PADDA BOATS ON KELANI RIVER.

CHAPTER X.
THE CEYLON EXHIBIT AT THE
WORLD’S FAIR.

PAUL PIERIS, M.A., Ceylon Civil Service, Barrister-at-Law.,

TWO-STORIED rectangular building, 120 feet
long and 60 feet wide, with broad verandahs
running round each floor, the whole designed
after the Sinhalese fashion, forms the Ceylon
Court at the World's Fair. From the centre
springs an octagon, 75 feet high, copied from
the building where the Sinhalese king used to show himself
to his subjects at Kandy.
Smaller octagons rise from the four corners. The doorsteps
 reproduce the moonstone, so characteristic an ornament
of ancient Sinhalese architecture, and the janitors, so
vigorous and so grotesque, seen at many a ruined temple.
The doorways, with their handsome brass knockers, and the
curious capitals of the verandah posts, should be noticed.
On the ground floor is the Tea Room, where Sinhalese
waiters, with long hair and tortoise-shell combs, serve this
delightful beverage in cups adorned with the Ceylon
device of the elephant and dagoba. On the same flooris a
Commercial Room, where an experienced Commercial Agent

po