Palms and Pearls : or, Scenes in Ceylon. By Alan
Waters. (Bentley and Sons.)—Mr. Waters begins with a practical chapter, which the intending visitor to Ceylon may study with profit. Not the least useful bit of advice that he gives is : " Don't try to find out how your food is cooked." A chapter on "Singhalese History," with its four epochs of Native, Portuguese, Dutch, and British rule, follows. The people and the country are then described briefly and effectively. Among the most interesting objects about which Mr. Waters writes—and he always writes in an excellent style—is the bo-tree of Anaradhapoora, the oldest tree, our author thinks, that there is in the world. He does not hesi- tate to express his belief in its reputed age of 2,179 years. Its planting is attributed to the year 288 B.C., and the records of its e :istence are, if not absolutely continuous, still such as to afford a strong presumption that the claim of antiquity is well founded. Here is a specimen of Mr. Waters's graphic powers. He is describing a night view from Adam's Peak :— " It was nearly full moon, and by her light I could see the crests of the surrounding mountains with great distinctness, while in every nearer cleft and gully below lay impenetrable shadows that made them look as of depth unfathomable. Masses of pearly-gray mist floated hither and thither in fantastic shapes, from which now and again a fragment of cloud would detach itself and stream away on a voyage of discovery on its own account. Then borne along by the restless night air, cloudy battalions would come sweeping past, breaking themselves in feathery foam against the battlements of the steep mountain barriers As morning came on apace the wind fell, and the first level sunbeams from over the Kandyan Hills lit up what looked like a glassy expanse of water, the colour of the down on a cygnet's breast, studded with countless wooded islands ; a decep- tion of Nature, which without the aid of memory it was difficult to conceive of as a mere fanciful creation, until beneath the gathering power of the thirsty Sun-god, mist and shadow and cloud had rolled away, and beneath me lay once more the fine outlines of rock and wood and mountain."
The concluding chapters of the volume are given to the fauna and flora of the island.
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