CHAP. III.] RATAN BRIDGES. THORNY PLANTS. 107 



torrent thundered and fell from rock to rock with a 

 descent of nearly 100 feet. The flooring of this aerial 

 bridge consisted of short splints of wood, laid trans- 

 versely, and bound in their places by thin strips of the 

 waywel itself. The whole structure vibrated and 

 swayed with fearful ease, but the coolies traversed it 

 though heavily laden ; and the European, between whose 

 estate and the high road it lay, rode over it daily without 

 dismounting^* 



Another class of trees which excites the astonishment 

 of an European, are those whose stems are protected, as 

 high as cattle can reach, by thorns, which in the jungle 

 attain a growth and size quite surprising. One species of 

 palm \ the Caryota horrida, often rises to a height of 

 fifty feet, and has a coating of thorns for about six or 

 eight feet from the ground, each about an inch in length, 

 and so densely covering the stem that the bark is barely 

 visible. 



A climbing plant, the "Kudu-micis" of the Singhalese' 2 , 

 very common in the hill jungles, with a diameter of 

 three or four inches, is thickly studded with knobs 

 about half an inch high, and from the extremity of each 

 a thorn protrudes, as large and sharp as the bill of a 

 sparrow-hawk. It has been the custom of the Singhalese 

 from time immemorial, to employ the thorny trees of 

 their forests in the construction of defences against 

 their enemies. The Mahawanso relates, that in the 

 civil wars, in the reign of Prakrama-bahu in the twelfth 

 century, the inhabitants of the southern portion of the 

 island intrenched themselves against his forces behind 

 moats filled with thorns. 3 And at an earlier period, 

 during the contest of Dutugaimunu with Elala, the 

 same authority states, that a town which he was about 



1 This palm I have called a Caryota j The natives identify it with the Ca- 

 on the authority of Dr. GARDNER, ryota, and call it the " katu-kittul." 

 and of MOON'S Catalogue ; but I have 2 Toddalia aculeata. 



been informed by Dr. HOOKER and 

 Mr. THWAITES that it is an Areca. 



3 Mahawamo, ch. Ixxiv. 



