dy of the tree, and not, after the fashion of other fruits, upon the
small limbs and branches. Nature has made a special provision in
behalf of this tree. As it grows older and the fruit increases in
size, it is produced lower and lower on the trunk each year, until
from being grown near the top, it springs out close to the ground.
Though the short, rope-like stalk which holds the rough, green-coated
fruit is of strong fiber, still, when in ripe condition, it is apt to
fall to the earth. As the product increases in size, it would be
broken to pieces if it fell from any considerable height. The natives
apply themselves to its consumption with unlimited capacities. The
wood of the jack is much used for lumber, being easily worked, and
presenting a good surface even for common house furniture as well as
for lighter bungalow framework. Supporting timbers, however, must be
made from harder wood, so as to resist the inroads of the vicious
ants. The humble native tenement has a frame made from the tough,
golden-stemmed bamboo, which is to a casual observer apparently very
frail, but is nevertheless found to be extremely flexible, tenacious,
and lasting. Where the bamboo branches intersect each other, they are
securely bound together with thongs made from palm-tree fibre; this is
to secure them in position.

For a long time the luscious mangosteen was thought to be peculiar to
the islands of the Malacca Straits, but it is now found thriving in
this garden-land of Ceylon, having been long since introduced from
Penang. Attempts to domesticate it in southern India have proved
unsuccessful. The same may be said of the fragrant nutmeg, which has
become an article of profitable export from the island, though it is
not indigenous here. Along this turnpike road we occasionally pass
small cinnamon plantations, where the process of cutting and peeling
the bark is going on, considerable quantities being exposed and spread
out in the sun, whose intense heat dries it most rapidly. When labor
of any sort is in progress, even in the wet rice-fields, it will be
seen that the women perform the hardest tasks. In fact, this is to be
observed in town and country, both in domestic affairs and in the open
field, especially in the transportation of heavy burdens, which they
carry on their heads.

Making beasts of burden of women is not alone practiced in Ceylon. It
is also shamefully obvious in many European centres, where
civilization is supposed