THE CEYLON MUHAMMADANS. 
so is gold to master. As master lias taken five of 
my copper coins, even so must lie give unto me, in 
return, five gold pounds, not as a gift, as I have 
most freely and cheerfully given my luckpence, in 
proof of my liberality and full trust in the most 
honourable and upright character of our immaculate 
lord and governor, but merely as an advance, to be 
afterwards deducted from my account, for all the 
coconuts, salt fish, and curry stuffs, which master 
must take from my shop.” After this rather tink- 
ling request, or rather demand, of course a great 
deal of talking ensued, the purport of which, need 
not be entered into, it being merely sufficient to 
state that, when Hassan Tambi entered that bunga- 
low verandah, he w'as in possession of five small 
coins, and nearly an hour afterwards, v/hen he went 
out, he was in possession of five pounds ! And no 
doubt he was most feelingly alive to the common 
saying, that “Possession is nine points of the law,” 
because, if, a few minutes after this occurrence, a 
creditor had requested payment of his account, say 
only a couple of rupees, he would have been most 
profuse in his regrets and lamentations, at having 
no money in his possession, having just paid to mas- 
ter the whole of his coin, as rent, in advance, of 
a small piece of land, upon which he intended to 
settle. As he made his salaam, and stepped briskly 
down the flight of wooden steps, which led from the 
verandah of the bungalow called “ The Eagle’s Nest,” 
and as the coin rattled in his cloth something nearly 
approaching to the same sound was heard to rattle 
or chuckle in his throat, his long beard shook, and 
vibrated. After he was out of hearing from the 
bungalow, he spoke aloud, saying. “ Truly, the in- 
fidel has fallen an easy prey ; he was walked into 
the trap, mashaliali. The unbeliever is young, and 
has a smooth face, like into a woman, and his coun- 
tenance can be read. A beardless man is easily 
caught in the meshes spread for him. His face re- 
flects his thoughts, and even the very w'orking of his 
features, as he tries to conceal them, just throws out 
a more vivid impression to the keen observer. Even 
as the tongue of the true believer is given him to 
confuse, and confound his enemy, so also is his beard, 
to confuse his friend.” 
On Saturday afternoons and Sundays, he employed 
coolies to cut and carry sticks and grass, and the 
house was soon erected. He told them, he had no 
money to pay them, but, in return for their work, 
after it was done, doled out to them small pittances 
’of dry chillies, and rotten coconuts, and, if any one 
complained, he became so liberal as to add a piece 
