ms, with ample retiring apartments on the first
floor and a dining-room which will seat three hundred guests at a
time. A line of arcades is connected with the house, beneath the shade
of which one can go shopping at the little gem and curio stores. The
hotel is built about a large central court or area, which is well
filled with thrifty tropical vegetation. The whole is admirably
arranged, and is well kept after American and European ideas. While
the guests sit at meals in the large dining-hall, long lines of punkas
or fans, suspended over the tables, are operated by servants placed
outside of the room, thus rendering the atmosphere quite endurable,
notwithstanding the intense heat which generally prevails. The waiters
were found to be natives, but all spoke English, and were well trained
in the performance of their duties. Each one of them wore a white
turban, and a single white cotton garment cut like a gentleman's
dressing-gown, and confined at the waist by a crimson sash. The legs
and feet of these copper-colored servants were bare, after the
conventional style of such persons throughout this island, as well as
in India proper.

One other large house of public entertainment has a good reputation,
and is certainly most favorably situated. It is known as the Galle
Face Hotel, adjoining the popular esplanade of the same name. This
house is well patronized, especially by officers of the army and
navy. For a permanent residence it is perhaps preferable to the
Oriental, on account of its charming maritime outlook. There are
several other public houses, but of these two the author can speak
approvingly from personal experience.

An unusual scene, which transpired on the esplanade near the Galle
Face Hotel, occurs to us at this writing:--

One of the bullock gigs, so common in Colombo, stopped suddenly before
that hostelry. The driver, who had jumped to the ground, was examining
the animal with much surprise. In the mean time, the bullock was
staggering like a drunken man, reeling hither and thither while striving
to keep upon its feet, shaking its head strangely in a wild sort of way,
and trembling all over. The thermometer was somewhere between 95 deg.
and 100 deg. Fahr. A score of idle and curious natives thronged about
the spot, entirely shutting out the circulation of what little fresh air
there was stirring. At this moment a cavalryman from the barracks hard
by made his way into the crowd, and seizing the bullock'