Page:The Southlands Of Siva.pdf/16

2 sunsets. Each cloudless day ends over the motionless sea in profuse outpouring of gold and fierce pulsations of blinding flame. So Canara ; for three-fourths of the year, glowing under the sun or touched to more mysterious beauty by luminous nights ; for the rest, a gray shadow behind the rushing rain.

Over this country I wandered for a matter of two or three years. Tents are not in use, for they perish in the monsoon, but there are plenty of bungalows for travellers. Sometimes I trudged it on foot in no great contentment, for the climate does not encourage exercise ; besides I generally felt ill and had not then been broken in to loneliness. Sometimes I was on my Pegu pony, a kind of horse which is now, I believe, extinct, much to the loss of the world. Canara contains no horses (for the matter of that it contains no sheep either), and the appearance of an equestrian provoked great interest among the cattle. As I rode along, while the humbler sort of folk moved off the road before me in accordance with their respectful custom, there was a reverse movement on the part of the cows. With tails erect these came tearing in from all quarters and galloped alongside me until their curiosity was satisfied. Nor were other animals indifferent to my progress. On an occasion I came upon elephants hauling timber in the jungle, and one of them, catching sight of me, fell down straightway in a fit. There were no grounds for the suggestion that this occurrence was due to my style of equitation, for elephants have, notoriously, a dislike for horses and dogs. My Collector's fox-terrier routed a tusker out of the forest, and the welkin rang with the trumpeting of the creature as it fed in terror, with the dog yapping joyously round its heels.

I shall not attempt to delineate many of the