Forest Life in Ceylon. (Appendix. Four dialogues between a Budhist and a Christian.)

Preface

. In journeying through, a desert the eye of the traveller lingers with interest and pleasure upon the oasis he has left, and which he is not again likely to revisit ; and so, in the Hfe of every man, there is probahly some period of shorter or longer duration on which the memory, in subsequent years, delights to dwell. Of such a character to the author was his residence in Ceylon. During four years he lived in that interesting island as a Coffee-planter and the Editor of a VI

PREFACE.

. newspaper, and those four years were so filled with incident, with employment, with variety and adventure, that, despite the pecuniary losses sus tained in a ruinous speculation, they have ever since afforded him ample and pleasing themes for reflection. In the following pages it has been his aim to give an interesting, and, at the same time, a truthful picture of jungle hfe — such a picture as may bring it before the mind of the European reader without exaggeration or false glitter. The scenes described and the incidents recorded are such as every resident in the East will acknow ledge to be common and usual to a Hfe spent in the recesses of an Oriental forest. In such a life, scenery, inhabitants, costume, and charac teristics are so different from those to which the novice has been accustomed in his European home, that they have for him at first aU the effect of enchantment. It was the author's lot to return from the East before this fresh feeling of

PREFACE.

. VII pleased surprise had been quite removed — before the novel charm of Oriental life had worn off, to give place to satiety and monotony. The lives of a Parsee and of a Kandian chief — which will be found, the one at the conclusion of the first, the other near the end of the second, volume — are intended to show how strangely the old life of the East, with its antiquated habits and forms of thought, is influenced by the new Hfe of the progressive West — busy, bustHng, and innovating. These accounts are founded upon facts related to the author by Parsees and Bud hists. Hormanjee and Marandhan, indeed, are fictitious names, but such men have Hved, and are living, in India and Ceylon ; nor are the events recorded of them more extraordinary than those which, for the last fifty years, have been con stantly occurring, wherever Eastern and Western races have been brought into collision — a colhsion as much of souls as of bodies.

PREFACE.

. There is something inexpressibly pleasing in thus minutely recalling some of the happiest passages of one's early life, particularly when the strong Hght of reality has been meHowed into a twilight glow by the lapse of a few intervening years ; so that if the reader receive but a tithe of the pleasure in its perusal which the author has obtained from the compilation of this work, the labour of both wiU have been amply re munerative. London, November, FOREST LIFE IN CEYLON.

Chapter I. Arrival In

CEYLON— GALLE TO COLOMBO. " I would entreat thy company To see the wonders of the world abroad." Two Gentlemen of Verona, act i., sc. 1. I was leaning over the side of the good ship, Parsee, watching a nautilus hoisting sail, and steering its tiny sheU over the ocean, when the Captain, who had been as usual peering through a telescope, muttered to the chief officer, " 0 yes, it's very plain. I see it distinctly." " See what ?" I asked. " Ceylon," said he ; "I told you we should see it to-day." He handed me the telescope — a group of pas- VOL. I. B ROOKING OUT FOR LAND. sengers, attracted by the interesting information, surrounded us, some armed with glasses of their own, others eagerly awaiting a loan of one. I strained my eyes ; I looked intently in the direction indicated ; I readjusted the glass, and wiped the lenses ; I looked again as ear nestly as if some important result depended on the issue, but, in vain; I saw no Ceylon: other passengers were equaHy unsuccessful.

One taU yeUow-haired man, that prided himself on his nautical dress and knowledge, declared he did, but no one ever minded what he said. " You don't see it," said the Captain, " that's strange — it's very distinct — just on the horizon, by the end of the jib-boom — look again." " Keep her three points off," said he to the steersman, as he walked away. I looked again, but there was the same im penetrable haze on the horizon — everything misty and obscure. " Very distinct indeed," said the chief officer, as he too walked away. The sun was shining as fiercely as the sun only can shine towards the end of May at the Equa tor. We were aU grilling — the boards of the ship hot — the pitch and tar clammy on the ropes, and in the oakum between the planks of the deck LOOKING OUT FOR LAND, — the awning scorching — the air agitated into the faintest possible wind, dry and stifling — whilst an incessant drop, drop, drop, coursing each other from the forehead to the neck, plainly proved that there was stiU moisture left in us.

