238 



.Journal , h.a.s. (ceylon). 



[Vol. IX. 



pursuit gives employment was much under-estimated in 

 1880, and that, considering that 5,000 persons were said to 

 be engaged in mining in one year in a single district of the 

 North- Western Province, our higher estimate of an average 

 of 20,000 men, women, and children at present engaged in 

 the various operations of mining, carrying, preparing, pack- 

 ing, and shipping Ceylon plumbago, is not beyond the truth. 



It is curious that the Sinhalese women should entertain 

 a prejudice against plumbago as poison, seeing that it is 

 included in the native pharmacopoeia. We should have 

 expected members of what Artemus Ward called "the 

 female sect" to have been more troubled about the soiling 

 of their persons and clothes by contact with the mineral, 

 but in truth a coating of the shining ore, while easily got 

 rid of by the use of water, produces no such hideous effect as 

 that so familiar to us now in Colombo of the truly uncanny- 

 looking coaling coolies, when proceeding to their houses after 

 loading or unloading the bunkers of one of the multitude 

 of magnificent steamers which now resort to our harbour. 

 A polish of person, if not of deportment and manners, is 

 the result of working amongst even the dust of plumbago, 

 and it is curious to see the dark-skinned coolies of the 

 plumbago stores walking about with their bodies shining 

 as if they were electrotype statues vivified. 



In its further metamorphic progress from vegetable to 

 mineral, the form of carbon, we call plumbago has certainly 

 taken a great step in advance of the carbon we call coal, in 

 getting rid of smoke entirely, and also of dirt. Coal, how- 

 ever, cannot be accused, as plumbago justly is, with causing 

 a whole roof-covering of tiles suddenly to fall off, from the 

 slipperiness created by wind-blown particles of the greasy 

 mineral. We were greatly amused by Mr. Fernando's 

 statement at the time, but others, Europeans included, 

 who have to do with the preparation of plumbago, have 

 fully confirmed his representation as to the incompatibility of 

 plumbago dust and tiled roofs. In this connection we would 

 advise visitors to plumbago compounds to be careful how they 

 bear themselves in such slippery places. A sudden step on 

 to the polished platform may end in an undignified tumble. 

 And this reminds me of the sensation produced many years 

 ago in Mincing Lane by the peculiar appearance of some 



