Narrative of the Circumnavigation of the Globe by the Austrian Frigate Novara Volume I Part 20

[Footnote 86: In 1857, the chief shark-charmer was a Roman Catholic!]

Accidents with sharks are of rare occurrence: the noise of 1000 divers on the water at once seeming to scare the animals. Moreover, the dark colour of the skin of their bodies, acts as a considerable protection to the divers, so that there are numbers who blacken their legs, in order still more to alarm the monster.[87]

[Footnote 87: An encounter in the water between a shark and an expert swimmer, armed only with a knife, is not so unequal an affair as might at first be supposed. The pearl fishers of the Gulfs of Panama and Nicoya only use a short stick, with which, if the sharks get _above_ them, they stir up the mud, under cover of which they swim along the bottom for a little distance, and then shoot up to the surface. Of the equality in which a good swimmer armed with a knife feels himself in encountering a shark, there are numerous instances. Many years ago, when s.h.i.+pping was more plentiful in Kingston Harbour, Jamaica, than at the present day, vessels had occasionally to put up with somewhat awkward berths, when they used regularly to "foul their anchors," whereupon it became necessary, of course, to send some one down to free the cable. For this purpose, negro divers were employed, and one man attained a wide reputation from having himself, unscathed, slain in fair combat at different times, no less than five sharks! Ultimately the sharks steered clear of any black man who had a knife suspended round his neck.]

After these preliminaries, the divers go down into the water, each carrying a basket-shaped net, in which to bring up the oysters, when selected--a stone of from 15lbs. to 25lbs. weight being fastened round the body, so as more readily to enable him to sink to the bottom. When at a depth of some 5 or 6 fathoms, the diver unfastens the stone, which is forthwith hauled up. He now throws himself forward on his face, and keeps himself as close as he can to the ground, while he rapidly rakes up and collects together all that is within his reach, so as to fill his landing net. He crawls along in this manner during the minute of his submersion, over a s.p.a.ce of from 40 to 50 feet; and so soon as he pulls the cord attached to his plaited basket-edge, it is immediately hauled up, and he himself speedily follows it to the surface.[88]

[Footnote 88: The divers are mostly old men, vigorous and healthy in appearance, thus dispelling the general notion that deep-sea diving weakens the body and shortens life. We were told of one diver, employed during the year 1856, in the pearl fishery, who was so stout and fat, that in addition to the ordinary diver's stone, he had to make fast a considerable weight to his body, in order to sink himself in the water.]

The utmost depth at which the diver can safely remain seems to be about 40 feet, beyond which blood is apt to issue from the nose and ears. They seldom remain above 50 or 60 seconds under water, although cases occasionally occur in which the stay under water is protracted to 80 seconds. The diving is carried on for 5 or 6 hours without intermission, so that each of the ten divers can, in the course of a day, bring up from 1000 to 4000 oysters. By dint of good fortune, and close packing, about 150 oysters are brought up in each basket-net, while occasionally an unprolific bed does not give more than five or ten oysters. So soon as the oysters have been dragged to land, they are sorted in shares, of which one goes to the oyster fisher as his remuneration, and the remainder are sold in lots of 1000 each to the highest bidder. Now begins speculation. Chance presides here, quite as capriciously as at a lottery or another game of hazard. It often happens that a single oyster contains thirty or forty pearls, of which some may be worth a sovereign on the spot; but it more frequently occurs that several hundred oysters do not yield a single pearl. The small, valueless pearls, called also "seed pearls," are burnt down, and sold as pearl-lime to the wealthy Malays, by whom it is used as a luxurious addition to the betel and cabbage nuts, as masticatories. The Ceylonese mix the l.u.s.treless pearls with other grains, with which they feed the poultry, in whose croops the pearls regain their former brilliancy after a few minutes' grinding. The croop is then slit up, and the glittering stones extracted, white as the most beautiful pearl-muscular tissue.[89]

[Footnote 89: This method of procedure, which is adopted by the rest of the Indian races, and in which the l.u.s.treless pearls are swallowed by hens, pigeons, and ducks, so as to be polished up, after being subjected to the preliminary digestion of these birds, has been proved to be anything but beneficial to the pearls as regards loss by attrition. Careful observation has established, for example, that four pearls, weighing twelve grains, have lost four grains by undergoing this process during twelve hours, while eight others, weighing thirty grains, were reduced to twenty grains after a sojourn of two days in the gizzard of a duck.]

The pearl oysters caught on the coast of Ceylon are all of the same species (_Meleagrina Margaritifera_), uniformly oval in shape, and about 9-1/2 inches in circ.u.mference. The number taken in Ceylon annually must be numbered by millions. In the year of our arrival to Ceylon (1858), the pearl fishery yielded 24,120. According to the last returns, before us as we write, there were in the year 1859, 1352 boats engaged during eighteen days in the pearl fishery, the gross take of which amounted to 9,534,951 oysters, sold for 48,216. The divers' shares amounted together to 2,126,749 oysters.

