COACHING IN CEYLON 173 



hiss as the damp, warm wind sways them. 

 Frequently we pass native huts built of mud- 

 like conglomerate, and roofed with thatch 

 made of palm leaves. These are generally 

 surrounded with the bright green foliage of 

 the plantain or banana. The natives one 

 sees at work are either engaged in fishing 

 with long seine nets or employed in some of 

 the hundreds of forms in which the cocoa-nut 

 is useful to man. Here and there a bullock 

 is slowly revolving round a stone-crushing 

 mill, in which the kernels are being crushed 

 to yield their oil. Again a dozen natives 

 are splashing about in the filthy tanks, where 

 the husks are being rotted to facilitate the 

 removal of the fibre, or women are collecting 

 it, drying it, or making it into matting or 

 rope. Lastly, here and there natives can be 

 seen in the tree-tops, plucking the nuts, or 



