Chap. V.] VILLAGES OF THE T.UIILS. 513 



and Moeletivoe, when seated round our pic-nic repast at 

 the side of a green opening in the jungle, a buck stepped 

 out from cover within a hundred yards of us, threw up 

 his head, gazed at the party for a few moments in sm'- 

 prise, and began leisurely to graze where he stood. 

 Presently, two peacocks, one with a train of prodigious 

 splendour, strutted out on the sward, and by and by no 

 less than five jungle fowl, their plumage gleaming hke 

 metal, joined the party, and all fed undisturbed within 

 pistol-shot of where we were seated. No morbid appe- 

 tite for " sport " was permitted to abuse the confidence 

 which these innocent creatures displayed. 



Cultivation in tlfis district is carried on by small 

 tanks, one of which is attached to almost every Tamil 

 village that we passed. These villages differ widely in 

 every particular from those of the Kandyans or the 

 low-country Singhalese. The latter generally consist 

 of ill-arranged houses, seldom hghted by windoAvs ; 

 the coco-nut garden which adjoins them is strewn with 

 leaves and rubbish, and frequently a stagnant puddle 

 at the door. Those of the Kandyans might be equally 

 described by the same epithets of filth and discomfort, 

 in addition to which, they have the fancy for being 

 always carefully carried to a secure distance from unj 

 high road, buried in the hottest hollows, and concealed 

 in the closest folds of the hills. The villages in the 

 north of the Wanny, on the contrary, are always placed 

 in the most open and airy situations that the forest will 

 afford ; often surrounded by a wide pasture for their 

 sheep and cattle ; with rice grounds, and their never- 

 failing accompaniment, an artificial tank. Each liouse 

 is biult in a well-fenced enclosiu-e, from which all grass 

 and weeds are removed, and the white sand raked every 

 morning, so clean that it looks almoj>t hke a flagged 

 courtyard. In the centre of this a platform is raised, 

 somewhat larger than the area of the intended dwelling, 

 and the sides and top of this little terrace, so far as it is 

 visible, are coated with chunam, and kept carefully 

 VOL. n. L L 



