that, a little engineering knowledge had directed
the path rather than the flow of the mountain
torrent. I can imagine a man's descending this
way in the rainy season by slipping down a
cataract, but how he gets up I do not know,
unless he does it like young eels and salmon.
Fortunately the ascent is at present dry, and, by holding
on to my horse's tail when I could not sit
on his back, I managed at length to reach the
summit, whence a glorious view in some degree
compensated for the toil. Far away in the
distance was the sea. Hill after hill stretched
away towards it below, and under our feet were
the rice-fields we had lately left. The descent
was less precipitous. We saw where an elephant
had some weeks previously rubbed his muddy
sides against a rock. No hopes of seeing him
in this dry weather. The land-leeches levied
black mail on us as we passed through their
mountain haunts, or rather red mail, as the
blood on our legs testified. One had made an
inroad on the back of my hand so insidiously,
that he had drank his fill and dropped off again
without my knowing it, leaving only a bleeding
dot on the skin as a mark of his delicate attentions.
Some persons suffer much irritation of
the skin a few days after having been bitten by
leeches. My temperament is happily of such a
nature that the inconvenience is very slight. Of
all my party my dog enjoys himself the most
thoroughly. He is always up to something.
Instead of the listless lounging inactivity of his
verandah life, he is once more roaming about,
erectes auribus. Ever and anon he plunges into
the jungle, and whirr! whirr! go the terrified
jungle-fowl close over my head.

At length I reach the shelter of a native
house, and halt for the rest of the day. Why
am I here? Because this little mountain glen
has for some time past been the scene of very
lawless doings. Certain influential villains,
fancying themselves secure in their inaccessible
position, have been carrying on matters with a
high hand. They manifest, among other
peculiarities, a strong affection for their neighbour's
ox; and make many other mistakes as to the
law of meum and tuum. I have been told of
one cow in particular that has (without any
natural selection) broken out into a crop of
brand-marks, which are very different from those
that its owner is said to have bestowed on it,
and those marks, by a strange coincidence,
correspond with the brands of a certain headman,
whose duty it is to protect the interests of
others. A great deal more of a similar nature
has been told me, and it seems desirable to go
myself " and beard the robber in his den, Mal
Hamy in his hall." A pretty day's work I have.
I have come a day sooner than I was expected,
and fancy I have stolen a march on my friends.
The cow in whose welfare I take such an
interest bears unmistakably the evidence required,
and the issue is that certain individuals are
marched off to the jail. On their way, two
of these worthies give their guardians the slip,
and the hue and cry is raised, property ordered
to be sequestered, &c. &c.

Then there is a matter of forcible abduction.
A girl, the daughter of highly respectable
parents, seeks protection. The father was with his
family when a message came that a neighbour
was ill and needed medical advice. The old
man proceeds on his charitable errand, and is
conducted to a woman's bedside who feigns
sickness. While his patient is thus occupying
his attention, a messenger is secretly despatched
to his house, who informs his family in breathless
haste, that in crossing a bridge the sticks gave
way, that the patriarch fell upon a pointed
stake which pierced his ribs, and that he lies
at death's door. Out rush in frantic haste the
wife, the sister-in-law, and the daughter. At a
certain distance from the house the two former
are knocked down, and the latter carried off by
force; and, when the father comes home, he
learns the sad tale. The story is, of course,
strenuously denied. I have my own opinion;
but fair play is a jewel. The rule that every
man is assumed to be innocent till his guilt is
proved, holds good in Ceylon as in every part
of her Majesty's possessions. All I shall say,
therefore, is, that if the story be true it was an
ingenious stratagem—if false, an ingenious
invention, se non vero, e' ben trovato. Meanwhile,
the accused awaits trial, so no more on that
head. A burglary case winds up the day's
proceedings, and I feel I have done a good stroke
of business.

In England, when a man is angry with another
he fights him. In Ceylon, he enters a complaint
against him. I have known men inflict severe
wounds on themselves or one of their friends
simply that they might charge an enemy with
the commission of the offence. Equally cunning
are the defences made against charges. I may
just mention one of this very class. A man
loses a buffalo calf, or says he lost it; he
subsequently finds it, with fresh brand-marks, known
to be the marks of the accused. To prove that
it is his calf, he brings the man a buffalo, who
recognises and acknowledges the calf. Here
one would suppose is an unbiased and truthful
witness. The lady is not on her oath, it is
true, or, if cross-questioned, the proctor might
find himself on the horns of a dilemma, or of a
she-buffalo, which is worse. But maternal
instincts can not lie. "Can't they, though?" says
the accused. " I tell you they can. That
buffalo is complainant's; that calf is mine. His
buffalo lost her calf, my calf lost her mother.
Reciprocity is the soul of trade. I lent him the
calf to comfort his buffalo, and to induce her to
yield milk, He said I could take her back
whenever I liked. Lately the buffalo and calf
were grazing near my house. I took the calf
and branded it!" What's to be said after that?

A terribly rough piece of work is the next
morning's journey, first through swampy rice-fields
where one's horse has to walk along narrow
little ridges between the muddy plains, and then
rough muddy paths up and down, with loose
stones at every step. But the afternoon brings
me to one of those irrigative works which have
been constructed in modern times, in a land