AROUND KANDY.—BOTANICAL GARDENS AND COFFEE PLANTATIONS.—ADVENTURES WITH SNAKES.
Doctor Bronson had a letter of introduction to Mr. Walker, a merchant of Kandy, and delivered it on the morning after their arrival. He was cordially welcomed by that gentleman, and invited to visit the botanical gardens as a preliminary to breakfast, and also to take the two youths on the excursion. The botanical gardens are some two miles or more from the town, and there is a good road thither which forms a pleasant drive.
On the way to the gardens Mr. Walker told the strangers something about the place they were about to visit. He said the Botanic Garden of Ceylon was first established near Colombo, in 1799, but the locality proved unsuitable, and it was moved to two or three places in succession, and finally came to Kandy about sixty years ago. It had been carefully kept, and the expenditures for it had resulted in the creation of one of the finest open-air gardens in the world.
YOUNG PALMS IN THE BOTANIC GARDEN.
While he was giving them some of the details concerning it they arrived at the entrance, and passed within the gates. Magnificent collections of palms of different kinds, bamboos with trunks a foot in diameter, and growing in great clusters, as though a dozen of them came from a single root, green and flowering plants almost without number, nutmeg and cinnamon trees, tea and coffee plants, and hundreds of other botanical curiosities were passed in rapid succession. Mr. Walker called attention to the palms for which Ceylon is celebrated, and described their peculiarities. "You doubtless know all about the cocoa-nut palm," said he, "as you have just come from the sea-coast where it flourishes, but the Palmyra palm may be new to you. It is to the north of Ceylon what the cocoa-nut palm is to the south, as it furnishes food, clothing, and shelter to the inhabitants."
One of the boys asked if it bore the same kind of fruit as the trees of the sea-coast.
"There is a resemblance between the products of the two trees," was the reply, "but they are not the same. The Palmyra grows to seventy or eighty feet high, and the stem is nearly always straight, and ends in a tuft of fan-shaped leaves, with clusters of fruit as large as a cocoa-nut, but rounder. There are six or seven of these clusters, with ten to twenty fruit in a cluster, and each fruit contains three seeds or kernels filled with a white pulp that is eaten fresh, or can be dried and kept for any length of time. If the kernels are planted, they throw off sprouts the size of parsnips; these sprouts can be eaten fresh, or dried in the sun, and the natives make various dishes from them, and also an excellent farina which forms the food of a great many people.
"The timber is very valuable, as it is one of the few woods the white ants will not eat, and it is used for a great many purposes; the leaves are fashioned into many useful things, and the chief use of the tree is for producing the coarse sugar that is made from its juice, in the same manner as from the cocoa-nut palm. It is a curious circumstance that the two trees will not flourish in the same region, and that both are nearly equally valuable to mankind. In the neighborhood of Jaffna, in the north of the island, there are more than six millions of these Palmyra-trees, and they support a great number of people."
INDIA-RUBBER-TREE.
Many of the palm-trees in the gardens were covered with vines and creeping plants; one of them, known as the beetle-vine, was full of bright blossoms that made a sharp contrast to the dark-green foliage. There were several specimens of the India-rubber-tree, and Frank remarked that one of them reminded him of an American elm, with its wide-spreading branches, and its apparent fondness for the house near which it stood.
They had a pleasant stroll through the gardens, which cover an area of about one hundred and forty acres, and are beautifully laid out from one end to the other. A little river flows through the centre of the gardens, and in several places it has been widened into pools filled with aquatic plants. Altogether, the excursion of the morning was crowded with interest and instruction, and the boys returned to Kandy full of delight with what they had seen and heard.
RESIDENCE OF A COFFEE-PLANTER.
After breakfast the party remained in-doors for several hours, partly on account of the mid-day heat, and partly in consequence of a shower of rain that came without warning. In the afternoon they went to see a coffee plantation belonging to the brother of their entertainer, and to learn something of the coffee culture of Ceylon. Here is the result of their observations:
"Kandy is the centre of the coffee culture of Ceylon; coffee grows at an elevation of 1800 feet and more, and the centre of the island has been found well adapted to it. There are now about 1200 plantations—they call them estates here—of an average extent of 250 acres each. Coffee land is very dear: a good plantation, with the trees bearing, everything in proper condition, and well situated, is worth $500 an acre. Wild and uncleared land is worth $65 an acre, and the man who takes it must be at the expense of clearing and planting, and can expect no returns under six years. Much money has been made in the business, just as it has been made in America by raising sugar and cotton; and, on the other hand, much money has been lost. There are many men in Ceylon who are poorer to-day than they were ten years ago, in consequence of their losses in the coffee business, and if any young man in America has an ambition to come here to make a fortune by cultivating coffee, he had better stay at home.
