eality departed from Colombo, concerning which a
few more words should be added before taking the reader inland to
"imperial" Kandy in the central province among the hills.

Colombo is an especially well-regulated and well-governed town. No
reasonable fault can be found with its police arrangements, for
notwithstanding the singular variety of nationalities gathered
together within its limits, one witnesses no lawlessness; there are no
visible improprieties of conduct, but quiet reigns supreme, both in
the Singhalese and in the English quarter of the capital. The most
lawless element here is the crows, and one must admit that these
audacious creatures are irrepressible.

The native women of the middle class whom one sees in the city are
singular objects as regards costume, and appear as if engaged in a
constant masquerade, being decorated in the most striking manner.
They wear silver and brass rings thrust through the tops and bottoms
of their ears, through their nostrils and lips, their toes sometimes
being also covered with small gold coins attached to rings. Their
ankles, fingers, and wrists are decked with bangles and rings, while
their diaphanous dress is of rainbow colors. The author saw women, who
were acting as nurses to the children of European residents, wearing
all these gewgaws as described, the gross weight of which must have
been considerable. Some of these women would be good-looking, not to
say handsome, were they less disfigured by the cheap jewelry which
they pile upon themselves, without regard to good taste or reason. It
is an ingrained barbaric fondness for trinkets, which it would seem
that they never quite outgrow, as women old and decrepit indulge it to
the utmost limit of their means, thus thoughtlessly adding by contrast
to their worn and wasted appearance. As to their being employed as
nurses in the English officers' families, there is a certain degree of
fitness in that, for they are very faithful in this relation; they are
naturally loyal to their trust, and as a rule have excellent
dispositions, so that the children become very fond of them.

The men wear their jet-black hair long, done up with a circular shell
comb in front, which keeps at back from the forehead and temples, and
often have a high shell comb at the back of the head to keep the coil
together, all of which gives them a most feminine appearance. The
women do not wear combs at all, but braid their profuse ink-black
locks, and