s. The Hindoos, in their manner
of diet, are very abstemious, refraining from flesh; in fact, they
will not eat any animal food; they are very regular in their morning
ablutions, which they do by washing and marking themselves with chunam
in the centre of their foreheads, according to the mark of their
different casts. If any one neglects it he is immediately turned out
of the cast, and his relations disown him, nor will they permit him
once to enter their house. Such is their strictness, that the father
has refused to see his son and the mother her daughter; and if they
happen to perceive him at any distance they fly from him as they would
from a serpent, thinking that his touch would pollute them.

The roads here are very bad, being principally jungle; their principal
cultivation is paddy (a kind of oats). On my arrival at Nundihall I
was determined to rest for a couple of days, as two of my servants
were in a very ill state of health. Nundihall is a beautiful town, the
houses are built of brick, and are generally from three to four
stories high; the streets were very dirty, owing to the number of
paddy fields that surround the city, as the growth of it requires that
the earth should be completely covered with water. The natives are
generally Hindoos and Moors. The town is surrounded by a high brick
wall.

After leaving the town of Nundihall the roads were very bad, owing to
the quantity of stones, and hills which were very steep and difficult
to ascend. On the roads I had several disputes with the natives
passing through Wuntimuttall, owing to my servants and the peons
stealing the toddy from the trees. Toddy is a liquor which is
extracted from the top veins of the cocoa-nut trees, which runs
continually into a pot placed for that purpose. The liquor is very
pleasant, and is reckoned very wholesome when drank early in the
morning in a small quantity; if drunk in the heat of the day it causes
acidity in the bowels, and often is the cause of the death of many
Europeans. The natives drink it continually, and often get quite
intoxicated with it.

We arrived at Cuddapah on the 21st instant; it is a large and
commodious town, and is inhabited by Mussulmen. Cuddapah is situated
N. W. of Madras, one hundred and fifty-one miles distant, and the
general estimate of inhabitants is at about two hundred thousand. The
principal houses are built of brick and the inferior ones of mud.

The Mahometans divide their religion into