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FRANK LESLIE’Ss NEW YORK JOURNAL.
119
will spend about two hours of the early morning,
when the “ Caghan ” will call them off by the sound
ofa whistle or a shell: for he knows that by that
time they will have cut sufficient for them to carry
to the “works,” or “ pecling-houses,”_ and quite
enough to keep them employed during the remain-
der of the day in removing the bark from the sticks,
which operation is by them termed “ peeling.”
The “ peeling-houses,” as the works are called,
are simply long sheds, closed on all sides, and roof-
ed with the leaves of the palm. Openings are left
on the sides to admit.a sufficiency of light; and all
the fittings or equipments needed for the work are
a few racks or stands of jungle-sticks to hold the
bundles .of dried spice, and many rows of. stout
string running along the upper part of the building,
on which are laid the “ pipes,” or “ quills,” of green
looking cinnamon bark, that they may undergo
their first drying gradually. : .
To this “ peeling-house,” then, the Chalias carry
all their heavy bundles of green, pretty-looking
sticks, many of them being five or six feet in length,
and all as straight as an arrow, free from branches,
and with but one or two pairs of large bright-green
‘leaves upon;each. The men being paid by the
quantity of spice they are able to produce, work
“with right good will. Not a moment is lost by
< them... As soon as they reach the house, or as it is
~ sometimes called,- the ‘‘waddie,” they fling their
- heaps of sticks on the earthen floor, and hastily
wiping the perspiration. from their reeking heads
and shoulders, squat down in true Oriental fashion
upon a little: straw mat, and drawing. from their
girdles their crooked - pecling-knives,
a sort of miniature “cattie,” they at °
once begin the operation of. peel-
ing,” or stripping the green bark from
the stick. .
This peeling is a very simple and
expeditious operation. It is rapidly
performed by running their crooked
knives lengthwise down the sticks,
from end to end, on two sides, and
then, by inserting the point of the
blade immediately between the bark
and the stick, and slipping it obliquely
downwards, the whole length of the
bark becomes at once detached from
the useless wood. It usually occupies
,the Chalias from the time of their re-
turn to the “waddie” until dusk to
remove the bark from the whole of the
‘cut sticks. This being done,. each
man, or party of men, makes up the
day’s peeling into bundles, and places
them safely aside on the wooden stands
until the following morning. °
The second and more delicate ma-
nipulation, is that ‘of scraping, the ©
‘ outer green. skin or cuticle from the
‘spicy bark ‘beneath, and rolling the
cleaned spice in quills ready for dry-
ing and packing. This work, or at-
‘any rate the’ scraping part of it, is”
performed by women and children,
them to make better progress than the
men. Seated in long rows on each
, Side of the building, as many as eighty or a hun-
~ dred of these people may be seen thus occupied
from daylight in the morning until dark. As soon
as any number of pieces of bark are cleaned, they
‘will be handed over to the men, who, with clean
,Tush-mats before them, busily. employ themselves
in sorting the bark into three qualities, according
to their different degrees of fineness, evenness, and
color. This being accomplished, they proceed to
pipe the bark into quills, by laying one piece inside
the other, joining two or more together in length, so
as to make up a regular size pipe, and lastly rolling
it round gently but rapidly so az to give it aa incli-
nation to curl or roll up. yh u
‘In this state it wears a dull, heavy greenish look,
_ arid is then laid close together upon the strings pre-
Yiously alluded to as stretching along the whole
length of the upper part of the building. It requres
at first very gradual drying, and will not bear any
more rapid mode of dessication until the third or
_ fourth day after being “piped.” ” : i?
, *aying a visit to a peeling-house during crop
time, one may sce a busy, interesting scene... The
long rows of dark-skinned workers, squatting on
mats upon the earthen floor, their fingers moving
tapidly with the crooked, knife along the smooth
Pleces of bark ; their lips closed in silence, for here
even the women-are silent; such is the discipline
Maintained, and such-the.eager desire for gain.
ing with one of the Chalia headmen, who receives
from him, in deep respect, the orders for the day’s
Jabor, or listens to any complaints he may have to
make as to the quality of the work performed by
the peelers. . .
. Upon a large Cinnamon Garden there will be
many of these pecling-houses to visit, situated at
considerable distances: from’ eachother, and this
work of inspection will’generally occupy the mana-
ger the whole of the forenoon, although riding from
waddie to waddie as fast as whip and spur will urge
his steed over the sand pathways.
» At the end of the third day of partly drying the
quills may frequently be placed under the influence
of the sun’s;rays in the open air, when a further
drying of four or five days will generally complete
the‘ process. In order to effect this, rude stands of
jungle-sticks are erected in an open'space of ground
where the sun and air have free access; these are
lightly shaded over by plaited leaves of the cocoa
palm, in order to prevent the violent heat of. the
noon-day sun exerting all its force upon the pipes
of cinnamon, which in such acasc would become
very dark in color and curl up out of shape. -
Upon these rough stands the spice now half-dried,
is placed close together, and frequently turned, so
as to ensure its gradual curing. As. the crop-
time is mostly in the rainy season, with but occa-
sional breaks of sunshine, the drying open-air pro-
cess is one which requires a great deal of watchful-
ness and care, as rain falling upon it causes it to
turn mouldy. The curing, or drying, being thorough-
-how very seldom they err in their assortment.
he European superintendent may be seen convers-
The Expansion of Solids.
