The Dickinson press., 1888-08-04
PEOPLE IN CEYL0N.
EXTRACTS FROM A LETTER BY Ex.
MAYOR HARRISON.

EXTRACTS FROM A LETTER BY Ex-
MAYOR HARRISON.
7he Several Distinct Races Which Live
Upon the Isle- Cinnamon Gardens.
Bull and tho Bullock Cart.
Ceylon has several distinct races living
apon it. Long before history began to be
written it had prosperous people, and contn-
ted so for ages. 1t has old Cities deserted
ages ago, and great tanks for gathering and
holding water for irrigation purposes, which
chow that portions of the island, now wild
and waste, were once tecming with popula-
tion. The ruins and the tanks are all that Is
left rs record of the people who built them
Even tho descendants of these people have
dwindled down to a little over 1000 and are
wild savages, stunning civilized men The
Singalcse, who have Persian and ARAB blood
in them, are rather fair, delicate in form and
organization, expert manfpulators in jewelry
and other nice work-all Buddhists, and
number less than 100000 They were,
many generations ago, overrun by Tamils-
vigorous, hardy, nearly black men from
southern lndia-who today number about
two-thirds of million, and are the hard
workers and Hindoo in religion. The mixed
blood-callcd Eurasians and Burghers-are
the descendants of the Portuguese, who held
the island for nearly a century and half,
and of the Dutch, who controlled for CEN
tury and third, and numbers less than co.
600 These, with many Singalcse, are Catho.
lies mostly Other peoples swell the popula-
ton to 2,70O,OOO and are governed by less
than 5000 Europeans These latter are
planters and officials. Eurasians and full
natives have cinnamon gardens.
BY the way, this plant when cultivated is
kept down to a small shrub not over eight
feet high In the forest it grows to a pretty
tree aud as large, say, as the pear garden
is very pretty, the foliage being very glossy
and of light. cheerful green. The bark on
the green stem, while spicy has not tho pun
gcncy of the cured article. The sun in cur
ing seems to bring it out | will here state
that the growing tea leaf has no more flavor
than an ordinary tasteless weed, and gives no
promises to the uninitiated of that wonderful
quality which makes it the sweetest friend
and kindliest souce of SO many countless
millions of human beings 1t has not its
properties brought out by sun heat, but by
tire few of the fine brands in China are
sun cured, but do not reach the general
markets, being confined to the larders Of very
rich Celestial connoisseurs Cinnamon and
rice cultivation is confined to tho low, hot
lands of the island, and is in the hands
generally of tho old Singalese population
They and tho Tamils are the fishermen.
A NATIVE BOAT
The native boat is queer thing-a log of
wood from ten to twenty feet long, turned
upward at each end, is dug out into shallow
trough, rarely over a foot wide. On top of
this the boat is carried with boards to a
length twice as great rs the solid keel below,
and say two or so feet high, but no wider.
From this craft springs two bent poles to a
light log of wood from six to ten feet off.
This out rigger makes the queer catamaran,
one Of the safest small boats which run out
into the sea The native sits with ono foot
in and one outside of the narrow trough, and
rows or sails far out ON the deep, and can
brave Il storm the ordinary long boat could
not survive. They are rowed rapidly and
sail eight to twelve knots an hour. Two
small platforms, say four feet square, are
built on top On this the boatman carries
his freight and the fisherman his nets. am
told the fisherman frequently goes out forty
miles TO sea.
All along the coast the natives are semi
amphibous. number of half grown boys
surround steamers coming and going OH
queer little RATS built of three buoyant sticks
ten to twelve feet long and lashed together.
Upon this the half naked fellows sit on their
legs and paddle very rapidly. So expert are
they at diving that silver coin, throw,
thirty to fifty feet off, never reaches the bot
tom before it is caught. Passengers get sew
cral of these boats around in q semicircle
from the steamer, then drop a small coli,
close to the ship. The boys spring toward i,
and swim up to the point then go headlong
below, squirming like frogs after the shin.
ing metal. They will even get copper, il
not very far off. But they like the white
ness of the purer metal These boys are all
quite dark, but the bottoms Of their feet are
almost white. Whyl
The Singalese are n colnely looking race
with features quite cffeminate in their deli
cacy. This appearance is further increased
by their long hair, tied iE . knot at the bacl
of tile head and held smooth by a light tor
toise comb, such as young girls at home wor,
when was young. The dress is the universe
band of cloth, here left to fall like skirt;
jacket is worn in the cities-in the country
| and villages only cotton cloth is thrown
over the shoulders. The women have, to
great extent, adopted semi-European cos
tune. AT least those saw had.
THE BULLOCK CART.
Tho Tamil population dress as the souther,
Indian does By the way, the tea and coffe
estates are worked and the heavy labor abou
cities is done by coolies brought annual,
from the coast of southern India, from Nal
abar to Madras. This region furnishes cooli
labor west of Singapore, rs the Chinese d.
east thereof.
This leads me to speak of another mode 0
conveyance here and i'll India-the bullocl
cart. Tho Indian bullocks all have the hump
but in other respects they vary in form an,
appearance as much as the different breeds o
our cattle-in some localities very tall an,
long horned. have seen yoke over six
teen hands high, and have seen horns owe
three feet in length. These horns in Who'll
districts point up and toward each other
In some localities they spread and often BEN
downward In Burmah the OK is fair sized
but his horns are very short In Ceylon
is very small, compactly built, and has littl
nubs for horns. He is very pretty and YER
quick in motion. At Kalutara, near th
south end of the island, three of us rode i
little cart drawn by bullock forty. on
inches high and not much longer from hi
front to the root of his tail. The brave nttl
fellow trotted at gait of say six or seve
miles all hour, When, after steady pull
} he felt tired, he would give quick back mc
ton, as much as to say hold on
Ia ell