TENNENT'S CEYLON.
[SECOND NOTICE.]
A3IONG the vegetable wonders of Ceylon described by Sir Emerson Tennent the foremost place belongs in right of seniority to the sacred Bo-tree of Anarajapoora, which is in all probability the oldest tree in the world. Its age is not conjectural, or inferential, but matter of record. Its conservancy has been an object of solicitude to successive dynasties, and the story of its vicissitudes has been preserved in the Singhalese chronicles, which extend in an unbroken series through twenty-three centuries down to 1758, and are said to be amongst the most authentic that have been handed down by mankind. This father of the vegetable world is now 2147 years old, having been planted 288 years before Christ, and seems at this day as if it would verify the prophecy pronounced when it was planted, that it would "flourish and be green for ever." But the tree which will most frequently attract the eye of the traveller is the tall kattoo-imbul, its trunk of an unusually bright green colour, and its horizontal branches so profusely covered with tulip-like flowers, that when these gorgeous blossoms fall, the ground for many roods on all sides is a carpet of scarlet. The Rhododendron is not a shrub as with us, but a tree which forms a forest in the mountains, and its flowers make the hills seem from a distance as though they were strewn with vermilion. Other magnificent flowering trees are the Coral tree, which derives its English name from the resemblance of its blossoms to red coral ; the Asoca, the favourite of Sanscrit poetry for its lovely orange and crimson flowers; the Murutu, with panicles two or three feet in length, composed of flowers, each the size of a rose, and of all shades, from a delicate pink to the deepest purple ; and many more as beautiful and of better name and fame than the Sterculia fcetida, for which its large bunches of dark purple flowers of extreme richness and beauty, but emitting an intolerable stench, have earned that very charac- teristic botanical name. Of the wonderously luxuriant creeping plants we cannot speak in detail ; Sir Emerson counted no fewer than sixteen species on one stem ; but we must not omit to mention certain families of what may be called climbing trees, remarkable for the prodigious height to which they struggle upwards towards the air and light from the dense jungle. This they effect by means of buttresses, projecting from five to fifteen feet from all sides of the trunk, to protect it from being uprooted by the leverage of the topheavy crown. Another curious example of adaptation to circumstance is seen in a class of trees whose stems are protected as high as cattle can reach, and no higher, by a coating of thorns of surprising size and density.
The birds of Ceylon, prodigious in number, are neither so rich in plumage as those of South America and Northern India, nor to be compared for their song with the warblers of Europe, but the want of brilliancy is compensated by their singular grace of form, and the absence of prolonged and modulated harmony by the rich and melodious tones of their clear and musical calls. There is a pigeon called by the natives Neela-eobeya, which the author of " Friends in Council " will be glad to hear of. He will say that it ought, if possible, to be imported in large numbers into this country as an assuager of " worry." Strikingly elegant both in shape and colour, it is still more remarkable for its low and har- monious voice.
" A gentleman," says Sir Emerson, " who has spent many years in the jungle, in writing to me of this bird and of the effects of its melodious song, says, that its soft and melancholy notes, as they came from some solitary place in the forest, were the most gentle sounds I ever listened to. Some sentimental smokers assert that the influence of the propensity is to make
• Ceylon : an Account of the Island, Physical, Historical, and Topographical, with Notices of its Natural Ilistory, Antiquities, and Productions. By Sir James Emerson Tennent, K.C.S., LL.D., &c. Illustrated by Maps, Plans, and Drawings. in two volumes. Published by Longman and Co.
