No. 39. — 1889.] account of ceylon. 



261 



in our country. The tree itself does not grow very high, is no- 

 thicker than a man's leg above the ankle, and bears no fruit. 

 The leaves, when taken into the mouth, have a taste of cloves;, 

 after the tree has been peeled the bark renews within a 

 year and a half, and you can see how the sap oozes out 

 through small holes, and runs over the tree and congeals until 

 the bark can be peeled again. When the tree is old, and a 

 young one sprouts up, the old one is cut down to make room 

 for it, because old cinnamon is not of the same value as new. 

 Every one of the natives knows how much he must bring, 

 When they come home there is a captain who examines the 

 bark, and if he finds old or thick cinnamon he rejects it, and 

 does not weigh it ; but in Punte de Galle they make cinnamon- 

 oil of it. Any native who brings one thousand pounds weight 

 of good young cinnamon is free for a whole year afterwards; 

 if he does not bring so much he must make it up next year ; 

 for what more he brings he gets paid.* 



It costs the Hollanders very little money on the spot, — no 

 not a penny, — but much Christian blood : I know for certain 

 that during the period of eight years which I spent in the 

 island, it cost us six thousand of our men ; and the Portu- 

 guese, who always wage war with the Emperor of Geilon y 

 just as we did for some time, over twenty thousand 

 men.t 



* According to Valentyn ( Oude en Nieuwe Oost Indian ), each man was 

 required to bring- in during the harvest two bahars, of 480 lb. the bahar : 

 for one bahar he got nothing ; for the other only 1 \ rixdollar. The captain 

 in charge of the cinnamon peelers was held responsible that the fixed 

 number of 515 natives entered the forest and remained there till they had 

 brought in the stipulated quantity, 898 bahars = 431,040 lb. The yearly 

 demand was at first 1,000 bales ; by 1742 it had grown to 2,100 bales for 

 India, besides the regular supply to Europe, 8,000 bales. There were then 

 two harvests a year, the first and chief in April. In such estimation was 

 its collection held as to give the title of Mahd badda, or " great tax," to the 

 establishment under which it was worked by the natives of the Chaliya caste, 

 who retain the name in spite of the abolition of the Grovernment monopoly 

 since 1833. (For full particulars of the trade and its expansion, see Lee's 

 Ribeiro, App., pp. 172, 191, 192, 231-45 < Bertolacci, pp. 239-55.) 



t Cf. Tennent, II., 51. 