The wide-spread popular delusion, that the pearl in the oyster is but a produce of disease in the animal, has long been refuted by scientific research, and although the great German poet, Henry Heine, in his "Romanzero," sings,

"Those world-famed pearls, They are but the wan mucus Of a sad oyster, Dimly sickening in the depth of the sea!"

it is rather a poetic fancy than a scientific fact. We have latterly been especially indebted to the German naturalist, Theodore von Hessling, for a very circ.u.mstantial and thoroughly exhaustive memoir on the natural history of the pearl oysters and their pearls,[90] in which the learned author seeks to establish that the enveloping matter of the germ of the pearl is identical with the covering of the animal, and that in the process of growth two influences are at work, an external and an internal.

The first is called into play by the property peculiar to the hinge system that unites the double sh.e.l.l, of gaping wide open, in consequence of which extraneous substances rush in with the current of water, such as minute fragments of quartz, molecules of plants, &c., which, being detained either circling in the cavity, or eddying round the hinges, are seized on in the course of their revolutions, and entangled in the parenchyma of the various organs, which is specially secreted from the mantle, till it becomes enveloped by layers of solid sh.e.l.l. On the other hand, the internal development is closely allied to the conditions of deposition and subsequent growth of the sh.e.l.l-matter. Molecules, either a single grain or congeries of grains, varying from 9.01 to 0.05 of a line (3/4 of an inch down to the 1/240th of an inch), enclosed in the _epidermis_ of the sh.e.l.l, const.i.tute usually the _nuclei_ of the pearls, which, to a certain extent, may be considered as nothing but a portion of the _epidermis_ not applied to the formation of sh.e.l.l. The pearls also are simply independent concretions growing in the creature, and consisting of the substance of the sh.e.l.l, which are with difficulty discriminated from the various descriptions of growths which const.i.tute the inner surface of the sh.e.l.l.

[Footnote 90: Die Perlen-Muschel, und ihre Perlen, Naturwissenschaftlich und Geschichtlich mit Berucksichtigung der Perlen-gewa.s.ser Bayerns, beschrieben von Theodor von Hessling, Leipzig, 1859.]

The great importance of the pearl as an article of luxury and commerce, has naturally led to numerous attempts to manufacture them by artificial means, in the course of which extraneous bodies have been introduced between the mouth and sh.e.l.l of the animal, sometimes with, sometimes without injury to it. The Chinese especially are adepts at placing certain small bodies, specially prepared, in the sh.e.l.ls of the pearl oyster, which, after a short time, becomes coated with mother-of-pearl, or nacre.

This manufacture of artificial pearls is carried on on a large scale in the neighbourhood of Hong-Chow-Foo. During our stay at Hong-Kong and Shanghai respectively, we ourselves saw several mussel-sh.e.l.ls, in which a mother-of-pearl covering had formed over small neatly carved figures, mostly sitting figures of Buddha,[91] the singular appearance of which would, at the first glance tend to make the observer suspect that the pearl had been fastened to the mussel by some adhesive substance. But we had so frequently an opportunity of satisfying ourselves by actually witnessing the entire process, that we could no longer doubt that the carved figures are with the utmost care introduced into the animal, and, after remaining a few days in the water, become attached to the mussel by a distinct membrane. This, their membrane, afterwards becomes interpermeated by the calcareous matter, till, finally, layers of mother-of-pearl are deposited all around the nucleus, the whole formation corresponding with the chalk-like concretions occurring in other creatures.

[Footnote 91: The antiquity of this experiment is proved by the fact that the _Topographia_ of Ischikiang speaks of a pearl, which had been sent to the Imperial Palace at Pekin, 490 B.C., which resembled Buddha, and apparently must have been produced by this same method; although likewise the priests of Buddha, at that early epoch, might not have objected, in the interests of their religion, to make capital out of such a specimen of artistic skill.]

Besides the pearl-sh.e.l.ls, the northern sh.o.r.es of Ceylon, especially between the Island of Manaar and Karativoe, are especially rich in beds of a volute mussel (_Turbinella rapa_, or _soluta gravis_), which are exported in great numbers to India, where the Hindoo women saw them into rings of all sizes, to be worn as ornaments on the arms, legs, fingers and toes. The chank-sh.e.l.l is likewise a chief instrument of the Buddhists, who, amongst other devout customs, blow three times a day on this sacred sh.e.l.l, to summon believers to wors.h.i.+p.[92] It is also used as a festive ornament of the Indian temples, as well as a donation to the dead, which, inspired by a religious feeling, the survivors place in the grave alongside of the corpse of their ill.u.s.trious departed.

