From the constancy of this practice horny callosities are produced, by which these hardy creatures may be distinguished.
[Footnote 1: The mean lowest temperature at Jaffna is 70 deg, the mean highest 90 deg; but in 1845-6 the thermometer rose to 90 deg and 100 deg.] [Footnote 2: For an account of the Jaffna wells, and the theory of their supply with fresh water, see ch.i.p.

21.] Water-spouts are frequent on the coast of Ceylon, owing to the different temperature of the currents of air passing across the heated earth and the cooler sea, but instances are very rare of their bursting over land, or of accidents in consequence.[1] [Footnote 1: CAMOENS, who had opportunities of observing the phenomena of these seas during his service on board the fleet of Cabral, off the coast of Malabar and Ceylon, has introduced into the _Lusiad_ the episode of a water-spout in the Indian Ocean; but, under the belief that the water which descends had been previously drawn up by suction from the ocean, he exclaims:-- "But say, ye sages, who can weigh the cause, And trace the secret springs of Nature's laws; Say why the wave, of bitter brine erewhile, Should be the bosom of the deep recoil, Robbed of its salt, and from the cloud distil, Sweet as the waters of the limpid rill ?" (Book v.) But the truth appears to be that the torrent which descends from a water-spout, is but the condensed accumulation of its own vapour, and, though in the hollow of the lower cone which rests upon the surface of the sea, salt water may possibly ascend in the partial vacuum caused by revolution; or spray may be caught up and collected by the wind, still these cannot be raised by it beyond a very limited height, and what Camoens saw descend was, as he truly says, the sweet water distilled from the cloud.] A curious phenomenon, to which the name of "anthelia" has been given, and which may probably have suggested to the early painters the idea of the glory surrounding the heads of beatified saints, is to be seen in singular beauty, at early morning, in Ceylon.

When the light is intense, and the shadows proportionally dark--when the sun is near the horizon, and the shadow of a person walking is thrown on the dewy grass--each particle of dew furnishes a double reflection from its concave and convex surfaces; and to the spectator his own figure, but more particularly the head, appears surrounded by a halo as vivid as if radiated from diamonds.[1] The Buddhists may possibly have taken from this beautiful object their idea of the _agni_ or emblem of the sun, with which the head of Buddha is surmounted.

But unable to express a _halo_ in sculpture, they concentrated it into a _flame_.
[Footnote 1: SCORESBY describes the occurrence of a similar phenomenon in the Arctic Seas in July, 1813, the luminous circle being produced on the particles of fog which rested on the calm water.

"The lower part of the circle descended beneath my feet to the side of the ship, and although it could not be a hundred feet from the eye, it was perfect, and the colours distinct.