" We must see it," resolved the passengers, and away we went in a body, into the broiHng sunshine, to the fore-part of the ship. The taU man with the yeUow hair, smiled at our want of nautical vision, and foUowed us — the ladies, one by one, threw handkerchiefs and veils over their necks, and came too. " This is much better," we aU exclaimed, as we poised our glasses, Hke rifles, some on the bulwarks, some on the ropes, and looked in tently. StiU it was no use ! not a hiU the size of a grain of sand could we discern on the horizon, close by the jib-boom or elsewhere — aU was haziness and impenetrable gloom ahead, watery looking decidedly, but, to our unpractised eyes, far from land-looking. The ladies tried. One lady thought she discerned something. " Bravo," said the taU yeUow-haired man, in ecstacy, " you see it.

I thought you would, as I placed the glass." She looked again. " Why, bless me," said she, " that's the end of a stick, of that stick there b LOOKING OUT FOR LAND. with the sail tied to it — the jib — jib, what do you caU it?" It was tantalizing to know that the glorious island was right ahead, visible to the eye of the Captain, the chief officer, and our taU yellow haired friend, and that we could not even faintly discern it. Yet so it was, and so it continued to be aU that day. With heroic per severance we combated the sun and the heat, again and again, but aU to no purpose — at last coming to the conclusion that imagination had a great deal to do with the matter, and that the Captain, the chief officer, and the yeUow haired man, knew the land ought to be there, and therefore they saw it.

Even during the night, before we went to bed — a clear star-light night, without a moon — we gazed intently in the direction indicated, as if then, without glass or sun, we might per chance succeed in catching a ghmpse of the wished-for island. Those only who have spent four monotonous months on the ocean, without touching at a single port, as was our case, can realize to themselves the eagerness with which the weary passengers look out for land. And Ceylon too ! such an island of mysterious in terest and beauty — " its breezes, perfumes ; its SIGNAL FOR PILOT. forests, the rarest and choicest trees; its peb bles, gems," as a flowery writer describes it. Only two of us had ever been there before — the only two that seemed to know nothing of the island indeed, for all the others had read of it, had talked of it, had studied it ; they, on the other hand, thought they should have enough of it when they got there, as had been the case before, and were therefore but too anxious to banish it from their thoughts.

The next morning the line of hills on the horizon, although stiU distant, was near enough to be distinctly seen by the naked eye — the sea had lost much of its deep blue shade, and was more greenish and duU, even the sun did not appear to shine so brightly to those whose thoughts were drawn off from a contemplation of him, and fixed on the island, on which we soon hoped to enjoy Hberty and the delights of shore, after we had escaped from the imprisonment of our floating castle. The Parsee was bound for Point de GaUe, on the south-western coast of Ceylon, and it was not until the foUowing morning, that we neared the harbour sufficiently to fire off a gun as a signal for a pilot ; for, open and safe as the bay looks, it is fiUed with sunken rocks PILOT BOAT. and hidden dangers of aU kinds. The long hne of green vegetation which fringed the shore, consisting entirely of cocoa-nut trees, contrasted beautifully with the white foam of the sea as it broke impetuously on the rocks, whilst, far away in the harbour, masses of white and red, without apparent order or regularity, indicated the town.

Above all rose the eternal hiUs, stretching away higher and higher into the distance, and ending in irregrdar, hazy lines of considerable elevation, particularly to the north, where Adam's Peak was pointed out to us — by far the most celebrated of Ceylonese mountains. We fired another gun — the loud booming report coming back to us from the shore, as if the genius of the place resented our intrusion and the noise — and, as the Captain swept the harbour with his glass, he descried a boat pull ing towards us, and was satisfied. I shall never forget the impression made upon me by that boat and its occupants, as it slowly came nearer and nearer to the huge vessel. About the boat itself there was, perhaps, nothing that, in any other place, would have much attracted my attention ; but when I compared it with the unclad, attenuated individuals that occupied it, it seemed to me the widest and deepest boat, APPEARANCE OF ITS CREW. 7 of its length, I had ever seen.

