Excerpt from Old Ceylon: Sketches of Ceylon Life in the Olden Time The abode of this old patriarch would have furnished a study for a lover of the antique. Everything seemed in keeping with his long white beard. The doors and windows, the couches and three-legged table, all were hoary with years. Even the atmosphere had a musty smell about it, as though it had been keeping him company ever since he was a. Little boy. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Mr. Capper, in his excellent sketches entitled "Old Ceylon," gives us many examples of the truth of what I have alleged above, the result of my own experience. "In India," says Mr. Capper, "the way to justice, open though it is intended to be to all, becomes so overgrown by rank bribery and extortion, that the poor ryot has small chance of passing the threshold. The very attempt to do so often subjects him to cruel and relentless persecution." Naturally the Cinghalese are a litigious race. They are men of chatter, infinite chatter and small action, and the delays and uncertainties of our English system of law suit them exactly. Legal proceedings have been known to be instituted in Ceylon in cases involving no larger stake than one-fourth part of a cocoa-nut tree, or the sixteenth share of a profitless paddy-field on the side of a bleak and stony hill. --The National Indian Association

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