Waterbury evening Democrat., 1888-06-02
PEOPLE IN CEYL0N.
EXTRACTS FROM A LETTER BY Ex-
 MAYOR HARRISON.

ENJkACtS FhOM A EE iEn oY cN-
 MAYOR HARRISON.
 Upon the Isle = Cinnamon Gardens.
 Native Boat-A Comely Peop1e-John
 Bull and the Bullock Cart.
 Ceylon has several distinct races living upon it. Long before history began to be written it had prosperous people, and contin- ued so for ages. It has ole. cities, deserted ages ago, and great tanks for gathering and holding water for irrigation purposes, which show that portions of the island, now wild and waste, were once teeming with popula- tion- The ruins and the tanks are all that is left as record of the people who built them. Even the descendants of these people have dwindled down to little over 1000 and are wild savages, stunning civilized men. The Singalese, who have Persian and Arab blood in them, are rather fair, delicate in form and organization; expert manipulators in jewelry and other nice work-au Buddhists, and number less than 100000. They were, many generations ago, overrun by Tamils- vigorous, hardy, nearly black men from southern India-who today number about two-thirds of million, and are the hard workers and Hindoo in religion. The mixed blood-called Eurasians and Burghers-are the descendants of the Portuguese, who held the island for nearly a century and a half, and of the Dutch, who controlled for cen tury and third, and numbers less than 2O,- COG. These, with many Singalese, are Catho- lies mostly. Other peoples swell the popula- tion to 2,700,O00, and are governed by less planters and officials Eurasians and full natives have cinnamon gardens
 By the way, this plant when cultivated is kept down to small shrub not over eight feet high. In the forest it grows to pretty tree and as large, say, as the pear. A garden is very pretty, the foliage being very glossy and of light, cheerful green. The bark on the green stem, while spicy, has not the pun gency of the cured article The sun in cur ing seems to bring it out. will here state that the growing tea leaf has no moro 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 solace of so many countless millions of human beings. It has not it's properties brought out by sun heat, but by fire A 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 the low, hot lands of the island, and is in the hands generally of the old Singalese population They and the 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 as 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 one foot in and one outside of the narrow trough, and rows or sails far out on the deep, and can 1 brave 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 l his freight and the fisherman his nets am l told the fisherman frequently goes out forty miles to sea.
 | All along the coast the natives are semi | amphibious. A number of half grown boys surround steamers coming and going on queer little rafts built of three buoyant sticks ten to twelve feet long and lashed together l I legs and paddle very rapidly. So expert are they at diving that silver coin, thrown thirty to fifty feet of, never reaches the bot tom before it is caught. Passengers get sev- l eral of these boats around in a semicircle from the steamer, then drop a small coin close to the ship. The boys spring toward it and swim up to the point, then go headlong below, squirming like frogs, after the shin ing metal. They will even get a copper, if 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. Whya
 The Singalese are comedy looking race, I with features quite effemfnate in their deli cacy. This appearance is further increased by their long hair, tied in knot at the back of the head and held smooth by a light tor toise comb, such as young girls at home wore when was young. The dress is the universal band of cloth, here left to fall like skirt; a jacket is worn in the cities-in the country and villages only a cotton cloth is thrown over the shoulders The women have, to a great extent, adopted a semi European cos. tune. At least those saw had.
 THE BULLOCK CART.
 The Tamil population dress as tho southern Indian does. By the way, the tea and coffee estates are worked and the heavy labor about clCleS IS dOno Dy cOO1eS brought annually from the coast of southern India, from Nal abar to Madras. This region furnishes coolie labor west of Singapore, as the Chinese de east thereof.
 This leads me to speak of another mode o1 conveyance here and in India-the bullock cart The Indian bullocks all have the hump but in other respects they vary in form ane appearance. as much as tho different breeds o our cattle-in some localities very tall anc long horned. I have seen yoke over six teen hands high, and have seen horns ovel three feet in length. These horns in whol' districts point up and toward each other
 In some localities they spread and often bent downward. In Burmah the OK is fair sized but his horns are very short In Ceylon h.
 is very small, compactly built, and has littl
 hubs for horns. He is very pretty and yer,
 quick in motion. At Kalutara, near tn
 south end of the island, three of us rode il
 little cart drawn by a bullock forty -on
 inches high and not much longer from hi
 front to the root of his tail. The brave littl
 fellow trotted at gait of say six or sever
 miles an hour. When, after steady pull
 he felt tired, he would give quick back mo
 tion, as much as to say hold on.
 He is an admirable beast for villages. Fl
 requires no harness His little yoke is fast oned to the ends Of the shafts. drOD it ove