In England, one associates the idea of stout frames, well wrapped up, glazed hats, and groggy-looking faces, with a pilot-boat, or any other, in fact, that makes its way at all into the sea. To my unsophisticated eyes, the crew of this boat appeared to be tame monkeys. So completely was my conception of humanity mixed up with clothes and white or black skins, that it was, for a time, impossible for me to reaHse to my self the idea that these gibbering, long-armed, brown, naked animals were feUow-creatures. Even now, after having had many years' ex perience of the East, I stiH beHeve that more unfavourable specimens of the natives of Ceylon could scarcely have been met with than those in that boat. Three of them were old men, their ribs too distinguishable through their leather-Hke skin, their arms dry and shriveUed ; yet their advanced age was not to be seen at once — their long, bony, and muscular arms, deprived of every particle of fat ; their fingers rendered remarkable by the white nails at the tips ; the palms of their hands white from con stant labour; and the contrast between their brown, shriveHed-up, wrinkled skins, and the scanty white or blue cloth which they wore round their loins, aU formed a picture so Hke PORTUGUESE PILOT. that which a party of tamed monkeys would present, that it was not without disgust I gazed at them — disgust, mingled with something of indignation, that these animals should be of the same species as myself.

Nor did the griz zled beards, and the bare, shaggy heads, from which they had removed their straw fisher men's hats, tend to improve the picture, or make them more human-like. My feehngs were shared by my companions, and, as we muttered to each other, " These are the natives," we could not help wondering how humanity could degenerate into such figures ; forgetting that the want of dress and difference of colour were the only real points of contrast between them and similar specimens of our own countrymen. Our Portuguese pilot interested us much; he was dressed in a neat nautical uniform ; a blue jacket, tightly buttoned up, white unmen tionables, and an enormous straw hat that con trasted oddly with the shght form which it crowned — a form which, although far from tall, appeared to be so, in consequence of its extreme spareness ; his face and hands were much darker than those of the natives ; but, strange to say, whilst we were astounded by the dusky brown skins of his crew, we saw nothing wonderful in SINGHALESE CANOE. the black one of the pilot ; so apt are we to take the accustomed for the natural, the unac customed and strange for the unnatural.

The anchor had scarcely been dropped ere we were surrounded by a Httle fleet of boats of the most heterogeneous characters. The majority of them had the curious "outrigger," peculiar to Ceylon and some of the Pacific Islands. A hoUowed trunk forms the canoe-proper, and, from one side of it, project two or three beams, to the end of which is attached a solid block of the shape of the canoe itseH, but considerably smaHer. This contrivance prevents the boat from upsetting, and as the outrigger, as it is caUed, is always of a light, buoyant wood, even should the canoe fiU with water, the conse quences are not likely to be serious. The occupants were not less strange and new to us than were the spider-Hke machines which they guided so skilfully. The long hair tied up on the back of the head, with a high tortoise-sheU comb stuck into it, the petticoats — scanty though they were — and the smaU feet and hands, were all things we were so much accustomed to asso ciate with the idea of the fairer sex, that there was something repulsive in seeing them belong to feUows with huge black beards and mousb DRESS OF THE SINGHALESE. taches ; whilst, to our wondering eyes, there seemed no other difference between the men and women than the presence or absence of the beard.

True, one becomes famiharised to these things after a time ; but I do not think any one can first witness them without a sentiment of disgust — so utterly incongruous do the long twisted hah*, with the crowning comb, appear to be with the hirsute and unshaven faces. But these were the Singhalese-proper alone. There were, besides, several Moors, more man-Hke in their habiliments and character, and infinitely more dangerous to the purse of the newly-arrived European, or " Griffin," as he is elegantly styled. The smaU white cap stuck on the very top of his shaven crown, gives the Moorman of Ceylon and the Southern Indian coast quite a distinctive character, which is rendered more marked by the ample volume of the cloth girdle, worn round his waist, and in which he keeps his money, his accounts, his writing materials, and, very often, his stock in trade too.

