MULLAITIVTT. 271 



I preserved dry both the skin and skeleton, the tongue and stomach 

 went into alcohol, and the flesh we ate. Part of it made a deUcious 

 stew, rich, sweet, and well-flavored, and part of it we roasted. 

 The latter was dark meat, and although it had a queer flavor, it was 

 tender and very good. 



In addition to the discomfort of living in, or rather at, the 

 worst rest house I ever saw, I pi'esently had to contend Avith a 

 much greater misery than dirt, namely, scarcity of food. I reached 

 Mullaitivu vdih. two weeks' proAisions, expecting to stay only that 

 length of time, but in case I should desire to remain longer, I had 

 arranged to have further suppHes sent me from Jafiha, I, of 

 course, expected to purchase certain kinds of food in the village, 

 but found nothing whatever for sale save rice — neither fruit, vegeta- 

 bles, fowls, nor meat of any kind. What the people lived on remains 

 a mystery to this day. 



At the end of a fortnight, I wrote to a fiiend in Jaffiia, a rev- 

 erend gentleman who had very kindly offered to do anything in 

 his power to assist me, and asked him to piirchase and send me 

 forthwith, by a coolie, certain staple articles of food which I men- 

 tioned, and for which I enclosed twenty rupees cash. I counted 

 upon the arrival of the goods before the end of the third week, as 

 surely as my hunger, and until that time I lived on quarter rations. 

 The time expired, but no coolie came. I waited with growing im- 

 patience and shai-pening appetite day after day, four days longer, 

 and on the fifth sent a letter to my friend, deiDloring the failure to 

 connect, and expressing the opinion that my letter had never 

 reached him, or else that the coolie sent to me had stolen away 

 with the whole outfit. I begged my friend to send something at 

 once, as I was almost famishing. 



After several days, when I was almost ready to return to Jaflfna, 

 a letter came from my reverend friend, saying that my letter and 

 the cash enclosed had been received, '' but owing to my illness and 

 the difficulty of finding an honest coolie, I have been unable to 

 send you the articles you require." Great Csesar! Had my cleri- 

 cal friend been eavesdropping then, he certainly would have heard 

 nothing good of himself. He closed by saying that as he was about 

 leaving Jaffna, he had left my rupees with the Superintendent of 

 Police, who would hand them to me on my return. "WTien I re- 

 turned to Jaffna, he had indeed gone, and the Superintendent of 

 Police had never received from him any cash for me. So I never 

 again saw either my reverend friend or my rupees. 