[Footnote 92: According to the most ancient annals of the Cingalese, the chank-sh.e.l.l is sounded in one of the superior heavens of the demiG.o.ds (similar to the conk-blowing Tritons of Grecian mythology), in honour of Buddha, as often as the latter wanders abroad on the earth.]

The gems found on the island are distinguished, less for their intrinsic value than for the great variety of precious stones which are present.

They are, with few exceptions, found to have been disengaged from the primitive rocks, and washed into the alluvial soil, especially in the outskirts of the mountainous districts, where they are rolled along the beds of the streams together with other pebbles, or are washed out of the alluvial deposits. Hitherto, they have only been searched for for purposes of trade, and then only in the most desultory and thriftless way, no one having as yet examined the rocks themselves, by the disintegration of which the valuable stones are disengaged. There was, indeed, no detailed information as to the wealth in precious stones of the island, until the researches of the English mineralogist, Dr. Gygax, who has very lately published on this subject many interesting observations and remarks. The locality in which precious stones are most abundant is, so far as present experience goes, the district of Saffragam, the capital of which in consequence takes the name of Ratnapoora, or Anarhadnaporra, "the city of rubies." They are also found at various other parts of the island; in the plains on the West coast, between Adams' Peak and the sea, at Nuwera Ellia, Kandy, Matelle, and Ruanwelli, near Colombo, as also in Matura, and the river courses on the eastern side, towards the ancient Mahagam. The geologist of the Expedition visited some mines of precious stones near Ratnapoora. These are situated on the Kaluga-Sella, a small tributary of the Kalu-Gunga, and lie, some in the very bed of the river, some on the steep bank. They are about thirty feet deep, but having been some time disused, they are full of water. The uppermost stratum of these pits or mines is a rich fertile yellow loam, exactly resembling our diluvial loams. This is succeeded, according to the report of the proprietor of the mines, by a slimy black clay, and clayey sand, beneath which again is a bituminous clay, holding numerous organic remains, such as leaves, trunks of trees converted into a substance resembling lignite, and not infrequently elephants' tusks and bones of animals; thereafter sand, and lastly a bank of rolled gravel, forming a species of conglomerate with red, yellow, and occasionally blue clay--being, in fact, what is known as stone-gravel. This bank of pebbles is the layer in which the precious stones occur, and these are most commonly found between the larger ma.s.ses of agglutinated matter, that are always found especially to abound in gems, whenever they are superposed upon what is called malave, which appears to be a sort of greenish-coloured talc-like half-decomposed mica.

The most valuable stones that are obtained from these mines are rubies and sapphires. In the Kalu-Gunga, also, precious stones are occasionally washed down, and as the geologist of the _Novara_ Expedition was descending the river in a boat, from Ratnapoora to Caltura, he perceived at several places, more particularly at the various rapids, men standing in the water, provided with flat pan-shaped baskets, in which they sifted the sand and pebbles.

The gems found on the island are rubies, sapphires topazes, amethysts, garnets, cinnamon-stone, and tourmaline. On the other hand, all the diamonds, emeralds, carnelians, agates, opals, and turquoises, which the natives offer for sale, are imported from India. One precious stone, on which the Cingalese set an exceedingly high value, because they erroneously believe that it is peculiar to the island of Ceylon, whereas it is also found on the southern sh.o.r.es of Hindostan, is the "Cat's-eye,"

a greenish transparent quartz, which, when polished in its natural shape, or "_en cabochon_," exhibits in its interior a varying reflected light, undoubtedly arising from the presence of fibres of asbestos, and which, in fact, bears some resemblance to the eye of a cat. The natives, as a rule, estimate the value and symmetry of this stone by the brilliancy and tenuity of the beam which it emits, and the clear olive-coloured ground upon which it s.h.i.+nes in relief.

A vast number of men give themselves up to the exciting but most uncertain occupation of searching for precious stones, and barter what they have found, chiefly to Mahometan merchants, for clothes and salt. As, however, the natives themselves set a high value on jewels, in consequence of their small bulk admitting of their being readily concealed and easily carried about, the finer descriptions are readily disposed of at a good price, and, singular to say, it has frequently happened, as we ourselves found by personal experience, that precious stones are dearer in Colombo and Galle than in the European markets! The explanation of this paradox is probably that the steady copious influx into the London and Paris markets of precious stones from all parts of the earth where jewels are found, admits of by no means such excessive fluctuations in value as at Ceylon, where the supply actually on hand is so varying, and where the value of the article almost always depends upon the rank and wealth of the Indian purchaser. The foreign traveller very often cannot restrain a feeling of surprise at seeing the fingers of the stately Mahometan jewellers adorned with rings of costly gems, which are only offered for sale to himself at an exorbitant sum.

