The "Pettah'' at Galle. 361 



are disagreeable objects to all new comers, one speedily 

 becomes accustomed to these harmless, innocuous, playful 

 little animals, of which the Ceylonese are in the habit of 

 relating many interesting and amusing anecdotes. 



Of late vears, during which Galle has risen into consider- 

 able importance, as the converging point of the lines of 

 steamers to Eastern India, China, and Australia, the number 

 of substantial houses has greatly increased, and several large 

 hotels are found here replete with every comfort. Like most 

 European settlements in India, the Cape, and China, Gralle 

 possesses a fort in which, at an earlier period, the European 

 colonists dwelt with their wives and families apart from the 

 natives, and has also a " Pettah," or Black Town, a sort of 

 Cingalese Ghetto, exclusively inhabited by the black popula- 

 tion. At present this separation is not so strenuously enforced 

 as in earlier times, but whoever would seek to form a more 

 accurate idea of the various races of this population, its mode 

 of life and its demeanour, must leave the so-called "Fort," and 

 wander through the native or Cingalese quarter. Here are 

 the fruit and vegetable markets ; here all was devoted to buying 

 and selling, which seemed to excite the otherwise listless little 

 covetous disposition of the Cingalese ; here jugglers and snake- 

 charmers exhibit, who excite interest rather by the horrible 

 nature and the foolhardiness of the performances, than by their 

 executing any surprising feats. A belief is prevalent among 

 the people that this singular class of men, greatly resembling 

 our own gipsies, possess the art of depriving a poisonous 



