THE ISLAND OF CEYLON. 
173 
It is difficult to say whether it be the remains of a tyran- 
nical prohibition, or a superstition arising from the danger 
of electricity in this climate, that the Ceylonese never employ 
nails in the construction of their houses. Their small, low 
huts, which are too frailly united to admit of above one story, 
are fastened entirely with withes made of ratan, or coy a rope. 
They are constructed of slender pieces of wood or bamboe, 
daubed over with clay, and covered with rice-straw or leaves 
of the cocoa-tree. Ilound the walls of their houses are small 
banks or benches of clay, designed to sit or sleep on. The 
benches as well as the floors of their houses are all laid 
over with cow-dung, to keep away vermin, and to preserve 
their surface smooth, and not so easily rendered dirty by rain 
as if it were of clay. 
In such a state of society, and where luxury seems almost 
unknown, sumptuous furniture is not to be expected even in 
the best houses. That of the cottages is in the last stage of 
simplicity, and consists merely of the indispensable instruments 
for preparing their victuals. A few earthen pots to cook 
their rice, and one or two brass basons out of which to eat 
it ; a wooden pestle and mortar for grinding it, with a flat 
stone on which to pound pepper, turmeric, and chillies for 
their curries ; a homeny , or kind of grater, which is an iron 
instrument like the rowel of a spur fixed on a piece of wood 
like a boot-jack, and used to rasp their cocoa-nuts ; these 
and a few other necessary utensils form the whole of their 
household furniture. They use neither tables, chairs, nor 
