CEYLON COCOA ESTATE 57 



When I exclaimed at this state of things, I was 

 met by the answer; "Oh there was a butcher 

 once, but he kept such bad meat that we pre- 

 ferred to send to Kandy." It never seemed to 

 dawn upon them that where one butcher had 

 failed another, with more capital, might succeed. 

 I am much too unimportant an individual, and 

 too much a bird of passage to inaugurate reforms, 

 but this is a reform ready to the hand of a suit- 

 able person. The universal motto in Celyon 

 (barring the planting industry in which progress 

 does find a place) seems to be " As it was in the 

 beginning, is now, and ever shall be." In some 

 ways, this conservatism adds to the quaintness 

 and interest of the country ; but where it touches 

 the details of domestic life it does make a western 

 mind u squirm." Forgive this mood of dissatis- 

 faction, it is all the result of " Banian" day, and 

 the infectious low spirits of my companions. 



February 8th. — For some years the sluice of 

 the dam had been out of order and so jammed that 

 it would not open ; in consequence the water 

 became covered with duckweed, which together 

 with the stagnant mud festering under a hot 

 sun, had lately sent out such a horrid smell, that 

 it became absolutely necessary for the general 

 health to let out the water, and clean out the 

 mud and weed, without a moment's delay. So 

 yesterday Rob gave orders that this should be 

 done, but it proved a more serious undertaking 



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