THE TRAVELLER.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1747, 30 August 1905, Page 12

THE TRAVELLER.

A NEW ZEALANDER IN CEYLON.

[The following extract fromm letter, recently written by Me Isaac Van Staveren to his parents in Wellington, is likely to prove of interest to a wider circle of readers.]

A party of three of us made up our •minrki to go to Mount Lavinia, and thence to Kandy, the old capital of Ceylon, as we could see Colombo on our return. We started out after a preliminaiy roam round Colom--bo, and went to Mount Lavinia to see the beautiful Cinnamon Gardens. The trip’ there is made moist interesting by the queer drees of the people—the great solemnity of all they do—also the scenery is beautiful beyond description. The rood lies through some seven miles of cocoanut palms with a carpet of grass extending under their spreading leaves for miles—here and there a quaint bungalow peeping out .from the leafy surroundings adds a charm to the view. The whole is so quaint and so different from anything to he seen in New Zealand or Australia that the fact is strikingly brought home that we are in a foreign country, and that country unmistakably Oriental. Most of the bungalows have a tennis lawn in close proximity, and as this is made of red soil or gravel closely rolled,, and as flat as a billiard table, it makes a pretty contrast to the grass-green surroundings. To give you an idea of a cocoa palm, imagine a large* leaf similar to a nikau palm, with, a tall stem just like a Macri cabbage, and the cocoanuts in' strong cluster round the top of the trunk and under the partial shelter of the leaf. We drove through seven miles of this to Mount Lavinia, and had lunch there, washed down witir a most refreshing iced lime squash. I am going back to Ceylon specially to have another like that. On the way back we were stuck up by a Fakir, who wished to show us his powers, but as I spoke to a few words of Maori, and hissed a few words of a Haka he took himself off . I was the elected captain of- our little contingent, so I had to do something of the kind. The whole of Ceylon, by the way, is remarkable for its “cadgers” and: hangers-pn to such an extent that they become a pest. One learns to revere the memory of the notable who wrote “Silence is golden,” because that is about the only effective way of getting rid of them—besides the unusual method I employed. The men are mostly very fine looking and shapely, and the women rather pretty and neat. It is almost impossible at first to tell the men from the women as the former do not all wear trousers. Their dress is usually a light scrupulously white coat, and grey skirt, with sometimes a white shirt and collar. Their hair (men’s) done up in a knot at the back, and the whole set off with a comb, something similar in. shape to the combs worn by little girls of ten or eleven years to keep, the - hair off their foreheads. After a little one is better able to sort the sexes, but it takes a little practice. As I know the girls will want to know what the ladies wear, I will try to describe it although a hit out of my line. The hair is brought back men’s but without the comb,' and tied in a knot, at the hack, a most becoming low-necked bodice (of white mostly), and a kind of Grecian robe' or skirt, of coloured material, thi§ latter often pink or cerise, and in some cases a sort of pink heliotrope. (I think that is pretty good for an amateur.) The foregoing description is of one of the classes only, as there are several 1 different qualities and colour® of natives in Ceylon. The original inhabitants are the Cingalese, and they are now partly invaded' by the Tamil or coolies of Southern India. All the railway stations therefore have their names and notices up in three tongues—English. Cingalee, and Tamil. ‘ After leaving Lavinia we went by train to Maradana to change cars to Kandy, where we intended to pass the evening. The train —a most comfortable hut unreliable broad-gauge—carried us through some grand scenery. The gardens en route were one blaze of beautiful colours, and all most artistically arranged. One of the attractions of the flowers themselves lies in the fact that the colours of each are most delicate, and each flower is of only one or two colours ait the most. Some groat trees to he seen at intervals on the journey were one blaze of crimson—(Hibiscus) — and another one glorious vista, of heliotrope and light green; The first portion of this ride took us through mile® of rice swamp, even the hillocks being terraced off and ridged' to hold all the water possible. In some places, where the railway line overlooked the valley one sees these terraces for as far as the eye can reach, and they remind one of the well-known pictures of the White Terraces of New Zealand. On the higher ground thejce are groves upon groves of the many different palms found on the island. ; Bananas are grown in great numbers, also mangos—a nasty fruit with a taste like a wild parsnip—the papaw, a palm with a leaf something like a fig on a large scale—and a fruit of which the rind is eaten after the manner of a melon or mango, and the rest as a rule thrown away. Breadfruit of

