Chap. III.] 



COST OF LIVING. 



159 



to convert peace into pandemonium.^ Nothing can be 

 more charming than the accounts which have reached 

 us of the social harmony of the fn-st British community, 

 after the capture of the island ^ ; but at that period, the 

 purity of Enghsh feehng was still untainted, and the 

 unity of Christian fellowship had not yet been rent in 

 sunder by ecclesiastical jarring. It is to be hoped that 

 some future narrator will find a moment more propi- 

 tious than I did to dehneate the aspect of society at 

 Colombo. 



The high cost of li\dng has been a subject of com- 

 plaint ever since our occupation of the island, and the 

 grievance is as severely felt at the present day as when 

 Percival lamented it in 1803. The scarcity of pasture, 

 and the injiury to which cattle are exposed from leeches, 

 render meat scarce and dear ; milk is difficult to pro- 

 cure^, fresh butter is almost unknown, and poultry ex- 



^ "Frequent scarifications render 

 most colonial skins so impenetrably 

 thick, that the utmost vituperation 

 makes hardly any impression. Re- 

 course therefore is had to something 

 shai-per than Billingsg-ate. It is a 

 general custom in colonies, when 

 your antagonist ^vithstands abuse, to 

 hurt him seriously if you can, and 

 even to do him a mortal injury ; either 

 in order to carry your point or to 

 pimish him for having carried his. 

 In every walk of colonial life, eveiy 

 body strikes at his opponent's heart. 

 If a governor or high officer refuses 

 to comply with, the wish of some 

 leading parties, they instantly try to 

 ruin him by getting him recalled with 

 disgrace. If two officials disagree, 

 one of them is veiy likely to be ti-ipped 

 up and desti'oyed by the other. If an 

 official or a colonist otieuds the official 

 body, the latter hunt him into jail or 

 out of the colony. If two settlers 

 disagi'ee about a road or a water- 

 course, they will attack each other's 

 credit at the bank, rake up ugly old 

 stories, get two newspapers to be the 

 instruments of their bitter animosity, 

 and perhaps ruin each other in despe- 



rate litigation. Disagreement and 

 rivaliy are more tiger-like in a colony 

 than disagTeement and rivaliy at 

 home." — Wakefield on Colonization. 

 Letter xxix., p. 188. 



^ Coedinek's Ceylon, Sec, p. 76. 



^ Linnaeus has described the pecu- 

 liar eflects produced on the milk of 

 the reindeer and the cow by the leaves 

 of the Piiifiuicida vnh/aris, a small 

 plant common in marshes in Britain, 

 In many parts of the coast of Ceylon 

 there is a thorny fruited plant, with 

 dark orange-coloured roots and prim- 

 rose-like flowers, which has equally 

 wonderful effects on milk and on 

 watei-, though of a different nature. 

 It is known to the Singhalese as the 

 bakatoo (Pedalium miire.r), and if 

 bits of the stem, leaves, and roots be 

 mixed for a few seconds in milk or 

 water, the liquid turns thick and 

 mucilaginous, so much so, thfit water 

 in this state can be raised by the 

 hand se^^eral feet out of a basin 

 and ^^'ill fall back witliout noise ; and 

 this without imparting any colour, 

 taste, or snu'll to the fluid, which 

 returns to its natural state in about ten 

 or fifteen minutes afterwards. The 



