Year: 1874

while the Chalias emerge from the bushes
laden with great piles of cinnamon
sticks These they place under the
shadow Of the trees and return to the on
slaught. This work is done in about two
hours of the early morning, the gangs
cutting only as much as they can peel
during the rest of the day.


The works." or peeling- g-houses, called
in Cingalese "waddies," are long sheds
with only sufficient openings in the sides
to admit light enough to work by, and
are rooted with palm-leaves. The fittings
or equipments for work are racks made
of jungle-sticks to hold the bundles of
dried spice, and many rows of stout
twine running along the upper part of
the building on which the green "pipes"
or "quills" of bark are laid to undergo
their first drying gradually. The men
are paid not by the day, but by the guam
tity of spice they produce, and so work
with right good will AS soon as they
reach the waddie they throw their bum.
dies upon the ground, and squatting
down in true Oriental fashion upon
small straw mat they draw from their
girdles their crooked peeling knives and
strip the green bark. This peeling
is an expeditions and simple proc
| cSS. GuClI CIOOkCu hulNCS
lengthwise down the sticks from
end to end on two sides, and then
by inserting the point of the blade be-
tween the bark and the stick and slipping
it Obliquely downward, the whole length
| wood. When this portion of the work is
done each man makes up his bundle and
places it on the wooden racks, where it
remains till the next morning.


The next day the outer green skin or
cuticle is peeled from the bark. This
work is usually done by women, whose
| delicate touch enables them to do it bet
| ter than men. AS soon as sufficient
number are scraped they are passed over
to men, who roll the cleaned spice be-
tween their hands into quills or pipes,


and then sort it into three qualities ac-
coEding to fineness, evenness and color. 1t
now wears dull greenish look, sort
| of dark sage color, and is laid upon the
strings extended along the upper part of
the building to dry. The drying is car
ried on very slowly at first, but after the
third day the spice is exposed to the
open air and sun during the cooler
parts of the day, and shaded lightly dur
| ing the greatest heat by canOpies Of
| braided palm-leaves. Great care is also
taken not to allow any rain to fall upon it,
| for this molds it and renders it unfit for
use. After being dried in this way it is
put upon high stands until the end of the
harvesting, when the operation of weigh
ing takes place. Each party of Chalias
keeps it's work carefully separate from
the re st, and at the time of weighing re-
ceives from three to four pence a pound
for it.


The cinnamon now goes into keeping
of the European superintendent, who
takes it into great brick store-houses, and
with the aid of men whose business it is
proceeds to sort it into three or four quail
tiles. These are packed in bales of one
hundred pounds each and placed in
circular screw-press, and bound closely
together and secured by means of rattan
lashings, over which are fastened roll
of country sacking. In this state it is
shipped to Europe, where it is sold at
auction every three months and then
finds it's way to the various consuming
countries.-Heaath and Home