No. 35. — 1887.J notes on ceylon. 



161 



market, where everything, vegetable or otherwise, is for sale ; 

 but this basaart is only on the two front sides of the church- 

 yard : for at the eastern and southern corners the wall is 

 bare at night, and these huts serve for the buffaloes to take 

 shelter in when it rains. These buffaloes pay their house 

 rent with the gift of their dung : for it is very useful for 

 smearing therewith the floor and earthen seats that are 

 made there ; for otherwise the people there would have no 

 peace with the white ants that eat up everything, although 

 they may have been only some hours at work ; so that every- 

 one, not only in Ceilon, but throughout the whole of India, 

 who has not a paved floor, must of necessity once or twice 

 a week have his whole house smeared with buffalo or cow 

 dung ; indeed, the very frame of our bedstead, on which 

 we slept, was thus smeared all over. Everything else, such 

 as boxes and cupboards, pantries, &c, which would be spoilt 

 by being so smeared, must stand on hollow stones in which 

 is water, or they are in peril of the ants. 



Now, as further concerns the churchyard, it has two large 

 gateways, one on the north side and one on the south side. 

 One always enters by the first and goes out by the other. In 

 this graveyard everyone is buried, except the Governor and 

 the members of the Political Council ; and besides, anyone 

 who is willing to pay 100 rixdollars can also be buried in 

 the church. 



All the houses in the old city are still those of the Portu- 

 guese times, except some which, having been destroyed by 

 the rain or other causes, have been rebuilt ; most of them 

 were entirely under the roof [i.e., without an upper story], 

 or if any are one story high the roof is very low, and the 

 principal dwelling is above. In the whole of the old town 

 resided only about 24 Europeans, both independent persons 

 and servants of the Company, of whom more than half had 

 black wives or Misticlies ; 39 and also some Dutch widows ; 

 the rest were Mistiches, Toejxisses, 40 Cingalese, Moors, Mala- 

 bars, &c. The town lies east and west, south and north. 

 It has only one gate, which bears the name of the Negombo 



