AND THE MALAY STATES 61 



kill them, as they think the cobra quite likely to possess the soul of 

 some dead relative of theirs. The Tamils, however, have no such 

 prejudice and are perfectly willing to slaughter them whenever they can. 

 My informants acknowledged that the bite of the cobra was very venom- 

 ous, but not necessarily fatal. They said that some years before there 

 had lived in that district a man who was known as the cobra king, wno 

 not only cured snake bites in others, but was proof against poison him- 

 self. He used to tease the snakes to make them bite him, and even rub 

 their venom into cuts on his arms, and apparently without the least 

 injury. But he was finally attacked by a sort of rheumatism, which 

 made him a helpless cripple, and he went back to England to get cured. 

 Close to Culloden is Arapolakanda, where I next visited, being 

 entertained by the resident manager, Mr. H. V. Bagot. He has but 

 fifteen acres of Hevca in bearing, and gets twenty pounds a day. In 

 coagulating, Mr. Bagot did not follow exactly the process used by his 

 neighbor, Mr. Harrison, the difference being this : he added no acid to 

 hasten coagulation, and also smoked the rubber over a fire of sawdust 

 and bark. The final drying was accomplished by spreading on wire 

 screens, and not a pound was shipped until it was perfectly dry and 

 transparent. By the way, he reported that he had one "dumb" tree 

 that was big, thrifty, and apparently exactly like the others, but that 

 it gave no milk. At the lower end of Arapolakanda are some acres of 

 marsh land that have been drained and reclaimed and on which is 

 standing some fine rubber. As this land is near the river, it is some- 

 times inundated, the water standing four feet up on the trunks, but for 

 a short time only. Mr. Bagot acknowledged that the trees were set 

 back somewhat, but not very much. The general opinion in Ceylon, 

 however, is that inundations are very apt to kill out the Hevea. 



The oldest rubber on this plantation is some fifteen to eighteen 

 years old, planted quite closely together in a sheltered nook. In this 

 lot the outside trees which get the sun are by far the largest, one that 

 I measured roughly being two feet in diameter and sixty feet high. 

 After having seen all of the rubber, I examined the tea, saw what sights 

 there were, and spent a very pleasant evening with Mr. Bagot, at whose 

 bungalow I slept. 



Very early the next morning, with a coolie carrying my luggage, I 

 made my way to the river and climbing down its steep, clayey bank, 

 found myself aboard the steamer Kaluganga. This craft was some 

 sixty feet long and twelve feet wide, with a small wood-burning boiler 

 and engine amidships. The forward deck was reserved for the whites, 



