KIRAI.” 
robbery, and it happened in this way. Walking up 
and clown the verandah, in a very disconsolate state, 
having just been told by the boy that there was 
nothing for curry, and having just made up our 
mind to dine upon boiled rice, thankful even to have 
that, and if the carts had not turned up that very 
forenoon, we would have had no dinner at all, a 
cooly crosses the end. of the verandah ; his cloth 
round his waist is well bulged out, and evidently con- 
tains something. We give a searching glance, and 
see a quantity of small green leaves sticking out. 
Here is a chance, no time to be lost ; we rush out 
of the verandah, collar the cooly, give him a good 
shake, as an idle scoundred, who had not been at 
work that day. What right has he to go idling 
about the clearing gathering hlrai and the estate 
so short-handed? We will teach him a lesson. Out 
with that Idrai^ quick, instanter, swulca ; we won’t 
even wink at gathering kiral, unless you have b eu at 
work,’' and the cooly confesses he had not. We pro- 
ceed forcibly — no, the cooly was quite ji^ssive — to 
possess ourselves of a portion of tiie hirai^ and then 
tell him we won’t be too hard on him. We have re- 
pented, we can go, which he does, and in a short 
time gathers up more. We now call the b >y, and 
point to the proceeds the robbery, which he takes 
into the cook-house, and prepares for curry. The 
leaves of this vegetable are not at all bad, but, being 
soft, it requires a gi-eat deal of it to make a curry 
in any quantity. It may be asked why frighten the 
cooly out of a handful of kirai ; surely, had he 
been asked, or had he only known the master wanted 
it, he would have very cheerfully given up the 
whole, and gone off, and soon picked another suj)ply 
for himself. Most certainly he would, only too glad 
to oblige the master, but, do you recollect what was 
written some time ago, about ‘‘ What will folk say ?” 
In this instance we acknowledge having bowed be- 
fore this scarecrow. For what would they say in 
the lines, if told, as they were sure to be, for every- 
thing is told and talked of in the lines, that 
master had no curry, nothing to eat, and had asked 
him for his dinner ! Fancy that I Fancy a cooly giving 
up his dinner for and at the request of his master ! 
We could not stand that humiliation, anything was 
better than that. We thought then, and think still, 
that assault and robbery, under all circumstances of 
the case, were excusable, and that if the cooly had 
summoned us to court tte case would have been dis- 
missed, as having been committed in self -defence, un- 
der danger of starvation \ 
Another species of the curry tribe is muligatawny 
