COOLIES’ BURIAL. 
and stronger than when they left their native village. 
When landed there, if they should be in want of any 
money they have only to call at the agency office of 
the estate to which they have agreed to proceed, and 
will receive any reasonable amount of advances they 
may require, the agency firm placing the amount to 
the debit of the planter’s account, and advising him 
by post of the arrival of the gang. All the anxiety 
of the planter now is that the coolies may not cause 
him some trouble, by going off to some other estate, 
so, if they do not make their appearance within a 
reasonable time, he has to be on the outlook as to 
what has become of them, or wdiere they have gone 
to. They are not even under the necessity of going 
through the march to Kandy, a distance of 72 miles 
along a good road, fine climate, and healthy country. 
The railway will take them up in a few hours, at 
about sixpence each. Once in Kandy, they are all 
right ; they meet friends, and are within a few days’ 
Journey of most of the estates, along good roads, with 
plenty of accommodation. Now, strange as it may 
appear, there are coolies who will suppose “the former 
days W’ere better than these,” at least who will persist 
in coming down the northern roads, so utterly de- 
ficient are they in calculation, that the expense of the 
train determines them to proceed by the “old route,’ 
because pecuniarly it costs them nothing. They never 
reckon the value oftime. 
On every estate, a detached piece of ground, on the 
patana, or if there are no grass lands, adjoining the 
forest, is voluntarily selected by the coolies themselves^ 
as a burial-place. If a death takes place, during the 
night, at the morning muster the master is informed 
of the event, as those who are the same caste, or are 
relatives or friends of the deceased, do not proceed to 
work. The interment takes places as soon as possible 
after the death, the same day or the succeeding night. 
The corpse of the eooly is rolled or swathed in a 
white cloth, and laid out in his room ; men then pro- 
ceed to construct the bier, done thus: — Two long sticks 
or young trees the thickness of a man’s wrist, are cut 
from the nearest jungle. These are laid on the ground 
at a distance apart from each other of about two feet, 
"then sticks are tied across this, about six inches be- 
tween each other, sufficient to retain the body, leaving 
the four ends of the large pole free. 
The simplest w’ay of describing it may be to say it 
very much resembles a long narrow hand-barrow. The 
body, rolled up in a white cloth, without coffin or 
any other covering, is laid upon this rude bier, which 
is hoisted upon the shoulders of those appointed to 
carry it. A loose white cloth is now’ thrown over 
