124 



SOUTHERX AST) CEXTRAL PROVIXCES. [Part VII. 



At a miicli later period they betook themselves to the 

 trade of peehng emuamou ; an art of which they soon 

 secured the virtual monopoly. The Portuguese, ahve 

 to the importance of the duties in which this hardy class 

 w^as engaged, of penetrating the hills in search of the 

 coveted spice, induced the kings of Cotta to institute a 

 regular organisation of the caste, and to assign certain 

 villages for their residence, at various points along the 

 coast from ISTegombo to Matura. The Dutch, though 

 treating the Chahas with the most heartless severity, 

 preserved the system as they inherited it from their 

 predecessors ^ ; and to the present day, they thrive on the 

 southern coast, engaging in every branch of uidustry that 

 gives acti\ity and prosperity to the district. 



There is no quarter of the world in which the coco- 

 nut flourishes in such rich luxmiance as in this corner 

 of Ceylon. Here it enjoys a rare combination of eveiy 

 advantasfe essential to its growth, — a loose and friable 

 soil, a free and genial au% unobstructed solar heat, and 

 an atmosphere damp with the spray and moisture from 

 the sea, towards which the crown of the tree is always 

 more or less inchned."^ 



Of late years, its cultivation has been vastly increased. 

 Some idea may be formed of its importance, ft'om the fact 

 that, at the time when the English took possession of 

 Colombo, it was estimated that the single district lying 

 between Dondera Head and Calpentyn contained ten 

 minions of coco-nut trees ^; and such has been the in- 



' Valexttn, Oud en Nimto Oost- 

 Indien, ^-c, ch. xii. p. 135 j ch. xv. p. 

 316. 



"^ A writer in the Journal of the 

 Indian Archipehir/o for 1850 obsenes, 

 that this tendency to bend above the 

 sea, causing its fruit to drop into the 

 water, appe-''rs to account for its ex- 

 tension to the numerous islands and 

 atolls " to which the nut is iioated 

 by the winds and tide." — Vol. iv. p. 

 103. A curious illusti-ation of the 

 passion of the coco-nut for the sea is 

 mentioned by Dampiek, in connec- 



tion with the little island of Pulo- 

 Mega, off the coast of Smuatra, which 

 he says, " is not a mile roimd, and so 

 low that the tide flows over it. It 

 is of a sandy soil, and full of 

 coco-nut trees, not-^-ithstanding that 

 at everj' spiiug-tide the salt-water 

 goes clear over the island.'' — Voi/ar/e, 

 i^-c, vol. i. p. 474, quoted by Craav- 

 FUBD, in his Dictionary of the Indian 

 Islands. 



^ Bektolacci, pt. iv. p. .324. The 

 Ceylon Observer of the 25th Decem- 

 ber 1858, contains the follo^ang 



