FOOD AND CLIMATE. 
also lived upon rice. ‘‘And how much did they 
eat?” “Oh! they did not consume so much as 
the coolies, perhaps only two soup -platefuls of curry 
and Soiled rice, one after the other, with three or four 
tablespoonfuls of curry to each plate. And if they 
were particular!}? hungry after a bard day’s work, 
they might help themselves to a third plate, pro- 
vided there was any left.” There was now a general 
expression of astonishment, and some exclaimed, 
“ What a barbarous set of people they must have 
been, and do you mean to say you have done this 
also?” “To be sure, frequently, sometimes three 
plates of rice and curry.” There was now a general 
turning in the chairs and a good deal of c. ligliing, 
and nobody spoke a word : it was quite eA’ideut they 
did not believe it. At last one managed to clear his 
throat and say, “No wonder you planters come home 
and spend all your hard-earned gains in doctor’s fees 
and prescriptions, and at chemists’ shops ! Don’t 
talk about climate, hard wmrk, and hot sun. What 
made you eat so much rice ? ” It was in vain to pro- 
test and explain that any amount of rice a man 
could eat would never hurt him. “Don’t tell us 
that,” was the answ'er. “Don’t w^e use rice for pud- 
ding, and how can or could any one keep their health 
if they lived upon pudding; ate two soup-platefuls 
of pudding to breakfast and three to dinner : It is 
our opinion it is all owdng to you Indian people and 
that curry and rice that there are now so many 
doctors, and they are all making their fortunes.” 
Just so, stay-at-home people, who have never travelled, 
get contracted in their ideas, they cannot undei'stand 
anything that does not come under their own ex- 
perience. 
They did not think or forgot altogether that, just 
at the very times of wdiich w^e write, the bulk of 
the country people here lived upon oatmeal porridge 
and ate it just in about the same proportions and 
to the same extent as the country people in Oeyioii 
did rice and curry. Both respectively were suitable 
for the people and climate. And no more could the 
planters (some have tried it) live upon poriidge than 
the people in the old country could upon rice. Times 
have changed and still are changing. Peof le at home, 
even the working classes, seldom eat oatmeal in any 
shape, and porridge is now like curry and rice, a 
dish of the past ; it has not even the same advantage 
in still being retained as a stand-by; it is di mi.-sed, as 
also all other oatmeal commodities, bannocks and cake-, 
as vulgar, not fit even for servants. Servants ! they are 
more particular than any ; they will m ike an express- 
