KANDY 
343 
called, are strikingly handsome. They have long pedigrees, but it 
is suggested that their undoubted European features may be due to 
Portuguese or Dutch blood. Some of their boys whom I saw at 
Trinity College were simply beautiful; they are mostly brown, but 
one almost black boy might have been a model to Murillo for the 
youthful St. John. 
Kandy is the scene of an interesting experiment. All the sons of 
the Kandyan Chiefs go to Trinity College, which is said to be the best 
secondary school in the island. Here for some time the aristocracy 
of the Sinhalese youth has been subjected to European influences. 
Hitherto, however, it has been found that when the boys left school 
they married girls brought up under the old regime, so that much 
of the good that had been gained was lost. Of late years a' girls’ 
school has been started—like Trinity College under the auspices 
of the Church Missionary Society—and now all the daughters of the 
Chiefs are brought up under similar conditions to their brothers. 
As there is no one else for the boys to marry than these girls great 
results are naturally expected. At both schools the idea is to train 
the children in Sinhalese, and to preserve all manners and customs 
which are not actually vicious. It may* interest my readers to know 
that Sinhalese boys have much greater aptitude for cricket than 
English boys, though it is difficult to make them take much trouble 
about it. A pure Sinhalese Anglican priest at Kandy is a master 
of English, a good reader, and an excellent preacher, short, precise, 
and knowing when to stop. They say that when he gives a 
Shakespeare reading the room is crammed. 
There may be more deadly things in the forest at Kandy, but 
the most deadly thing that I came across was the Rattan-palm 
{Calamus sp.); it lets fall long graceful trailers, which Dr. Willis 
of Peradeniya will tell you are used by the plant for climbing, 
You are of course at liberty to believe him if you like, but I assure 
you that these trailing stems are perfectly adapted for quite another 
purpose, to wit, to catch the topi, clothes, and more especially the 
net of any unwary entomologist who may venture within their 
reach. These pliant, whip-like, fishing lines are beset with recurved 
prickles placed in sets of three at every inch throughout their length. 
You will see at the Temple of the Tooth how, in accordance with a 
latter-day development of doctrine, the Buddhist priests have 
improved upon mediaeval representations of the inferno by ghastly 
pictures of naked sinners stuck upon Rattan-palms. 
The fine Snail, Acavus grevillei , Pfr., was common on the trunks 
of various palms behind the hotel. The native lads soon grasped 