The value of the precious stones of all sorts found in Ceylon in the course of a year is estimated by Sir Emerson Tennent at about 10,000, one-fourth, at least, of the entire quant.i.ty finding a market on the island, a full half being sent to the jewel-polishers of India, so that only the remaining fourth is exported to Europe.

The scant time allotted to us at Colombo was zealously occupied in seeing the utmost that we could of the many interesting objects that invited attention. Among others, we visited one of the largest industrial enterprises in Ceylon, known as Hultsdorf Mill, a cocoa-nut-oil factory, the proprietors.h.i.+p consisting in shares, of which the largest holder is David Wilson, Esq., the Austrian Consular Agent. Here are carried on all the various processes connected with the manufacture, the preparation of the oil-cake from the cocoa-nut, the expressure of the oil, &c., which are carried on by apparatus, partly sent out from England, partly put up in this country, all set in motion by steam-engines. The task a.s.signed in these factories to the natives, of whom above a thousand are employed in the various departments, is, nevertheless, not the less important and significant, that, while machinery is used in those processes where it is necessary to use an agency far transcending the powers of mere human labour, all collateral products, such as soap, candles, perfumery, as also the implements and tools required for the works, and even the barrels and chests required for the transport of the manufactures, are prepared and used by handicraft labour.

To the thoughtful visitor it is a scene of no ordinary interest to behold several hundreds of Cingalese, Hindoos, and Mozambique negroes, all thoroughly conversant with the management of the most magnificent invention of the nineteenth century. Here are a number of artisans employed at the hydraulic presses and iron turning-lathes; in another apartment the various parts of the different machines are being constructed or put together, which regulate the pressure of the steam supplied to the apparatus when in activity; in a third, persons are busy examining and testing the resulting products with scrupulous precision.

With all its development, European industry has, in this quarter, exercised but an obscure influence; and, thus far, has been productive of but small results as a civilizing element among this population, which has. .h.i.therto shown itself so little disposed to accept the Christian form of civilization.

In the large warehouse belonging to Mr. Wilson, we also saw huge heaps of "Kauris," or Cowries, (_cypraea moneta_), the renowned, or rather ill-reputed, species of mussel, which comes from the Maldive Islands, and plays so important a part in the commerce with the coast of Malabar and the interior of Africa; while here, it const.i.tutes the sole medium of exchange, which is used by way of barter for almost all sorts of agricultural produce, chiefly among the blacks.[93] These mussels are sent from Ceylon to London, and thence back to the Eastern Coast of Africa, and thus indirectly uphold the slave-trade, as, the native merchants of that region barter these sh.e.l.ls, so greatly sought after by all African tribes, as ornament, for negroes and negresses, who are in turn sold to the "speculators in human flesh." A ton of these sh.e.l.ls, of which the smaller description are most in request, and therefore the most valuable, costs in Ceylon about 70 to 75.

[Footnote 93: The Malay name for this mussel is "beya," implying duty, toll, tax, thus leaving it open to conjecture that that nation, in their commerce with the Asiatic and African continents, have for untold ages employed the same principles of currency and expressions of value as ourselves.]

To the kindness and active interest in our objects of Mr. Wilson, in whose agreeable villa at Mootwall--the plan and method of construction of which reminded us of the beautiful planters' houses on the sugar estates of Louisiana--we spent the last night of our stay at Colombo, we are also indebted for a copy, with which he presented us, of the most ancient annals of Ceylon, inscribed with an iron graver upon Talipot palm-leaves in the highly-esteemed Pali language, and preserved between richly-carved boards of the costly wood of the Kalamander tree (_Diospyrus Hirsuta_).

This carefully-preserved MS. includes, among others, the celebrated epic poem "Mahawanso," (an abbreviation "Mahantaman Wanso," "Genealogy of mighty men,") which recites under 100 heads, and in 9175 verses, the most important events connected with the interior const.i.tution and history of the island, as also of all the battles fought by the inhabitants in foreign countries from B.C. 543 to the year 1758, A.D. Of these, the most renowned historic relics of the Cingalese, 38 chapters, of 262 pages 4to, were translated into English by George Tumour, Esq., an eminent Pali scholar, and printed at Ceylon, in the year 1837. Unfortunately, his earnest desire to publish the rest of this highly-interesting work was destined not to be gratified. The grave closed over him ere he could realize his wish. At present, however, there is a prospect of the translation of the "Mahawanso" being completed by Mr. James de Alwis, a worthy follower in the footsteps of Mr. Turnour, chiefly through the munificence of Government and of the Scientific Inst.i.tutes, which were invoked to supply the requisite a.s.sistance for the prosecution of an undertaking likely to prove so unremunerative.

