TRINCOMALEE—SAAMI ROCK
Trincomalee Harbour—Fort Austenberg—Fort Frederick—The Saami Rock—Birds—
Hot springs—Palmyra-palms—The Lily shore.
I suppose that, with the exception of Rio in Brazil and Sydney in
Australia, few of the world’s harbours excel Trincomalee in beauty and
security.
So perfectly is it land-locked that, as we stood on the high ramparts of
Fort Austenberg, looking down on the inner harbour, on whose clear,
green waters floated several British men-of-war, it was scarcely
possible to believe that this was indeed an arm of that sea which lay
wrapped in purple gloom beyond a wide expanse of dark palmyra-palms.
[Illustration:
THE SAAMI ROCK AT TRINCOMALEE.
(Worship at Sunset.)
]
One of the officers had kindly provided for me a shelter from sun and
rain by spreading a thick matting of palm-leaves over one of the
embrasures, and as I sat there hour after hour sketching that beautiful
panorama, I saw nothing of the passage by which these vessels had
entered this calm haven from the great outer ocean, and which is
protected by a reef stretching far out to sea, forming a perfect
breakwater. My attention was called to the fact that, so deep are these
placid waters, large vessels can lie so close inshore as to discharge
their cargo without the use of boats, their yard-arms actually
projecting over the wharf. I was told (but whether true or not I cannot
say) that the depth is really so great that it has never been fathomed,
which gives rise to a theory that this harbour is the crater of a
submerged volcano.
More tempting swimming-baths could scarcely be imagined than some of the
sheltered inlets of this deep, calm sea-lake; but, alas! even here
danger sometimes lurks in the form of venturesome ground-sharks, and
there is a sad tradition of how once, when a party of soldiers were
bathing below the fort, their comrades on shore perceived the dim form
of a large shark rising in pursuit of a lad who had just taken a header
into the depths. All unconscious of danger, he rose cheerily to the
surface, but a moment later a cry of agony rent the air as the lad
disappeared, and the waters were reddened with his life-blood. Quick as
thought a soldier dived at the very spot, and quickly reappeared,
bringing the poor young fellow’s head and shoulders—the body having been
bitten in two by the shark, who escaped safely with the lower half, and
was never seen again, though many days were devoted to the attempt to
capture him.
Right below me lay the Dockyard, the Naval Stores Depôt, and the
Admiralty. Not the shipping only, but also charmingly wooded isles lay
mirrored in that quiet inland lake; while beyond the white sands of the
farther shore, red-tiled houses, embowered in pleasant gardens,
indicated the direction of a town with some eleven thousand inhabitants,
stretching round a horse-shoe-shaped bay, the entrance to which is
guarded by two rocky headlands, on the nearest of which, overshadowed by
grand old trees, stands the Government Agent’s house[163] (a spot
endeared to us all by the recollection of the sympathetic and
considerate hospitality which there enfolded us in a time of grave
anxiety.)[164]
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Footnote 163:
The seat of the Government Agency was shortly afterwards removed to
Batticaloa.
Footnote 164:
Owing to the Bishop’s serious illness.
-----
The farther point of the horse-shoe is a bold peninsula rising from the
ocean in a sheer precipice about four hundred feet in height, and thence
sloping gently towards the shore, with which it is connected by a long
flat neck of grassy sand. Fort Frederick by which name this fortified
crag is known to Europeans, guards the outer harbour, and is the
military headquarters. To the natives, however, this bold headland is
still, as it has been from time immemorial, the Saami (or, as it would
be pronounced in India, Swami) Rock, or ROCK OF GOD, sacred to the
worship of EISWARAMA, THE ALMIGHTY GOD.
(It is said the original name of this place was Tirukkonathamalai,
_i.e._, ‘the Mountain of Holy Konathar,’ whoever he may have been.)
Nothing has struck me more forcibly in the course of my travels than the
fact of how often the people living in a place take no interest
whatever, and probably ignore the existence, of some local custom or
legend which to the traveller is the point of chief interest in the
district.
This I found to be emphatically the case at Trincomalee. Many years ago
I had been told by Mr. Forbes Leslie that he had here witnessed a
strikingly picturesque form of aboriginal worship, so one of my first
inquiries on arriving in the district was whether the ancient worship on
the rock was still carried on. I was assured on all hands that it was
entirely given up.
