This tradition is, however, extremely improbable, as they have nothing in common with the Chinese, either in their language, manners, or dress. Those who suppose that Ceylon once formed part of the continent of India, and was disunited from it only by some unusual shock of nature, find no difficulty in peopling it with the same race who inhabited it before it became a separate island. Indeed the distance is so small between Ceylon and the continent, that it requires no stretch of imagination to suppose that it was peopled either from the Coromandel or Malabar coasts; and this is, in fact, the received opinion among most people. Some circumstances, however, seem to indicate that they have come from a greater distance; their complexion, features, language, and manners, are so similar to those of the Maldivians, that I should for my part be apt to conclude that both were of the same stock. The Maldive islands are only two or three days' sail from Ceylon; and from the dissimilarity of the habits found among them to those of the Indians on the continent, it might be argued that the natives of these islands have not directly originated from those of Hindostan.

"The Ceylonese are of a middling stature, about five feet eight, and fairer in complexion than the Moors and Malabars of the continent. They are, however, at the same time neither so well made nor so strong. I know no race they resemble so much in appearance as the Maldivians. Candians are both fairer, better made, and less effeminate than the Cinglese in our service.

The

"The women are not so tall in proportion as the men: they are

much fairer, and approach to a yellow or mulatto colour. They continually anoint their bodies with cocoa-nut oil; and, in particular, always keep their hair moist with it. Both sexes are remarkably

clean and neat both in their persons and houses. In dressing their victuals they are scrupulously nice. They are cautious not even to touch the vessel out of which they drink with their lips; but (what would seem a very awkward method to an European) they hold the vessel at some distance over their heads, and literally pour the drink down their throats. It is perhaps from the fear of not doing it with sufficient dexterity that they never use their left hand in preparing their food, or in eating it. While at meals, they seldom converse with each other: they even seem to look upon the whole business of eating as something rather required by necessity, than very consistent with decency: while drinking, they never turn their faces towards each other.

"In their diet they are exceedingly abstemious; fruits and rice constitute the chief part of their food. In some places where fish abounds, they make it a portion of their meals; but scarcely any where is flesh in common use.

"The Ceylonese are courteous and polite in their demeanour, even to a degree far exceeding their civilisation. In several qualities they are greatly superior to all other Indians who have fallen within the sphere of my observation. I have already exempted them from the censure of stealing and lying, which seem to be almost inherent in the nature of an Indian. They are mild and by no means captious or passionate in their intercourse with each other; though when

once

once their anger is roused it is proportionably furious and lasting. Their hatred is indeed mortal, and they will frequently destroy themselves to obtain the destruction of the detested object. One instance will serve to show the extent to which this passion is carried. If a Ceylonese cannot obtain money due to him by another, he goes to his debtor and threatens to kill himself if he is not instantly paid. This threat, which is sometimes put in execution, reduces the debtor, if it be in his power, to immediate compliance with the demand; as, by their law, if any man causes the loss of another man's life, his own is the forfeit. "An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth," is a proverbial expression continually in their mouths. This is on other occasions a very common mode of revenge among them: and a Ceylonese has often been known to contrive to kill himself in the company of his enemy, that the latter might suffer for it.

"This dreadful spirit of revenge, so inconsistent with the usual mild and humane sentiments of the Ceylonese, and much more congenial to the bloody temper of a Malay, still continues to be fostered by the sacred customs of the Candians. Among the Cinglese, however, it has been greatly mitigated by their intercourse with Europeans. The desperate mode of obtaining revenge which I have just described has been given up from having been disappointed of its object; as in all those parts under our dominion the European modes of investigating and punishing crimes are enforced. A case of this nature occurred at Caltura in 1799. A Cinglese peasant happening to have a suit or controversy with another, watched an op

portunity of going to bathe in company with him, and drowned himself with the view of having his adversary put to death. The latter was upon this taken up and sent to Columbo to take his trial for making away with the deceased, upon the principle of having been the last seen in his company. There was, however, nothing more than presumptive proof against the culprit, and he was of course acquitted. This decision, however, did not by any means tally with the sentiments of the Cinglese, who are as much inclined to continue their ancient barbarous practice as their brethren the Candians, although they are deprived of the power.

