300 THE RIFLE AND HOUND IN CEYLON, chap, xil 



Now this was all satisfactory enough so far, but I 

 had been completely wrong in my idea of the distance 

 from Doolana to the ' Park.' We now heard of three 

 days journey to Oomanoo, which was certainly some- 

 where in the very centre of the Veddah country ; and 

 our quaint little guide had never even heard of the 

 Batticaloa road. There was no doubt, therefore, 

 that it was a long way from Oomanoo, which village 

 might be any distance from us, as a Veddah's descrip- 

 tion of a day's journey might vary from ten to thirty 

 miles. 



I certainly looked forward to a short allowance of 

 food both for ourselves and coolies. We had been hur- 

 rying through the country at such a rate that we had 

 killed no deer ; we had, therefore, been living upon 

 our tins of preserved provisions, of which we had now 

 only four remaining. 



At the village of Monampitya there was no rice 

 procurable, as the natives lived entirely upon kor- 

 rakan, 1 at which our coolies turned up their noses 

 when I advised them to lay in a stock before start- 

 ing. 



There was no time to be lost, and we determined 

 to push on as fast as the coolies could follow, as they 

 had only two days' provisions ; we had precisely the 

 same, and those could not be days of feasting. We 



1 A small seed, which they make into hard, uneatable cakes. 



