Burton, Richard Francis: Goa, and the blue mountains: or, six months of sick leave (London, 1851)

fall into a hypochondriacal state, and thus you ex-
pose yourself to that earthly pandemonium, the
Anglo-Indian sick bed. But should you, on the
contrary, quit the house, what is the result % The
roads and paths not being covered with gravel,
are as slippery as a mat de cocagne at a French
fair; at every one hundred yards your nag kneels
down, or diverts himself by reclining upon his
side, with your leg between him and the mud.
If you walk you are equally miserable. When
you cannot find a companion you sigh for one;
when you can, you probably discover that he is
haunted by a legion of blue devils even more
furious than those that have assailed you.

It is impossible ! Let us make up a party—a
bachelor party—and hire a bungalow for a month
or two at Kotagherry. We do not belong to the
tribe of " delicate invalids,"mor are our " complaints
liable to be aggravated by internal congestions
therefore we will go there as visitors, not vale-
tudinarians.

Kotagherry, or more correctly, Kothurgherry,*
stands about six thousand six hundred feet above
the level of the sea, on the top of the Sreemoorga
* The "hill of the Kothurs."