city. There also one may have a glimpse of the Arabian Sea, but a much better view is to be had from the grounds of the Towers of Silence, that strange exemplification of the faith of a peculiar people. ”

“ The ladies' gymkana is a special feature of "the hill," and here tennis and badminton in covered courts is played every evening, whilst the children hold their own reception amongst the swings and merry-go-rounds, arriving on their donkeys and ponies with their numerous attendants.
When seen, as we did this evening, with the crimson sunset over the sea, the light just appearing in the clock-tower of the Secretariat away down in Bombay, with the single bright lights dotted along Queen's Road—Malabar Hill looked very beautiful. ”

“ We were to meet at the usual place and hour, take the night train for Matheron Station, and there be married.
“My heart bounded with joy as I climbed Malabar Hill on that fatal evening, but my delight was of short duration. In my fear lest I should keep my lover waiting I must have arrived fully fifteen minutes before the appointed time. I was standing with my back against the banyan tree, awaiting the first sound of his approach, when my attention was attracted by what seemed to be two little balls of fire shining from a clump of bushes almost directly in front of me. ”

“ There one sees something of native life in its native town. [Pg 62] Malabar Hill is very pretty, with its picturesque bungalows and vegetation. Mr. Arbuthnot took us to Bandora, which was to him what Bludán was to us in Syria, or Opçina at Trieste. He had there a charming bungalow and stables by the sea, on Salsette Island, a cool, refreshing, rural, and solitary place. The drive there took us through the bazar, and the beautiful Máhim woods, a cocoa-palm forest, and across an inlet of the sea, which looks like a lake, and divides Bombay from Salsette. ”

“ The one the more distant has two hills on it. The first is Malabar Hill, and the other Cumballa Hill. This is the aristocratic quarter of Bombay. The huge bungalows of the rich merchants and higher government officials are here. The scenery, natural and artificial, is very fine, and Asiatic magnificence prevails there. That will be one of our first rides. You observe near the point of the peninsula some towers, like pagodas, which will give you your first impression of the temples of India. ”

“ In the neighborhood of Elphinstone Circle and the Esplanade, the city will compare favorably with any modern European capital, both in the size and style of the public and private buildings, as well as in the broad, liberal squares and thoroughfares, ornamented with statuary and fountains.
A drive in the environs of Bombay, around the base of Malabar Hill and along the picturesque shore of the Arabian Sea, is an experience never to be forgotten by one who has enjoyed its pleasure. ”

“ The Nilgiri mountains, in the south of the Madras Presidency, near the Western or Malabar Coast, have long been interesting to the antiquary and anthropologist as abounding in cairns and megalithic remains, and the abode of that remarkable picturesque race, the Todas, and other peculiar hill-tribes. ”

“ A peculiar caste of Brahmans, called Nambudri, is found in Malabar. The most numerous of the hill tribes are the Kondhs and Savaras, two cognate races who inhabit the mountainous tracts of the Eastern Ghats, attached to several of the large estates of Ganjam and Vizagapatam. On the Nilgiris the best known aboriginal tribe is the Todas (q.v.) . The Mahommedans are subdivided into Labbai, Moplah, Arab, Sheikh, Sayad, Pathan and Mogul. The Labbais are the descendants of Hindu converts, and are traders by hereditary occupation, although many now employ themselves as sailors and fishermen. ”

“ It will be seen from the quotations below that in the Middle Ages, even after the establishment of the use of this termination, the exact form of the name as given by foreign travellers and writers, varies considerably. But, from the time of {540a}the Portuguese discovery of the Cape route, Malavar, or Malabar, as we have it now, is the persistent form. [Mr. Logan (Manual, i. 1) remarks that the name is not in use in the district itself except among foreigners and English-speaking natives; the ordinary name is Malayālam or Malāyam, 'the Hill Country.']
c. ”

“ Life on the hills must almost certainly have altered the physical characters of the people, and it is perhaps now hopeless to expect that any exact resemblance would be found with the existing races of Malabar even if the Todas are an offshoot of one of them. ”

“ These [Pg 314] people are employed both in humble avocations and in the higher walks of life.
Next, we notice the people known as Malabars. Under this patronymic, not only the natives of the Malabar coast, but those from the shores of the Bay of Bengal, are known; and consequently, coming from so extended a line of country, there is a vast difference in their appearance: those from one part of the country being small in person, with scarcely any muscular strength; whilst those from the Ghaut mountains are a tall, muscular race, capable, for Asiatics, of great bodily exertion. ”

“ In the south there is considerable extent of table-land. The mountains of the Western Ghāts run almost parallel to the coast, and vary from 3000 to 7000 ft. in height. One of the most characteristic features of Malabar is an all but continuous chain of lagoons or backwaters lying parallel to the coast, which have been formed by the action of the waves and shore currents in obstructing the waters of the rivers. Connected by artificial canals, they form a cheap means of transit; and a large local trade is carried on by inland navigation. Fishing and fishcuring is an important industry. ”

