FROM KANDY TO CALTURA. 
403 
end, an elephant will demolish a cottage in the course of a 
few minutes, by pushing the walls over with his trunk. 
During these periods of depredation it is dangerous for any 
person to come near them. Few of the natives of this part 
of the country attempt to keep black cattle or buffaloes, on 
account of the great number of chitahs, which destroys 
many of the young calves. Bears are here numerous, and 
prove a source of great annoyance to the inhabitants. 
These highland cottagers subsist chiefly by drawing 
toddy from the kettule or jagery tree, and extracting from 
it hackaroor, or jagery, which is a coarse kind of sugar. 
This tree grows here in a wild state, and I could not dis- 
cover that the people ever cultivated it. When a cluster of 
fruit bearing jagery-palms is discovered, one of the natives 
constructs a hut in the neighbourhood, and there resides 
while the product is abundant. 
Jagery is the chief food of these people ; occasionally, 
although but rarely, they raise a little natcheny. Rice is 
a luxury they scarcely ever enjoy. They dispose of a little 
jagery, and thereby procure by barter a piece of cloth to 
wrap round their loins, and the small portion of salt they 
require. They seem to have no other wants. 
It was on the sides of these rugged hills that we first 
saw the plantain-tree in a state of nature. When unculti- 
vated, the fruit of this plant is comparatively small. It 
contains a great many seeds, and has but little pulpy matter. 
At Welle-malloo, where we halted, there is a little hut, 
which stands on the bank of a small river, and is situated 
immediately below an abrupt and acutely peaked moun- 
tain, formed of an immense mass of granite. On the 
top of the mountain there was some vegetation, but the 
precipitous front, which looked towards the hut, was a 
bare frowning black rock. Here tlie mercury of the ther- 
mometer rose in our tent to 100"*. In a hut made ot the 
