Eight Years\' Wanderings in Ceylon
Eight Years' Wanderings in Ceylon by Samuel White Baker CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. Colombo - Dullness of the Town - Cinnamon Garden - A Cingalese Appo - Ceylon Sport - Jungle Fever - Newera Ellia - Energy of Sir E. Barnes - Influence of the Governor - Projected Improvements. CHAPTER II. Past Scenes - Attractions of Ceylon - Emigration - Difficulties in Settling - Accidents and Casualties - An Eccentric Groom - Insubordination - Commencement of Cultivation - Sagacity of the Elephant - Disappointments - "Death" in the Settlement - Shocking Pasturage - Success of Emigrants - "A Good Knock-about kind of a Wife".
"On the banks of the Godavery there stood a large silk-cotton-tree, and
thither at night, from all quarters and regions, the birds came to
roost. Now once, when the night was just spent, and his Radiance the
Moon, Lover of the white lotus, was about to retire behind the western
hills, a Crow who perched there, 'Light o' Leap' by name, upon
awakening, saw to his great wonder a fowler approaching--a second God of
Death. The sight set him reflecting, as he flew off uneasily to follow
up the man's movements, and he began to think what mischief this
ill-omened apparition foretold.
"For a thousand thoughts of sorrow, and a hundred things of dread,
By the wise unheeded, trouble day by day the foolish head."
And yet in this life it must be that
"Of the day's impending dangers, Sickness, Death, and Misery,
One will be; the wise man waking, ponders which that one will be."
Presently the fowler fixed a net, scattered grains of rice about, and
withdrew to hide. At this moment "Speckle-neck," King of the Pigeons,
chanced to be passing through the sky with his Court, and caught sight
of the rice-grains. Thereupon the King of the Pigeons asked of his
rice-loving followers, 'How can there possibly be rice-grains lying here
in an unfrequented forest? We will see into it, of course, but We like
not the look of it--love of rice may ruin us, as the Traveller was
Eight Years' Wanderings in Ceylon by Samuel White Baker CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. Colombo - Dullness of the Town - Cinnamon Garden - A Cingalese Appo - Ceylon Sport - Jungle Fever - Newera Ellia - Energy of Sir E. Barnes - Influence of the Governor - Projected Improvements. CHAPTER II. Past Scenes - Attractions of Ceylon - Emigration - Difficulties in Settling - Accidents and Casualties - An Eccentric Groom - Insubordination - Commencement of Cultivation - Sagacity of the Elephant - Disappointments - "Death" in the Settlement - Shocking Pasturage - Success of Emigrants - "A Good Knock-about kind of a Wife".