Kto. 62.— 1909.] 



NOTES ON DELFT. 



345 



wild duck in the kalikal or ponds. I do not think there are 

 any jungle crows. 



Cattle. — There is an excess of cattle in Delft. In 1902 it 

 was calculated that there were about 5,500 coast cattle, 137 

 buffaloes, over 3,000 sheep, and over 2,000 goats. Taking the 

 population at 4,000, the proportion was 141 horned cattle to 

 every 100 inhabitants and 132 sheep and goats, whereas in 

 the Jaffna District (including Delft) the numbers were 54 

 horned cattle and 44 sheep and goats to every 100 inhabitants. 

 At present, though these cattle are owned by the people, they 

 can hardly be said to be kept by them. The result is that they 

 have increased in number beyond the capacity of the island 

 for feeding them, have degenerated in size* and condition, and 

 have become more or less wild, so that in the plains the mere 

 sight of a human being, native or European, sends them 

 scampering. Yet the bulls are hardy, and have a reputation 

 for working well. When a cow calves it is caught and brought 

 to the owner's compound to be milked, and is tethered to one 

 less wild. It is so wild that it cannot be milked into a pot or 

 chatty, which would be broken, but a section of bamboo 

 (kadaiyal) does duty for a milk pail. When the supply of milk 

 diminishes, cow and calf are turned loose and return to the 

 plains. A Village Committee rule requires the calf to be 

 branded at eighteen months old. It generally gets away 

 before the performance of that operation and before the owner 

 realizes that it has gone. Boys are therefore sent to brand 

 the calves in the plains, and this they do, when they have 

 caught them, with the juice of the saturukalli (Euphorbia 

 antiquorum), which is said to leave as marked an impression as 

 a hot iron. The owners otherwise remain indifferent to the 

 existence of the calves for about four years, when, if the 

 owners happen to want them, the bulls are caught and 

 castrated, and the cows are caught only if they happen to be 

 in calf. Often the owner cannot find his quondam calf, and 

 if it is found, it has already been branded by some one else ; 

 it is in every other respect /era natures,. The other man, who 

 has succeeded in branding some one eWs calf, after the lapse 



* To that of a large dog, in some instances. 



