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JOURNAL, ft.A.S. (CEYLON). [Vol. XXI. 



of some years gives information to the Vidane, claims the 

 animal, and has it registered in his name, in which it has 

 already been branded. 



When people from the other islands where cattle are scarce, 

 such as Punkudutivu and Nayinativu, go over to Delft to buy 

 cattle, they have sometimes to wait for three weeks while 

 the Delft owner finds and catches his cattle, and during this 

 period they are entertained at the expense of the seller. It 

 does not occur to the Delft man that this expenditure in 

 feeding the buyer virtually reduces the price he gets for the 

 animal. 



There are large quantities of cow dung in Delft, of which 

 little use is made as manure. The cost of transporting it 

 elsewhere for that purpose would be prohibitive, otherwise it 

 would long ago have been used for this purpose in the penin- 

 sula and the other islands. 



The practice of milking the cows with bamboos gives the 

 milk a peculiar arid disagreeable flavour. 



The people cannot be made to realize that the heavy per- 

 centage of mortality among the cattle is due, in a great 

 measure, to there being too many of them. They attribute 

 it to the evil eye of the white man, i.e., of the officials, for 

 of white men only officials visit the island. 



There is a considerable export, however, of sheep and goats 

 from the island. It is to be regretted that the trade does not 

 extend to cattle. It was suggested at a meeting of the Village 

 Committee in 1905 that cattle should be folded or tethered at 

 night, but the Committee decided that such a measure was 

 impossible, as it was " peculiar to the cattle of Delft to graze 

 all night and to lie under shade all day, and during the north- 

 east monsoon they are infested with mosquitoes to such an 

 extent that they run about all night, or get into the sea and 

 remain there for hours." 



Hence, at night all the cattle are on the seashore, and the 

 shore is covered with cow dung, where it is of no use as 

 manure. 



Cattle are met wandering all over the place, and owing to 

 their prevailing presence it is necessary to put all heaps of 

 straw and grain out of their reach. Hence, platforms (va^a- 