one or two varieties, plantains, and other tropical fruit®, of which I do not know the names, are abundant. The mango is something like a green apple, which has been sat on and thrown out of plumb. To eat it is an art requiring practice, and to like it- is a habit which has to grow on one. The inside is filled far at least one-fourth by a most extraordinary nut, shaped somewhat like an almond, but as far as I can gather of no use except as seed. The banana grown here is quite different from the one we are accustomed to. The palm has a leaf similar in shape to an arum lily leaf, only large enough to hide a man, and a trunk like all the other palms, only a little smoother. The- fruit grows in little clusters like the larger banana, but it is very small, being at the largest only 3in long, pLump and thick skinned. In taste it is like other kinds of bananas, and I have made its acquaintance with, considerable pleasure.

The people in this portion of the country are of a poorer class than those I described before, and wear less, clothes, The women often carry their tiny kiddies on their backs like picaninnies, the said pidhninnies not being deemed old enough for clothe® of any kind. Bathing seems to be a favourite pastime in the summer, and the sight of a family being washed by the maternal parent is not by any means an exception. The women are almost all modest and quiet, in fact, I saw no exceptions whatever to this rule. Englishmen all dress in white or khaki, as light as they can get it, and assume an air of superiority, which I expect grows on them. I may as well rebark en passant that these natives are a highly civilised class, which is mostly overlooked or forgotten by careless passengers, and further, they are amazing linguists.

We arrived in Kandy just before dusk, and have a look round befoire dinner. I had another, iced squash there, and gftn going back to have one of that particular variety also. The town is laid out (or was some thousands of year® ago) to converge on a lake—probably a swamp in those day®—and our hotel, the best there, faced this beautiful little sheet of water. All the buildings are white, and the streets are lined with, bazaars, where all manner of good® may be bought for cash. After dinner three of ns went for a stroll without a guide, as we found that New Zealanders did not require one in a place with such a large landmark as a lake. We there saw fireflies for the first time, most beautiful little things,, for all the world like little flashes of electric light. From the other side of the lake, which is just over a mile round, .we had a splendid view of our hotel—one long row of bright lights (electric) and of every conceivable Colour. The view was as fantastic as a staged picture, with the important difference that here was reality, and a beautiful reality it was, too. We met only three passengers from our steamer, making six in all who made the trip to Kandy, and we all thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. It is a mystery to me how the others stayed behind while there was so much of in : terest and surpassing beauty near at hand.

That night we slept in beds surrounded by mosquito curtains, and we all slept like the proverbial top until 5 a m.; when we had arranged to> get up and go for a walk, so as to leave for a drive to Peradineva at 7 a.m. We walked round and inspected the Buddhist Temple, one of the oldest in the world, and various other places of interest, and then drove out to see the Rock Temple, then through a long narrow iY/ad lined with tiny residences and stalls until we came to the celebrated gardens, I was prepared to learn and see new things here, even prepared to be surprised, but I had not any conception of the amazing wealth of flora contained in these grounds. Surprise No. 1, was that there was no charge for admission to the ground, surprise No. 2, wa® that we were followed everywhere by a policeman until we left the place two hours later, hut this little item was quite overshadowed by the things of real interest to us. We saw there plant® from all parte of the world, and at their best. Giant bamboos 40ft to 50ft high, talipot palms with a great fan-shaped leaf capable of covering twenty men, and which flower once in forty years and then die, date palms in full bearing from Arabia fig trees and others well known. One that caused me some surprise was the allspice tree, a fair-sized specimen with a leaf not unlike laurel, another was .the cassia, another the cinnamon, of which the hark is most tasty, and another the jak, a queer gourd-shaped sticky, hairy pumpkin-like fruit on an immense tree. This fruit or. tread grows on the trunk, and the big branches carry only foliage. There are several specimens of the banyan (sacred tree), and hosts of other things which I shall describe in my next, as I have not- told! you one-fourth of what I saw on this two days’ trip.