240 TWO YEARS IN THE JUICGLE. 



the next few minutes was intensely interested in watching their 

 gymnastics. In fairness to them I record the fact that they got 

 over ! 



Besides the sarong, the gentleman aforesaid wears his hair very 

 long, combs it straight back, coils it up at the back of his head and 

 cj^tches it with a high tortoise-shell comb. He wears ear-rings also, 

 lias at best a very scanty beard, and if he is a beardless boy you 

 will be very apt to think him an uncommonly pretty girl for a 

 native. The men are, as a rule, much better looking than the 

 women, the latter being moi-e masculine in general appearance. 



A visit to the native curiosity shops on the Fort is full of in- 

 terest. "With but one exception, they are all kept by Moormen, 

 who ai'e easily distinguished by their bright red caftans, their 

 shaven heads, and their anxiety to cheat every stranger. The un- 

 initiated traveller should beware of every man in Colombo or Galle 

 who has his head shaved and wears upon it a tall, rimless straw 

 hat, resembling an inverted flower-pot suffering from an overdose 

 of decorative art. 



The shops of these worthies contain caiwed ivory and ebony 

 elephants, ebony canes also elaborately carved, beautiful paper 

 weights made of elephant's teeth sawn into sections and polished ; 

 chessmen of carved ivory and sandalwood boxes (from China) ; 

 tortoise-shell work-boxes, watch-chains, combs, jewel caskets of 

 porcupine quills, ebony wood and ivoiy ; and precious stones of 

 poor quality to the end of the chapter. Even the best of Ceylon 

 native carving is clumsily done, and is not fit to compare with that 

 of the Chinese. 



A visit to the business quarter of the Pettah reveals a long 

 row of shops packed closely together, substantially built and well 

 stocked with all the common European articles used in the tropics, 

 dnd arranged quite in European style. I was siu-prised at the ex- 

 tensive variet}' of goods to be found in many of them, and, taken 

 altogether, they were unusually well appointed for native stores. 

 There are no petty bazaars here with impudent Madrasees bawhng 

 out at you as you pass quietly along, "You want buy socks?" 

 "What you want?" " 



The stores of the Chetties who deal in rice are full of grain 

 from floor to ceiUng, and it seems a sin that those old fellows 

 should be able to make such piles of money as they do, and not 

 know how to spend it. A fat old Chetty, with his mouth running 

 over with betel juice, a fifty-cent turban on his head, naked to the 



