TAILOES, SERYANTS, AND COURTS; 
ordination that the law does not recognize or cannot 
lay hold of, while the master who naturally on the 
spur of the momentj and in retaliation, gives the 
offender a club, slap^ or a few strokes of a sti ck, is 
seized hold of and punished because there can be 
310 doubt of the evidence against him. In a country 
like Ceylon uncalled-for disrespect or contempt for 
an employer, even although shewn in a very quiet 
way, should meet with prompt and immediate pun- 
ishment. We by no means wish to proclaim or insist 
upon a dominant power of the white man over the 
black, only ask for protection. Just consider the local 
position of the planter as compared with the cooly, the 
former solitary, with few or none of his tribe to 
call in and consult with on any difficulty, alto- 
gether dependent on his own promptitude and deci- 
sion in acting on an immediate and pressing emer- 
gency. The cooly has nothing to do but step into 
the lines, receive and take any amount of advice from 
his friends ; and so it not unfrequently happens 
that some ignorant simple fellow is made a victim 
by his friends, in doing or saying what the more 
knowing are afraid to do or say themselves. We fear, 
in fact hear, that the general quiet submissive charac- 
ter of the coolies has very much changed for the 
worse, that they are always taking the law of every 
one, on the most trivial pretext. It did not use to 
be so ; indeed, if there was anything they had a ver^- 
particular aversion to, it was going to court. We used 
sometimes to hold out this alternative in order to 
bring them to their proper submission, when a quaint 
old kangani would come up and say : “ What is the 
use of master bothering about taking to court ? What 
care we for courts ? Master’s decision and pleasure 
are to us better than any court. Ramasami is a fool 
— just punish him at once — master please give him 
nalla odai” (a good beating), and have done with it | 
then all the rest of the people will be afraid and 
behave with proper respect.” Again, in another case, a 
delinquent would be brought up from the lines with a 
complaint that he had been guilty of some act of 
grave offence, and a request that master would beat him. 
On these occasions we would pretend to be very angry 
and give him ^‘a good licking,” but the blows did not 
fall heavy ; and the culprit, of course, screaming out 
as loud as he could bawl, seemed to satisfy, or 
rather satisfied the complaining party; for they would 
then say PotJiccm,'’ enough; offended justice had been 
satisfied, not by the beating, but the calling out ! We 
did not hit hard, being no advocate for beating, and 
persoTially were seldom provoked to it ; but admit an 
cccasion.il cuff or kick, which dismissed an offender 
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