"The most numerous demons are the yakkoes, who are supposed to live in old trees, and for this reason the natives will not have any old trees near their dwellings. They also set aside the fruit of certain trees in their gardens for the use of the demons, and sometimes a portion of the rice crop in a field is left ungathered for the same purpose. There is a general belief in sorcery and witchcraft, especially in the north of the island: the most of the native doctors are sorcerers, and when they cannot perform a cure with medicines they resort to incantations." CHAPTER XX. TRAVELLING IN CEYLON.--WILD ELEPHANTS AND THEIR HABITS.--ENCOUNTER WITH A BUFFALO.--FROM KANDY TO NEWERA-ELLIA. A day was devoted to letter-writing, and to drives and walks around Kandy, and then the boys asked the Doctor where they were to go next. "There are two or three routes from which to choose," was the reply, "and each has its own peculiar advantages, or the reverse. I have been considering them, and have selected the one that gives us the most to see in the little time we have at our disposal. We will start to-morrow morning for Newera-Ellia, which is on the road to Adam's Peak." "Perhaps we will climb the peak," exclaimed Frank, "and repeat our experience of Fusiyama in Japan." "Perhaps!" echoed Fred; "but we won't be certain of it till we have done it. But please tell us about the other routes you thought of," he added, addressing himself to Doctor Bronson. "I had thought of going," responded the Doctor, "to some point on the eastern coast, and there taking a steamer for India; meantime I would have ordered our heavy baggage sent around by water, so that it would meet us on arrival. There are several of these places, and the towns and the routes leading to them are pretty much alike. The most important and interesting is Trincomalee--pronounced Trínk-o-ma-_lée_--which you can find on the map by drawing a line nearly due north-east from Kandy." The boys had a map of Ceylon before them, and by following the Doctor's instructions they speedily found the place he had mentioned. "You observe," he continued, "that it is quite a distance from Kandy to Trincomalee, and there is no railway to carry us. We should be obliged to travel by the ordinary roads of the country; conveyance would be difficult to obtain, and our fare not of the best. We should have a tiresome journey of several days through the forests and swamps of the eastern part of Ceylon, and I doubt if the novelty of the scenery would repay us. The same would be practically the case if we went to Jaffna or Kalpentyn, other places that I had in mind--and, besides, we might wait some time there before finding a steamer to take us where we wish to go." "Well," answered one of the boys, with a laugh, "please tell us about Trincomalee and what we might see on the way there, and then we shall be all ready for Newera-Ellia."