126 
LAUREL. 
exportation is as follows : It is the first care of the 
choliahs to find out a tree of the best quality. This 
their sagacity and practice easily enable them to 
do, from the leaves and other marks. Such branches 
as are three years old, and appear proper for the 
purpose, are then lopped off with a large crooked 
pruning-knife. From these branches the outside 
thin coat of the bark is scraped off with a knife of 
a peculiar shape, concave on the one side and con- 
vex on the other. With the point of this knife the 
bark is ripped up longwise, and the convex side is 
then employed in gradually loosening it from the 
branch till it can be taken off entire. In this state 
the bark appeals in the form of tubes open at one 
side ; the smaller of which are inserted into the 
larger, and thus spread out to dry. The heat of 
the sun, by quickly drying up the moisture, makes 
the tubes contract still closer, till they at last retain 
the form in which we see them in Europe. When 
sufficiently dry, the bark is made into bundles of 
about thirty pounds weight each, and bound up 
with pieces of split bamboo twigs. These bundles 
are carried by the choliahs to the cinnamon go- 
downs or storehouses belonging to the company. 
As they are brought in, each bundle is marked and 
weighed, and placed in the heap of the particular 
district or village to which those who brought it be- 
long ; each heap being kept separate till the quan- 
tity expected from the district be made np. The 
several processes required in cutting and barking 
the cinnamon are parcelled out among several 