them feel as if they could freely forgive all who had ever offended them, and I can say with truth such has been the effect on my own nerves of the plaintiff murmurs of the neela-cobeya, that sometimes, when irritated, and not without reason, by the perverseness of some of my native followers, the feeling has almost instantly subsided into placidity on suddenly hearing the loving tones of these beautiful birds.' "
The crested Bulbul of Ceylon can hardly be identical with the tender nightingale of Europe and Iran, for it is a desperate fighter. The natives regard it as the most " game " of all birds, and the training of it to fight was one of the duties intrusted by the Kings of Kandy to the Kooroowa, or Bird Head-man. Crocodiles are exceedingly numerous, and appear to be of two species, the one inhabiting the saltish waters of the coast, the other living exclusively in the interior. The former only will at- tack man when pressed by hunger, but neither species is, in Sir Emerson's opinion, so formidable as is usually supposed. For example- " About sunrise on the morning on which we approached the old fort of Molletivoe, whilst riding over the sandy plain by which it is surrounded, we came suddenly upon a crocodile asleep under some bushes of the buffido- thorn, several hundred yards from the water. The terror of the poor wretch was extreme, when he awoke and found himself discovered and completely surrounded. He was a hideous creature, upwards of ten feet long, and evi- dently of prodigious strength, had he been in a condition to exert it, but consternation completely paralyzed him. He started to his feet, and turned round in a circle hissing and clanking his bony jaws, with his ugly green eye intently fixed upon us. On being struck he lay perfectly quiet and apparently dead. Presently he looked round cunningly, and made a rush towards the water, but on a second blow he lay again motionless and feign- ing death. We tried to rouse him, but without effect, pulled his tail, slapped his back, struck his hard scales, and teased him in every way, but all in vain ; nothing would induce him to move till accidentally one of the party tickled him gently under the arm, and in an instant he drew it close to his side, and turned to avoid a repetition of the experiment. Again he was touched under the other arm, and the same emotion was exhibited, the great monster twisting about like an infant to avoid being tickled. The scene was highly amusing, but the sun was high, and we pursued our jour- ney to Molletivoe, leaving the crocodile to make his way to the adjoining lake."
Of the true chameleon which is found, but not in great numbers, in the north of Ceylon, our author says-
" Whilst the faculty of this creature to blush all the colours of the rain- bow has attracted the wonder of all ages, sufficient attention has hardly been given to the imperfect sympathy which subsists between the two lobes of the brain, and the two sets of nerves which permeate the opposite sides of its frame. Hence, not only have each of the eyes an action quite inde- pendent of the other, but one side of its body would appear to be sometimes asleep whilst the other is vigilant and active : one will assume a green tinge whilst the opposite one is red ; and it is said that the chameleon is utterly unable to swim, from the incapacity of the muscles of the two sides to act in concert."
There are not many noxious reptiles in the island. Dr. Davy concluded, after a careful examination, that of the serpents only four species were venomous, and that only two of these, the tic- polonga and the cobra de capello, were capable of inflicting a wound likely to be fatal to man. The cobra is not much to be dreaded, for it is never the first aggressor. During Sir Emerson's residence in Ceylon, he never heard of the death of a European from the bite of a snake, and the coroner's inquests showed that such accidents to natives happened chiefly at night, when the reptile having been surprised or trodden on had inflicted the wound in self-defence. Cobras are fond of frequenting the vi- cinity of human dwellings ; they are easily tamed, and in several instances they have been kept about a house, as protectors, in the place of dogs. They glide in and out at pleasure, a terror to thieves, but never attempting to harm the inmates. We have seen what singular accomplishments are possessed by the fish of Ceylon, such as climbing and travelling on dry ground, and burying themselves beneath it. Musical sounds are heard issuing from the bottom of the lake of Batticaloa in several places ; but whether the performers are fish or mollusca is un- certain. The fishermen, of whom Sir Emerson Tennent made inquiries, said that the fact was well known to their fathers, but that the sounds are heard only during the dry season, and cease when the lake is swollen by fishes after rain. They believed it to proceed from what they called the " crying shell," which our author was not able to identify. Those brought to him by the fishermen were of different species, chiefly littorina and cerithium,
"In the evening when the moon had risen, I took a boat and accom- panied the fishermen to the spot. We rowed about 200 yards north-east of the jetty, by the fort gate ; there was not a breath of wind, and not a ripple but that caused by the dip of our oars ; and on coming to the point al- ready mentioned, I distinctly heard the sounds in question. They came up from the water like the gentle thrills of a musical chord, or the faint vibra- tions of a wine-glass when its rim is rubbed by a wet finger. It was not one sustained note, but a multitude of tiny sounds, each clear and distinct in itself ; the sweetest treble mingling with the lowest bass. On applying the ear to the woodwork of the boat, the sound was greatly increased in vo- lume by its conduction. They varied considerably at different points as we moved across the lake, as if the number of the animals from which they proceeded was greater in particular spots ; and occasionally we rowed out of hearing of them altogether, until on returning to the original locality, the sounds were at once renewed.
