LANDS OF THE MOONLIGHT.

Otago Witness, Issue 2105, 28 June 1894, Page 41

LANDS OF THE MOONLIGHT.

(A. Series of Papers Specially Written for the Otago Witness.)

By Bernard Espinasse,

No. III.— THE ISLAND OF OEYLON. To any of my readers who might contemplate a visit to Ceylon a word on the subject of hotels may not come amiss. For style and solidity, and the best of everything in the way of cuisine and accommodation, the traveller who hankers after such things need not go farther than the Grand Oriental at the jetty head. But if he or she seek homely comfort and the whiff of that pure ozone which ie better than many fleshpots, let him call a 'ricksha and wheel his way a short mile and a-balf out of the close town along tb.6 sands to the Galle Face Hotel, and as he enters the courtyard, overshadowed in the fiercest noon by the umbrageous growth of mighty palms, and sees before him the quaint old building, with its many windows peeping out amid the flowering shrubs and climbing creepers, he will not regret the taking of my advice. It is in all respects a family hotel, and possesses many little characteristics which, as they may serve to illustrate a phase or two of life in these Eastern lands, I will briefly tousti upon.

Some of the verandahs at the back of the house literally overhang the sea, where it eddies in and out among the rocks. The rooms aie very large and very high, about 50ft from floor to ceiling. There are no walls, only wooden partitions, and these for coolness sake do not touch the roof within about 8 ft. The floor is overlaid with matting, and a " window " consists of two wooden doors, closed with a cross-bar, and fitted with " tatties," a species of shutter. The mode of lighting — since neither gas, lamp, nor candle can be procured — is somewhat peculiar. On a table the newcomer will find a wide-stemmed glass bowl, three parts filled with oil floating on water, and containing two little crossed bits of matchwood, tipped with cork. At the junction of these sticks is fastened a tiny wick, which when lit and floating on the surface of the oil emits a Bickly radiance jnst sufficient to accentuate the surrounding gloom. The only plagues are mosquitoes, white ants (desperate wood-eaters), and, if it be fair to include a perfectly harmless creature in the category, a species of small green lizard, which has a familiar habit of domesticating itself in one's sleeping apartment. In all my wanderings I never found a place that could surpass this for calm, restful comfort. To open the shutters in the early morning, and look out over the placid sea dancing in the warm shine of the newly-risen Bun, to feel the ocean breeze upon one's cheek, to hear the birds twittering in the trees and the surf frothing over the pebbly beach, is to feel the glow of life freshening and quickening in every nerve and artery of the body. To me Ceylon has ever seemed typical of a child newly born into the world of sensation and light, grasping with eager fingers at every leaf and twig upon the tree of know? ledge, yet lying still to listen to the whisper of the sea.

Let us hail a 'ricksha, and take a spin through some of the picturesque outskirts of Colombo. " 'Ricksha hi 1 " " Atcha, Sahib." In we get and away we go.

Our first jaunt is through Kollupitiya (familiarly called " Oolpetty " ), to the south of the island — a charming suburb, once the residence of the elite of Oeylon, now fallen into disfavour. The broad road is bordered with cocoanat palms, and lined with bungalows, many deserted, whose quaint names, such as The Synagogue, Storm Lodge, The Snuggery, &c, attract the eye in passing. The gardens surroandiDg them are bright with the showy green of the lettuce trees, and here and there is a shoe plant, the flowers of which are extensively used' by Chinese ladies to dye the hair and eyebrows, and in Java for blacking shoes. In front of Temple Trees, a particularly spacious bungalow, rise two stately trees (from which it takas its name)— the "Alaria," peculiar to Oeylon, whose fragrant blossoms are laid as offerings at the shrine of Buddha. The breadfruit tree, with its magnificent dark green scolloped leaves, is also an object of interest, and the artistic eye may revel in the beautiful at beholding a rare orchid, the JSspirito santo of the Portuguese, whose lovely clusters resemble a group of white pigeons clinging to the step with wings at rest. One of oar earliest pilgrimages is of course to the far-famed Cinnamon Gardens. Our little vehiole spine down the neat " oabook " road (maoadamißed with decayed gneiss, which when sun-hardened is equal to metalling), and enters a stately avenue of casuarina trees, which muoh resemble Scotch firs. Everywhere the white Band in which the cinnamon bush flourishes rises into great oones, the homes. of the destructive white ants, the curse of Ceylon. A glorious scent from innumerable shrubs fills the air, and the floating odours of spice and nutmeg are as the breath from a newer and diviner world. Here we see that wonderful provision of Nature for her thirsty children of the desert, the fan palm, the traveller's friend, whose thick juicy leaves, when cut, exude an abundant moisture which even on the hottest day is clear and cold. But there is no time to linger with so much to 836, and on we go, passing here a Moorish mosque by the wayside, with its cupola and crescent, and there a Hindoo temple on the hilltop, the westering sunlight slanting across the stone steps and purpling the silvery foliage of the old kekuna tree standing in the shadow of its walls. Passing now a lotus pond, whereon fbats, lily-like, the flower of the east, with irs broad leaves of triply-shaded green and its transparent flowerets of the most delicate pink, bringing one t© fancy that in tlje morning of the world the earliest glow of the first dawa had fallen upon its virgin portals and abided there for ever. Coming presently to K^yman's Gate, a place of execution in years Bgone, surmounted by an old Datch belfry, wherein the bell (now in Wolfendahl Church) was once rung at 8 p.m., after curfew fashion, as a timely warning to tavern-keepers to close their doors, in time we reach Grand-

pass, where the Dutch made their last stand against the British before the Governor's order to surrender came, and thread our way through the Great Market, where a motley crowd of Hindoo?, Cingalese, Levantines, Arabians, Greeks, and many Jews and Gentiles are chattericg, chaffering, and cheating. And so, to foot once more, we cross the Bridge of Boats, 21 in number, moored with sturdy chains fore and aft, over the river Kelani, which is the water highway for the mighty timber rafts that come floating down to the Kelani mills. This queer bridge connects Colombo with Negombo and Kandy, the ancient kingdom of the island, of which I shall have a wonderful account to give you shortly.

Here by the riverside, when the fading light of afternoon is wavering at tbe threshold of the dark (for there is little or no twilight in the East once the sun has set), the traveller may catch the true tone of the life around him. Tbe long shadows are stealing across the rice fields ; here and there, in the patohes of lessening sunlight, native women are pounding " paddy." A dilapidated bullock cart, its shafts uptilted against the mud wall of the cadjau-thatched hut, is the temporary cradle of a little brown atomy in a state of nudity and vacuum. A pariah dog howls mournfully in the distancs with that long, hollow yelp which is the echo of desolation, the river turns grey, and lo 1 the night has come.