There is no nation among whom the distinction of ranks is kept up with such scrupulous exactness as among the Ceylonese; even in the dimensions and appearance of their houses they seem restricted, and a house of a certain size commonly announces its proprietor to have been born in a certain rank. This strong trait of barbarism is of course more glaring among the inhabitants of the inte rior, than those who have been civilised by an intercourse with Europeans. The Candians are not allowed to whiten their houses, nor to cover them with tiles, that being a royal privilege, and reserved solely for the great king. Even among the Cinglese there is still something more than the difference of riches which affects their domestic economy.

"It is difficult to say whether it be the remains of a tyrannical prohibition, or a superstition arising from the danger of electricity in this climate, that the Ceylonese never employ nails in the construction of their houses. Their small, low huts, which are too frailly

united to admit of above one story, are fastened entirely with withes made of ratan, or coya rope. They are constructed of slender pieces of wood or bamboe, daubed over with clay, and covered with rice-straw or leaves of the cocoa-tree. Round the walls of their houses are small banks or benches of clay, designed to sit or sleep on. The benches as well as the floors of their houses are all laid over with cow-dung, to keep away vermin, and to preserve their surface smooth, and not so easily rendered dirty by rain as if it were of clay.

"In such a state of society, and where luxury seems almost unknown, sumptuous furniture is not to be expected even in the best houses. That of the cottages is in the last stage of simplicity, and consists merely of the indispensable instruments for preparing their victuals. A few earthen pots to cook their rice, and one or two brass basins out of which to eat it; a wooden pestle and mortar for grinding it, with a flat stone on which to pound pepper, turmeric, and chillies for their curries; a homeny, or kind of grater, which is an iron instrument like the rowel. of a spur fixed on a piece of wood like a boot-jack, and used to rasp their cocoa-nuts; these and a few other necessary utensils form the whole of their household furniture. They use neither tables, chairs, nor spoons; but, like other Indians, place themselves on the ground, and eat their food with their hands. The houses of the Candians are neater and better constructed than those of the Cinglese; for, although the latter are accustomed to better models, yet the abject state to which their minds have been reduced by the successive tyranny of the Portuguese and Dutch, has

made them rather go back than advance in improvement, since they ceased to form part of a barbarous empire.

Their villages and towns, instead of presenting that compact appearance to which we are accustomed, look more like a number of distinct houses scattered up and down in the midst of a thick wood or forest. There is not the smallest regularity observed, but every one places his hut in the centre of a cocoa-tree tope, in the most convenient spot he can find. In those mountainous parts where sustenance itself can scarcely be procured, and where the natives live in constant danger of attack from wild beasts, of being annoyed by reptiles, or suddenly overtaken by inundations, it is usual for them to build their huts on the summits of rocks, or the tops of high trees. Some of them fix a number of high posts in the ground, and place upon them a sort of hurdle which serves them for a nocturnal habitation. To preserve themselves from the intense rays of the sun, they universally have the large leaf of the talipot-tree carried over their heads.

"The Ceylonese are exceedingly polite and ceremonious, and never fail on meeting to present each other with the betel-leaf, their constant mark of respect and friendship. All ranks universally chew the betel-leaf; it is the dessert to all their entertainments, and the unfailing supplement to all their conversations. The betel-leaf in shape resembles ivy, but in colour and thickness it approaches more nearly to the leaf of the laurel. Along with the betel-leaf they mix tobacco, areka-nut, and the lime of burnt shells, to render it more pungent, as is the custom with

other

other Indians. When chewed, this mixture becomes as red as blood, and stains their mouth, lips, and teeth, of a black colour which can never be effaced. This effect, which to an European would deform the countenance, with them is considered as beautifying it, for they look upon white teeth as only fit for dogs, and a disgrace to the human species. The hot mixture, however, speedily destroys their teeth, and often renders them toothless at an early age. They also frequently stain their nails and fingers with the juice of the betelleaf; but this seems to be attended with no bad consequence, as their hands are delicate and well formed in an uncommon degree.

"There is a wonderful degree of gravity observed in conversation even among relations and intimate friends. It is not unusual to see a party of Ceylonese sit for a long time together as grave and mute as an assembly of quakers when the Spirit does not move them; and, during all this while, they continue chewing betel-leaf as if for a wager, and apparently enjoying it as much as an Englishman would a bottle of old Port.

