Myself and others of the party who were mounted soon went a-head, and had it not been for repeated stoppages on the road to relate to those still coming, all we had learned of the deed of blood, we should have returned to Dinnomalee by ten o’clock; as it was, the sun had passed the meridian when we arrived, and we found there an equally busy scene, but of a very different character, to the one we had been partial witnesses of at Dophan. During our absence the Wallasmah Mahomed, attended by his brother, two sons, his scribe, and a whole host of armed followers, had come into Farree, and just at the moment we passed the first trees on our side that inclosed the open space where stood the stores, salt, and merchandise of our Kafilah, that officer and his party emerged from the jungly wood opposite; the Wallasmah riding upon a mule, the rest walking, and among these the bearers of the silver mounted shield, and the silver sword of office were most conspicuous. The Wallasmah Mahomed, the hereditary Prince or Governor of Efat, imbodied my idea of a dull, sensual, yet cunning man. There was nothing in his countenance to recommend him; bloated, with a heavy stupid expression, a little relieved certainly by small restless eyes that glanced at me whenever he thought I was not looking at him. Perhaps his fleshy turned up nose might be termed by some physiognomists an aspiring feature, and his chubby mouth, from having lost all his teeth, or nearly so, was continually mumbling something or other, or else munching a little branch of wormwood. I will not charge him with being actually sober, nor would he, I think, have sworn upon the Koran that he was so himself; but a bad headache was pleaded for the narrow rag of blue cotton that bound a large fresh green leaf upon his forehead. This application, I was told, was to produce a sense of coolness in the part affected, and to aid its effects it was frequently wetted by an attendant with water from a gourd shell, carried for this purpose.