X544(7)

PLATE VII. THE FERRY-HOUSE AT PANTURA.

The village of Pantura is sixteen miles from Colombo, on the road to Point de Galle, and here is the first ferry over what is commonly called the Pantura river, but which is, in fact, an estuary of the sea. It is about 300 yards broad, and communicates by means of canals, with the Kalu ganga, near Caltura, with the lakes of Bolgodde and Colombo, and thus with the Kalany ganga near the bridge of boats. There is a bank of sand at the mouth, through which, when the river is swollen by the rains up the country, a passage is cut to prevent its overflowing, when the natives avail themselves of this opportunity to launch the large dhoneys, which are built or repaired on its banks. The construction of these vessels is very curious, not a nail being used, but the planks being sewed together with strong coir cord, passed through holes bored opposite each other near the edge of the planks, and crossed thrice diagonally, from one hole to the other, a layer of loose coir covered with strips of dried cocoa-nut leaf being first laid along the seams; the work is completed or secured by a coating of dammer, a resinous substance, answering the purposes of tar.

The ferry-house is a good specimen of a Cinghalese hut, being built entirely of kejhans and the wattling hereafter described. The trees afford a specimen of the hibiscus populneus, mentioned in the description of the Fort. Under the verandah sits the old ferryman counting his receipts, and on the other bench are a travelling Moorman and his cooley, with a large bale of cloth, waiting for a return of the ferryboat. In front of the but stands a native servant, or appoo, and near him is a woman with cocoa-nuts for sale, sitting on her heels in the manner peculiar to Asiatics.

On the other, or south side of the river, is a comfortable rest-house, pleasantly situated, with a good stable and coach-house.

A curious species of twine is made by the natives in this neighbourhood, formed of fibrous particles, found inside the bark of a shrub, called, in Cinghalese, apola, and strongly resembling white horsehair. This twine possesses great strength, though slight in appearance, and capital fishing-lines and nets are made of it.

This river, like all those in Ceylon, is infested with alligators, as they are commonly called, though they are, in reality, crocodiles; and whilst the author was staying here, a child was carried off, by one of these voracious monsters, from the midst of a party of women and children who were bathing in a place specially fenced off, in order to secure them from their attacks, but which barrier, unfortunately, on this occasion proved insufficient.

The country around Pantura is chiefly laid out in paddy fields, affording good snipe and wild-duck shooting, particularly around the margin of the lake of Bolgodde, and an account of this peculiar method of cultivation by the natives may, perhaps, prove interesting to the reader.

There are five kinds of rice, or paddy, cultivated in Ceylon, besides one peculiar to the mountainous districts, which does not require continual irrigation. The rice of this Island is of a superior quality, and more nutritious than that commonly produced in India, though it is not raised in a proportionally large quantity. The first great preliminary operation is the irrigation of the land, which, where the country is level and water scarce, is a very laborious process. In this case, the field is subdivided into small portions by ridges from nine to twelve inches in height, and the water is worked on from one to another by means of large wooden shovels - dams being opened and closed in the ridges as occasion requires. In this manner the native husbandman can bring the water up a slope, or, having it at the top, prevent its running down too quickly and being lost; and thus, in successive patches, they irrigate the sides of steep hills. The labour of irrigation is sometimes diminished by the following simple and ingenious contrivance. The handle of a very large wooden shovel is lashed about the middle, at a convenient height, to the centre of a horizontal bar supported, at each end, by three stakes crossing each other and lashed together near the top. A cord is attached to the end of the handle, by which the shovel is worked, and by this simple application of the principle of the lever, they are enabled to use with ease a shovel they can hardly lift.

When the water has lain for some time, and the ground is becoming soft, cattle are turned in and driven about, by which means the soil is reduced to a thick mud, when the grain is sown and trodden well in by the cattle. A rude plough, which only scratches the surface of the ground, occasionally supersedes the trampling of the oxen, especially in the upper country.

When the grain is ripe, it is cut or pulled up by the roots, and formed into sheaves, which are placed on wooden stands at a good height from the ground, and covered with cocoa-nut leaves to protect them from rain. When perfectly dry, the sheaves are spread out in circles on the ground, and the grain is trodden out by the feet of cattle. Half-a-dozen cattle will tread out forty or fifty bushels in a day.

Grain is sown at different seasons of the year, which is commonly divided into two harvests, the one called maha, the great, the other jalla, the little. The first sowing takes place in July, August, September, and October, according to the nature of the paddy - some requiring to remain longer in the ground than others - and is reaped in January, February, and March. The finest paddy requires to remain in the ground seven months; the other sorts, three, four, or five months. The returns average from seven to ten fold, but instances of twenty or thirty fold have been known. In order that the different kinds may be ripe as nearly as possible at the same time, regard is had, in sowing, to the time required by each sort of grain to ripen; the quantity sown is regulated by their stock of water, as all rice, except the one sort named, would be spoiled if the water should fail before it was quite ripe.

When there are no rivers, tanks are formed for the collection of rain-water These tanks are generally constructed in the shape of a half-moon, and must have cost great labour in their formation, some of those in the interior being, according to Knox, eighteen feet in height and a mile in length. These immense reservoirs were formed by the ancient inhabitants, and are now, for the most part, dried up, and overgrown with trees and jungle. When the water is required for irrigation, a gap is cut in the side of the bank, and the water drawn out by degrees.

Knox states that the Kandyans, when their lands are ready for sowing, " take their corn and lay it to soak in water a whole night, and next day take it out and lay it in a heap, and cover it with green leaves, and so let it lie some five or six days, to make it grow. Then they take and wet it again, and lay it in a heap, covered over with leaves as before ; and so it grows and shoots out with blades and roots. The water is now drawn off the field, and the corn sown by strewing it all over with great evenness by the hand, and it remains without water till it is three or four inches above the ground, when the water is brought on again, the gaps in the ridges by which it was let out being stopped up. When it is about nine or ten inches high, it is weeded by women, who also pull it up when it is too thick, and transplant it where it is required. It remains overflown till the corn is ripe, when the water is let out again, to make it dry for reaping."

The rice is, finally, separated from the husk by beating it, in a kind of wooden mortar, with a heavy pole about four feet long and three inches in diameter, shod with iron at one end, which is plied vigorously, first with one hand and then with the other. Some of the harder kinds of rice must first be boiled in the husk, otherwise, in beating the grain, it will pulverize. Nearly all the rice used in Ceylon by the Europeans, and by the majority of natives in the large towns, comes from the neighbouring continent in a prepared state.

To prepare paddy for horses, the husk is partially beaten off - about one half - when it is winnowed, and then mixed with a kind of dried pea, called gram, which has been soaked about twenty minutes, or occasionally with bran - this mixture forming, with grass plucked up by the roots and washed, the common food of horses throughout India.