2S4 



Statistical Observations on the Vurragherries, [April 



reduced to 1648 souls, an unaccountable falling offin so short a period, 

 otherwise than by emigration, as there has been no remarkable sick- 

 ness or scarcity to have swept away half the population. 



Those who remain, appear a robust and healthy set of people, very 

 active, and, I dare say, capable of great exertion if excited, but, like most 

 people similarly situated, very indolent. They appear a simple race, hav- 

 ing few wants, and these easily supplied. The principal part of their food 

 is the produce of their own fields, while their clothing, agricultural 

 implements, condiments and luxuries, are procured from the low country 

 in exchange for their garlic ; hence the care bestowed on its culture. 

 Their food consists principally of rice, wheaten cakes, barley, and barley 

 congee. Of animal food they seldom or never partake, and very rarely 

 of curry, not from want of inclination, they say, but from want of means 

 to get the materials. Their clothing is very sparing, considering the 

 rigorous climate they inhabit. It consists of a cloth wrapped round 

 their middle, and another thrown loosely over their shoulders, or used 

 according to circumstances as a turband. The children, like those of the 

 plains, are perfectly naked, which must be adverse to the extension of 

 population, since the most robust only, can be expected to sustain un- 

 injured, such rude exposure to the rough inclemencies of the weather 

 that occur at the change of the monsoons, and during the cold winter 

 season, when the thermometer is said to sink within a few degress of 

 the freezing point, the puddles to freeze, and the grass to become cover- 

 ed with hoar frost. 



Their huts are built of wicker work, plastered over with clay, and 

 thatched with grass and ferns. They usually have a neat appearance 

 outside, but are not remarkably cleanly within. The courts in front, and 

 the streets of the villages, are frequently paved, but contaminated with 

 accumulations of filth, too often of the most disgusting description. The 

 spaces between the houses are usually overgrown with rank, and worse 

 than useless, jungle, while they might be occupied either by trees that 

 would afford health and shade, or by really useful ones, such as oran- 

 ges ; and, if measures are taken to ameliorate their condition, still better 

 by some of the European fruits, such as apples and pears. Plums I be- 

 lieve would thrive equally well, and to these might be added coffee, as 

 affording a produce of more intrinsic value than any of those already 

 mentioned. I am not quite certain how far it would succeed on the 

 higher zone, but it would unquestionably do so on the lower, and in a 

 few years prove a valuable addition to the exports from the hills. 



Their means of intercourse, not only with the plains but between the 

 villages, are usually of the worst description ; so that beasts of burden can 

 rarely carry a load equalling that of an ordinary cooly on the plains ; and 

 the roads, bad as they are, usually deteriorate, as they approach the low 

 country, from the ascent being steeper and more broken there than 

 above, and the jungles thicker. To this cause much of the poverty of 



