142 
THE ISLAND OF CEYLON. 
precious stones. A long or short liabcy is used according 
to fancy. 
Some wear their hair loose, and others in a wreath round 
the back of their heads. These wreaths are fastened with 
gold pins, known by the name of conde , very large, like 
skewers, of a peculiar shape, and bent at the end like the 
handle of a table-spoon : they serve to fasten a plate of gold 
or tortoise-shell in the shape of a half-moon, which compres- 
ses the hair and keeps it firm on the back part of the head. 
To this head-dress they frequently add by way of ornament 
a wreath of the Arabian jessamine, a small white flower of a 
most exquisite scent, which is also Worn in garlands round 
their necks. The women of the half cast are obliged to 
keep their hair constantly moist with cocoa-nut oil, for if 
this precaution were omitted for one week, it would, owing 
to its thickness and the heat of the climate, begin to fall off. 
The odour of the cocoa-nut oil, however, joined to the per- 
fumes of the jessamine wreaths, quite overpower the senses of 
an European, and render the approach of these women dis- 
gusting. 
Neither the persons nor the apartments of the women arc 
in general very cleanly. Many of the elderly ladies, and 
most of the lower orders chew the betel-leaf, and areka-nut, 
with a mixture of chinam , or lime made of burnt shells, to 
render it hotter and more pungent to the taste. In every 
house there are a number of brass vases employed as spit- 
ting pots for the women who chew these substances, and for 