However, on the very evening of our arrival at Fort Frederick, a natural
instinct led me past the old Dutch burial-ground, with its moss-grown
graves overshadowed by flowering surya-trees, to the brink of the
highest precipice, which in itself is so very grand that I determined to
lose no time in securing a picture of it.
So thither I wended my way at daybreak on Monday, September 29th,[165]
returning in the afternoon to colour my morning’s pencil sketch. Just as
I was finishing my work, or rather was compelled to halt for the evening
in order to watch the marvellous loveliness of the sunset lights and
colours which flooded the wide sea and rocks with opal tints of dreamy
beauty, through which one by one the stars began to glimmer, I observed
that first one, then another and another native, both men and women,
were taking up positions on the crags, each carrying either a bunch of
fruit or a chatty of milk or water.
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Footnote 165:
Sir James Emerson Tennant mentions this worship as occurring once a
year, on the 23rd January.
-----
Ere long about forty had assembled, including one who acted the part of
priest. He was clothed with scanty saffron-coloured cloth, and had a
string of large black beads round his head. He stood on the utmost verge
of the crag, and the worshippers, having laid at his feet their
offerings of cocoa-nuts, lovely cocoa-palm blossoms, betel leaves,
bunches of plantains, flowers, coins, small baskets of grain, or
whatever else they had to give, clustered around wherever they could
find a footing on the rock or the slippery grass while the priest
performed his ceremonial ablutions for purification in water poured from
a brass lota.
As the sunset glories faded and the stars shone out more brilliantly the
priest intoned a litany, to which all devoutly responded; then one by
one he took the chatties of good milk or water, and poured them out on
the rock as a libation.[166] After this, while still chanting the
litany, he took each gift, and from his giddy height cast it into the
fathomless ocean, far, far below, a true offering to the Almighty Giver.
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Footnote 166:
Precisely as was done by our own ancestors—a custom kept up in many a
corner of Great Britain long after Christianity was the only
recognised religion in the land. For instances of such libations being
offered even in the last century in our northern isles and Highlands
see ‘In the Hebrides,’ pp. 71 and 192 to 194. By C. F. Gordon-Cumming.
Published by Chatto and Windus.
-----
Then kindling a fire on the rock pinnacle, he thrice raised a blazing
brand on high, and all the people threw their arms heavenward.
Afterwards he lighted a brazen censer and swung it high above his head,
till the still evening air was all perfumed by the fragrant incense.
Finally, descending from his post of danger and honour, he took ashes
from the sacred fire and therewith marked each worshipper on the
forehead, after which they silently dispersed, and in the quiet
starlight wended their way back to lower earth.
A more strikingly impressive scene I have never witnessed, and I need
scarcely say that to me it proved so irresistibly attractive that again
and again I found my way at sunset to the same spot, whence I commanded
so perfect a view of the Saami Rock. I found that the worshippers
assembled there every Monday and Friday evening, and one night I had the
good fortune to witness this ceremony just at the moment when the great
full moon was rising from the waters, and nothing more solemn could be
conceived. There was the mellow light of the moon flooding the calm sea,
and the red firelight glowing on the dark crag and on the brown skin and
white turbans and drapery of the worshippers, while from across the
harbour flashed one vivid terrestrial star from the lighthouse on Foul
Point.
It seems that at the time when the Tamil conquerors crossed from the
coast of Malabar and invaded Ceylon, they resolved to appropriate a spot
so venerated by the aborigines; so having (so they said) proved from
their sacred Puranas that Trincomalee was a fragment of the holy Mount
Meru, which had been hurled from heaven in a celestial turmoil, they
thereon built a stately shrine dedicated to Siva, and which is still
remembered as the shrine of a Thousand Columns.
In the year A.D. 1622, however, the Dutch deeming it necessary to erect
forts at various important points in order to secure themselves against
the Portuguese, took possession of Trincomalee, and ruthlessly
appropriated the great temple as the quarry to supply building material
for their fortifications. Consequently sculptured and carved stones are
still to be discerned here and there in the walls of Fort Frederick (a
name said to have been bestowed in honour of Frederick William, Elector
of Brandenburg).
One solitary pillar on the highest point of the crag commemorates the
suicide in A.D. 1687 of Francina Van Reede, a Dutch maiden of good
family, whose betrothed had forsaken her, and had embarked for Europe
with his regiment. Ere the vessel could clear the coast, she had to
tack, and again ran close inshore beneath this precipice, and at that
moment the girl sprang from the dizzy summit, and, in presence of her
faithless lover, fell a mangled corpse on the dark rocks which jut
through the surging surf far below.
