This was long ago, however, before even
the Dutch owned Colombo. Better wisdom came with them, and in these
later days of English rule, sensible ideas still prevailed. The
cinnamon trees were kept pruned, and the comparatively young shoots
were found to produce better cinnamon than old trees had done.
Comale, arriving at the gardens, began to work. The branches he
chose for cutting were about three feet long and were the growth of
from three to five years.
Comale made longitudinal cuts in the bark, two cuts in a small
shoot, more cuts in a large shoot, and then with his instrument
carefully removed the bark strips.
He placed the pieces of bark in bundles, in which shape the cinnamon
was to stay for a while, that it might ferment, so that the outer
skin and the under green portion might be more easily scraped away
by Comale with a curved knife. After that, the inner cinnamon bark
would dry and draw up, till the pieces looked like quills. But ever,
as Comale worked this day, something inly disturbed his thoughts. He
was very unhappy.
"Comale," warned his father sharply, "that was a bad cut! Be more
careful!"
Comale's father was attending to some bark that had dried to quills.
He was putting small cinnamon quills into larger ones, till he made
a collection about forty inches long. Then he would bind the
cinnamon into bundles by pieces of split bamboo.
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