In addition to the copy of the "Mahawanso," we also procured a number of other important Cingalese MSS. on Talipot palms, which were made use of by Tumour, partly in his translation of the "Mahawanso," partly in his other works upon Ceylon, and which embrace numerous valuable historical details not comprised in the "Mahawanso." This complete collection of the most antique annals of the Island of Ceylon, in the purchase of which we were kindly favoured with the advice and a.s.sistance of Mr. Wilson at Colombo, together with a variety of other Cingalese MSS. on palm leaves, collected at a subsequent date, now form part of the collection of valuable books in the Imperial Royal Library at Vienna.

Besides Mr. Wilson, our very best thanks are due to the Colonial Secretary, Sir C. J. McCarthy, who had the kindness to provide several of the members of the _Novara_ Expedition with the requisite letters of introduction to the authorities in the interior of the Island: also to Mr.

John Selby, the very obliging proprietor of the _Examiner_; to Dr.

Kelaart, physician and naturalist; to Charles P. Layard, Esq., the Government Agent for the Western Provinces; and to Captain Gosset, Surveyor-General, for their numerous attentions. The last-mentioned gentleman very kindly provided us with a pair of level-tubes which we urgently needed for one of our levelling instruments, and which, in this quarter of the globe, were more rare and difficult to be met with than pearls or precious stones.

Our return from Colombo to Galle, was not less marked by misadventures than our journey thither. As far as Caltura, where our amiable Father Miliani was in waiting for us with his neat single-horse equipage, to convey us to the beautiful parsonage of St. Sebastian Makun, all went tolerably smoothly with us. We arrived, as had been concerted, to breakfast with this hospitable shepherd of souls. On our way to the parsonage, we noticed that great respect was paid to the worthy Father, by such of the Cingalese as met us. Their usual salutation was to bend themselves to the earth, veiling their eyes at the same time, and bending forward the outstretched head as though to implore a blessing. Father Miliani, who held the reins in his left hand, while his right hand flourished a long heavy whip, slightly inclined his body upon the cabriolet, and so dismissed in peace the poor folk that besought his benediction. When we had now got pretty near the parsonage, we were suddenly brought to a halt by a couple of natives, of whom one implored the spiritual ministration of the Father for his wife, then lying almost _in articulo mortis_, while the other had brought with him, from the sacristy of Makun, the Communion-plate required for the purpose. The priest, to whom this interruption seemed to come as a matter of course, stopped, apologized for the unexpected delay, threw the reins to one of the party, sprang from the waggon, and disappeared in the gloom of the forest. It was not for long, as it proved; for the stately, handsome figure of the priest of Makun presently appeared between the cocoa-palms.

He had found the woman much less dangerously ill than he had been led to expect by the report of the husband, the native converts to Christianity being very much given to requesting the administration of the rites of the Church, upon being attacked by the slightest indisposition, because they antic.i.p.ate much more benefit from spiritual treatment than from the medicines of their body-curers. And now we proceeded on our way to the parsonage at a smart gallop, which, however, did not prevent a zealous, much-believing Cingalese from keeping up with the mettled horse, stride for stride, for the entire distance, keeping close to the waggon as he ran alongside. We were not then aware, indeed, whether this violent bodily exercise was undertaken as a matter of choice or as a penance, but it seemed to us, in any case, an act far less meritorious than prejudicial to health.

In St. Sebastian de Makun, the entire community were awaiting our arrival, and escorted us by a romantic hill, and through a delicious palm-forest, to the priest's abode. Here we found the porch of the house gaily adorned, and metamorphosed with tropical fruits and flowers into a smiling fragrant bower, with the feathery leaf of the cocoa-palm cut into thin strips. The inventive ingenuity of the Cingalese had endeavoured to represent the various birds found in tropical forests, which were suspended in ornamental baskets of green leaves among the festoons. Over the entrance to this bower, improvised out of materials supplied by the primeval forest, was placed a picture painted by the good Father himself, representing a large anchor, with the superscription in Italian "La speranza non confunde!" (Hope never disappoints!) This was evidently a delicate allusion of our kind-souled entertainer to the hope which he had expressed during our previous visit, that he should see us on our return from Colombo, "which had not been disappointed."

