Later on I shall have to relate Indian sports, but I cannot refrain from again saying that I think it is almost unwarrantable to destroy useful, inoffensive animal life for mere sport; and whilst I thoroughly enjoyed the trip, the wholesale picnic, of this elephant hunt, I would have been much more pleased had it ended at the bursting of the kraal; but I suppose it would not have satisfied my companions’ chacun à son gôut. The noble lord carried home his tail—I carried back mine, which I give you for what it is worth. Spell it as you like.
I am dwelling a long while on my reminiscences of Ceylon. But I told you before, Ceylon is my pet country, and this was my first long stay there.
Through the very great hospitality and kindness of my friend Mr. Ferguson, and the guidance of his brother (the late Mr. William Ferguson), I had many opportunities of seeing a good deal of “life in Ceylon,” and to study the quaint yet homely ways of the people. Amongst other “home scenes” which Mr. William Ferguson enabled me to be present at, one is well worthy of a place in these pages. It was the wedding party of his head cook. This narrative, with two or three others, have been already published; but I think they should find a place in this little volume, and I therefore throw them in amongst my “Shavings,” as they form part and parcel of my recollections of bygone days.
V.
A MATRIMONIAL “SCRAPE.”
IN some parts of the East, and especially in the island of Ceylon, there are many old customs which the progress of civilisation has not as yet effaced; and happily so, for they serve to keep up a kind of friendly feeling between the different classes and races of the country. One of these time-honoured customs is the presence of European or burgher employers at the weddings or family festivals of their native servants, who seldom omit inviting their masters and families on such occasions. Being the guest of an old resident of Colombo, I received an invitation to be present at the nuptials of his head cook, a Singalese of good ancestry, who, it appeared, was to be united to the ayah or waiting-maid of a neighbour. They were both Catholics, and, as such, were to be married at one of the churches with which the native section of the town abounds. From some cause, my host could not attend on the eventful day. I was, therefore, left to make my way alone to the happy scene, which I learnt lay at some distance from his bungalow, at the further end of the long, straggling outskirts.