184 COLOMBO TO KAXDY. [Part VIT. 



of the Talipat palm begin to appear near the villages, 

 and graceful bamboos wave their feathery plumes in every 

 liollow. 



The forests become so dense that troops of monkeys 

 venture in sight, and flocks of plumb-headed paroquets 

 romp and scream amongst the branches.^ Buddhist 

 temples appear in secluded spots, and picturesque 

 maduas for preaching hana^ built with pagoda-hke roofs 

 rising tier above tier. Shaven priests in yellow robes, 

 and carrying ivory fans, plod on their errand of poverty, 

 to collect food in the \aQages. The houses, instead of 

 groves of coco-nuts, are surrounded by a fence of coffee- 

 bushes, ^vith their pohshed green leaves and wreaths of 

 jasmine-hke flowers, and everything indicates the change 

 from the low-country and its habits to the hills and their 

 hardier peasantry. 



As this was one of the idle seasons of the year, 

 during which labour is suspended, whilst waiting for 

 the rains of the monsoon, ere recommencing^ the sowing; 

 of rice, the Kandyans were lounging about theii' \illages 

 or gathered in groups by the roadside, engaged in 

 listless and sedentary amusements. In one place a 

 crowd was collected to watch the feats of a juggler, 

 who, to our siu*prise, commenced his performances by 

 jumping up on to a pole, and placing his feet upon 

 a cross bar six feet from the ground. On tliis he 

 coursed along the road by prodigious leaps, and re- 

 tmiiing to the audience, steadied himself on his 



^ A white monkey, taken between 

 Ainbepusse and Kornegalle, where 

 they are said to be numerous, was 

 brouglit to me to Colombo. Except 

 in colom', it liad all the characteristics 

 of Preshytes cepluthptents. So sti'iking 

 was its whiteness that it might have 

 been conjectm-ed to be an albino, but 

 for the circumstance that its eyes and 

 face were black. I never saw another 

 specimen ; but the natives say they 

 are not uncommon, and Kxox, who 

 alludes to the fact, adds, that they 

 Are " milk-white both in l)odv and 



face ; but of this sort there is not such 

 plenty."— Pt. i. ch. vi. p. 25. The 

 Eev. R. Spexce Hardy mentions, in 

 his learned work on JEastern Muna- 

 chism, that on the occasion of his visit 

 to the gri'eat temple of Dambool, he 

 encoimtered a troop of white monkeys 

 on the rock in which it is situated 

 — which were doubtless a variety of 

 the Wanderoo. {Eastern MonacMsm, 

 ch. xix. p. 204.) Pliny was aware 

 of the fact that white monkeys are 

 occasionally found in India. {Nat. 

 Hid. lil). viii. cli. xxxii.) 