Our decks soon presented a strange appear ance. Singhalese and Moormen having ob tained the Captain's permission to come on board, were wandering about to effect sales of their various wares, oddly contrasting with the MOORMEN'S JEWELS. 11 sun-burnt countenances and square forms of the sailors, forms with which our long voyage had made us so intimately acquainted. The scraps of English the Asiatics had picked up, and of which they now made their utmost use, rose shrilly above the din of ropes being coiled up, sails furled, hatches opening, chains rattling, and aU the other usual concomitants of a ship's arrival in port. The Moormen, for the most part, had "jewels," toys, ornaments, and knick knacks of various kinds for sale. People naturally expect to find jewels in an island so celebrated for them, from the time of PHny* to the present day.

As the wily Asiatic produces a little bundle from his ample girdle, carefully wrapped up in many folds, and, after a time, exhibits, imbedded in the downiest cotton, some sparkling particles, whispering the im posing name "diamonds," the European feels as if it would be foHy to lose the chance — he is a young officer going home from Calcutta or Madras, or an enterprising traveUer from China or Singapore — there are sisters, cousins, and fair flames afar off, awaiting presents, and he thinks if he can get the whole quantity for a trifle, it wiU be very hard indeed if there be * Vid. Hist. Nat. vi. 22. Asiatic craft. no real ones, however smaU, amongst them; and so he makes an offer — he is almost ashamed to make it, so smaU an offer for so valuable a collection. The crafty Asiatic grins, laughs outright, but submissively, at the sum named, and commences to refold his store, glancing sideways at the victim to see if the laugh has not moved him, and then offers the collection for double his bid.

John BuU often bites at this — he has been but nibbhng before — and exclaiming, " WeU, it is but a trifle after aU," puUs out his purse. Should he stiU continue immovable, however, he wiH have them at his own price, for Moorman protests he must seU them to get a little bread for himself and his starving children, although they cost him so much more. But what does John find them to be when he gets home ? The following inci dent wiU show — a true incident, weU known to most of the residents at Point de GaUe : — Mr. R., an English merchant there, had imported some coloured glass. Several panes were smashed in the landing, and aU the broken pieces were thrown into an empty barrel in his warehouse. There they lay un heeded for a time, untU Zambo, a weU-known Moorman, made his salaam to Mr. R. one GLASS DIAMONDS. morning, just as he had arrived at home after his matutinal ride.

"WeU, Zambo," said the Englishman, "how do you do ? What brings you so early ?" " You -have - got - the - broke - up-glass-in-your godowns,-Saar," said Zambo. "Broken glass," said the merchant, musing. " Yes, yes, there were several panes of that coloured glass broken. I suppose they're there stiU." " Your - coohes - do - steal - it - every - day - 1 know," said Zambo mysteriously. " I-wiU-buy it-aU-at-once-now." Glad to get so worthless an article off his hands, Mr. R. readUy consented to Zambo's proposal, and agreed to let him have the glass at his own price. " And now, Zambo," said the Englishman, " may I ask what you want with the glass ?" Zambo looked round to see that there was no one within hearing-distance, and then, stretching his hairy chin forwards, said " You no-teU-though ?" "TeU," said the merchant, "no, I don't want to teU anything.

What do you want this glass for?" "To-make-diamonds-for-steamer-passengers," LANDING AT CEYLON. said Zambo, his smaU grey eyes twinkling with cunning. No one need ask, after having heard that, what our friend John wiU find his diamonds, emeralds, and garnets to be, when he reaches the paternal roof. This sort of trade is almost entirely confined to the Moormen, by far the most expert retail dealers in the island. I was not disposed on landing to encumber niyself with jeweUery, wisely considering that if precious stones were so common in Ceylon, I should have innumerable opportunities of coUecting them whdst Hving in the jungle. The scene which presented itseft on landing had aU the interest and freshness of unwonted novelty for us. Accustomed, as I had been, previously to an Enghsh Hfe, diversified by two hurried trips to the Continent alone, there was nothing in the reminiscences with which my memory was stored to detract from the novelty of the picture that now spread widely around us on every side.

