The
headman, who himself looked half-starved, made some cakes of korrakan;
but as they appeared to be composed of two parts of sand, one of dirt
and one of grain, I preferred a prolonged abstinence to such filth. The
abject poverty of the whole of this country is beyond description.
Our coolies arrived at eight A.M., faint and tired; they no longer
turned up their noses at korrakan, as they did at Monampitya, but they
filled themselves almost to bursting.
I started off V. B.'s coolies after him, also eight men whose loads had
been consumed, and, with a diminished party, we started for Bibille,
which the natives assured us was only nineteen miles from this spot. For
once they were about correct in their ideas of distance. The beautiful
'Park' country commenced about four miles from Curhellulai, and, after a
lovely ride through this scenery for sixteen miles, we arrived at the
luxurious and pretty village of Bibille, which had so often been my
quarters.
We had ridden a hundred and forty miles from Minneria, through a country
abounding with game of all kinds, sixty miles of which had never been
shot over, and yet the whole bag in this lovely country consisted of
only three elephants. So much for hurrying through our ground.
