CHAPTER XXXVII. 
KANDY IN EARLY PLANTING DAYS. 
Kandy, the mountain capital of Ceylon, is situated 
about 1,700 feet above sea level, in a basin of hiSls ; 
all around are slopes of mountains, some reaching to 
nearly 3,000 feet, on which are situated numerous coffee 
plantations, and, at a lower elevation, the residences 
•of the merchants and manj others, engaged in business 
in the town, to and from which they drive, morning 
and evening. In the immediate vicinity of the town 
is a lake* round the bank of which is a well-con- 
structed, well-kept road, or drive, about two miles 
in circumferenee. Round this road Europeans ride or 
drive in the cool of the early morning or late even- 
ing ; in fact, it is the usual, needful, and fashionable 
airing for all who can affbrd to keep a carriage* or 
horse, failing which, who can afford to hire, so that 
the Lake road may with all propriety be designated 
the “Rotten Row ^ of Kandy. In the centre of this 
lake, or ratber somewhat closer to its northern bank, 
is a small island, formerly in use by the kings of 
Kandy as a place of retirement or confinement for 
any of their wives, when they (the kings) happened 
to have an attack of jealousy, or the ladies shewed 
any signs of becoming refractory or unmanageable; 
a short residence on the island would speedily bring 
them to their senses. It is now used as a goveinment 
powder magazine j so, from the oldest date, this island 
has always been in use for the safe keeping of in- 
fiammable commodities ! The palace of the kings 
is no^ used as a court-house and general hall of 
justice, and stands not far from the northern edge 
of the lake, his majesty having had always a boat 
at bis comrnand, in order to pay a visit to his re- 
fractory wives, to see if they had repented of ail the 
evils they were said to have committed ; and it is 
generally well known, how some of them were impaled 
and roasted alire if they continued impenitent, or 
their penitence was not believed, and how, in one 
case, a child’s head was cut off in presence of its 
own mother, and she was compelled to pound it in 
a mortar.t The lake is hot consid' red a natural one, 
but to have been constructed under the ancient Kandyan 
monarchy by forced labour (rajakariya). For the 
king could command any amount of labour for no- 
thing. He had only to issue an order that so many 
"^And a carriage to a European town resident in the 
tropics is nearly as indispensable as a pair of bool s in a 
tropical climate. — Ed. C. O. 
t The case of the wife and child of Ebeyalapola, a 
chief who had fled to the British, — E d, €. O. 
