UNCLE IN ENGLAND. 23 



night ; besides, suspecting that the story was not 

 quite true, and that it was the thief instead of the 

 informer who told it, he was not willing to let 

 him continue there, lest it should bring himself 

 under suspicion. The Ceylonese was hurt at a 

 doubt which he so ill deserved, and left the 

 farmer early next morning, wandering he knew 

 not whither, till he found himself, just when the 

 sun was at its height, in a tangled and extensive 

 forest ; there he sat down to rest under a banyan- 

 tree, whose self-rooted branches, entwined with 

 creepers, had become nearly impenetrable 3 and 

 there he determined to remain, as long as the 

 forest supplied him with fruit and wild honey. 

 Fear had taken such possession of him, that he 

 was afraid to venture back to the more inhabited 

 parts of the country ; and yet he was here in 

 equal dread of the Bedahs, a race who live in the 

 forests and mountains, and who refuse to associate 

 with the more civilized Ceylonese. 



It is supposed, Colonel Travers told us, that 

 the Bedahs are descended from the original in- 

 habitants ; and that, having fled from the Cey- 

 lonese invaders, they have retained, with their 

 ancient customs, their hatred and fear of the in- 

 vaders. They live by hunting, they sleep in the 

 trees, placing thorns and bushes on the ground 

 round them to give warning of approaching wild 

 beasts ; and on every alarm a Bedah climbs 



