160 



COLOMBO. 



[Part VII. 



pensive.^ The wages of servants are increased, owing 

 to the necessity of importing rice fi'om the coast of 

 India, and the cost of keeping horses at Colombo (as- 

 cribable to the same cause) is nearly double the outlay 

 required at Madi^as. Fruit alone is abundant ; a pine- 

 apple of two or three pounds' weight costs but a penny ; 

 and freshly-gathered oranges sell at a similarly cheap 

 rate. Excellent stores within the Fort supply articles 

 imported from Europe ; and those who bring outfits from 

 England, generally find they could have obtained the 

 same articles on the spot, if not more economically, at 

 least more judiciously chosen, as regards adaptation to 

 the chmate. Besides, the Moors in the Pettah have shops 

 wliich are certainly amongst the "wonders of Serendib," 

 from the habits of their owners and the multiform variety 

 of their contents. Here everything is procurable that 

 industry can collect from the looms of Asia and the ma- 

 nufactories of Em'ope ; but the stocks have accumulated 

 so long, that an antiquary estimating the date by the 

 fashion, might fix the period of then' importation in the 

 early times of the Dutch.^ 



The domestic economy of the great body of the Sin- 

 halese, who mhabit Colombo and the other toA^^ls of the 

 island, is of the simplest and most inexpensive character. 

 In a chmate, whose chief requirement is protection fr'om 

 heat, their dwellings are as httle encumbered with fur- 

 niture as their persons with di'ess ; and the coolness of 

 the earthen floor renders it preferable to a bed. Two 



Singhalese take adyantage of this 

 peculiarity of the hakatoo to thic-ken 

 the milk sent roirnd for sale to Euro- 

 peans. 



^ The Malabar poultiy is common 

 at Colombo ; in wliich the colour of 

 the bones and skin is a disagreeable 

 black. In other respects they are 

 excellent. 



^ " The ^Moormen shopkeepers 

 have such unpronounceable names, 



that by common consent their En- 

 glish customers designate them by the 

 numbers of their shojis. In this way 

 one, a small portion of whose name 

 consists of Meera Lebbe Hema I^ebbe 

 Tamby Ahamadoc Lebbe Mareair, is 

 cut down to ' Number Forty-eight,' 

 while his rival in trade is similarly 

 symbolized as 'Number Forty-two.' " 

 — Household Words, \o\, viii. p. 19. 



