Chap. VI.] IXDUSTRIOUS HABITS OB^ THE TAMILS. 543 



carrying adventures of curry stuffs, betel-leaves, and 

 other produce, to be sold in the villages of the Wanny. 

 Large bodies of them also resort annually to the south, 

 where they find lucrative employment in repaking the 

 village tanks, — a species of labour in which they are 

 peculiarly expert, and which the Singhalese are too 

 indolent or too litigious to perform for themselves. If 

 the deserted fields and sohtudes of the Wanny are 

 ever again to be re-peopled and re-tilled, I am inchned 

 to beheve that the movement for that purpose will come 

 from the Tamils of Jaffna ; for, looking to their increasing 

 intelhi2jence and wealth, their habits of industrv and 

 adaptation to an agricultural hfe, I can have little doubt 

 that, as population increases, and the arable lands of the 

 peninsula become occupied, emigration will gradually 

 be directed towards the south, where, w'ith the natural 

 capabihties of the soil and the facilities for irrigation, 

 one half of the exertion and toil bestowed on the reluc- 

 tant sands of Jafiha would speedily convert the wilder- 

 ness into a garden. Already there is a satisfaction, ex- 

 perienced in no other portion of Ceylon, in visiting their 

 villao:es and farms, and in witnessinsj the industrious 

 habits and improved processes of the peasantry. The 

 whole district is covered with a net-work of roads, and 

 at certain situations there exist what are maintained 

 in no other part of the island (except at Matura in the 

 south), regular markets, to which the peasantry resort 

 from a distance, and bring theu' fruit, vegetables, and 

 other produce for sale. These markets are generally 

 held in the early morning, before the sun pours down 

 his fiercest rays ; and in driving along the roads at 

 such an hoiu-, tlie active and busy picture which they 

 present would have strongly reminded me of some rural 

 scenes in England, had it not been for the dispro- 

 portionate share of the labour borne by the women, 

 who always seemed to carry the heaviest burdens, and 

 to take the most toilsome share in the business of the 

 day. 