Although the aforesaid pillar bears a Dutch inscription recording this
sad event, it is so precisely like some of the most prominent pillars in
the ruined wave-washed temple at Dondra Head (the southernmost point of
the Isle)—pillars with the identical alternate sections, square and
octagonal—that I have little doubt that this was one of the ‘Thousand
Columns’ of Siva’s shrine.
I ascertained that the officiating priest of the rock, though not a true
Brahman, was one of the spurious low-caste Brahmans so common in
Southern India,[167] who habitually minister at the bloodstained altars
of Siva, with whom Eiswarama has been so artfully identified; indeed, I
learnt that the Saami Rock is often described as Kon-Eiswara-Parvatia,
thus also honouring Siva’s wife, the goddess Parvati.
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Footnote 167:
‘In the Himalayas and on Indian Plains,’ pp. 578-580. Published by
Chatto and Windus. For a curious example of a very venerated and most
foul Hindoo shrine being enclosed within the great Mahommedan—now
British—fort at Allahabad, see p. 75 of the above.
-----
There is, however, no doubt that the worship of Eiswara is by far the
most ancient faith of the island, and there is every reason to believe
that this striking ceremonial has continued unchanged from remote ages.
Whole dynasties have arisen and become extinct—conquering races from
India, Portugal, Holland, and Britain have successively held sway in the
fair Isle, and the one thing which has continued the same from
generation to generation has been this evening sacrifice.
Not ’neath the domes where crumbling arch and column
Attest the feebleness of mortal hand,
But in that fane, most catholic and solemn,
Which GOD hath planned.
In that cathedral, boundless as our wonder,
Whose quenchless lamps the Sun and Moon supply,
Its choir the winds and waves, its organ, thunder,
Its dome the sky.
To me it seemed a very impressive and simple act of worship, singularly
free from idolatry, and in very marked contrast with the many painful
forms of devil-worship which met us at every turn in the beautiful Isle
of Palms.
I confess to a feeling of real regret when I learnt how, in September
1889, this solemn natural shrine had become the scene of contention
between the priests of rival sects, a Pandaram priest appealing against
a Brahman for declaring that he alone was entitled to officiate as
priest at the Saami Rock, and there to perform Sivite religious
ceremonies. The dispute ended in a civil trial before the District
Judge, each party being defended by native counsel, and the case was
given in favour of the Pandaram priest, to whom were awarded damages to
the value of 120 rupees.
Moreover, in consequence of the increased military precautions at
Trincomalee, it has been decided that henceforth worshippers will only
be allowed access to the Saami Rock on the first and last Fridays of
each month, no one being now admitted to Fort Frederick without a pass
from the Commandant.
In truth, not for the sake of Ceylon only, but for the protection of the
world’s mercantile marine, there was much need to strengthen the
somewhat antiquated military defences of this magnificent harbour; and
as regards Fort Frederick, isolated as it is from the mainland by the
low grassy neck of the peninsula, one cannot but fear that, in case of a
siege, the beleaguered garrison would find themselves in as difficult a
position as were the Dutch when, in August 1795, they were here besieged
by a British force consisting of the 71st, 72nd, 73rd, and 77th
regiments, together with artillery, and two battalions of Sepoys, under
command of General Stewart. As they entered the harbour one frigate
struck on a sunken rock and was lost. At the end of three weeks the
garrison was forced to capitulate, since which time the Union Jack has
here floated in undisturbed possession.
Previous to that date this beautiful bay had witnessed many a struggle
between the covetous European Powers, who each craved a monopoly of
Singhalese commerce. First of all, in 1612, the King of Kandy, who hoped
by the aid of the Dutch to get rid of the Portuguese, permitted the
former to erect a fort at Cottiar, on the southern side of the Bay of
Trincomalee. This, however, was no sooner done than it was captured and
destroyed by a Portuguese force, which had rapidly marched across the
Isle from Colombo or Negombo.
In 1622 the Dutch seized and garrisoned Trincomalee itself, but finding
that holding forts on the east coast of the Isle was of no avail in
securing the cinnamon trade of the western provinces, they shortly after
abandoned both Trincomalee and Batticaloa.
