I have seen the exhausted coolies spread their dirty cloths on the surface, and form them into filters by sucking the water through them.

Oh for a glass of Newera Ellia water, the purest and best that ever flows, as it sparkles out of the rocks on the mountain-tops! what pleasure so perfect as a long, deep and undisturbed draught of such cold, clear nectar when the throat is parched with unquenchable thirst! In some parts of Ceylon, especially in the neighborhood of the coast, where the land is flat and sandy, the water is always brackish, even during the rainy season, and in the dry months it is undrinkable.
The natives then make use of a berry for cleansing it and precipitating the impurities.

II know the shrub and the berry well, but it has no English denomination.

The berries are about the size of a very large pea, and grow in clusters of from ten to fifteen together, and one berry is said to be sufficient to cleanse a gallon of water.

The method of using them is curious, although simple.