Amidst that crowd of Arabs, Moors, Malays,
Parsees, and many other races, I observed
an old woman seated by the lintel on the
brick floor, with clasped hands, grasping some
curious little bunch of leaves and flowers
and as she rocked her body to and fro,
muttering half aloud some wordy jumble, I
observed too that she cast her eyes at intervals
upon a tall man, her son doubtless, who,
raised somehow above the crowd, could both
see and hear what was passing in Court.
Their case was then on, and the man was
evidently telegraphing to her the progress
of the suit. The bunch of flowers in her
hands was a Buddhist charm, given by their
village priest to ensure success. I failed,
however, in ascertaining the value of the
case. The last witness was not needed. The
judge summed up but briefly; there was
a momentary silence in that Babel-place, the
assessors concurred—the old woman ceased
to rock herself, she dropped the flower-charm,
it was an evil omen to do that; a busy hum
in Court told all was over; the dark scowl on
the tall man's brow needed no interpretation:
he sprang down from his elevated perch, and
ran to the poor old woman. She had fallen
down in a fit, and lay apparently lifeless on
the pavement, the blood flowing from her
nose and mouth: one of many victims
self-immolated beneath the Juggernaut wheels of
the Law in the East.

My dress and colour obtained for me an
entrance within the doors, and after a time, a
seat near the judge, whence I could watch
the proceedings, and note the many strange
actors. Perched in a rather roomy, but low
pulpit, the judge was listening to the opening
of a fresh case from a young but leading
proctor, who leant over with his elbow
resting on his Honour's desk in the most
familiar manner imaginable, just as one might
be discussing the state of the weather, or the
quality of a yesterday's dinner. A long table
was before "the Court" at a short distance,
at which were seated the "Colombo Bar," a
motley group, and curious to look on. They
were Dutch, Portuguese, Tamil, and Cingalese:
some were steady-going business-like
men, and some were very sharp gentry
indeed, especially one little ape-looking fellow
with close-cropped hair and care worn features:
but there were several whom you could not,
by any imaginative faculty, connect with the
Bar, unless indeed it be the. bar of a low
pot-house. One miserable object, all out at
elbow, shirtless, and unshaven, leant listlessly
over the dirty table, staring at the sparrows
up in the roof, whilst another briefless
member of the fraternity amused himself by
emptying the contents of an ink-stand into
his trowsers pocket.

The morality of some of this craft is not
more wholesome than their linen; and cases
are not wanting, wherein, having recovered
sums of money for clients, they have taken
such care of the amounts as to render a
second action necessary, to compel them to
disgorge the suitors' due. Some again, fearful
of their clients running too rapidly through
the monies they are in the habit of receiving
for them, convert the rupees into snug
dwelling-houses, in which they do their said
clients the honour of residing, rent free.
Altogether the native practitioners of Ceylon,,
as a body, are an interesting race.

The case then on, though one of very common
occurrence, seemed to me a rather
prepossessing one, from the fact of its being a
question of a Bond Debt: a suit which,
however easily to be settled by actual
documentary proof, nevertheless afforded ample
scope for a vast deal of very hard Cingalese
swearing on both sides, and, of course, in
precisely opposite directions. It involved a
rather smart amount for a native to meet—
not less than one hundred and twenty-two
pounds British currency; I I'm afraid to say
how much it was in the benighted coin of the
island, but more than I should like to count.
Well, the plaintiff swore as hard as a
curry-stone that the defendant owed the money,
and the defendant vowed rather harder, I
thought, that he did not owe so much as a
single copper challie. Plaintiff chuckled all
over as he produced the defendant's bond for
the precise amount. It was examined, and
conned over, and looked at in all possible
ways by every one interested, until at last the
judge was on the point of deciding, as a
matter of course, when the defendant
produced a document very similar in appearance
and handed it to the judge. It was a release
in full for the amount, duly signed by the
plaintiff, and as duly witnessed.

Never shall I forget the strange look of
humbled mortification and disappointed rage
visible in the plaintiff's face, nor the glow
of merry bursting triumph that puckered
up the oily countenance of the successful
defendant. The case was suddenly made as
clear one way as the moment before it had
been equally lucid. The Judge decided
against the plaintiff with all the costs and a
severe lecture; which, as it afterwards
appeared, he deserved in a far more serious
point of view than was at the time believed.
I was a good deal puzzled at the stupidity of
the man who could thus bring an action for
a debt for which he had granted a
discharge; but the puzzle was cleared up a
day or two afterwards, when I learnt all
the particulars from the English Advocate
who had acted as counsel for the defendant
in the matter.

The Barrister had been waited upon in
his office by his client in the Bond case,
who came to thank him for the trouble he
had taken in getting up his defence. After
a few introductory civilities, the Advocate
Congratulated his native friend on the success
which had attended him in his recent suit,
and remarked on the great necessity that
existed for carefully preserving all documents