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was rolled up in a cover richly ornamented and almost hid in a profusion of pearls and other precious stones. The whole was enclosed in a box of silver or ivory, which was sealed with the emperor's great seal. The same splendour has been observed in the letters sent to our governor since we have had possession of the island.

"The progress of the Ceylonese in the other arts of life is proportionate to their literature. Their agriculture is still in the rudest state; and perhaps there is no other part of India where the lands are cultivated with more negligence. The Ceylonese are naturally, like other tribes who inhabit a mountainous country, and have been accustomed to the habits of pastoral life, indolent in the extreme. Their soil, where it can be watered, yields them a sufficient quantity of rice to maintain their existence, and this scems almost as much as they desire. The example of the Europeans in the culti vation of the cinnamon has not yet awaked a spirit of emulation among the natives, nor has any improvement of their rude agricultural instruments been as yet introduced. Their plough consists merely of a crooked piece of wood, shaped in such a manner that the one end serves for a handle, while the other which is shod with iron to prevent the wood from wearing, ploughs, or rather tears up the ground. This very rude instrument, however, serves their purpose, as it is not required to make regular furrows, but merely to loosen the earth so as to allow the water with which they inundate it to drench it completely. After a first ploughing with this instrument, the fields are flooded; and after they have lain some time under water, it is

let off, and they are ploughed anew. The water besides nourishing the rice serves the purpose of rotting the weeds. The only good trait in their husbandry is the care with which they guard against weeds: this indeed costs them little labour where they have an opportunity of flooding the grounds. The other tools they employ in agriculture are a board for smoothing their fields, which they drag over them edgewise with their oxen; and a piece of board fastened to the end of a long pole, which serves them in place of rakes.

"When the season for plough. ing arrives, each village makes it a common concern, and every one attends with his plough and his oxen till the whole of the fields belonging to that society be finished. The same method is followed in reaping the corn; and both the seed-time and harvest become in this manner the seasons of general industry and good fellowship. Each person of the society affords provisions to the whole during the time they are cultivating his fields. The women are not employed in either of these laborious operations; their business is to gather the corn after the reapers, and assist in sav. ing it.

"Oxen are employed both in ploughing and in treading out the corn. This method of separating the rice from the straw, is in reality much more expeditious than our method of threshing out corn; and as it is also attended with much less labour, a consideration always of the highest importance to a Ceylonese, it is probable that the prac tice will be continued. For unhusking their rice, the mode they employ is to beat it in a mortar, or more frequently on a hard floor; or if the rice be of a brittle sort,

and

and likely to break in pieces, they boil it previous to beating it out. Water is the only manure which they think requisite.

"It is evident, from this sketch of their agriculture, that the lands of Ceylon do not produce a crop at all equal to what by proper cultivation they might be made to bear. The introduction of a more improved method would, in all probability, soon render the island capable not only of supporting its present inhabitants, but also of affording resources sufficient for a much increased population.

"The extreme indolence into which the Ceylonese are at present sunk, makes them employ every expedient to escape labour, and the small quantity of food which is ne

cessary for the support of their existence, enables them throughout the greater part of the year literally to live without doing any thing. Small as is the labour required for the cultivation of their rice fields, many of them let their grounds to their neighbours, who are not altogether so lazy, for a certain proportion of grain, generally about one third of its produce. There are a number of deductions which prevent them from receiving a larger proportion: a considerable quantity is carried off by the priests for the service of their temples, or is offered up for protection and thanksgiving, both on account of the blessings they have received, and in the hope of further assis

tance."

"THE

RELIGION of the CEYLONESE.

[From the same Work.]

HE religion of the Ceylonese is one of the most prominent features in a description of them, and mixes with every circumstance of their lives and manners. There is no people who labour more under the influence of superstitious fears. Omens regulate their whole conduct, and even decide upon their destiny from their birth. When a child is born, the first step is to call the astrolo ger, and inquire of him whether it is destined to be fortunate or unfortunate. If the astrologer declares that it was born to misfortune, they frequently anticipate its future evils by destroying it. On going out in a morning, they anxiously observe the first object which occurs to them, and according to

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their opinion of its good or bad luck, they prognosticate whether the business they go about shall be prosperous or unsuccessful. white man or a woman with child are looked upon as omens particu larly fortunate; but to meet with a beggar or a deformed person, they account a grievous mischance, and will not proceed for that day on their intended business if they can avoid it. I have in my morning rides seen a string of Cinglese, cautiously treading in one another's footsteps, and anxiously expecting, from the omen that should occur to the foremost, their good or bad success for that day. I, as an Eu.. ropean, was always a glad sight to them.

