i:X ROITK TO A CEYLON TEA ESTATE 15 



who represent numerous Eastern races and are of 

 various " castes " or classes. 



Vou are thinking that there must bo very many 

 mort' women than uivn in (his place ? Wherever you 

 go in ("eylon, you will be inclined lo juniji to that same 

 conclusion, for this is a land where many of the men 

 wear skirts, and let their hair grow long ; in China 

 you will tind the women wearing trousers, liut here 

 comes a Ceylon character who looks very manly, 

 albeit his costume is so unlike the apparel in which 

 you are accustomed to see men clothed. This well- 

 built, well-favoured individual in white trousers — 

 which are verj- full to the knees, and thence tightly 

 fitting to the ankles, where they are finished off with 

 a frill — white shirt, and richly embroidered bolero, belt 

 and hat, is a Kandyan chief. For many centuries his 

 ancestors were ministers of the Kandyan kings. You 

 must not expect to find such aristocratic coloured 

 personages engaged in the business of preparing tea for 

 market. Indeed, only a very minor part in the Ceylon 

 tea indu.stry is played by the "people" of Ceylon. 

 These are comjK)s<^'d of three races — viz., the aborigines, 

 or Veddas ; the Ceylon Tamils, who. it is believed, origin- 

 ally came over from Southern Indiii in (he renit»te past, 

 and concpiered the north and east of the i.^land ; and 

 the Sinhalese, who originally came over from India in 

 the sixth century B.C., conquered the Tamil settlers, 

 made themselves masters of the country, and were 

 only subjugated as recently as 1815, when the British 

 comi)leted their concpiest of the whole island by cop- 

 turing Kandy. 



The staff attached to a Ceylon tea estate consists 

 of a manager, two, three, or half a dozen aAsistantfl, 