" This fact seems to indicate that the causes of the sound, whatever they may be, are stationary at their several points ; and this agrees with the statement of the natives, that they are produced by mollusca, and not by fish. They came evidently and sensibly from the depth of the lake, and there was nothing in the surrounding circumstances to support a conjecture that it might be the reverberation of the noises made by insects on the shore, conveyed along the surface of the water, for they were loudest and most distinct at those points where the nature of the land, and the inter- vention of the fort and its buildings, forbade the possibility of this kind of conduction."
We do injustice to the best and most interesting history of the elephant in its wild state that has ever been written, when we confine our notice of it to the following striking extract ; but we submit to the unalterable laws of space.
" When every wild elephant had been noosed and tied up, the scene pre- sented was one truly oriental. From one to two thousand natives, many of them in gaudy dresses and armed with spears, crowded about the enclosures. Their families had collected to see the spectacle ; women, whose children clung like little bronzed Cupids by their side ; and girls, many of them in the graceful costume of that part of the country, a scarf, which, after having been brought round the waist, is thrown over the left shoulder, leaving the right arm and side free and uncovered. At the foot of each tree was its captive elephant ; some still struggling and writhing in feverish excite- ment, while others, in exhaustion and despair, lay motionless, except that from time to time they heaped fresh dust upon their heads. The mellow notes of a Kandyan flute, which was played at a little distance, had a strik- ing effect upon one or more of them ; they turned their heads in the direo- Lion from which the music came, expanded their broad ears, and were evi- dently soothed with the plaintive sound. The two little ones alone still roared for freedom ; they stamped their feet, and blew clouds of dust over their shoulders, brandishing their little trunks aloft, and attacking every one who came within their reach. At first, the older ones, when sec spurned every offer of food, trampled it under foot, and turned haughtily away. A few, however, as they became more composed, could not resist the temptation of the juicy stems of the plaintain, but rolling them under foot, till they detached the layers, they raised them in their trunks, and com- menced chewing them listlessly. On the whole, whilst the sagacity, the composure, and docility of the decoys were such as to excite lively astonish- ment, it was not possible to withhold the highest admiration from the calm and dignified demeanour of the captives. Their whole bearing was at va- riance with the representations made by some of the sportsmen' who harass them, that they are treacherous, savage, and revengeful ; when tormented by the guns of their persecutors, they, no doubt, display their powers and sagacity in efforts to retaliate or escape ; but here their every movement was indicative of innocence and timidity. After a struggle, in which they evinced no disposition to violence or revenge, they submitted with the calmness of despair. Their attitudes were pitiable, their grief was most touching, and their low moaning went to the heart. It would not have been tolerable had they either been captured with unnecessary pain or re- served for ill-treatment afterwards."
We have noticed only one section of Sir Emerson Tennent's admirable work, the chapters on natural history ; but how could we fairly epitomize in four or five columns the wealth and excel- lence of 1300 encyclopaedic pages ? Like Australian prospeoters we have scratched the surface of a rich gold-field, and gathered from it a few grains of precious metal. If our readers will dig deeper, they may be assured that a plenteous pile will reward their easy and pleasant labours.
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