CEYLON COCOA ESTATE 199 



not that the insects seem to be having a perfect 

 saturnalia. From the crickets, who chirp all 

 night as loudly as birds do in the English spring- 

 time, down to the tiniest eyefly, all gradations 

 put in an appearance. There are myriads of flies 

 of sorts, and millions of ants, red, black and white. 

 Whole flights of winged ants, who, poor, foolish 

 creatures, cast their wings, and then quickly die. 

 The roads are covered with these long wings, 

 looking like the petals of strange flowers ; here 

 and there one passes a tree, a perfect hecatomb 

 of wings at its foot, as if in their blind rush the 

 battalions had hurled themselves against the 

 trunk and come to terrible slaughter. 



We find the best trap for flies is a saucer of 

 soap-suds, such as children delight in preparing 

 for bubbles. The " Poochies "7Tamil word for 

 all noxious insects) are attracted to it, thinking 

 it some delicate sweet, and are then caught and 

 stifled in the network of bubbles. I have 

 bought fly-papers, but found them useless. I 

 suppose the sea air had affected them, and made 

 the poison evaporate. Amongst insect pests, 

 I do not see the green fly which plays such 

 havoc with English roses. Our roses are now 

 in perfection. We have bushes a perfect sheet 

 of delicate yellow, and many pale blush kinds, 

 which look cool and refreshing. La France, 

 Baroness Rothschild, Captain Christie and 

 Marshal Neil do remarkably well, and so does 