VIEW ON A COFFEE ESTATE.
"Most of the coffee-planters are young Englishmen, with money or moneyed friends, who come or are sent to Ceylon to make their fortunes. The balance are generally the representatives of wealthy firms or individuals in Colombo, and owe their positions to personal influence or the advancement of a few thousands by way of security. An insight into the business may be obtained by glancing at the advertising columns of the Ceylon Observer, a newspaper published at Colombo. One firm advertises that it will make advances on crops not yet gathered, and another offers to make contracts for consignments. A man with money to lend desires a situation as manager of a coffee estate, and another who can control consignments wishes a similar place. We are told that nearly every house in Colombo is interested, one way and another, in the coffee estates, generally through advances made on the growing crops.
"The system is much like that which prevailed in the Southern United States before the war, when the cotton-planter on the Mississippi River received advances from his factor in New Orleans, so that when his crop was gathered nearly all the proceeds were required to pay the debts that had been accumulated during the year.
"The factor in Colombo furnishes the provisions necessary for the estate, and charges a good commission for his trouble. He supplies the tools and machinery for the use of the planter, and provides money for employing the laborers engaged in the cultivation. By the time the crop comes in a large debt has been created, and if the yield is good and the market is up, nobody has any occasion to complain. But of late years the prices have been so low that nobody has made anything, and many plantations have been kept up at a loss.
PLANTATION LABORERS.
"Coffee culture in Ceylon and Java are pretty much alike, as the plant is the same, and the machinery for collecting the crop and preparing it for market is managed on a similar principle. The plant is raised from the seed, and begins to bear when it is six years old, and has attained the size of a large currant-bush. The berries are like large cherries, and are gathered by hand; they are run through a machine which separates the bean from the husk, and allows the former to settle to the bottom of a tank of water, while the latter are floated away through a trough. The beans are then dried in the sun, or by a fire if the weather is cloudy, and when sufficiently cured they are put in sacks and sent to Colombo. Here they are sorted and again dried, so as to fit them for transportation to England or America. It is in the condition in which it left Colombo when the merchants get it in New York."
SHED ON A COFFEE PLANTATION.
While they were going through the buildings where the coffee-berries were crushed, and the beans separated from the husks, Fred suddenly stooped, and then sprung back as though greatly alarmed.
Calling out "Snake! snake!" at the top of his voice, he seized a stick that was lying on the floor, and proceeded to kill the object of his fright. As he raised the stick his hand was seized by Mr. Walker; the latter smiled and said,
"The snake is perfectly harmless, and one of our pets. Don't kill him."
Fred gave an inquiring look at the face of his host to see if he was in earnest; satisfied that he was, he lowered his arm and took a second look at the snake, who did not seem at all frightened at the presence of strangers.
The reptile was about five feet long, and of an olive-brown color. Mr. Walker said the scientific name for this snake is Pytas muscosus, and there was a snake in India that closely resembled him, and frequently grew to seven feet in length. "We keep them about our houses and other buildings," said he, "as you keep cats in America, and for the same purpose—to kill the rats. They are entirely harmless to us, but a deadly foe to rats; they go around the roofs and ceilings at night, and you will frequently hear a lively struggle going on between a rat and a snake. As the ceilings are often nothing but mats spread over poles, the combatants sometimes fall through, and when this happens in the presence of a person newly arrived in the country it is apt to disturb his nerves."
To show the powers of the snake the gentleman said something to one of the attendants, who immediately went out, and soon returned with a wire trap containing a live rat. The snake was instantly all excitement, and showed the impatience of a terrier to get at his prey. The trap was opened, and the rat released in the middle of the floor; the snake darted upon him with the rapidity of a flash, and in an instant snake and rat were struggling and rolling over each other in deadly conflict. In less than a minute the fight was over, and the snake was the victor.
"The rats are a great annoyance to the coffee-planter," said the gentleman, "and we gladly welcome any means of getting rid of them. We have several varieties, but the worst is the one we call the coffee-rat; he is about four inches long, with stiff, reddish-brown hair, and he makes his nest in the buildings or under the roots of trees. These rats climb the coffee-trees and eat the buds and blossoms, and they enter the houses and eat the berries while they are being cured. They go from one place to another in great swarms, and some plantations have been actually destroyed by them; a thousand have been killed on an estate in twenty-four hours, and sometimes they are so numerous that we offer rewards for killing them. But we never let a reward cover a period of more than a month or two; once it was given for a whole year, and we found that the natives had developed a new industry, and were raising rats in great numbers for the sake of the reward.
