MRS COL. WALKER'S TOUR IN CEYLON. 241 
thumping and blowing with might and main, and followed 
: by the inhabitants, old and young, male and female, of every 
village we passed through: the people being so idle that they 
, never have any occupation to keep them at home. The 
country appears very populous, Mado-wanwelle being a very. 
large village, less straggling than is generally the case in this 
country, and the houses situated near each other, and under 
the finest Jack-trees, I ever saw; one, near the Coral’s house, - 
measured more than twenty feet in circumference. 
- “On our arrival, we found the house decorated for our 
reception, as before described, and in addition, a lighted lamp 
on each side of the door, ornamented with the flower of the 
Areca nut tree —throwing a feeble light in broad day, with a 
glorious sun shining brightly! the table was covered with 
fruit, pine apples, pomegranates, oranges, plantains, a species 
of melon, jambos and young cocoa nuts, the liquid contents of 
which we found deliciously cool and refreshing. + There was 
likewise honey comb, and very excellent sugar-candy made 
from toddy drawn from the Jagherry palm, Caryota urens: 1 
.. had often before seen what is called Jagherry, but it always 
appeared to me a very coarse apology for coarse brown sugar 
—this was really excellent sugar-candy, such as I have often 
bought in my younger days; it is pepared by simply boiling 
the toddy, after straining it through a cloth, until it becomes 
the consistency of syrup; it is then tied up in the spatha 
which covers the flower of the areca nut, (and which almost 
surround the tree)* and left to dry in the sun, when most. of 
it crystallizes, and what remains liquid is poured fe 
-.* 27th,_We remained here, having again to change our - 
People, who never like to go beyond the limits of the district - ] 
in which they reside. "The Coral seemed to have very little 
authority, and made great difficulty about procuring us Cool- | 
ies. -As he could spéak no English, and we no Cingalese, — 
.. we should have been at some loss how to get on, had not our 
5 friend the Modlear, who understood English tolerably, accom- 5 
E : Each ins of fva be separate spatha. 
=. Vol. IL— Ne 18 21 