“ There are many traces of things of the sea, and all the low ground is very level like the sea, and the mountain chain is very craggy, and seems to rise to the heavens; and it is not possible to ascend, except in a few parts, and with difficulty, which is a cause of great strength to the Malabars, for were it not for the difficulty of entering their country on account of the roughness of these mountains, the King of Narsinga would already have conquered them. ”

“ The huts are laid out in right lines, and of convenient breadth; the houses are in different compartments, and are tolerably uniform, clean, and well-lighted. The parts occupied by the Malabar inhabitants have but little to recommend them, either in point of cleanliness or of neatness. Profiting by the mildness of the climate, they look not beyond shelter from the [16] elements, and seclusion from the public eye: a mean and sordid house afford both to their satisfaction. Ornament is never dreamt of, and even comfort is but little considered. ”

“ The Malabar lay on the water like a glow-worm on a floating leaf, and the glare of the signal-fire made no more impression on the darkness than the candle carried by a solitary miner would have made on the abyss of a coal-pit. ”

“ This is the coast which extends from the mouths of the river Ganges, at the beginning of the large kingdom of Bengal, as far as the cape of Comorin; it is inhabited by Malabars, a people very shrewd and intelligent, and fond of work, and so crafty that when it is worth their while they deceive [even] the Chinese, who excel in the ability to cheat. The Malabar and Bengal people are unsurpassed in the art of spinning and weaving cotton cloth ”

“ They also ship there much rice in Moorish ships for Aden, also pepper, which henceforward the earth begins to produce, but little of it, and better than all the other which the Malabars bring to this place in small vessels. The banks of this river are very pretty, and very full of woods and palm trees, and are very thickly inhabited by Moors and Gentiles, and studded with fine buildings and houses of prayer of the Gentiles, which are very large, and enriched with large revenues. ”

“ I went to one of these which belongs to the Samorim, another belonging to the Naique, where there are another 300, or a little over; and another belonging to another king, near Charti, where there are another 300 or rather more; the whole distance being eight Canara leagues, which are sixteen in Malabar. And they live scattered about—every month or thereabouts they move their village. The whole district is uninhabited desert. The winds and climate are very cold; the water is excellent, but icy cold; it flows down from the mountains; it cannot be drunk at a draught because of the cold. ”

“ Malabar (2,653) , a district in the W. of Madras, sloping from the Ghâts down to the Indian Ocean, very rainy, covered with vast forests of teak; produces rice, coffee, and pepper.
Malacca is a name given to the whole Malay Peninsula, that remarkable tongue of land 44 to 210 m. wide, stretching 800 m. ”

“ A range of hills, commencing opposite Senna, comes to within two or three miles of Mboma village, and then runs in a north-westerly direction; the principal hill is named Malawe; a number of villages stand on its tree- covered sides, and coal is found cropping out in the rocks. The country improves as we ascend, the rich valley becoming less swampy, and adorned with a number of trees. ”

“ Twelve leagues further on the coast turns to the north, the country is called Cholmender, [279] and it extends seventy or eighty leagues along the coast. In it there are many Gentile cities, towns and villages, and it belongs to the King of Narsinga; it is a land abounding in rice, meat and wheat, and all sorts of vegetables, because it is a country which has very beautiful plains. And many ships of Malabar come here to load rice, and they bring goods from Cambay to this country, that is to say, copper, quicksilver, vermilion, pepper and other goods. ”

“ Sixty miles west of Ceylon the travellers came to Maabar, a great province on the coast of India. This must not be mistaken for Malabar, which is situated on the west coast of the Indian peninsula. This Maabar forms the southern part of the Coromandel coast, and is celebrated for its pearl fisheries. Here the magicians are at work, and are said to render the monsters of the deep harmless to the fishermen; they are astrologers whose race is perpetuated even to modern times. ”

“ The doors of some of the huts face south, while in Malabar generally houses never face the south,—the unlucky quarter where the dead are buried or burned.
Like most jungle people the men are familiar with the bow and arrow, but they are not regular hunters. On one occasion I saw a number of boys playing a game called Chôrâyyi, the players standing in a row and shooting with small bows and unfeathered arrows at a roughly-fashioned disc of bark which a man, standing some twenty yards in front and a little to the right of the row of boys, threw in front of them. ”

“ The rise is along a very steep narrow ridge to a broad long grassy hill, 3,500 feet high, whence an extremely steep descent leads to the valley of the Boga-panee, and the great mart of Chela, which is at the embouchure of that river. The transverse valley thus formed by the Mamloo spur, is full of orange groves, whose brilliant green is particularly conspicuous from above. At the saddle below Mamloo are some jasper rocks, which are the sandstone altered by basalt. ”