"The snakes, the cats, and the Malabar coolies are our best friends in getting rid of the rats; the snakes and the cats kill them for the love of doing so, and the coolies do it for the sake of food. They fry the rats in oil, and pronounce them a great delicacy; and when they have more rats than they can dispose of fresh, they dry them by smoking over a fire, the same as you dry bacon in America."
PLEASURES OF A MORNING WALK.
The conversation naturally turned upon snakes, and the boys were not quite pleased to learn that Kandy was infested with venomous reptiles, and they were not unlikely to encounter one at any moment. Frank thought he should be careful about his morning walks in future, and Fred endorsed his cousin's opinion. Their host told them that the largest snake of Ceylon was the boa or rock-snake, and that happily he was perfectly harmless, like his friend whose performance they had just witnessed. Altogether, there are about fifty varieties of snakes in Ceylon, nearly all of them being harmless to man; eight varieties live in trees, two belong to fresh water, and there are seven or eight sea-snakes. The most dangerous snakes are four in number—the cobra, the tic-polonga, the carawalla, and the green carawalla.
"The cobra," said he, "is the worst and most dangerous of all, and unfortunately he is sociable in his nature, and likes to come around houses; if one is killed near a house, his companion is sure to be seen in an hour or so looking for him. These snakes generally try to get out of the way, and do not bite unless trodden on or irritated; they like to wander around at night, and most of the accidents with them occur from their nocturnal habits.
"They have a puff of skin on each side of the neck which they inflate when enraged, and thus add to their naturally horrid appearance. From this circumstance they were named by the Portuguese the cobra-di-capello—cobra with a hood—on account of the general resemblance of the puff of skin to a hood. Many have a pair of spectacles on the back of the hood, and their general color is black. Jugglers tame them, and play with them without apparent fear, and there are indications that the snakes have some attachment for their masters, and learn to obey them.
"The tic-polonga, as he is called in the native language, is from four to five feet long, and has a thicker body than the cobra, but no hood. He is of a dark gray color, and rather difficult to rouse into anger; luckily, his movements are slow, and it is easy enough to get out of his way, if you know where he is. The snake-charmers are more afraid of him than of the cobra, as he is not as easy to manage, and his poison acts more promptly on the system. Birds and rats die instantly when bitten by these serpents, and their bites are nearly always fatal to men if the poison is fairly introduced into a wound."
Doctor Bronson asked their host if he had ever seen these serpents attacked by hawks or eagles; the answer was in the negative, and then the Doctor told how he once witnessed a fight between an American hawk and a mocasson snake or adder. The bird seized the snake, and rose with him in the air; he was probably a hundred feet from the ground, when suddenly the hawk threw back his head and fell as though he had been shot.
FIGHT BETWEEN A HAWK AND A SNAKE.
The Doctor ran to the spot, and found that the snake had bitten the hawk in the throat, and killed him with his poison. But the grip of the bird was firm, and the snake was fixed in the sharp claws, so that he could not get away, and speedily died from the wound.
"We have a snake in Ceylon," the host remarked, "that lives entirely on other snakes, especially cobras. He is entirely harmless to man, and you may be sure we treat him kindly, and encourage his presence around our premises. He is called 'raja-samp' by the natives, and his scientific name is Bungarus fasciatus. There is also a large hooded snake in India, but rarely seen in Ceylon, that is a great devourer of snakes, and he will swallow his own brother as readily as any other serpent."
FIGHT BETWEEN A BLACK SNAKE AND A RATTLESNAKE.
"We have no snakes in America," replied the Doctor, "that live on their kindred, but there are several of our reptiles that show a great hatred for each other. For example, the rattlesnake and the common black snake of the Eastern States are far from friendly, and when they meet there is pretty sure to be a battle. The rattlesnake coils itself for a spring, while the black snake moves rapidly from side to side to distract the attention of its antagonist, and to bewilder him. Finally, the rattler settles down with his head in the air and his mouth open, and then the other moves rapidly in a circular direction, and prepares to close the preliminaries by coming to the work.
"The rattler is bewildered in attempting to follow the movements of the black snake; the latter sees his chance and darts at the throat of his adversary, and at the same time encircles him in his folds. The black snake is a constrictor, which the other is not, and as soon as the grip is made his powers of constriction are exercised. He winds about the rattlesnake, and every moment draws his folds more tightly. The latter has no chance to use his fangs, and the combat in nineteen cases out of twenty results in favor of the black snake. Evidently he fights from pure love of combat, for he does not attempt to eat his fallen foe."
On their return to Kandy our friends went to see the great curiosity for which the place is celebrated—a tooth of the founder of the Buddhist religion.
