346 
THE ISLAND OF CEYLON. 
the company. As they are brought in, each bundle is 
marked and weighed, and placed in the heap of the par- 
ticular district or village to which those who brought it 
belong ; each heap being kept separate till the quantity 
expected from the district be made up. The several pro- 
cesses required in cutting and barking the cinnamon are 
parcelled out among several classes of choliahs who are 
employed only to perform their own particular branches ; 
by this subdivision of labour, the service becomes much 
easier to them, and much more profitable to their em- 
ployers. 
The next step after the cinnamon has been carried into the 
company store-houses, is to examine its quality. This 
task is imposed upon the company’s surgeons, and a very 
disagreeable one it proves to be. It is performed by taking 
a few sticks out of each bundle, and chewing them suc- 
cessively, as the taste is the only sure method of ascer- 
taining the quality. The cinnamon, by the repetition of 
this operation, excoriates the tongue and the inside of the 
mouth, and causes such an intolerable pain as renders it 
impossible for them to continue the process above two or 
three days successively. The surgeons are however obliged 
in their turns to resume it, as they are responsible for the 
goodness of the cinnamon : it is customary for them to 
mitigate the pain by eating a piece of bread • and butter 
between whiles. 
The best cinnamon is rather pliable, and ought not much 