Thus it was that when, in 1657, the _Ann_ frigate of London, a trading
vessel commanded by Captain Robert Knox for ‘the Honourable the East
India Company,’ was driven to anchor in Cottiar Bay for necessary
repairs, they found there no Europeans, but what seemed at first a very
kind welcome from the natives. The story of the treacherous seizure of
the captain, his son, and the greater part of the crew, and the graphic
account of the then quite unknown interior of the island, and the
customs of the king and people of Kandy, which was published by Robert
Knox, junior (when, after twenty years of captivity, he at length
contrived to escape, and after infinite difficulties reached the Dutch
fort of Arrepa, near Manaar, on the north-east coast), is one of the
most remarkable and interesting volumes of pioneer travel. The modern
Cottiar is a populous village of industrious Tamils.
The Dutch subsequently reoccupied the forts of Cottiar and Batticaloa,
both of which, strange to say, they abandoned without a blow, in 1672,
in their panic at the sudden arrival of the French squadron under
Admiral De la Haye. The French at once took possession of Trincomalee,
but being unable to maintain a firm hold in the island, they disappeared
as unexpectedly as they had arrived. At that time the Dutch had about a
hundred ships constantly trading between Cottiar and Coromandel, whence
they brought clothes and other wares to exchange for timber, areca-nuts,
palmyra-sugar, and rice.
In 1782 Great Britain first appeared on the scene. War having been
declared against Holland, a British force, commanded by Sir Hector
Munro, took possession of Trincomalee, which, however, was so
inadequately garrisoned that it was almost immediately afterwards
surprised by the French fleet commanded by Admiral Suffrein, by whom the
British force was removed to Madras, and in the following year
Trincomalee was restored to the Dutch.
But the time had now come for British rule in Ceylon, and in 1795 Lord
Hobart, Governor of Madras, fitted out the expedition commanded by
General Stewart, which landed at Trincomalee, and, as I have already
stated, captured the fort after a three weeks’ siege. Then, in rapid
succession, Jaffna, Calpentyn, Negombo, Colombo, Caltura, Point de
Galle, Matura, and all other strongholds of the Dutch, were ceded to the
English, who thus became the undisputed rulers of the maritime
provinces, and no clamour of war has since then disturbed the peace of
this fair harbour.
In 1801, however, no less than 5,000 British troops assembled here under
command of Colonel Arthur Wellesley (the great Duke of Wellington), with
the intention of proceeding hence to Java; but this force was ordered to
Egypt under Sir David Baird, and Colonel Wellesley returned to India.
Latterly the garrison has numbered about 400 men of the Engineers,
Highlanders, Artillery, and Pioneer force, besides those employed at the
Naval Depôt. Now, however, prudence requires the adoption of necessary
precautions, therefore modern science is being brought to bear in all
directions; and what with the enlarging and strengthening of the old
forts, and building of a new one, and of extensive barracks for a
greatly increased military force, while the restoration of the great
tank at Kanthalay is bestowing new life on all the agricultural
population of the district, Trincomalee is fast becoming a place of very
much greater importance than it was at the time of our visit; but
whether it will not thereby lose much of its charm is another question.
It is not often that I am attracted by the picturesqueness of Dutch
buildings, but within Fort Frederick, beneath the cool shade of large
dark trees, there is a most fascinating old well. Two heavy pillars
coated with cream-coloured chunam, once polished like marble, but now
partially stained with orange-coloured lichen, support a heavy
overhanging roof of rounded red tiles, which are the playground of many
squirrels. To a stout rafter is attached a pulley over which passes a
long rope; to this is attached the bucket wherewith brown men (clothed
only in a white waist-cloth and scarlet turban) fill their great red
water-pots for domestic use. It is all very pleasant to the artistic
sense, though I suppose we must admit that for practical purposes
unromantic leaden pipes have their advantages!
But for a never-failing supply of sketchable scenes, one has only to
turn to the nearest temple, whether Tamil or Buddhist, and here at a
small Hindoo temple I found a most primitive Juggernath car, adorned
with gaudy mythological pictures and thatched with dry palmyra-leaves of
a pale straw colour. It was drawn on a rude wooden platform supported by
four heavy unwieldy wheels, each constructed of three solid wooden
planks, fastened together by cross-pieces of roughly-shaped wood. A very
brown old Tamil priest, with scanty yellow drapery, stood beside the
rickety old car, shading himself with part of a dry taliput palm-leaf—a
fine study in colour. In the background stood the domed temple with red
pillars and red wall, surrounded by cocoa and palmyra palms, each laden
with golden nuts.
