106 EVERYDAY LIFE ON A 



when Rob one day scolded him for some 

 omission he promptly went and slapped the 

 smallest little girl in his gang. 



Work amongst the rubber and cotton is 

 getting on apace. Two hundred pounds of 

 cotton were picked yesterday. This kind of 

 cotton is not the same sort as that grown in the 

 States, or in the South Sea Islands, which is 

 produced on a low bush with a flower re- 

 sembling a Hibiscus. Cejvon cotton or 

 "Kapok" grows on a tree, having deeply 

 serated leaves, a waxy cream coloured blossom, 

 and a hard pod three or four inches long, which 

 opens when ripe showing its treasured contents 

 of the most beautiful fluffy, silky cotton 

 encircling rows of hard black seeds. These 

 seeds, unlike their cousins in the South Sea Island 

 cotton, are quite useless as food for poultry. 

 When the pods are brown and ripe, coolies are 

 sent round, some to climb up the trees, and 

 knock them down with long sticks, whilst others 

 of the gang pick them up ; a third lot, usually 

 women, collect that which has been blown away 

 by the wind, from over-ripe pods bursting 

 prematurely. All that is collected is then 

 detached from the husks, and put into bags, 

 carried to the store and there weighed. Un- 

 cleaned cotton fetches about six rupees per 

 cwt. in the market, but a great deal more if 

 cleaned, that is, the seeds extracted. Doubtless 



