CHAP. II.] CLIMATE. 59 



resided in the tropics to comprehend the feeling of en- 

 joyment which accompanies these periodical commo- 

 tions of the atmosphere; in Europe they would be 

 fraught with annoyance, but in Ceylon they are wel- 

 comed with a relish proportionate to the monotony they 

 dispel. 



Long before the wished-for period arrives, the ver- 

 dure produced by the previous rains becomes almost 

 obliterated by* the burning droughts of March and 

 April. The deciduous trees shed their foliage, the plants 

 cease to put forth fresh leaves, and all vegetable life 

 languishes under the unwholesome heat. The grass 

 withers on the baked and cloven earth, and red dust 

 settles on the branches and thirsty brushwood. The 

 insects, deprived of their accustomed food, disappear 

 underground or hide beneath the decaying bark; the 

 water-beetles bury themselves in the hardened mud of 

 the pools, and the helices retire into the crevices of the 

 stones or to hollows amongst the roots of the trees, 

 closing the apertures of their shells with the hybernating 

 epiphragm. Butterflies are no longer seen hovering over 

 the flowers, the birds appear fewer and less joyous, and 

 the wild animals and crocodiles, driven by the drought 

 from then* accustomed retreats, wander through the 

 jungle, and even venture to approach the village wells in 

 search of water. Man equally languishes under the 

 general exhaustion, ordinary exertion becomes distasteful, 

 and even the native Singhalese, although inured to the 

 climate, moves with lassitude and reluctance. 



Meanwhile the air becomes loaded to saturation with 

 aqueous vapour drawn up by the augmented force of 

 evaporation acting vigorously over land and sea: the 

 sky, instead of its brilliant blue, assumes the sullen tint 

 of lead, and not a breath disturbs the motionless rest of 

 the clouds that hang on the lower range of hills. At 

 length, generally about the middle of the month, but 

 frequently earlier, the sultry suspense is broken by 

 the arrival of the wished-for change. The sun has by 