In the interior of the arbour appeared an elegantly appointed table, that seemed ready to give way under the weight of good things spread upon it, around which were placed a number of arm-chairs, worked in tapestry, while the plastered floor was strewed with the glistening green leaves of the _Ficus religiosa_. As soon as we had taken our seats, the members of the community, consisting of more than a hundred tawny, half-naked Cingalese (princ.i.p.ally men and children), arranged themselves in a circle, and some half-dozen dancers began to execute a very ordinary-looking dance to the sound of a drum. The entire figure consisted in their simply approaching each other from opposite sides, during which they struck the hollow-sounding instrument pretty sharply, holding it in their hand the while, after which they drew away from each other, and wound up by dancing round in a circle in couples. A boy of eight, in glittering costume, next performed a dance, in which he was accompanied by a grown-up Cingalese who sung, occasionally accompanied by drum and fife. Frequently we enquired what was the meaning of the vocal accompaniment to the dance, but could get no information upon the subject. But we have always had occasion to remark among the various primitive races, that they are rarely able to give any connected account of the history of their dances or even their songs, but simply go through a set of mechanical figures which they have learned, or rehea.r.s.e a set of words by rote, without being able to a.s.sign any signification to either. Over and over again have we put the question, only to receive the same stereotyped answer from Hindoos, Negroes, Chinese, Malays, and Polynesians, that they could tell us nothing more than that these songs and dances took their origin in the "olden times." Breakfast was served in the arbour by Cingalese boys. As often as the hospitable Father turned to apologize for his scanty means, which prevented him from ministering to our entertainment as he could wish, some new dish would be forthcoming, or some fresh kind of wine would be produced, till one knew not which most to admire, the variety of the entertainment, or its cost in preparation.

On inquiring of Father Miliani, in the course of conversation, whether he had any acquaintance with the plants to which the natives ascribe healing properties, he sent for a phial containing an oily substance, which; according to the Cingalese herbalists, is composed of 57 different roots and as many flowers, and has already been wonderfully efficacious in cases of persons bitten by poisonous serpents. It is called by the natives, _Visanili-Katail_ (oil against poison); and the priest of Makun remarked to us, he had himself had an opportunity of satisfying himself as to the marvellous curative qualities of this vegetable substance, in the case of persons who had been bitten by the most venomous snake in the whole island, the _Cobra di Capello_, who had entirely recovered by the copious use of this antidote. The application is very simple. The mouth is rinsed out with it, and the patient further takes from 15 to 20 drops of the oil internally. Unfortunately, we were not able to inquire more particularly as to the ingredients from which the Visanili-Katail is compounded, of which we eventually got a small quant.i.ty to carry away with us, after much entreaty; but by way of compensation, Father Miliani was able to give us much valuable information as to the manners, customs, and traditions of his flock. He regretted, however, that they were all of a highly impa.s.sioned strain, and that they constantly pa.s.sed from one extreme to the other. The following trait, which was pointed out to us by the Father in the course of conversation, may serve to indicate the modes of thought and observation of the natives. When the Cingalese perceived how eagerly and with what warmth of friends.h.i.+p the Father received us, they inquired of him whether he had been previously an acquaintance of ours, as they were unable to conceive the existence of such hearty good-will between persons who were utter strangers to each other. The priest, readily appreciating the results which must flow from the reply he should give, in confirming the devout souls of his children, replied that the reputation of his name had long since penetrated to us, and we were unwilling to ride by without turning aside to salute him, to which he had readily expressed his a.s.sent, and had also long since been apprized of the important mission of the Austrian s.h.i.+p of war, whose commander was termed by the natives, with the bombast of their native tongue, "King of the Sea." At our departure, the kind Father presented us with several interesting articles, as _souvenirs_ of Makun, while we, on our part, left with him a donation in money to defray the expenses of erecting his church.

Father Miliani, the band of musicians, consisting of ten or twelve wild-looking fellows, with all manner of barbarous musical instruments, of which they made not less barbarous use, together with a laughing, yelling, gesticulating crowd of half-naked Cingalese, with long raven locks floating over their shoulders, accompanied us to our travelling chariot.

Here we took leave of the hospitable Father, the vehicle set out on its route, and the whole brown retinue at once dispersed.

Hardly had we left the Mission of St. Sebastian Makun behind us, ere our troubles began afresh. At almost the very first station we came to, we had to hire a horse from a resident at an exorbitant rate--the animal belonging to the station, and which had been engaged for us, being utterly useless. This gave occasion for fresh delays. The party letting the horses was what is called a native doctor, who a.s.sumed the t.i.tle of "native vaccinator," and bitterly complained, that for his attendance four days in every week, as required by the law, for the purpose of inoculation, he only received from Government a monthly salary of 2 5_s._ sterling.