This wonderful relic is kept in a temple dedicated to Buddha, and guarded by priests of the religion of the Far East. Near the centre of the temple there is a room about twelve feet square, with no windows, and only a single narrow door; the atmosphere is hot and damp in consequence of the lack of ventilation, and the mass of jasmine, lotos, and other flowers that are brought there daily as offerings to the deity of the temple. Whenever visitors come to the temple the priests assemble, and consequently the room becomes crowded to an unpleasant degree. This was the state of things when our friends entered.
One of the priests who spoke English acted as guide, and sent a companion to bring the key of the shrine that contained the relic. This shrine was of the shape of a bell, and stood on a solid silver table in the centre of the apartment; inside of the shrine was a smaller one of the same shape, and then another and another, and finally, in the last and smallest, the tooth was displayed resting on a golden lotos flower. Great reverence was shown to the relic by the priests that were standing around, and all seemed glad of the coming of visitors, as it gave them an opportunity to see the object they prized so highly.
THE LOTOS FLOWER.
The boys thought Buddha must have been a man of more than gigantic size if the relic really belonged to him, as it is nearly two inches long, and resembles the tooth of a crocodile much more than that of a man. No one is permitted to touch it; but for several years after the capture of Kandy by the British the tooth was in their possession, and during that time it was carefully examined. It was pronounced nothing but a piece of ivory which had become yellow with age, and possibly from lying so long on the golden lotos. The latter is a very pretty work of art, and an excellent representation of the lotos flower as it appears on the walls of Egyptian and Indian temples.
This tooth has a curious history. According to the Buddhist chronicles, it was secured at the funeral of Buddha and carried to a temple in India, where it was kept 800 years. Then there was a war for its possession, and the king who held it sent his daughter with it to Ceylon: she concealed it in the tresses of her hair, and was wrecked on the coast of India, where the tooth was buried for several days in the sand. Then a new ship was obtained, the tooth was dug up, and the journey to Ceylon completed.
The relic was kept in Ceylon a couple of hundred years, and then it went back to India, only to return again in a century or so to Ceylon. It has been moved about repeatedly—has been to China and Burmah, and there is a Portuguese account that it was destroyed by them, the viceroy himself pounding it in a mortar, burning the powdered bone in a brazier, and then throwing the ashes into the river. The account of its destruction is given in detail by several historians, but the priests of Kandy say it is entirely false, and the tooth was never in the possession of the Portuguese. It is pretty certain they destroyed something which they supposed to be the tooth, as it is a matter of history that the King of Pegu, on learning that the Portuguese were in possession of the relic, sent an embassy to negotiate for it, and offered a sum equal to a quarter of a million dollars for it, which was refused.
There was another relic of Buddha formerly exhibited in Ceylon—the bowl that he carried for the collection of offerings. All begging saints carry a bowl for the receipt of alms, generally a cocoa-nut shell. The one in question had wonderful properties; a poor man could fill it with a few flowers, but a rich man could not do so with 100, 1000, or even 10,000 bushels of rice! An army could drink from it without exhausting it, or even reducing the quantity of liquid it contained. The Mohammedans say that this bowl belonged to Adam, the father of mankind, when he lived in Ceylon, and descended from him to Buddha. It passed through many countries, having visited India, Persia, several provinces of India, and also China and Thibet. The trace of it has been lost for several centuries.
As they left the temple, after paying the priest for showing them the sacred relic, one of the boys asked if Buddhism was the only religion in Ceylon.
"Not by any means," answered the Doctor. "According to history, Buddha had a great deal of trouble in converting the Cingalese, as they were very ardent idolaters, and addicted to the worship of trees and serpents. Portions of the ancient faith still continue in the universal dread that the Cingalese have of killing a cobra; they will not destroy it with a blow from a stick or stone, but they put it in a bag and throw it in a river, so that it can have a chance of escape. Until very recently there was a temple at Jaffna dedicated to the snake goddess, and maintained by some of the descendants of the idolatrous priesthood.
"The Cingalese," the Doctor continued, "have great faith in demons, and every village has its demon-priest who lives upon the fears of the people. Everything that goes wrong is ascribed to the demons; and if a man falls sick or is injured, the priest is called to drive away the evil spirit that has caused the trouble.
"The most numerous demons are the yakkoes, who are supposed to live in old trees, and for this reason the natives will not have any old trees near their dwellings. They also set aside the fruit of certain trees in their gardens for the use of the demons, and sometimes a portion of the rice crop in a field is left ungathered for the same purpose. There is a general belief in sorcery and witchcraft, especially in the north of the island: the most of the native doctors are sorcerers, and when they cannot perform a cure with medicines they resort to incantations."