Chap. IV.] 



REST-HOUSE. 



183 



On the occasion of our visit, we were recei\ed Ijy 

 liim with tlie honours of the wliite cloth, the approach 

 to his house being covered with long pieces of cotton to 

 the porch. Tom-tom beaters and musicians ^ w^ere 

 stationed along tlie avenue, groups of boys exliibited 

 national dances, and beat time by clashing together 

 sticks of hard w^ood, and after them a band of devil 

 dancers from an adjacent temple, with masks and gro- 

 tesque dresses, went through a performance wliich, in 

 contortion and enthusiasm, resembled the fury of the 

 Corybantes. 



Half way between Colombo and Kandy is the pictu- 

 resque rest-house of Ambepusse, one of those treache- 

 rously beautifid spots which have acquh^ed a bad reno"vvn 

 from the attractions of the scenery and the pestilent fevers 

 by which the locality is infested. 



AT AMBEPD33E. 



After leaving the village, the road crosses the spurs of 

 the hills which descend from the mountain zone, and 

 the aspect of the country gradually changes from mari- 

 time plains to the ruder and less cultivated Kandyan 

 highlands. Instead of broad inundated paddi-fields, 

 rice is grown in the moist crannies of the hills, and diy 

 graui is cultivated on their slopes. The majestic crowns 



1 Two of these musicians, who 

 phiyed on a rude pipe like a flageolet, 

 had the faculty of keeping up a sus- 

 tained and monotonous note for many 



minutes without intermission, hv in- 

 haling through the nostrils whilst 

 they blew with the lips. 



N 4 



