154 COLOMBO. [Part VII. 



lizards and scorpions, which occasionally resort to the 

 rooms, and take up their abode in the ceilings ; — 

 wliilst the monkeys, in their mischievous cmiosity, lift 

 the tiles to discover what they conceal.^ Spiders of 

 enormous size haunt the vdne cellars and other dark- 

 ened store-rooms, and ants in myriads beset every crevice 

 and corner in the exercise of then* useful vocation as 

 domestic scavengers. 



But the chief inconvenience of a mansion in Ceylon, 

 both on the coast and in tlie mountains, is the preva- 

 lence of damp, and the difficulty of protecting articles 

 hable to uijury from tliis source. Books, papers, and 

 manuscripts rapidly decay ; especially dming the south- 

 west monsoon, when the atmosphere is laden vidth mois- 

 ture. Unless great precautions are taken, the binding 

 fades and yields, the leaves grow mouldy and stained, 

 and letter-paper, in an incredibly short time, becomes 

 so spotted and spongy as to be unfit for use. After 

 a very few seasons of neglect, a book falls to pieces, and 

 its decomposition attracts hordes of minute insects, that 

 swarm to assist in the work of destruction. The con- 

 cealment of these tiny creatm-es during daylight ren- 

 ders it difficult to watch their proceedings, or to 

 discriminate the precise species most actively engaged; 

 but there is every reason to beheve that the larvae 

 of the death-watch and numerous acari are amongst 

 those most active. As nature seldom peoples a region 

 supphed with abundance of suitable food, mthout, at 

 the same time, taking measures of precaution against 

 the disproportionate increase of indi\'iduals ; so have 

 these vegetable depredators been provided with foes 

 who pursue and feed greedily upon them. These ai'e 

 of widely difierent genera ; but mstead of tlieir ser- 

 vices being gratefully recognised, they are popularly 

 branded as accomphces in the work of destruction. One 



^ A malicious device of the natives, i searcli for which the monkeys will 

 in order to annoy a neighbour, is to so displace the tiles as to let in the 

 scatter rice over hia roof, in the j rain. 



