CHAPTER XXIV

BOATS AND FISHING

Water communication in Travancore being so generally available, and in some localities the only means, various classes of boats are in constant use.

On the smaller rivers, tiny canoes a few feet in length, and lightly paddled by a single person, must be always at hand to enable those who live on the banks to cross over or to get about; on the line of traffic north and south, by backwaters and junction canals, long narrow canoes for ordinary passengers, or cabin boats for those of better means, and slower baggage boats for heavy merchandise, are continually travelling hither and thither, while on the sea-coast immense numbers of fishing canoes and rafts are employed, besides a few native craft of clumsy make and small burden, which work as coasters for the carriage of cocoanuts, salt, and other bulky produce.

The ordinary Canoe or Vallam sometimes called a “dug-out,” is fashioned from a single large log hollowed out and trimmed by carpenters, generally in the forests where the tree grew. The best and most durable timber is anjelly (Artocarpus hirsutus), but jack and other woods are also used. They are made from the smallest size of a few feet in length, scarcely bearing the weight of a man, and rising but a few inches above the surface of the water, to the largest, measuring perhaps 43 feet long by 3¾ in width.

The commonest size for a passenger canoe (such as is represented in the illustration) is from 20 to 30 feet long and 2 to 3 feet broad. These are propelled by a bambu pole along the shallow waters, at the rate of about two and a half miles an hour; sometimes a second man rows with a paddle at the bow, or a sail made of soft matting, hence called pay is set up on a bambu mast in the fore part of the boat, in which case it may progress at the rate of six miles an hour, where there is plenty of ‘sea-room,’ and the wind is favourable.

Being round-bottomed, however, and without any keel, these Canoes rock and list heavily with waves or wind; there is much labour in propelling them under adverse circumstances and on a dark night, so that the men are often afraid to proceed. Losses do occur by the capsizing of canoes every year through mismanagement, sudden squalls, or overpowering currents.

Scores of these boats start every night with the passengers for Trevandrum, Quilon, and other towns. They are crowded and uncomfortable, usually as many as thirteen passengers in a canoe, sometimes more, in which case there is no room to lie down; but the rates are exceedingly low, say about three chuckrams for 24 miles. Passengers try to fall into the company of others of somewhat similar caste, and may spend part of the night pleasantly chatting together before falling asleep.

A European can travel pretty comfortably, though slowly, in one of these canoes by engaging one for himself, at the rate of a little over a rupee for 24 miles near Trevandrum; and two and a-quarter rupees for 40 miles farther north. The latter distance can be done in eighteen hours. Two men take turns in poling; or one rows and the other poles. A mattress is spread in the centre of the boat, the mat covers are drawn over the whole space, and there is abundance of room for luggage, provision box, and a servant or two. Sometimes all fall asleep in the night, and the boatman slily stops work to take a snooze or go ashore to refresh himself.

The men are usually Ilavars, Roman Catholics, or Muhammadans; the last I have found the most troublesome and unaccommodating to deal with. The introduction of steam navigation, long talked of, and now proposed by a Scottish company at Quilon, will doubtless be a great public convenience, as it has already proved at Cochin and Ernakulam.

Names are sometimes given to these boats, such as Colatoorpolay odi from the place where the timber was felled; or Romukku odi ‘ fly to Rome.” The owners hire them out to poorer men, who work them. Some possess three or four boats, or as many as ten or twelve; and a good canoe will last, with proper treatment, fully forty years. The best and largest cost up to Rs. 200 each, the monthly hire of which class will amount to four rupees.

Baggage boats called Kettuvallam or “sewed boats,” also ply in great numbers on the inland navigable waters.

They are built of planks sewn together with coir cordage through holes drilled in the edges, the seams also being caulked, as it were, to make them water-tight, with coir fibre and yarn, round and over which the stitching goes. The general outline is the same as that of the canoe, but of course they can be made of much larger size.

A second-class one, the largest in which passengers would care to travel, as they are so very slow, though roomy and comparatively cool, is about five and a quarter feet wide, and twenty-five to thirty feet in length. Being protected with a semi-circular waggon-like cover of matting which rises to the height of six feet above the bottom of the boat, one can almost stand upright or lie crosswise in it; a table and chair can even be used, much less fatiguing than being compelled to lie for a whole day, or longer, in a narrow canoe with low cover. But the time occupied in a journey is much longer.

The burden of this boat would be sixteen candies; say over four and a half tons, and the hire for sixty miles with two men about Rs. 2. Large baggage boats cost from Rs. 300 to Rs. 350. They are owned by various classes, and are hired out at the rate of Rs. 50 or Rs. 60 per annum to men who work them from place to place.

