be made by a
lady's stiletto.

It would be a natural supposition that so delicate an insect would
produce a honey of corresponding purity, but instead of the expected
treasure we find a thick, black and rather pungent but highly aromatic
molasses. The natives, having naturally coarse tastes and strong
stomachs, admire this honey beyond any other. Many persons are
surprised at the trifling exports of wax from Ceylon. In 1853 these
amounted to no more than one ton.

Cingalese are curious people, and do not trouble themselves about
exports; they waste or consume all the beeswax. While we are contented
with the honey and carefully reject the comb, the native (in some
districts) crams his mouth with a large section, and giving it one or
two bites, he bolts the luscious morsel and begins another. In this
manner immense quantities of this valuable article are annually wasted.
Some few of the natives in the poorest villages save a small quantity,
to exchange with the travelling Moormen for cotton cloths, etc., and in
this manner the trifling amount exported is collected.

During the honey year at Newera Ellia I gave a native permission to
hunt bees in my forests, on condition that he should bring me the wax.
Of course he stole the greater portion, but nevertheless, in a few
weeks he brought me seventy-two pounds' weight of well-cleaned and
perfectly white wax, which he had made up into balls about the size of
an eighteen-pound shot. Thus, in a few weeks, one man had collected
about the thirtieth part of the annual export from Ceylon; or, allowing
that he stole at least one-half, this would amount to the fifteenth.

It would be a vain attempt to restrain these people from their fixed
habit; they would as soon think of refraining from betel-chewing as
giving up a favorite food. Neither will they be easily persuaded to
indulge in a food of a new description. I once showed them the common
British mushroom, which they declared was a poisonous kind. To prove
the contrary, I had them several times at table, and found them
precisely similar in appearance and flavor to the well-known, "Agaricus
campestris;" but, notwithstanding this actual proof, the natives would
not be convinced, and, although accustomed to eat a variety of this
tribe, they positively declined this experiment. There is an edible
species which they prefer, which, from its appearance, an Englishman
would shun: this is perfectly white, both above and below,