I 4 SPORT AND TRAVEL 



should become suddenly imbued with new life and 

 energy, appoint committees, organize sports, and 

 from morning till night during the seven days to 

 Ceylon keep the ball of entertainment rolling. 



Very early in the morning of the day of our arrival 

 in Colombo I dressed and went to the bow, where 

 the breeze came fresh and clean from landwards. It 

 was then that I first realized that the writer who 

 describes the smell of the East is in no way drawing 

 upon his imagination to add atmosphere to his word- 

 pictures. The aroma which came out to sea with 

 that morning breeze was as perceptible and as dis- 

 tinct from all other land-smells as is the odor of a 

 greenhouse from that of a cactus field, a tangible 

 fragrance, soft, warm, and carrying with it the scent 

 of spices, temple-incense, and flowers. The morning 

 came up in a flood of golden glory, disclosing a low, 

 palm-fringed shore ; we rounded a point, and there, 

 lying white and red behind the countless masts and 

 funnels of her great roadstead, lay Colombo, the 

 welcome resting-place at the cross-roads of every 

 ocean highway of the Orient. 



At the entrance to the harbor we were met by a 

 horde of naked little Cingalese urchins propelling 

 craft of every description, from catamarans to logs 

 of wood rudely lashed together ; displaying prowess 

 in diving after and recovering coins, when half-way 