The smaU huts of mud, with their cocoa-nut leaf thatch; the wicker-work trays exhibiting heaps of chilHes or other equaUy piquant stimulants ; the amazing variety of fruit common to aU tro- APPEARANCE OF NATIVES. pical countries ; the strange costume of the women and stiU stranger of the men ; their shriU voices as they caUed upon the passers by to purchase, or loudly conversed with each other across the street, all — men, women, and chddren — squatted on their heels ; the fish women, as in aU countries, most voluble of tongue, light-hearted, and merry, exchanging badinage with the male passers-by, or making their own remarks on the pale faces — aU was new and striking, and told us, with aU the eloquence of vision, that we had left the cold north behind, with its frosts and snows, and wintry churHshness, and brave battling with a thousand evUs that more favoured chines know nothing of, and that we had reached a land of the sun where there was food upon every tree, and clothing was Httle more than an encumbrance, where the battle of life was not for existence, but for luxury and enjoyment.

The soldiers seemed the only melancholy objects in the bright, ever-moving panorama. Malays, with horsehair - like whiskers and moustaches, dressed up in the darkest and most sombre green, the " Ceylon Rifles " as they are called, stood at theh* posts, or marched FORT AND BAZAAR. or loitered about the verandah of their guard house, as if they were only gloomy visitants upon the glorious island, but not of it — as if they felt that their execrable trade was a thing in which man should not rejoice, which should stifle aU mirth — a necessary evU. It may not be so in other parts of the island, and I do not remember that the idea was impressed after wards upon my mind, but certainly the first few specimens of the Ceylon Rifles that we saw loitering about the great archway that leads from the harbour into the old Dutch fort suggested the idea of gloom, moroseness, taciturnity, and cruelty to our entire party.

The fort itself was by no means so interest ing an object to us as the bazaar that stretches along the shore without it. The kaleidoscopic aspect of that strange scene was gone, and the Hnes of ghstening white houses, with their green or black Venetians, dihgently barri cading them from the sun and the intense glare without, were but poor substitutes for it. Arrived at the hotel, which, with very questionable taste, Hke almost aU the other European buddings, is situated within the fort, our party separated. Some, fatigued with their waUc, spoke energeticaUy of beef- PALANQUIN CARRIAGE. steaks and pine-apples, as they threw them selves upon the various couches, whUst others, of whom I was one, ordered vehicles to caU upon those to whom they had letters of introduction. I had but one visit to pay, to a merchant of whom I had no personal know ledge, but whom my uncle, the head of a mercantile house in Colombo, wished me particularly to become acquainted with ; so, having first enjoyed the luxury of a glass of AUsopp or Bass, I made my way into the palanquin carriage, — a conveyance not very dissimUar from a London cab, denuded of its coach-box, save that Venetian bhnds take the place of the paneUed sides and glass front — and was soon rapidly whirled along through a few nar row and uneven streets to my destination.

Yet although the vehicle was one that not even an idle crossing-sweeper would turn to gaze after in London, and although the horse was only a respectable grey hack, without either points or sores, what a sensation we should have created in the Strand or Regent Street, had our course lain there instead of through Point de GaUe ! At the head of the horse, and firmly grasping the rein in one hand, whilst in the other he held a short whip, ran a wUd savage-looking SINGHALESE DRIVER. feUow, with a red handkerchief wrapped round his head, and a scanty red cloth round his loins. Past as the horse could trot did this Jehu scamper along by his side, bounding over the road with bare feet, his weU-oUed skin ghsten ing in the fierce rays of the sun as the moving muscles of the back caught and reflected the Hght.

