MULLAITIYU. 279 



Henrique made a disli of curry and rice which beat my gastro- 

 nomic powers completely, and I came near beating him in turn. 

 The trouble was there were too many stones mingled with the rice 

 to call it rice, and not quite enough to caU it road-metal I sol- 

 emnly promised to fine him two rupees for a repetition of the of- 

 fence, and he as solemnly promised to reform. 



" Jungle just the same as between Nedunkenni and the coast. At 

 dark we halted at a school-house at the fifteenth mile, with the 

 usual thatch-roof and mud walls two feet high, and I hung my 

 hammock under the shelter. The ventilation of the apartment was 

 perfect. 



" Ajy^il ISth. — Rose at 3 a.m. and started ; I finished my nap in 

 the bandy as we jogged along. Halted for our midday rest at Ka- 

 raputamooripu, at the twenty-fifth mile, where we struck the Kan- 

 dy and Jaffna road, sixty miles from the latter place. Halted for the 

 night at the fifty -fifth mile from Jaffna, and I shot a Macacus ijileatus. 



"April 14:th. — On at 3 a.m. as usual, and by breakfast time were 

 at Kokavil, forty-eight and a half miles from Jaffna. This seems to 

 be a favorite halting place for bandy s. The road is well littered with 

 straw, and as a result it is a fine feeding gTOund for the jungle 

 cock (Gallus Stanleyi). I got out and shot five while Henrique was 

 making a cup of coffee, and we had a square meal of their flesh. 

 Halted at noon, at the Veddakkacheri rest house (forty-third mile), 

 in which I shot a very curious bat {Rhinolophus Irifoliatus) that 

 was hanging from a rafter. 



"The road to-day was a continuous bed of loose sand, and get- 

 ting on was simply awful. The buUocks toilsd thi'ough it slowly 

 and painfully with the heavy carts, feet, and wheels sinking in 

 deeply. In order to get along at aU we had to lift at the wheels or 

 push behind, while the drivers yelled and belabored the bullocks, 

 and called their mothers and sisters bad names. By what process 

 of reasoning these Tamils are led to suppose it makes a bullock 

 pull better to asperse his mother's reputation, I cannot imagine. 



"Over such loose sand the heat is ten-ific. When I could ride 

 with a clear conscience and 'take it easy,' I sat in the front bandy, 

 sweltering and gasping for breath, bathed in perspiration from 

 head to foot, and covered with dust, which hourly increased in 

 thickness, and formed on me a regular alluvial deposit. As we 

 neared Elephant Pass the jungle gradually grows shorter and thin- 

 ner, untU it altogether disappears. Camped for the night out in 

 the open plain, at a well close to the thirty-sixth mile-post, on the 



