CEYLON COCOA ESTATE 143 



well as a knowledge of business, can make his 

 visits a valuable help as well as a pleasant 

 social event. Happily, our V. A. is very popular 

 amongst the company's employees, whose work 

 he inspects, and they look forward with pleasure 

 to his coming, and try their best to carry out 

 his suggestions. V. A.'s themselves must some- 

 times have a disagreeable time of it, for, their 

 mission cannot be always one of praise and 

 approval, and they are sometimes forced to 

 dismiss a faulty superintendent at a moment's 

 notice. 



Two incidents very typical of native 

 character happened this week. We were 

 spending Sunday with some friends ten miles 

 away, when suddenly a Raneetotem kangany, 

 attended by one of his coolies, appeared. He 

 came to lay a complaint against our appu, who 

 he said had gone down to the Lines the 

 previous night, had got drunk, thrashed a 

 cooly so badly that he must go to the hospital, 

 and had stabbed him (the kangany) with a 

 knife. Rob asked to see the stab, but none 

 could be found, and the coat which was 

 supposed to be cut was simply a little frayed, 

 so he suspected it was all an invention, and 

 sent the man home, promising to enquire into 

 the whole matter when he returned there next 

 morning. He did so, took the evidence of the 

 head kangany — the appu — and some others 