Close by, a statuesque brown water-carrier was drawing his supplies from
a rude well by means of a red jar slung on a bamboo, which creaked
ceaselessly as it rose and fell, emulating the harsh cries of sundry
birds and insects.
One very attractive small bird, which walks tamely about the gardens at
Trincomalee, has a purple head and breast and sienna back. It roosts in
the palms, and we were often startled by its resounding sonorous call—a
single note, ‘Hoop! hoop!’—so deep and far-carrying that on a still
evening it is heard very far off. I was told that this was a
jungle-crow, but as this name was also applied to a larger bird,
somewhat suggestive of a magpie, except that instead of being black and
white its colouring is brown and black and its eyes red, I cannot
venture to say which bird is entitled to the name.
Still more fascinating are the dainty little sunbirds, which, with long
brush-like tongue, capture insects, and also feed on nectar of flowers.
Some have maroon bands on the breast, others primrose-colour; they love
the fragrant pink oleander and scarlet hibiscus with glossy dark-green
foliage. The Singhalese call these dainty creatures ‘Flower-honey
birds.’ One of very brilliant plumage is distinguished as the tiny
sunbird, being only three and a half inches long. It is, however, very
rare.
Happily the lovely little purple sunbird is more common. Its head and
throat are of a bright metallic green, shading into the glossy purple of
back and tail, while beneath each wing is a tuft of gold, displayed when
the dainty chirping creature is fluttering over flowers to extract their
honey. Not that it confines itself to nectar only, for it thoroughly
enjoys good substantial spiders. It builds a most artistic pear-shaped
nest of grass, interwoven with hair and spider’s-web, and lined with
feathers and tufts of silky cotton. This is deftly slung from the bough
of some shrub, and herein in the month of April it lays two or three
greenish eggs with brown specks. Of course in autumn we saw only empty
nests.
Then there are the wren-babblers and scimitar-babbler (the latter so
called because of its long curved yellow beak), neat little brown birds,
common in the low-country jungle, which run up and down trees, hopping
and jerking like woodpeckers, hunting for insects. They utter a loud
melodious call, with very varied notes, and are cheery companions when
one is sitting quietly sketching. There are also exquisite little
flower-peckers, peculiar to Ceylon; some very gaily coloured, with
dark-blue back, yellow breast, and white throat; others all olive-green
except the stomach, which is grey.
Speaking of birds, a kind of swallow was pointed out to me, which is
also said to be peculiar to Ceylon, and which not only builds on houses,
just as our own do, but also in marshy places and near rice-fields. Its
throat and breast are brown, but its back and wings are black, and its
general appearance sufficiently suggestive of our own familiar friends
to be very pleasant in a far country.
I found so much attractive sketching-ground in the immediate
neighbourhood of Trincomalee that I did not care to go very far afield.
But one lovely morning we drove at dawn to the Periyakulam, one of the
ancient tanks, which is now, like so many others, simply a pretty lake
covered with water-lilies. On the embankment stands a gigantic upright
boulder, known as the Nine-Pin Rock, which looks as if it must topple
over with the first strong gale. It would be curious to know for how
many centuries it has held its ground.
One of our pleasantest early morning rides was to visit a group of seven
hot springs on a wooded hill-range about eight miles from Trincomalee.
Ceylon is so free from any trace of recent volcanic agency that a very
special interest attaches to these.[168] The place is called Kannya,
some say in ‘memory of’ seven celestial virgins;[169] others say in
honour of Kannya, the mother of the arch-demon Ravana, and that she is
here worshipped by the Tamils, who come to observe certain rites on the
thirtieth day after the death of their kinsfolk. A ruined temple, sacred
to Ganesa, the elephant-headed god of wisdom, proves that he received at
least a share of homage.
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Footnote 168:
There are also hot springs at Badulla, Patipal Aar, near Batticaloa
Kitool, and Medawewa, near Bintenne, and at Yavi Ooto, in the Veddah
country. In all the water is so pure as to be good for cooking
purposes.
Footnote 169:
_Kannee_, ‘a virgin.’
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Some distance to the north, at Mannakandal, in the Wanni, there are
sundry Buddhist ruins in the heart of the jungle; amongst others, those
of seven temples within one enclosure. These are called Kannya-Kovil,
and are said to have been erected by, or else dedicated to, seven virgin
princesses of the Wanni district.
