CEYLON COCOA ESTATE 131 



mid-day sun, and cook their simple food. As 



I pass along I am struck for the thousandth 

 time, with the happy contented faces of the 

 natives, so different from the careworn, weather- 

 beaten countenances of the same class at home, 

 and am more than ever convinced of the 

 influence of climate on happiness. In this 

 favoured country, so little suffices for sustenance. 

 Necessary clothing is reduced to a minimum, 

 and a few logs of wood, which in the low 

 country can be picked up in five minutes for 

 cooking purposes, is all that is needed for 

 fuel. On the Estates, comfortable rooms and 

 medical attendance are provided, free of expense, 

 and villagers make their own huts of wattle and 

 daub, thatched with straw from the neighbouring 



II paddy " fields. So there is none of the strain 

 and privation, and anxiety to make both ends 

 meet, which takes the heart out of the English 

 peasantry, and makes them old before their 

 time. 



Whilst I was away, two deaths occurred at 

 Raneetotem. One, that of my pet monkey who 

 had become quite my friend and companion. 

 Poor little thing, she accidently took some 

 iodoform, and was poisoned. The other death 

 was that of an old man who had spent forty- 

 five years on this and the neighbouring estate. 

 Latterly he had been too old and weak to do 

 much work, so was given the office of beating 



