uch affect, were offered to us, but having a decided
preference for ripe fruit, these were respectfully but firmly declined.

The common people along the route live in the very simplest and
frailest of huts, made of bamboo frames with walls of mud, the roofs
consisting of a thatching of large palm leaves ingeniously combined, one
layer upon another, so as to effectually exclude even equatorial rains.
The overlapping eaves come within a couple of feet of the ground, the
huts being one story high. They have no chimneys nor windows. The door,
always open, admits all the required light, and there is no cold to be
feared in Ceylon. Whatever of cooking the people do, and it is very
little, is accomplished out of doors. Many of the small hamlets through
which we passed were embedded in low-lying, thickly-shaded woods,
showing the salubrity of the climate, since in some countries such a
location would prove to be the very hot-bed of jungle fever. Here the
natives work in the rice-fields and the swamps at all seasons of the
year, and seem to be perfectly healthy; but we were told that when
Europeans attempt it they die off by scores. Quite a large number of
Singhalese are employed by dealers at Colombo to hunt the beds of small
streams, and to dig in the mountains in search of gems, such as
sapphires, cat's-eyes, moon-stones, topazes, and rubies, which, after
being cut, are sold to European and American travelers, and also
exported to the Paris and London jewelers. A large proportion of the
finest precious stones in the market come from this island.

The pools in the low grounds here and there were rendered beautiful and
fragrant by the lotus in full bloom, bearing flowers eight inches in
diameter, rivaling the magnolias, which were plenty enough, but which
seemed by no means superior to our northern specimens. Does this proud
representative of Flora's kingdom, like humanity, require a northern
and invigorating atmosphere to inspire its greatest fragrance and best
qualities? Coffee plantations are most numerous inland, though they have
lately developed a serious blight which has reduced the production at
least fifty per cent., causing many to abandon the cultivation of the
berry. It is not, like the cinnamon, indigenous to Ceylon, but was
introduced here from the main-land. Unless this serious scourge can be
overcome, coffee, as an export from the island, will very soon cease.
The kind best known and mostly grown here is the "Ar