The seven springs were taken in hand by the Dutch as being healing
waters, and were confined within seven tanks of carefully regulated
degrees of heat. All are now in ruins, but the springs are found to vary
in temperature at different seasons from 85° to 122° Fahr. Marvellous to
relate, even when the thermometer has indicated the latter degree of
heat, live fish of several species—carp, roach, and others—have been
taken from these springs, and in the streamlet which flows from them.
We were not so fortunate as to see any of these eccentric fishes, so
contented ourselves with watching the play of some harmless snakes while
we sat under the beautiful kitool, areca, and cocoa palms which
overshadowed the dilapidated tanks, enjoying our breakfast and tea made
with clear pure water from one of the boiling springs.
These families of the great clan Palm are comparatively rare in the
neighbourhood of Trincomalee, where the vast cocoa-groves of the
southern provinces are replaced by an incalculable multitude of
palmyra-palms,[170] which form a belt of dark-green all along the coast,
flourishing even on the brink of the salt coral-sand, where at high tide
the blue waters bathe the roots of their sturdy black stems, which stand
like regiments of well-drilled soldiers, faultlessly upright and
unbendingly stiff.
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Footnote 170:
_Borassus flabelliformis._
-----
In every respect they present a curious contrast to the graceful
cocoa-palm, whose white stems bend in every variety of symmetrical
curve, while their long slender fronds (each composed of a multitude of
sharp glittering sword-shaped leaves) are rarely for one moment at rest,
but gleam in the sunlight while ceaselessly turning and trembling with
every breath of air.
The palmyra-palm, on the contrary, rises straight to a height of 60 or
70 feet, and bears a thick crown of stiff fan-shaped leaves, deeply
indented. Beneath them hang clusters of beautifully glossy golden brown
nuts, each about half the size of a cocoa-nut, but quite circular, and a
full-grown tree bears perhaps eight or ten bunches of these, with a
dozen or more in each cluster. Seen half in sunlight and half shadowed
by the dark crown of foliage against a vividly blue sky, these brown and
yellow nuts are beautiful, but as a fruit they have none of the charm of
the cocoa-nut, although they form the staple food of the population on
the north-east coast.
The glossy outer skin is so hard that only an expert hand can tear it
open. Within it, and mixed with fibre, is a farinaceous pulp, at once
oily and gelatinous, which even the natives rarely eat raw, but when
roasted or dried in the sun and then smoked, it is largely used in
making curries and cakes. It is said to be excellent when half ripe, but
is then very liable to produce dysentery. Embedded within this pulp,
each nut contains three very hard kernels or seeds, and of the myriads
of these which are annually sowed, only a very small proportion are
destined to become trees. The main crop is dug up in infancy, when the
root resembles a waxy parsnip, and is either eaten as a vegetable, or
dried and made into flour something like tapioca. This root is known in
the bazaars as _kelingu_, and the dried fruit is _punatu_.
A cruelly wasteful delicacy is obtained from this, as from several other
palms, by sacrificing a well-grown young tree for the sake of its tender
leading shoot, which much resembles a gigantic stalk of very white
celery, with a pleasant nutty flavour.
The palmyra-palm does not begin bearing fruit till it is upwards of ten
years of age, and a comparatively small number of the trees are allowed
to develop their crop of beautiful nuts, the majority being tortured
into yielding only the luscious sap, which when allowed to ferment
becomes slightly intoxicating and is known as toddy (doubtless so named
by some early Scotch planter, in remembrance of the whisky-toddy of the
North!). By exposure to the sun the toddy becomes vinegar, or, if sugar
is required, a little lime is mixed with the sap, which is then boiled
down to a thick syrup, and poured into baskets made from the palmyra
leaf, and allowed to harden. In this state it is sold as _jaggery_
sugar, of which a very large amount is used in the island.
In order to obtain this sap, the toddy-drawers, who are marvellously
expert climbers, ascend to the crown of leaves, beneath which, each
cradled in a long solid sheath or spathe, are the bunches of ivory-like
blossom bearing the embryo nuts. Each spathe having been tightly bound
to prevent its expansion, is ruthlessly beaten every morning with a
heavy wooden mallet, till the immature flower within, instead of
developing into a thing of loveliness, is reduced to pulp, but without
injuring its outer cover.
