108 
THE ISLAND OF CEYLON. 
During this season, the variations of the climate are very 
great. The heavy rains, which predominate most by night, 
render the atmosphere at that time extremely chill and damp ; 
while the excessive heat of the sun is by day almost insupport- 
able. This, added to the very sudden transition from a warm 
clear day to cold and wet weather, makes the climate more un- 
healthy at this season than during the hot weather. But X 
have observed these changes affect the negroes much more 
than Europeans.. 
The Sepoys, in particular, and other natives of the continent 
of India, who come hither in the service of the European 
officers, or for the purposes of trade, are not at all able to 
endure the colds and damps occasioned by those violent rains, 
which continue much longer in Ceylon, than on either the 
Malabar or Coromandel coasts ; and from these circumstances, 
that island is often called the watering-pot of India. During 
the rainy season, the Indians from the continent are extremely 
subject to fluxes, dysenteries, and fevers. They are also af- 
flicted by another extraordinary disease, to which they apply 
as uncommon a cure. This disorder is known by the name 
of the Berry berry: it is occasioned by the low diet and bad 
water, which the natives are accustomed to use ; and in part, 
perhaps, by the dampness of the climate in the wet season. 
It swells the body and legs of the patient to an enormous 
size, and generally carries him off in twenty-four hours. The 
method employed for the cure, is to rub the patient over with 
cow-dung, oil, chinam, lime-juice, and other preparations from 
