A BUSHMAN AFLOAT.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXX, Issue 8461, 11 June 1907, Page 7

A BUSHMAN AFLOAT.

By ALBERT DOERINGTON. (Author of "Along tho Castlereagh," "Children of the Gully," etc.)

(Published by special arrangement Aki —Copyright reserved.) V' No. X. Ceylon planters agree that the Tamil is the finest coloured labourer in the world. He is imported from Southern India, and improves wonderfully under the beneficial influence of the Ceylon hill climate. Third "day at Dambateena I wit~ nessed the punishment meted out to a girl "bolter." She had run away to an estate BO miled distant, and had been promptly returned by the white manager in charge. Tho kangani, or head man, assembled all the Dambateena coolies in front of the factory, and called to the girl to stand forwajg. from the coolie ranks, she eyed him coldly, head thrown back, her hands gripped at her sides. "Why you run away from your gArthev and mother, Imalia?" thun!PP~*!d the kangani. "Why do you rim from the estate?" ' Silence frcm the,girl. *# The kangani shrugged his shoulders, and ejected a stream of betel juice from his mouth- "I shall now sertd for the police, Imelia," he went on. "The police with the buttons and the big handcuffs." "Do not send for the police, Abswala." She glanced at him with a sudden fear in her eyes. "Beat me here before my people." "Beat her, Abswala!" shouted the mother of the girl from the coolie ranks, "Beat her until she lies at your feet. She is no honour to me." Tho kangani's eyes gleamed tenderly. "I will heather," he said, softly. "I will beat her well with both handa." Snatching up a thick cane, he leaped forward, striking her hard between the neck and shoulders. She crouched forward as the cane cut her again and again, but made no cry or appeal for mercy. "Kill, her, Abswala!" screamed her mother. "Lay her at your feet; she is no honour to me." "I will not kill her," answered the headman, cutting at her fiercely. "But must teach her that she is a dog, and that the estate is her father." kt a sign from the superintendent, the punishment ceased, and the girl crawled back to her work without'a murmur. "These bolters are a great nuisance," said the superintendent afterwards. "Very often a crowd of coolies will leave in the night, seeking employment on some distant estate. In many cases the managers notify us at once but there are times when estates, hard-pressed for labour refuse to give up the bolters, and we lose our men." ' This morning a Tamil boy was brought in from the hills bleeding profusely from the shoulder and ribs. While passing towards the wire shoot he had come face to face with a fullgrown leopard. In a flash the brute had seized him by the shoulders, and proceeded to worry him like a dog. Fortunately a crowd of tree-fellers were on the spot, and the man-eating lleopard was hunted back to the * jungle. A reward of fifty rupees has been .offered by the Government for its iflkin.

One does not easily forget the first inight spent in a hill bungalow. About ,8 d'clock we heard a terrible scuttling ton the verandah outside. Then came sharp screams accompanied by furious trampling sounds, ias though a hundred cats were tsteeplechasing over the rails. Peering cautiously into the darkmess, we saw about a dozen blackiaced .monkeys scrambling over the itfelHs work. Below, a small fox terrier .yapped frantically, trying to h&md >off another troop of long-tailed marauders that were jabbering at the kitchen window after scraps nf bresd and fruit. Later we were aroused by the mournful barking of an elk as it passed down the valley, almost within fifty yards of the bungalow. The marriage customs of the Tamils are intricate, and often baffle the understanding of the white man. At Damabateena recently the motfier lessen of a coolie, an infant•at three years, was married to a woman of 25. The arrangement freed the iatfcer from all future anxiety concerning the child's upbringing, it being the duty of the wamantoacfc as nurse and guardian to her young husband. (To be Continued.)