Page:Vizagapatam.djvu/268

vizagapatam. Peddavalasa, Gúdem and Dárakonda, and thence down an even worse ghát. There is not a cart-road in the whole of the hills, and even horses are almost useless in such rough country. Officers do most of their marches on foot. The people, who all speak Telugu, consist chiefly of Bagatas (immigrants from the plains and the aristocracy to which belong the muttadars referred to below) Konda Doras, and Konda Málas or 'hill Paraiyans.' The last are a pushing set of traders who are rapidly acquiring wealth and exalted notions. In 1901 certain envious Bagatas looted one of their villages on the ground that they were becoming unduly arrogant. The immediate cause of the trouble was the fact that at a cockfight the Málas' birds had defeated the Bagatas'. The Konda Doras, and to a less extent the Bagatas, are the cultivators. Ragi is their favourite crop. Their methods are very casual. The soil is undoubtedly rich (the luxuriance of the grasses proves it) but the people go in for pódu cultivation (mainly on the southern side of the plateau, less further inland, and not at all on the southern slopes) or till the ground carelessly, making scant use of the irrigation possible from the numerous hill streams. Rather than toil at cultivation, they prefer to live by the sale of the natural products of the hills. These are very numerous and include limes, particularly sweet oranges, guavas, mangoes (the kernels and stones of which are pounded and made into porridge), tamarinds, jack-fruit, gall-nuts, turmeric, long pepper, mustard, wax, horns, honey and so on. At Peddavalasa are some coffee trees, grown from seed sent up by the Captain Owen referred to below, which have flourished immensely and are surrounded with self-sown seedlings.

The people seem happy and contented as a class and in the ten years ending 1901 increased by nearly 16 per cent. They still, however, number only 46 to the square mile; and in the plateaus inland the only cultivation to be seen is small scattered patches hidden away among the almost continuous sheet of jungle. In days gone by, tigers, fever and rebellion did much to thin their numbers. Almost every one eats opium.

The taluk has a romantic history. An early Rája of Jeypore, says Mr. Carmichael, had two of his cousins for umbrella-bearers and was pleased to promote them to the dignity of feudatories, placing one at Golgonda and the other at Mádgole and honouring both with the title of Bhúpati or 'lord of the earth.' This Golgonda is a village ten miles west of Narasapatam. The name is supposed to be a corruption of Golla konda  'the hill of the Gollas,' a race of shepherd-kings of whom (see p. 28) misty traditions survive in this corner of the district. {{center}248}}