Above, is a cloudless sky and a broiling sun; below, is snow-white sand of quartz, curious only in the possibility of its supporting vegetation.

Such is the soil in which the cinnamon delights; such are the Cinnamon Gardens, in which I delight not.

They are an imposition, and they only serve as an addition to the disappointments of a visitor to Colombo.

In fact, the whole place is a series of disappointments.

You see a native woman clad in snow-white petticoats, a beautiful tortoiseshell comb fastened in her raven hair; you pass her--you look back--wonderful! she has a beard! Deluded stranger, this is only another disappointment; it is a Cingalese Appo--a man--no, not a man--a something male in petticoats; a petty thief, a treacherous, cowardly villain, who would perpetrate the greatest rascality had he only the pluck to dare it.