After about a week of this maltreatment, the sap begins to flow, much to
the satisfaction of swarms of insects, who assemble to feast thereon,
and in their turn attract flocks of crows and various insectivorous
birds. These again afford many a dainty meal to the palm-cat and sundry
other foes, who climb the palms in pursuit of the birds.
Meanwhile, the toddy-drawer having cut off the tip of the spathe to
allow the sap to drip, hangs a small clay chattie or a gourd beneath
each bleeding blossom, and thenceforth for about five months he ascends
day by day at early dawn to collect the sap, emptying each little
chattie into one suspended from his waist, and when that is full he
lowers it by a cord to an assistant below, who empties it into a larger
one. Every day he cuts a thin slice off the poor bruised flower to make
it bleed afresh, and each flower continues to yield sap for about a
month.
Each tree yields on an average about three quarts a day (the produce of
the female tree is, however, considerably more than double that of the
male tree).
Only once in three years are these tortured trees allowed to ripen their
fruit, in order to save their lives, as otherwise they would die under
this unnatural treatment. The sweet juice from about nine hundred trees
being collected from the earthen chatties, is poured into a copper
still, and distilled three times over to obtain the strong and highly
intoxicating spirit called arrack, most of which, however, is obtained
from the cocoa-palm, which contains less sugar. Palmyra-toddy is
considered by connoisseurs to be too luscious.
The work of the toddy-drawer is no sinecure, for although by the aid of
a loop of flexible vine passed round his ankles, so as to enable him to
grasp the trunk of the tree with his singularly prehensile feet, he
contrives to climb with monkey-like agility, one man can scarcely manage
to ascend more than twenty trees every morning. So, in order to lessen
the toil of climbing, and enable each man to work a hundred trees daily,
half-a-dozen palm-tops are connected by ropes, along which the drawer
passes from tree to tree. Sometimes a second set of ropes, some feet
higher, are added for security, but even with these it is a work of
danger, and many horrible accidents result from this practice, besides
the fatalities recorded.
In the annual report of deaths from accident, a considerable number are
shown to be caused by falling from trees. I have this list for 1879,
1883, 1887, and 1890, and I see the deaths under this head are
respectively 255, 250, 326, and 369, and the majority of victims were
toddy-drawers, who in some cases lose their hold of the slender coir
rope while collecting the sap, but more often perish from its breaking
as they pass from one high tree-top to another. Sometimes the ropes are
rotten, sometimes they are injured by rats, and in some cases there has
been reason to suspect an enemy of half-cutting the rope.
The men engaged in this work are of very low caste, and in too many
cases their hardly-earned wages returned to the toddy-merchant. There
are, however, some brilliant exceptions, such as that village of staunch
Christians whom we visited near Batticaloa.
As a matter of course, the dress of these athletes is reduced to a
minimum, but in ascending the palmyra-palm they find it necessary to
wear a breastplate of stout leather as a protection against the very
rough stems. In ascending the smooth cocoa-palm this is not requisite.
That a tree so precious as the palmyra-palm should ever be sacrificed
for timber seems unnatural, but so valuable is its hard black wood in
house-building, that an immense trade is done therein, especially for
the supply of rafters, as it is found that even white ants scarcely care
to attack it. But as its value as timber increases with its age (no tree
being worth felling which has not attained at least a hundred years),
each tree has done a life-work of good service to man ere it commences a
second century of usefulness as an almost imperishable timber. It has,
however, one peculiarity, in that it causes nails to rust rapidly.
It is somewhat singular that not only is the female palm so much more
generous than the male in her yield of sap, but also her timber fetches
a very much higher price, as being denser, harder, and darker in colour.
It is said that in order to increase these three qualities in the male
palm, the natives immerse the newly-felled timber in the sea, and there
leave it to season. Unlike the ebony tree, which conceals its precious
heart of black wood within an outer casing of white wood, the palmyra
carries its hard black wood externally, enfolding a heart of soft white
wood—a pretty subject for a tree-parable.
Great as is the demand for this timber, due care is, of course, taken to
keep up the supply of a tree so precious that the Tamils recognise it as
the Kalpa, or ‘Tree of Life,’ sacred to Ganesa, the god of wisdom; and
whereas the Singhalese talk of the hundred and fifty good uses to which
the cocoa-palm lends itself, a Hindoo poet sings of the eight hundred
and one manners in which the palmyra benefits mankind!