Whatever deficiency existed in his salary, he seemed determined to make up for in the hire of his horse, which he charged for at the rate of ten s.h.i.+llings for six miles! On the cash being forthcoming, our "native vaccinator" did not disdain himself to take the reins, and, with his own hands, apply the whip to his mare between the shafts of our vehicle. But this mark of distinction was destined, ere long, to cost us dear. Hardly had we proceeded a couple of miles under his care, when the hind-wheels of the vehicle sunk into a rut, whence our aesculapian steed lacked the strength to extricate us. To complete the sum of our misfortunes, at the very moment we were using our utmost endeavours to replace the waggon on the regular track, it came on to rain heavily, and we were, in a twinkling, wet to the skin. Some thirty young Cingalese, in the full dress of Adam before the Fall, who were standing open-mouthed round the waggon, could only be roused by threats from their pa.s.sive att.i.tude; and when, finally, they lent a hand to a.s.sist, they, in their ill-timed zeal, came near oversetting the waggon into the ditch on the opposite side. Next, we exchanged this stubborn brute for one that was blind. For a brief s.p.a.ce we hoped the latter might probably be the more easily driven in consequence of his not seeing what was going on around him; but these antic.i.p.ations were speedily dispelled, and in a rather unpleasant manner. The short distance that now separated us from our destination seemed as though it would never have an end; and, in a word, it was already verging on midnight ere we reached Galle, where we had been expected to dinner five hours before, by our hospitable friend, the Consul for Hamburg. Some of the invited guests had already left this agreeable house, while others were still seated at the whist-table, as, wearied and exhausted, we entered the drawing-room. The circ.u.mstances that had so seriously delayed our arrival were explained by way of apology, and proved the subject of some goodnatured quizzing on our misfortunes by the guests present; and in such agreeable society, and over a sumptuous supper, we speedily forgot the trifling annoyances of our latest experiences.

In the course of a desultory agreeable conversation about the natural beauties of the island, many were the plans of more distant excursions which we projected this evening--which, however, upon more mature consideration, all proved impracticable, owing to the scanty time at our disposal. Thus we found ourselves, much against our wishes, compelled to forego a visit to Kandy, and its beautiful environs, in which is situated the renowned temple that enshrines the tooth of Buddha, the occupation of which by the English was, in the eyes of the Cingalese, the most manifest indication of their being the legitimate conquerors of the kingdom.[94]

Neither were we able to take part in an elephant hunt, although these animals are found in the island in such quant.i.ties, that it is related, with every appearance of accuracy, of a single elephant hunter, the late Major Rodgers, who was struck dead by a flash of lightning a few years since in the midst of the forest, that he had, in the course of his life of active exercise, laid low fifteen hundred elephants with his own hand!

But permission was granted by the commander of the Expedition to the geologist and one of the zoologists to remain in Ceylon, and rejoin the frigate at Madras by the steamer which runs fortnightly, so as to enable them to ascend the world-famous Adam's Peak, 7000 feet high, one of the loftiest peaks in Ceylon, where, according to tradition, the founder of the Buddhist doctrine, when last he visited the earth, in answer to the supplications of a priest, left behind the print of his footstep (_Sri-pada_), as a visible sign of his presence.

[Footnote 94: The legend relating to these relics, about which so many wars were waged, goes back as far as the third century of the Christian era, when Mahasana, a true believer, having become King of Ceylon, purchased these teeth for numerous valuable presents, of one of his kindred, a Calinga king in Bengal, who sent them over by his princes. The tooth Dahata Wahansa immediately achieved a miracle--it illumined the entire island, and supplanted all heretical teaching. It was forthwith enveloped in a hundred cloths, and a temple erected to enshrine it, since which it has been regarded as the Palladium of Ceylon. When, in 1560, this tooth was transferred to the temple at Manaar by the Portuguese under Constantin de Braganza, the king offered the Portuguese bigots 600,000 pieces of gold by way of ransom. Braganza judged it more advisable to destroy the tooth.

But he little knew the adroitness and subtlety of the Buddhist priesthood.

The very next morning the tooth, that had been supposed to be destroyed was marvellously found in a Lotos leaf in the temple, where it had been deposited by Buddha himself!]

We cite, in the following extract, the most prominent features of this venture, as supplied by the two members of the Expedition who undertook it, so as to complete the description of the _Novara's_ visit to Ceylon:--

"On 13th January, 1858, we proceeded from Colombo to Ratnapoora, _en route_, to visit Adam's Peak, a tolerably long and tedious journey. On the margin of a river we encountered an elephant, who was engaged in a.s.sisting the labourers on the public roads in that vicinity. While our car and the baggage were being embarked here, and again put in order, this animal went through a number of tricks, such as swaying to and fro, lying down, raising his trunk, and trumpeting, the latter of which, at a sign from his driver, he did with a vengeance, and for so doing was rewarded with a few plantains. These exercises seem to const.i.tute the first steps in taming, as they were gone through in a similar manner by all the elephants we afterwards saw, whether employed like this one in task-work, or maintained for show, or made use of in the Temple service.

