Chap. I.] FOREST TRAVELLIXG IX CEYLOX. 411 



taiiiers and dependents it will feed. Hence the peasantry 

 have seldom corn to dispose of : no Kandyan betakes him- 

 self to dealing or to barter, and few \illages possess even 

 the convenience of a bazaar. 



In setting out therefore on any lengthened expedition, 

 it is indispensable that Europeans shoidd pro\dde them- 

 selves with means for carrymg from town to town the 

 sup23hes of rice and other articles necessary for their own 

 consumption, and even the gram ^ and paddi required for 

 the use of their horses. On the journey of Avliich I am 

 spealdng, our tents were carried by elephants, beds, bag- 

 gage canteens, and provisions by coohes, and our party at 

 the first encampment, mcluding servants, horse-keepers, 

 arid grass-cutters, mustered one hundred and fifty persons. 

 We found that milk, eggs, and fowl, were to be procured 

 at some of the villages on the route, and occasionally a 

 sheep or a cow : and along the sea-coast we had frequently 

 supphes of fish, but in the main we were dependent upon 

 the guns of the party for pro\dding oiur table. Through- 

 out, venison and game were to be had in abundance, espe- 

 cially pea-fowl, jungle-cocks, flamingoes, and parrots, 

 which last make excellent pies. Water, except in the 

 vicinity of rivers, was scarce ; generally bad, near the 

 sea, owing to the prevalence of salt marshes ; — and in the 

 low-country, where streams are rare, and wells few, the 

 only supply was derived from artificial tanks and tlieii* 

 tributary streams and outlets, in which the sediment is 

 liable to be stuTcd up at all times by cattle, and by deer 

 and elephants which resort to them after sunset, or bathe 

 in them dm^mg the night. To correct the impurity of the 

 tank-water, when intended for their own use, the natives 

 employ a horny seed, the produce of a species of strych- 

 nus, about the size of a coffee-bean, called by the Tamils 

 tettan-kotta, and by the Singhalese ingini? This they 

 mib round the inside of the unglazed earthen chatty in 



* Gram is tlio jiea of the Ciccr I ^ Stiyclinus potatorum. 

 arietinumy — paddi, rice in the husk. 