"In their salutations they are particularly punctilious: the form which they use is that common to all Indians, of bringing the palms of the hands to the forehead, and then making a salam, or low bow. It is here that the distinctions of rank are peculiarly observable: a person of a lower class on meeting his superior almost throws himself prostrate before him, and repeats his name and quality fifty different ways; while the superior, stalking past with the most unbending gravity of features, scarcely deigns the slightest nod in return.

The natives of Ceylon are

A

more continent with respect to women than the other Asiatic nations; and their women are treated with much more attention. Ceylonese woman almost never experiences the treatment of a slave, but is looked upon by her husband, more after the European manner, as a wife and a companion. These traits may seem very inconsistent with that licentious commerce among the sexes, which is so contrary to Asiatic customs and ideas, and which has prevailed from time immemorial in this island. Mr. Knox has drawn a picture of their total disregard to chastity, or any bounds to sexual intercourse, which is extremely abhorrent to the ideas not only of an Asiatic, but even to the inhabitants of the most dissolute metropolis in Europe: and from my own observations among the Cinglese, and all the accounts which I could obtain of the Candians, I am convinced that he has, in very few instances, exaggerated their licentiousness.

"A Cinglese husband is not in the smallest degree jealous of his wife, and is rather ambitious to display her to the public eye. Nor is he particularly offended at her infidelity to him, unless she be caught in the fact; in which case he thinks himself entitled to exercise the rights of an Asiatic husband. The infringement of chastity scarcely subjects a woman either married or unmarried to the slightest reproach, unless indeed they happen to have connexion with one of lower cast; an act which is looked upon as the very excess of infamy. Among the Candians, in particular, this only distinction of moral tur pitude, which is so worthy of a bar barous nation, is carried to the highest pitch. Even a man will scarcely venture to marry a woman

of an inferior rank, nor would the king allow of it without exacting a large fine; but a woman is never known to form a connexion below her own sphere, as it would disgrace her in the eyes of the world for ever. With people of their own rank, on the contrary, the most unbounded commerce is carried on in private; and it is by no means uncommon, nor attended with any disgrace, for the nearest relations to have connexion with each other.

"Among the Cinglese, the distinction of rank has indeed begun to be less strictly attended to; but without any better boundary being established in its place.

"A mother makes no scruple of disposing of her daughter's favours for a small sum to any one that desires them. They are particularly fond of forming such connexions with Europeans; and, instead of accounting it any reproach, a mother, in quarrelling with any of her neighbours, will silence them at once on the score of her superior dignity, by telling them that her daughter has had the honour to lie with an European. Even women of the highest rank do not think themselves degraded by having connexion with Europeans, and are not ashamed to be seen by them in public. This forms a remarkable contrast with the Mahometan women of the continent, who would think themselves disgraced and polluted if any of their features were even by accident discovered to a stranger.

"In some respects the accounts given of the matrimonial connexions of the Ceylonese are incorrect. It has in particular been said that each husband has only one wife, although a woman is permitted to cohabit promiscuously with several

husbands. This, however, is not always the case: many of the men indeed have but one wife, while others have as many as they can maintain. There is no positive regulation on the subject, and it is proba ble that the ease with which promiscuous intercourse is carried on, and the ease with which marriages are dissolved, is, together with their poverty, the true cause why polygamy is not more general among them. In their particular circumstances indeed, where the houses consist often of but one apartment, and even the necessaries of life are so scanty, it is not to be supposed that a man will voluntarily undertake the burthen of maintaining two wives, when he can at pleasure put away the wife he begins to get tired of, and take in her place the new object of his affections.

"The marriage ceremony, which among nations with stricter ideas of chastity is looked upon with a degree of mystery and veneration, is a matter of very small importance among the Ceylonese, and seems to be at all attended to only with a view to entitle the parties to share in each other's goods, and to give their relations an op portunity of observing that they have married into their own cast. The marriages are often contracted by the parents while the parties are as yet in a state of childhood, merely with a view to match them according to their rank, and are often dissolved by consent almost as soon as consummated. It is also customary for those who intend to marry, previously to cohabit and make trial of each other's temper; and if they find they cannot agree, they break off without the interference of the priest, or any further ceremony, and no disgrace attaches on the occasion to