Graceful and swift cabin boats, invaluable to travellers, ply on the smooth backwaters and up the rivers. They are built at Cochin or Quilon of anjelly, teak, and jackwood; usually about thirty feet long and six feet in beam. In the front half of the boat are seats for ten to fourteen rowers; the stern part is covered in as a little cabin with wooden roof, windows, doors, and seats, which latter are more frequently fitted with planks so as to make a level floor on which the mattresses are spread for reclining or sleeping, while boxes and other luggage are neatly ranged underneath the seats. A. second little box cabin and other accommodations are frequently attached for females and children, or servants. The plan is given above.

The Marakan, or steersman, occupies a little seat outside the cabin door, and a native servant may occupy the other. The steersman is sometimes owner of the boat ; generally a clever and sharp fellow ; he leads the chant, and indulges as he may see necessary in reproof, encouragement, or small wit to cause a smile amongst his men. The paddles are of bambu, with a flat saucer-shaped piece of wood secured at the end of each. An awning can be spread over the rowers in the heat of the day.

The men pull lustily, accompanying their labour with a song, or rather a responsive chant, the words of which it is very difficult to tpake out. I have often asked my native companions whether they could distinguish the words, and they always pro- fessed to be unable to do so. On one journey, by making special inquiries on the subject, one or two of their songs were obtained. Some are improvised and simply amusing, inco- herent, or nonsensical-others are Roman Catholic religious compositions-others from the Ramayana, and other poems appropriate to Sudras rowing their long snakeboats.

There are said to be ballads on the Great Fire at Alleppey, the Inundation at Trevandrum, and such like, but no patriotic or national songs.

One of the common chants used by boatmen has been very accurately reduced to notation by Rev. R. Collins as follows:-

Some of these boatmen are very athletic, well-made, fine looking men. Their usual time from Quilon to Cochin (ninety miles) is twenty hours, resting a short time half way to eat their rice ; and I have even knpwn them after such a journey offer to go on, after taking six hours’ rest, to Trichoor, forty-five miles farther, and then was amazed to learn that they were arranging to start on their return with the empty boat almost immediately again.

The fare for the above ninety miles for the whole boat, whatever travellers or luggage go in it, and a dozen rowers, inclusive of half hire for taking back the empty boat, is about Rs. 30-for sixty-four miles it is about Rs. 17.A first-class boat will carry a great deal of luggage stowed in different partssay up to a couple of tons-and there is quite room for several travellers, or a family.

It is much more convenient, expeditious, and for a large party more economical an locomotion by bullock carts, where there is so much packing and unpacking and exposure to the weather. But the jerking of the cabin boat by the paddles is a sad hindrance to writing on the way.

These boats cost Rs. 500 to Rs. 900 each, and will last for twenty years or more. They earn, if well managed, Rs. 150 to 200 a year. Many are owned by Roman Catholic Christians. The rowers often complain of suffering from impressment for travellers, the Beach Superintendent, one of their own class appointed by the Sirkar, taking bribes from those who are better off and strong in body, and often seizing the poor, the aged, or boys, beating those who attempt to flee to avoid the inconvenience. Some better arrangement should be made, or the rates raised, to secure voluntary labour.

Boatracing is a favourite pastime, for which considerable facilities exist on the numerous rivers and lagoons. Long “snakeboats,” low in the water, with ornamental bow and stern curving upwards, are the principal boats used.

These are paddled by men, who keep good time in singing, and become greatly excited, yelling and shouting when warmed up with the race. At temple festivals in some parts, these boats form a striking feature of the scene. At Chembakulam, for instance, annually in June, boat races are run in honour of the Ambalapuley god, Bhagavan, by various classes of people. Certain lands are held on condition of this service, the holders of which circumambulate the temple, carrying flags of the god.

So at Aramula : “ I8th August, at 5 A.M.,” writes Rev. W. ]. Richards, “finds us opposite the great temple steps, on which an immense and excited crowd stands, some holding long lighted cressets which are reflected in the water, making a weird appearance in the grey light of morning. The river is alive with canoes, big and little, which are objects of great interest to those on the bank. There goes a stately racing-boat with its prow nine feet out of the water, and manned by a hundred rowers, besides a large number of singers standing up, and keeping time with hands and feet to the plash of the oars. These boats are reported when full to contain 200 persons each.

"How proudly they stand, how exultingly they sing, how gracefully they sway to and fro ! Mark the feathering of the oars, and the musical motion of the paddles stretched far from the boats, and brought to the water at the end of a circular sweep. How fine the boat looks, ornamented at head and stern by plates of burnished brass and large silverheaded nails, which they call ‘ bubbles’? This is Onam, the great festal season of Travancore, and these are all high-caste people performing their national boat game. These five great boats abreast make the air ring with their songs as they glide in state down the river. If we could but wait till next Monday, the 23rd, we should see twenty-five together.”

For fishing purposes the simplest possible invention is the raft or catamaran (kettumaram, “tied-tree”), consisting of four or five logs of very light buoyant wood, such as the Erythrina Indica, fastened together with cross bars and ropes near the ends. It is surprising how often writers carelessly speak of the rafts and boats as made of the cocoanut tree-a wood which sinks at once in water.

