The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-03-29

Moses ana where the Egyptian army was drowned. Further on the outline of Mount Sinaii was pointed out. This Is as your readers we'll know is the place where God gave the commandment to Moses. Pass Ing on by Aden another fortified and i'm pregnable fort controlled by the English, we had smooth and pleasant voyage Of 10 days through the Red sea and Indian ocean, before we reached this picturesque and charming spot.
 Look at the map and you will see that Ceylon is pear-shaped island, situated directly south of India and only a few degrees north of the equator. We landed at Colombo, it's capital. It Is. of course, In the tropics and the life here is of nec- essity a lazy one. You are at once struck with the natives and their dress and color Most of them are as black as negroes, but not a drop of African blood flows in their veins. Their hair is straight and with the men as the women. long and tied in a knot on the back of the head Their feet small and with curved instep and features regular as the white man. The laborers go all but naked. A strip of cloth inches wide tied about the loins is their only clothing-no hat, no shoes They are quick, active and noiseless and make the best of servants. They all call the white man master; they pronounce 1t as the old time negroes-'tMarster." At the hotel your barefooted man who looks dltef your comfort taps gently at your door before you retire and asks what time will the ''Marster" take his morn ing tea or coffee. You tell him o'clock Promptly to the minute next morning he brings in tray of native fruits marmel- ades. toasts. coffee. and so forth, and then tells you your breakfast will be. served in the diningroom between 9 and 10 o'clock. At that time you go down to a breakfast of fresh fish, delightfully."- cooked, chops steak, eggs coffee and so forth. At 1 30 you have lunch or "tiffin" as 1t is called here. At you have aft ernoon tea served in your room. At T30 an elaborate course dinner is served, when you are expected to dress up"
 In the middle of the day no one stlrs. The sun is oppressively hot. Every room in the hotel is supposed to be supplied with private bath, one of the necessities Of the country, and huge electric fans run day and night, with no charge. In the afternoons it is safe to take a ricksnaw and go out for a ride. The rickshaw is the same as in Japan-nothing more than a big, oyergrown baby carriage on two wheels, the size of buggy wheels. and drawn by half-naked man. The nights are delicious and bring the sweetest slum- bers l have ever known. On landing the first thought that comes to your mind Is Tor thin clothing. I went direct to a native tailor selected a pongee cloth and | supposed, of course, it would be several days before I would get it. He asked me when l wanted it. I told him as soon as possible. He said: "rhe Marster will have it at 10 o'clock tomorrow morning." The next morning at the appointed time the suit was in my room and fitted admir- ably My tailor was coal black, bare footed and rings on his toes and bracelets on his ankles. l took occa asion to ask him about his religious belief. I said: Do Nou believe in a God?'' He was a Budd- hist He put his hand to his head and thought for sometime. Finally he said with great earnestness: 'Yes. there must be God There must be one God. Some call Him Christ; some call Him other names. I call Him Buddha" I asked him what his Buddha taught him. He said; Not to murder. not to take life of any kind, either of man or beast; not to eat meat; not to drink liquor; not to lie; not to steal; to have one wife; to be pure With women, and putting his hand over his heart he said ito be good here"
 A few days later I visited a Buddhist temple The attendant showed me a num- Der of pictures painted on the wall One showed man crucified head down. This he said was for murder. Another showed man being torn limb from limb. This he said was for lying and stealing An other was for dsobedience to parents:
 
 your neighbor; one for the illegal tax gatherer, and others. I could but wonder 1T we with the thousands of dollars wa are spending on foreign missions, had any better religion to offer them. These are. however, surface opinions. hastily formed after a brief stay in the country and do not for a moment put them against the convictions of men and women who have spent a lifetime in the mission field The great uplifs and influence of Chris tian civilization cannot be compared to any other. Whether or not our religion can be. ever be. assimilated by these people is the problem India, Ceylon and Burmah have population of over 30O,- ooo,00o of people. The English government statistics show that less than l per cent are classed as Christians and in that num- Der are the English residents, who are many and large property holders here
 The principal products of the island are tea. rice, rubber, cinnamon, cocoanuts, minerals and precious stones.
 Many years ago the great crop was cof- fee. but an insect appeared and in two years completely wiped out the crop and 1t reduced the wealthy planters to peg gars. Many of them today are clerks and overseers. They then tried tea cul- ture and from an export of few hundred pounds year it went to the enormous tctal of 1S0,000.0oO pounds last year The tea lands are worth from $500 to $500 per acre. The laborers who gather the tea get on an average of 15 cents a day From tnis place, Colombo, we went to the moun- 1 talns. At Nenara Elyia we found an ele- vation of 6ooo feet and overcoats and fires were comfortable at night. From there we went to Randy and visited the famous botanical gardens, said to be the most celebrated in the world. Here we saw every Variety of palm known, one of which was called the travellers palm. from the fact that it usually grows in the desert and when tapped yields a bountiful supply of water. We saw also the rain tree. from which at night so much water drips from the leaves as to make the ground soft and muddy. The nutmeg, clove, spice and cinnamon trees were also there, was the deadly tipas. l under which no one can sleep for many hours without fatal effects The double cocoanut was a curiosity. There are two species of this, the male and the female, | and if not within short distance of each other the female will not bear fruit. The male never bears It takes a year for one leaf to form and 10 years for the fruit to come to maturity. The orchid collec- 1 tion is said to be the most complete known. One of the curiosites Is the fly catcher. This plant has peculiarly shaped flower that closes up when the fy is cosered with the pollen which is car ried to the next flower to fertlize it for it's propagation. The Talipot palm grows to be 50 years old before it blooms--then dies. Among the many curiosities was the cannon ball tree, so-called from the