Dr. Arnott exemplifies, by the following cases,
the expansive qualities of solids. He says :—« A
cannon-ball, when heated, cannot be made to enter
an opening through which when ‘cold it passes rea-
dily. A glass stopper sticking fast in the neck of a
bottle, often may be released by. surrounding the
neck with a cloth ‘taken. out’ of warm water, or by
immersing the bottle in the water up to the neck;
the binding ring is thus heated and expanded soon-
er than the stopper, and so becomes slack or loose
uponit. Pipes for conveying hot water, ‘steam, hot
air, etc., if of considerable ‘Jength, must have join-
ings that allow ’a degree of shortening and length.
ening, otherwise a change of temperature may des-
troy them. » An’ incompetent’ person undertook to
warm a large manufactory by steam from one boiler.
He laid a rigid pipe along one passage, and opened
lateral branches through holes in the several apart-
expansion of the main pipe tore it away from all its
branches. In an iron railing, a gate which during
a cold day may be loose, ‘and easily shut or opened,
in, a warm day may‘ stick, owing to their being
greater expansion of it'and of the neighboring rail-
ing, than of the earth’ on which they are placed.
Thus, also, the centre of the arch of an iron bridge
is higher in warm than in cold weather ; while, on
the contrary,'in a suspension ‘or chain bridge, the
centre is lowered. ' The iron’ pillars now so much
used to support the front walls of houses, of which
the ground stories serve as shops with spacious win-
ly completed, the spice is placed away very carefully
dows, in warm weather really lifts up the wall
which rests upon them, and in cold
_ Weather ailows it to sink, or subside,
vin a degree considerably, greater
than if the wall were brick from top
to bottom. In some situations, as
‘was seen in the beautiful steeple of
* Bow church,’ in London, where the
« stones of a building are held together
by clamps or bars of iron, with their
ends bent into them, the expansion
PEELING CINNAMON BARK
upon lofty stands within the waddie, where it will
remain until the end of the first month’s operations, |,
when the whole of that which is quite dry will be
removed to a place of greater safety.” ‘The _opera-
tion of weighing the cured spice then takes place,
each party of Chalias keeping their cuttings sepa-
tate, being paid at the rate of. six’ pence to eight
pence the pound for it. oat a
». The cinnamon is no longer under the care of the
peelers, but is stored in large brick buildings in
custody of the European superintendent, who at
once, provided the weather be favorable, commences
to sort the spice in three or four qualities, by the
aid of. men accustomed to the operation. It is as-
tonishing to see the rapidity with which these sort-
ers parcel out a large heap of cinnamon-quills, and
Placed away in separate receptacles, the three qua-
lities of spice are very shortly afterwards weighed
into bales of one hundred pounds weight each, and,
placed in a circular screw-press, are bound closely
together, and secured by means of rattan lashings,
over which is fastened a roll of country sacking.
In this state the cinnamon is marked and numbered,
and ready for shipment to London, where it is sold
by public auction every three months, and thence
finds its way into the several consuming countries
of Europe. _.
Kexrrine the feet warm will prevent head-aches.
in summer of these clamps will force
the stones apart sufficiently for dust
, or sandy particles to lodge between
| them; and then, on the return of
winter, the stones, not being at liberty
to close as before, will cause the ends
of the shortened clamps to be drawn
_ out, and the effect increasing with
each revolving year, the structure
Tr we are good, example is the best
lustre of virtue ; if we are bad, shame
/{ is the best step to amendment. -
|... Inteerity is the first moral virtue,
., benevolence the second, and prudence
‘is the third: without the first, the
two latter cannot exist, and without
»,the third, the two former would be
* often rendered useless.
‘Ir is one of the wise and evident
- uses of sudden death, that we may so
‘Jive with our friends, that come when
‘and - how it. will, we may not. add to
~~ the grievous loss the self-reproach of
unkindness or neglected duties... >
overty is, except where there is an actual want
of food and raiment, a thing much: more imaginary
than real. The'shame of poverty—the shame of
being thought poor—is a great and fatal weakness.
Buessincs which we have slighted when in our
possession, are more highly prized when there is
danger’of our being deprived of them; and our
hearts are more keenly touched by the anticipations
of loss, than by the fulness of enjoyment.
{ We must take great pains to shut our eyes upon
truth. - There is a radiance about it that makes the
outline of its form perceptible, even amongst the
clouds of dust and rubbish that are heaped upon it.
Error docs not so often arise from ignorance of truth
as unwillingness to receive it. .
.| Men, in the health and vigor of their age, should
endeavor to fill their lives with reading, with travel,
with’ the best conversation, and the worthiest of
actions, either in public or private stations; that
they may have something agreeable left to feed on
when they are old, by pleasant remembrances.
Tux warm-hearted and benevolent man finds all
nature smiling cround him; or if he chance to
meet with misery or suffering, the sympathy he ex-
tends to it re-acts with pleasing influence on his
own mind, and proves a suflicient reward; but the
morose and surly, or supercilious mind, wanders in
the fairest scenes as in a desert—sees only to be
dissatisfied, hears only to be displeased.
a
ments, but on his first admitting ‘the ‘steam, the °
, Will at last be loosened and may fall.”