I thought it was very barbarous, but what could I do ? it was " the custom of the country " evidently, for there was no coach box on the carriage, and no one seemed to consider it strange. At length, as I saw a stream of perspiration making its way down his back between his shoulder-blades, I shouted out in English, a language of which he apparently did not understand a single word. He looked round, stdl running on as before. I cried out " stop " with an energy that I hoped would force him to arrest his wdd race. He pointed with his whip as he turned round, and went on more rapidly than ever. Poor feUow ! he evidently thought that I was chiding him for not going fast enough instead of being fidl of benevolence for him, so he cut the horse with a skilful back-hand stroke of the short whip, and coursed on stdl faster.

I saw it was no use to attempt anything further, so SINGHALESE DRIVER. I threw myseH back, tired and hot, into the carriage, and aUowed hini to do as he pleased. I mentioned the matter to my newly-acquired friend on reaching his house, and he smiled, assuring me that every one went about so, that the natives were used to it, and that if I had spoken the language and told the syce or horse keeper, to get up on the top whdst I drove, he would not have done so. Under these circum stances, heartily as I pitied the poor feUow, I interfered no further, and, in the same wdd style, we made our way back to the hotel — horse and man rushing madly along, up one street and down another, over shingle and gravel and a Httle piece of good macadamised road, with the same indifference. We passed another vehicle too, of the same kind, shndarly led, and, as I felt assured from this, that other people were equaUy barbarous, my mind was quite reHeved — a circumstance that might be weU moralised, were one " i' th' vein," or did one feel one's self equal to it.

We had a very comfortable dinner at the hotel — our party having diminished to four, of whom I was the only one intending to pro ceed the foUowing morning, by the mail coach, to Colombo. The native servants, in spotless CONTENTMENT. white, petticoats and all — proud that they un derstood how to wait at table — their black beards, and large tortoise-shell combs stuck in the back of theh heads, appearing to me so incongruous, that I felt disposed to laugh every time I looked at them. Nor was it without a feeling of unpleasantness that I saw my plate handed about by the dark fingers — a transient feeling, winch I distinctly remember having once felt, but which must very soon have passed away with use. After a long voyage, people are not disposed for some time to be very critical re specting theh meals.

We found everything ex ceUent at our dinner, including the beef — the fact is, people get so much mutton on board, that, I beheve, they would wiUingly declare the roast ribs of a sexagenarian cart-horse ex quisite after a four months' voyage — my sub sequent experience of Point de GaUe did not lead me to beheve that anything like good beef was ever to be got there in those days (1843), and therefore I attribute our satisfaction to our position and condition. There was something so completely novel in being waited upon by the brown natives in white garments ; in the open room leading into an equady open verandah ; in the large fan, caUed FIRE-FLIES. a punkah, puUed backwards and forwards by a servant, to create a current of air in the room — there was something so novel in aU this, that one could not be critical ; and soup, beef, curry, tarts, and fruit, were ad found to be equally exceUent and palatable, although I have no doubt, had the same dinner been presented to any one of us a month after, we should have found the soup bad, the tarts worse, and the beef worst of aU ; that, in fact, the curry and the fruits would be pronounced to be the only eatable things on the table.

Indeed I must say, that notwithstanding the variety of Indian cookery — the pdlaws, and coftahs, and cabobs, and kitchery of the presidencies — there is no place where better curries are made than in Ceylon, and this I say, not as a griffin just arrived from England, but as an experienced quyhy — one who knows Ceylon, and who has lived both in Madras and Calcutta. That evening I first made acquaintance with the fire-flies, and was surprised and delighted with the appearance produced by numbers of them, shining hke so many tiny stars upon a tree. The effect was altogether so strange and pretty, rather than grand or beautiful, that it looked far more Hke an artificial one, pro- BED AND BED-ROOM. duced by the handiwork of man, than the simple operation of nature. Having heard that the coach to Colombo started at gun-fire, or the first faint dawn of day, I retired early, requesting to be caUed at four o'clock.