The Monks of Malabar Malabar. Boolboom has fled from France to India to escape the vixenish temper of Anita Tivoli to whom he was engaged to be married. As the story opens, Boolboom has prospered as a merchant in ivory and is about to wed a native woman Tata-Lilli ("Hail the Groom, Hail the Bride"). Cocodilla enters and speaks about a wife's obligation to her husband ("Where He Goes, We Go Too"). Boolboom and the monks of Malabar confirm the customs ("The Monks of Malabar"), although Boolboom is not beyond flirting with Daru ("The Dear Little French Grisette"). Anita then puts in a very
Malabar region moisture-laden Southwest monsoon rains. The Malabar Coast featured (and in some instances still does) a number of historic port cities. Notable among these were/are Naura, Vizhinjam, Muziris, Nelcynda, Beypore and Thundi (near Kadalundi) during ancient times, and Kozhikode (Calicut), Cochin in the medieval period, and have served as centers of the Indian Ocean trade for millennia. Because of their orientation to the sea and to maritime commerce, the coastal cities of Malabar are very cosmopolitan and have hosted some of the first groups of Christians (now known as Saint Thomas Christians), Jews (today called as Cochin Jews), and Muslims (at