No. 31.— 1885.] 



PLUMBAGO. 



239 



Ceylon coffee which had been dried on a barbecue where 

 plumbago had been previously spread. An attempt to 

 impart a factitious colouring to the beans was suspected 

 until the requisite explanation was afforded. 



As this paper may be read beyond the limits of Ceylon, it 

 may be as well to explain that cadjan is a word, curiously 

 enough of Malay origin, applied in Ceylon to plaited 

 branches of cocoanut palms, used for roofing houses, sheds, 

 carts, &c. Compound is a yard or enclosure, and barbecue is 

 a platform. 



I have already shown, what I may be allowed to repeat, 

 that for the average shipments of 12,000 tons per annum 

 of plumbago from Ceylon for the past five seasons, the 

 yearly supply of casks must have been 45,000, and that the 

 manufacture of these alone must have given welcome and 

 remunerative employment to carpenters out of work by 

 reason of the partial collapse of the staple colonial industry : 

 this apart from the large numbers of persons (estimated 

 above at 20,000) engaged in mining, carting, preparing, 

 packing, and shipping the mineral. 



Let us, therefore, hope that the plumbago industry of 

 Ceylon may continue to prosper and extend, not as the result 

 of wars or rumours of wars, but because of the steady and 

 beneficial progress of the peaceful industries and arts which 

 contribute to the elevation of humanity in all that constitutes 

 comfort, happiness, and means to cultivate the loftier 

 instincts and destinies of our race. 



Letter from Mr. W. P. Ranesinghe. 

 In the Sinhalese work called " Yoga Hatmikara" (' the ocean 

 of the gem-like prescriptions') I find the mode of purifying 

 plumbago for medicinal purposes given at chapter XLIV. In 

 the same chapter is found a mode of reducing mica or talc to 

 ashes for the like purpose. The process of purifying is thus 

 stated : — t( Break the plumbago into small pieces, put it into a pot, 

 pour over it the milk-like exudation of the dalukivee (Euphorbia 

 [For continuation see page 242.] 



