Labourer and a toddy tapper

Outside along a road on uneven terrain stand two men. The man on the left wears only a hip cloth (veshti, lungi), short double-folded and tucked in at the waist. A wide-brimmed old hat (toppiya) hangs above his ears. This man can be recognized as a toepas by his hat, likely brought from Jaffna to Colombo for work. The man on the right is a Ceylonese palm wine tapper and belongs to the caste of the duravo (Durava). He wears a high-pulled hip cloth (veshti, lungi), wrapped around the waist in a Ceylonese manner. On his right hip he carries a large earthenware pot (labu katey) to collect the palm wine (tolwagen or toddy). The pot is hung in a net of cords, which can also be used to carry it around his waist. In the waist the end of a bundle of tools is visible, a case with knives to cut the flower of the coconut palm and a hammer (thalanaya) to flatten the flower. The sap from the palm flower ferments very quickly in the open air – the light-alcoholic drink was called toddy.