At mid-day we reached Ratnapoora, and as we were anxious to shorten as much as possible our next day's journey, we decided on pus.h.i.+ng forward in the course of the afternoon, as far as the little village of Gilli-Mali, seven miles further on. We had been provided by C. W. Layard, Esq., the Government Agent in Colombo, with letters of introduction to his deputy, Mr. Mooyart, at Ratnapoora, who, however, we unfortunately found was absent from home. Next day, however, we had unmistakable evidence that our letters had, very shortly after our departure, reached the hands they were intended for, by a variety of precautions which the hospitable gentleman must have at once arranged with a view to our greater comfort. While yet on the second-half of our road to Gilli-Mali, night overtook us, and we prosecuted our march by torch-light through the dense jungle. Our guides and porters had shown some reluctance to enter this jungle, partly on account of the swarms of land-leeches (_litchies_, as they are termed here, doubtless by a corruption of the English name), which are especially active during the night, partly from other causes of anxiety. Accordingly, they kept reciting Cingalese ditties, alternated with shrill yells, or shouted, so as to be heard at a distance; whether to drive away evil spirits, or to frighten the _chetah_ or leopard, we could not ascertain.

No long time elapsed ere we ourselves began to perceive traces of having been victimized by that most uncomfortable of guests, the land-leech. The naked Hindoos were incessantly occupied with pulling off these painful blood-suckers, and we had to call a halt from time to time, in order to loosen and carefully fling them away, as they had succeeded in reaching the skin, through the trousers immediately above the boot. They are found up to an elevation of 4000 feet above the sea on the mountains, chiefly in damp or wet localities, and are most active during the evening and night in the selection of a victim.

At Gilli-Mali, we fell in with Mr. Braybrooke, an English engineer, who most hospitably invited us to his bungalow, and with whom we conversed upon topics relating to Ceylon, till far into the night.

Next day we had to ascend the Peak itself; which is in so far a difficult undertaking on the side from which we approached it, that one has gained no vantage-ground at Gilli-Malli, our last night's resting-place, towards reaching the summit, so that one sees it in its entire colossal height of above 7000 feet directly in front; whereas, in ascending from Kandy, one has already, at Neuwera Ellia, attained an elevation of 4000 feet, which can be performed in a carriage. We set out at 7 A.M., and after an hour-and-a-half's march, gained the last village, Balahab-a-Dullu, in the Buddhist temple of which is kept a flat metal dish, adorned with silver _rosettes_, with which the imprint of the holy footstep is covered over at the season of the annual pilgrimage. On the table, before a colossal figure of Buddha, were strewn, as usual, a quant.i.ty of flowers presented by the faithful; these were the flower-shrubs of the _Areca palm_, _Hibiscus_, _Alamanda_, _Tagetes_; also, close to the wooden statue, are placed several small figures of silver or wood, 3 or 4 inches long. The priest also showed us a magnificent ma.n.u.script of at least 1000 palm leaves, closely and beautifully engraved on both sides with Cingalese characters, which belonged to the temple, and was guarded with great care.

At a solitary house on the road, we left our guides and porters to discuss their modest repast, which, in consequence of the strict ordinances of the Buddhist faith, consists of vegetable substances only. Reclining on a mat spread on the ground, each took a piece of green plantain leaf, scattered upon it a little rice which they had just brought with them, and some chili (red Spanish pepper), and thence conveyed their simple food to their mouth with the hand. This frugal meal was speedily concluded, and we once more pushed forward. From this point we had the dense covert of the high forest trees, the lofty foliage of which afforded a most agreeable shade, and kept us comparatively cool. The path, which consists simply of ravines, formed by the rush of torrents during the rainy season, is so steep that it seems like one uninterrupted flight of stairs, the steps of which seem partly constructed by Nature, partly by the hand of man.

Frequently they are artistically chiselled in the solid rock; at one stupendous precipice a Cingalese monarch has had four flights, of 250 steps in all, hewn out of the living rock. Here and there, also, ladders have been contrived, the rounds of which are composed of pieces of bamboo bound together, by which one clambers up. The whole route bears marks of being much used, and is considerably worn, the stones being rubbed quite smooth. Under the damp shade of the forest are found a vast quant.i.ty of the most beautiful ferns and _Lycopodium_ (Club-moss; or Wolf's-claw, as it is called in Sweden, whence the Linnaean name); from the delicate beauty of the _Jungermania_ (Star-tip), to the tree-like fern, _Filius Phyllophisidos_, which vies with the giants of the forest. The more deeply shaded spots are adorned here with beautiful balsams, a genus of plants which, besides being unusually luxuriant and beautiful in this district, exhibits certain peculiarities of form not usually met with.