348 Particular' Account of the Cinnamon. 
excesses^ and that it was impossible to suffer an indepen- 
dent jurisdiction to exist in the heart of his government. He 
therefore gave his approbation to what Mr. Macdonneil had 
done ; and from this decision, the choliahs must now consider 
themselves as subject to the same jurisdiction with the rest of 
the natives. 
The process of preparing the cinnamon for exportation is 
conducted as follows. It is the first care of the choliahs to 
find out a tree of the best quality. This their sagacity and 
practice easily enables them to do from the leaves and other 
marks. Such branches as are three years old, and appear 
proper for the purpose, are then lopped off with a large crook- 
ed pruning knife. From these branches the outside thin coat 
of the bark is scraped off with a knife of a peculiar shape, 
concave on the one side and convex on the other. With the 
point of this knife the bark is ripped up longwise, and the 
convex side is then employed in gradually loosening it from 
the branch till it can be taken off entire. In this state the 
bark appears in the form' of tubes open at one side ; the smal- 
ler of which are inserted into the larger, and thus spread out 
to dry. The heat of the sun, by quickly drying up the mois- 
ture, makes the tubes contract still closer, till they at last 
attain the form in which we see them in Europe. When suf- 
ficiently dry the bark is made into bundles of about thirty 
pounds weight each, and bound up with pieces of split bam- 
boe twigs. These bundles are carried by the choliahs to the 
cinnamon go-downs, or store houses, belonging to the compa- 
ny. As. they are brought in, each bundle is marked and 
weighed, and placed in the heap of the particular district or 
village to which those who brought it belong ; each heap being 