Mounted on these strange floats, and of course almost nude, for the water freely washes over and through the logs, and paddling with a piece of bambu, the men go out to fish for hours, even hoisting a diminutive sail when the wind favours.

The fishing boat is like the ordinary canoe, but narrower and deeper, and not so long ; provided also with a plank on either side as a kind of gunwale. These boats cost Rs. 50 to Rs. 100 each ; but with outfit of nets, say Rs. 140.

They are owned by Roman Catholic or Muhammadan fishermen, partners often uniting, so that thirty or forty persons may be interested in one boat. Hooks are used, or small cast nets, out at sea ; and a quantity of young sharks will be brought in-some good large fish like carp, and many others. On some days nothing is taken ; at other times four or eight chuckrams’ worth. The least takes are in the hot season, from February to April; the largest in the S.W. monsoon, June to August, when the weather admits of their going out at all.

Occasionally large quantities of seer fish, or Indian salmon, are caught, Sharks are taken with a large hook and chain : from the liver the oil is extracted, and the flesh eaten by Muhammadans, Ilavars, and Roman Catholics.

Multitudes of the young are daily caught, and it must be a great advantage that the numbers of these ferocious creatures are kept down in this way. As it is, they are sufficiently dangerous, carrying off Pulayars gathering shells for the manufacture of lime, or Vedars diving in the sea outside the rocks for shell fish, or fishermen who may fall into the water. “If a shark once seizes a man it never lets go.” But in rare cases agile men may escape with the loss of one or both hands, or a leg.

A large proportion of the fish are caught with the long dragnet, consisting of a cotton bag with fine meshes in the centre, and wide meshes of knotted coir rope at either end to lead the fish into the central bag. The upper ropes are supported by wooden floats, and the under ones kept down by stone sinkers, so as to make a kind of wall of rope. An immense quantity of cordage is used for this net, which almost fills a small boat, being nearly half a mile in total length.

One end is left on shore in the hands of a few helpers, and the other end carried to sea by boat, and then payed out in a semicircle : after an hour or two it is dragged in to shore by ten or twenty men and boys. Idlers assisting in the haul are rewarded with a few of the fish. The two ends of the net are equally pulled, boys shouting and beating the water in the middle to drive the fish into the bag as it nears the shore.

Large quantities of fish are taken in these nets, chiefly ribbon fish, mullet, pomfret, mackerel, rayfish, with bushels of sardines and small-fry. Thousands of cuttle-fish are also caught and eaten. Perhaps about one and a half rupees worth is the average produce of a single haul. The fisherwomen wait with their baskets ready to run with the fish to the nearest market, and the small fishes are spread out on the sand to dry in the sun.

The supply of fish in the Indian Ocean is abundant, and practically inexhaustible, and with larger boats and better appliances a vast addition might be made to the food store of the people. “ But more scientific means than the catamaran and the hook are required to gather in from the sea the harvest which nature provides. Steam trawlers pay on the English Coast, and should do so on the coast of the Madras Presidency, if worked with economy.”

A more liberal policy as to the salt tax should, however, be inaugurated. The net revenue or profit to the Government from salt in Travancore amounts to twelve and a half lacs of rupees, which averages a fraction over half a rupee per head for man, woman, and child, rich and poor, for taxation alone, besides the actual price and retailers’ profits of the salt consumed. The general testimony is that numbers of the poor “have to put up with two-thirds of the proper quantity-are not able to afford sufficient-do not get enough -suffer much from this cause.”

But the Native States are in this matter obliged perforce to follow suit with the British Government, and to keep up with their scale of taxation of this article. Salt might, at least, be supplied in Travancore, as in Tinnevelly, at lower rates to fishermen for curing fish. This trade is at present a nuisance and a danger to the public health, from the bad quality of the provisions cured rather by the sun than by the antiseptic.

Vast numbers of good fish are found in the seas ; and the people are prepared to use them largely as food, and do use them; but heavy taxes on salt, and heavy duties on exports are highly repressive of this valuable industry, which might expand and become an additional help in periods of general famine.

“ If capitalists should embark on the business of fish-curing,” says the British Commissioner of Salt Revenue, “the Government will be willing to aid them by the duty-free issue of salt at the lowest possible price consistent with the realization by the Department of a fair manufacturing profit ; and on some such conditions as that suitable and secure premises be provided for the custody of the salt, and for the conduct of the operations of fish-curing; and that the adventurers pay for the deputation of a Government officer to supervise the work, and to prevent the removal of the salt otherwise than in corporation with the salted fish ; and give such other security as may be thought necessary that the privilege granted them will not be abused.”

Unfortunately, however, on the West Coast the best months for fishing are the most dangerous and unsafe for boats.

At the same time greater freedom, protection, and consideration should be given to the fisher-classes. These have somehow always been helpless, uneducated, and the prey of their rulers, and ought certainly to be freed from the depressing extortions of which they still complain in Travancore.