It is estimated that there are on the Isle about twelve million palms of
this species, and as to the innumerable ways in which they are turned to
account (besides those to which I have already alluded), I can only
advise you to use your imagination, for you will find it difficult to
think of any necessary of life which native ingenuity will not contrive
to extract from this priceless tree—anything from a walking-stick or a
thatching-needle, to a bedstead, a ladder, a plough, or a water-spout!
As its stem yields timber for house-building, the leaves supply the best
possible thatch, and material for weaving mats both for ceiling and for
floor; baskets of all sorts, including some which can be used as buckets
for drawing water; fans, umbrellas, coolies’ hats, ropes, fly-whisks,
torches. Strips of these leaves, steeped either in boiling water or in
milk to render them pliable, and then smoothed on a heavy wooden roller,
form the equivalent of paper and parchment—_olas_—only inferior to those
obtained from the huge leaf of the taliput-palm.
As the fruit, root, and sap of the tree supply food, palm-wine, sugar,
and oil for the use of man, the young leaves serve as fodder for his
cattle, and the hard spathe, wherein the blossom lay cradled, has often
been used to good purpose as a baby’s bath.
The general effect of a great expanse of palmyras is certainly dull and
monotonous, but when seen near, nothing can be more picturesque than a
group of these, especially when, as is so frequently the case, overgrown
by some parasitic tree. During its prolonged youth, the palmyra retains
its great fan-shaped leaves, set spirally round the stem like a huge
corkscrew. When, with advancing years, these die off, the solid
leaf-stalk and coarse net-like fibre remain, giving the black trunk a
rugged, untidy appearance, but also affording support to a great variety
of delicate climbing plants, and offering a cradle wherein many seeds
lodge and germinate, especially those of the banyan, which take root so
effectually that ere long the parent stem is completely enfolded, often
strangled, by the too close embraces of the long white arms and roots
which twine around it in every direction.
[Illustration: THE LILY SHORE, NEAR TRINCOMALEE.]
Such marriages of the sacred banyan and palm-tree, though by no means
uncommon, are regarded by the natives, whether Tamil or Singhalese, with
extreme reverence, and great was the interest evinced by some who found
me sketching a very remarkable grove on the shore about a couple of
miles from Trincomalee, where scores of black palmyras were each thus
enfolded by white banyans twisting around them like contorted snakes.
Sooner or later the ungrateful parasite strangles the protector of its
infancy, and is left standing alone, twisted into every conceivable
fantastic form.
In this particular instance the scene was absolutely fairy-like by
reason of the exquisite undergrowth of tall white lilies, like our
lovely virgin lily, but streaked with most delicate pink—truly a vision
of delight. These were growing luxuriantly all along the shore, which,
moreover, was richly carpeted by the goat’s-foot, Ipomea, a large lilac
convolvulus, whose glossy green foliage, with profusion of delicate
blossoms, mats the sands to the very brink of the sea, affording shelter
to thousands of tiny crabs. This pretty plant flourishes on the seaboard
in all parts of the Isle, and constitutes one of the many charms of the
beach.
As to the crabs, they were a constant source of amusement, especially
one odd little creature, with one claw longer than all the rest of its
tiny body. It sidles along at a great pace, holding up this great claw
as if to attract attention; hence it is generally known as the calling
crab. (I saw myriads of these crabs in Fiji, but far more brilliantly
coloured.)[171]
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Footnote 171:
‘At Home in Fiji,’ vol. i. p. 257, and vol. ii. p. 2.
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I only wish it were possible for words to convey any impression of the
fascination of such a shore as that of the calm bay on which we looked
down from the Government Agent’s house—clear glittering waters rippling
on sands strewn with pearly Venus-car and many another shell; brown
children paddling tiny canoes made of rudely hollowed logs; a
lilac-and-green carpet of the marine convolvulus losing itself beneath
the shadow of a grove of tall, graceful cocoa-palms bending in every
direction; and then the rocky headlands, so inviting for a scramble,
with their broken crags, rock pinnacles, and at least one great natural
archway offering cool shade beneath which to rest while revelling in the
loveliness of all around.
Just above it stands the pleasant home, with its red-tiled roofs and
pillared verandah, overshadowed by beautiful trees and surrounded by
aloes and flowery shrubs. Add to all this the vivid light and colour of
sea and sky, and surely you can realise something of the charm of many a
home on this sweet Isle.