Britischer Humor

"The first attempt to introduce European fish into the plateau was made in 1863, hen about 500 trout ova were sent out from England. They were not kept sufficiently cool and all died before they reached Ceylon. In 1866 Dr. Day made a far more earnest at-tempt with about more ova of the same kind [...]. The ova were packed in ice, kept in the ship�s ice-room (nine tons of Lake Wenham ice were sent to Suez [!] specially for the ex-periment), carefully guarded against vibration in the trains by being slung from the roofs of the carriages, and carried up from Coimbatore (the then terminus of the rail-way) with every precaution to a masonry hatching-house which had been specially built for them [...]. The ova had stood the journey fairly well [...]. Dr. Day next directed his attention to bringing up the fish from the rivers of the plains. [...]. Constant supervision was necessary, as the coolies employed to bring them up were both careless and cunning. One of their tricks was to lighten the barrels and chatties by emptying them of their water as soon as they were out of sight of Mettupalayam and filling them up again just before they reached Coonoor � the inevitable result being the death of all the fish in them[...] The first lot of 40000 ova were put into the ice-room of the steamer and, of cause, were frozen to death at once. The next lot (20000) arrived in March, the hottest time of the year, and nearly all died in consequence."

"The Thodawurs are, in appearance, a noble race of men, their visages presenting all the features of the Roman countenance very strongly marked, and their tall athletic figures corresponding with the lineament of the face. Some of them stand upwards of six feet high, and differ, in every respect, from all the other tribes of Asiatics with which we are at present acquainted. The countenance of a few are strikingly Jewish, which is remarked by almost every stranger. I found several of them possessed of Jewish names, and began to flatter myself that In had discovered a colony of the scattered tribes of God�s ancient people. But, on communicating my supposed discovery to a friend, I hardly thanked him, at the moment, for dispelling the illusion, by in-forming me, that he had given them these names, as he found it difficult to pronounce the barbarous [!] appellations by which they are called. Since they are ignorant of the practice of circumcision, [...] and posses no other features of the Jewish character, I fear all attempts to class them with that ancient and interesting race, will prove of little avail.

"In 1876 orders were issued prohibiting the drawing of toddy in this way [in the back-yard], but the Kurumbas and other jungle-tribes begged that this instructions might be rescinded, declaring that their gods were very displeased at not longer receiving offer-ings of strong drink at the periodical festivals, and were bringing down all manner of misfortune. The orders were withdrawn in the same year.