4 THE OUT-STATION ; OR, 



Seated in the balcony of the temple that stands on 

 it, their chief delight consisted in watching elephants 

 (who had been specially instructed for the purpose) 

 dissect some unfortunate law-breaker piecemeal, be- 

 ginning at the finger-joints ; in looking at mothers 

 cutting off their children's heads, and then pounding 

 them in a wooden mortar ; and other " eccentricities," 

 which are handed down to posterity by rude paintings 

 of the events on the inner walls of the temple. 



There is another incident attached to this temple, 

 which is any thing but consolatory to an English- 

 man's amour propre. It is supposed that the drums 

 of her Majesty's regiment, taken by the Cin- 

 galese at a massacre of the British troops, are pre- 

 served in one of the rooms ; and, although the island 

 has been totally subdued since, no attempt has been 

 made to rescue the unfortunate drum-prisoners (whose 

 nerves by this time must be somewhat unstrung) 

 from their luckless fate ; except on one occasion by a 

 handful of private soldiers, who having more esprit 

 du corps (or, possibly, esprit & arrack) in them than 

 allowed by the rules and regulations of the Articles 

 of War, were doubtless regaled with a dose of extra- 

 drill afterwards for their too patriotic temerity. 



The route now lies over a continual series of moun- 

 tain-passes through the interior, at the end of every 

 ten or twelve miles of which is erected a rest-house, 

 kept by some enterprising native, formerly most pro- 

 bably a mess-waiter, or butler under some English- 



