CEYLON COCOA ESTATE 33 



CHAPTER III 



January 19th. — Yesterday a message 

 came from the Lines to say that a poor 

 woman was very ill of fever. Rob asked 

 whether she would like to have a doctor 

 or to go to the hospital at Teldeniya 

 five miles off. "To the Hospital," was the 

 reply, so a cart was ordered, and in the course 

 of my morning walk I met the procession 

 under weigh. I saw nothing of the invalid but 

 a limp mass of cloth lying on the floor of the 

 bullock cart which had on its top a light 

 wooden framework covered with layers of 

 plaited cocoanut leaves, which makes a capital 

 protection from both sun and rain. Near 

 the cart walked a man, presumably her husband, 

 and he and the bullock driver kept up a kind 

 of melancholy chant as long as I was within 

 hearing. On getting to Teldeniya the doctor 

 pronounced the illness to be pneumonia, a 

 disease both very common and very fatal to 

 coolies in Ceylon. They seem to have no 



