Mr. E. L. Layard^s Rambles in Ceylon, 331 



river's banks enjoying the shade and cool breeze, not far from the 

 place where the tiffin was so abmptly terminated. An aged Modhar, 

 who owed his first preferment to my father, happening to pay me 

 a visit, saw my wife sitting, and rushing up to her, he forcibly dragged 

 her away, saying, " For God's sake, ma'm, don't go there ; only three 

 days since a large dog was taken off by an alligator from thence, and 

 forty years ago your father's cook was seized on that very spot," and 

 he then related the tale again. 



The next instance I shall mention happened in the river at Chilaw. 

 One of the Court Peons had been entrusted with despatches to convey 

 to the lappal in the village across the river. He forgot his errand 

 till the evening, when he went down to the river's brink with a com- 

 panion and hailed the ferry-boat ; the boatmen were, however, away, 

 and fearing to loose the lappal hour, and having to brave the 

 judge's wrath, the man determined on swimming across ; so tying 

 the letters in his turban he plunged into the sluggish waters. 

 When about half-way over, his companion saw at some distance a 

 dark body, that they had taken for a floating log, begin to move 

 rapidly towards them, and instantly detected the dreaded Minikim- 

 boola : alarmed by his friend's shouts, the swimmer plied his strokes 

 lustily and had almost gained the opposite shore, when with a yell 

 of agony and despair he disappeared amidst the eddies of the water 

 caused by the monster's sweeping tail. This brute was subsequently 

 captured, and his head now adorns the district judge's quarters, where 

 I saw it, and if I remember right, it is not much under two feet long. 

 It is said that a small lump of chunamb (quick lime) placed in an 

 alligator's mouth instantly destroys him. I have tried it on young 

 ones, but never found it have the least effect. During the hot weather, 

 when the tanks dry up, those alligators that cannot reach the sea, 

 bury themselves in the mud. About Jaffna, however, they betake 

 themselves to the estuary and live exclusively in the salt water, till 

 their old haunts become wet enough for them. It is usually supposed 

 that lead flattens on their scales ; this I have found not to be the case. 

 I have killed several with a single ball which has passed comfletely 

 through them^ and from the experiments we made on the body of one 

 of our victims, we found that my little rifle-balls, 60 to the lb. and 

 of the softest lead, penetrated every place with facility. On tracing 

 our missing hooks, we found the alligators had jammed the ends of the 

 floats in the tangled brushwood, and torn out the hooks from their 

 entrails. 



Under D.'s hospitable roof I spent two days and a half, waiting for 

 my travelling companion Q. who was to join me at Elephant Pass. 

 Time flew with us, as D. and his wife had tastes congenial to my own. 

 Her paintings of the jungle flowers and fruits are beautifully and 

 carefully executed. It is indeed a treat in Ceylon to meet with 

 persons who can appreciate nature, or even see it, if they see it at all, 

 with correct eyes. I have known ladies who had resided here for 

 years, and daily drove through the Colombo Cinnamon Gardens, and 

 yet never saw the pitcher-plant^ which abounds there. Ladies and 

 gentlemen born here, have gravely assured me that they have seen 



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