2y6 Voyage of the Novara. 



The chalias, moreover, are no longer, as formerly under 

 the Portuguese and Dutch, adscripti glehce for life, or slaves 

 that could be purchased with the soil, but free labourers, 

 who are entitled to demand proportionate pay for the 

 lightest services rendered. 



The Cinnamon Gardens in the neighbourhood of Colombo, 

 although for the most part gone to decay, nevertheless 

 impart to the whole scene a singularly cheerful, agreeable 

 aspect. The bushes, from 4 to 6 feet in height, with 

 their smooth, beautiful, light green leaves, resembling those 

 of the bay-tree, and their pale, yellow flower-stamens shoot 

 up doubly fresh and succulent, from the snow-white quartz 

 soil in which they best thrive. The flowering season of the 

 cinnamon is in January, and the fruit ripens in April, when 

 the sap is richest in the shrub. In May the boughs are 

 begun to be " barked," which process continues till October. 

 The pruning and gathering of the yearling shoots, w^hich are 

 about the thickness of a man's thumb, is very laborious, and 

 employs many hands. Each labourer cuts off as many as he 

 can conveniently carry in a bundle, then, with the point 

 of a crooked knife, made for the express purpose, strips 

 the entire rind from the wood, carefully scrapes off* the 

 exterior corticle and innermost layer, and lays the stripped-off* 

 cinnamon rind, now reduced to the thickness of parchment, 

 in the sun, where it dries and curls together. All round the 

 hut, in which the peeling of the rind is carried on, is diffused 

 a most exquisite aroma, caused by the breaking of the leaves 



