180 



COLOMBO TO KANDY. 



[Part VII. 



tliem rubbed witli a porous stone, in the same way that 

 the mahouts scrub the hide of the elephant, previous 

 to anointing them with oil, — not the precious spikenard 

 of antiquity, but the more homely produce of the coco- 

 nut palm. 



The number of bullock-carts encountered between 

 Colombo and Kandy, laden Avith coffee from the interior, 

 or carrying up rice and stores for the supply of the 

 plantations in the hill-country, is quite sm^prismg. 

 The oxen thus employed on this smgle road, are esti- 

 mated at upwards of twenty thousand. The bandy to 

 which they are yoked is a barbarous two-wheeled wag- 

 gon, with a covering of plaited coco-nut leaves, in which 

 a pair of strong bullocks will draw from five to ten 

 hmidred weight, according to the nature of the country ; 

 and with this they mil perform a joiu-ney of twenty 

 miles a day on a level. 



A few of the large humped cattle of India are an- 

 nually imported for draught ; but the vast majority of 

 those in use are small and dark-coloured, with a grace- 

 ful "head and neck, and elevated hump, a deep silky dew- 

 lap, and limbs as slender as a deer. They have neither 

 the strength nor weight requisite for this service ; and 

 yet the enth-e coffee crop of Ceylon, amounting annually 

 to upwards of half a milhon hundred weight, is year 

 after year brought down from the mountains to the 

 coast by these indefatigable little creatures, Avhich, on 

 returning, carry up proportionally hea\y loads of 

 rice and implements for the estates.^ There are two 

 varieties of the native bullock ; one a somewhat coarser 

 animal, of a deep red colom% the other, the high-bred 

 black one I have just described. So rare was a 

 white one of this species, under the native kings, that 

 the Kandyans were compelled to set them apart for 

 the royal herd.^ 



J A pair of these little bullocks 

 cany up about twenty bushels of 

 rice to the hills, and bring- clown from 



fifty to sixty bushels of coffee to Co- 

 lombo. 



^ Wolf says that, in the year 1763, 



