"City of Brown," or, better, the "Cadjan City." For inaccessibility, it
is in a class by itself.

Colombo is facetiously spoken of by Englishmen as the Clapham Junction
of the East, for the reason that one can there change to a steamer
carrying him virtually to any place on the globe.

But it is simpler for a white man to get to Melbourne, or Penang, or New
York, from Colombo, than to obtain passage to Marichchikkaddi, only a
hundred and fifteen miles up the coast. If he can wait long enough,
passage may be found, of course; but otherwise all the official and
editorial persuasion of Colombo--and the subsidized influence of the
head porter of the "G. O. H.," availeth nothing. Now and then he may
hear of a speculative Parsee's dhow that may be going to Manar for a
cargo of shell-cased lottery tickets, or of a native-owned launch that
will carry a limited number of passengers at an unlimited fare. A
fast-sailing outrigger canoe may always be chartered. Another
opportunity is to travel two days by post-cart to a village one never
heard of, transferring there to a bullock hackery that may take him
through jungle roads to the cadjan metropolis--provided he is able to
give instructions in Tamil, or a college-bred coolie can be found who
knows English. Still another way is to take the semi-weekly steamer from
Colombo to Tuticorin, in southern India, then zigzag about the continent
of Asia until he makes Paumben. Then it is a matter of only a few days
when there will be a boat crossing to the pearl-camp. This is the surest
way of getting to Marichchikkaddi; but it is like making the journey
from New York to Boston by way of Bermuda.

Ceylon's substitute for virtually everything elsewhere used in the
construction of buildings is the cadjan: it is at once board, clapboard,
shingle, and lath. Cadjans are plaited from the leaf of the cocoanut- or
date-palm, and are usually five or six feet long and about ten inches
wide; the center rib of the leaf imparts reasonable rigidity and
strength. Half the shelters for man and beast throughout the island are
formed of cadjans, costing nothing but the making, and giving protection
from the sun and a fair amount of security from the elements. The frame
of a house is made of stakes planted in the ground, with rafters and
beams resting in crotches conveniently left by the wood-cutter. This
slender frame is covered with cadjans, arranged systematically, and sewn
together with cocoanut-leaf st