AND THE MALAY STATES 15 



After proving to a score of Mohammedan merchants who haunt 

 the hotel that I desired to buy no jewelry, silks, curios, or unset stones, 

 and threatening the native tailor and shoemaker with my umbrella, 1 

 had a chance to look about. The hotel is beautifully situated on the 

 seashore, its courtyard crowded with cocoanut palms, its broad verandahs, 

 latticed blinds, and high ceilings making it as cool as one could expect 

 in so torrid a clime. It was impossible for me to communicate with 

 any of the planters that day, so I gave myself up to the pleasant task of 

 watching the strange people that surrounded me. For example, a Hindu 

 juggler, with the inevitable native flute, and a basket of cobras, invitee 1 



BANYAN TREE, CEYLON. ' 



me out upon the lawn to view his magic. I thought it worth a rupee 

 to see the "mango trick," and I was not able to detect any fraud in the 

 sleight-of-hand by which he apparently planted the seed, made it sprout, 

 and within two or three minutes grew a pretty shrub more than two 

 feet high. By encouraging a rival of his, I also saw a lively little mon- 

 goose attack and kill a huge ratsnake, but no inducement was effective 

 in getting him to trust his cobra within reach of its traditional enemy. 



Just as the exhibition ended, along came a steamer friend, with 

 the information that he had engaged a gharry to take us out to Mount 

 Lavinia, a favorite shore house some three miles away. As it promised 

 to give me a view of the country, I gladly consented, and we were soon 

 bowling along over the fine roads, drawn by a very diminutive but 