"The excess of trembling superF4 stition

stition which unhinges the minds of the Ceylonese is in a great measure to be attributed to the climate in which they live. One might imagine from the frequency of thunder storms in Ceylon that the natives would become gradually accustomed to them. But the noise of the thunder is too terrible, and the unseen effects of the lightning too dreadful, for the minds of any but those who know something of the causes of those natural phænomena, ever to get completely rid of their apprehensions of them. The poor Ceylonese looks upon these storms judgement from heaven, and as directed by the souls of bad men who are sent to torment and punish him for his sins. The frequency of thunder storms with them, they consider as a proof that their island is abandoned to the dominion of devils; and recollect with melancholy regret that this fated spot was once inhabited by Adam, and the seat of Paradise. The fiends which they conceive to be hovering around them are without number. Every disease or trouble that assails them is produced by the immediate agency of the demons sent to punish them: while on the other hand every blessing or success comes directly from the hands of the beneficent and supreme God. To screen themselves from the power of the inferior deities, who are all represented as wicked spirits, and whose power is by no means irresistible, they wear amulets of various descriptions; and employ a variety of charms and spells to ward off the influence of witchcraft and enchantments by which they think themselves beset on all sides..

"Such is the hold which these chimeras have from their infancy taken of the distempered brain of

the Ceylonese, that they find it im possible by any extension of their knowledge or experience of their folly, ever to escape from their grasp. Many even of those who have been converted to Christianity, still labour under their ori ginal terrors; and look with regret and envy on the fortitude of the Europeans that is able to resist these delusions; for delusions they own and believe them to be even while they groan under their influ ence. Those, however, who live in Columbo and the other towns of the island where they have an op portunity of profiting by the exam, ple of Europeans, have been able to bring their minds to a comparative state of tranquillity. Some of them even go so far as to set their inferior deities at open defiance. It is not indeed uncommon with the Cinglese, upon not having their des sires complied with, or upon meeting with a series of bad luck in spite of their repeated prayers, to quar rel with their divinities, revile them, and even trample their images under foot. It is probable that by degrees intercourse with Europeans will entirely do away these superstitious fears, as the Cinglese of the towns have already made conside rable progress in subduing their gloomy apprehensions.

"Not so the poor wretched peas sants who inhabit the more mountainous parts of the country, and live at a distance from our settlements. These unhappy people have never for a moment their minds free from the terror of those de mons who seem perpetually to ho ver around them. Their imaginations are so disturbed by such ideas, that it is not uncommon to see many driven to madness from this cause. Several Cinglese luna tics have fallen under my own ob servation

servations and, upon inquiring into the circumstances which had deprived them of their reason, I universally found that their wretched state was to be traced solely to the excess of their superstitious fears.

"The spirits of the wicked subordinate demons are the chief objects of fear among the Ceylonese; and impress their minds with much more awe than the more powerful diwinitieswho disperse blessings among them. They indeed think that their country is in a particular manner delivered over to the dominion of evil spirits: nor is this idea confined to themselves alone; the Malabars and other Indians are also possessed with it, probably from the uncommon frequency of thunderstorms there; and the same cause has made this idea current even among the Dutch inha

bitants.

"There is a curious proof of superstitious opinions in the narrative of our countryman, Mr. Knox, who himself believed that he had heard in Ceylon the devil crying aloud in the night-time with a voice something resembling the barking of a dog.

The progress of civilisation and the removal of superstitious fears among the Ceylonese are greatly opposed by the interested arts of their priests; and they well know how to make the devils forage for them. To prevent fruit being stolen, the people hang up certain grotesque figures around the orchard, and dedicate it to the devils; after which none of the native Ceylonese will dare even to touch the fruit on any account. Even the owner will not venture to use it, till it be first liberated from the dedication. For this purpose, they carry some of it to the

pagoda, where the priests, after first receiving a certain proportion for themselves, remove the incan tations with which it was dedicated. If any part of the fruit, after its de dication, has been stolen by some of their less scrupulous neighbours, they break out into the most extravagant execrations against the devils who have been base enough to betray the pledge entrusted to their charge.

"The superstitious fears and ce remonies of the Ceylonese form the chief part of their devotion towards supernatural beings. With regard to what may be properly termed their religion, neither the Europeans nor indeed they themselves seem to have formed any clear idea. Some have asserted that it is the same with that of the Hindoos with only a slight variation of forms and names. Nothing however is easier than to trace resemblances between religions where we give free scope to the imagination, and allow ourselves the liberty of altering terms at pleasure. The religion of the Ceylonese appears to me to be founded on a different system of idolatry from that prac tised among the Hindoos. A variety of ideas indeed seem to be borrowed from the latter; and with these a large mixture of Mahometanism is very perceptible. In one point they agree with both, as well as with Christians, in acknowledging one Supreme Being who made and governs all things. They differ however as widely from the Mahometans and rigid Hindoos in another respect; for although they are unable to conquer their origi nal superstitions, they entertain the highest reverence for the Christian religion; and some of the Cinglese have been converted without being hardly censured by others for their

apostacy.

apostacy.

It gives us a striking proof of the wonderful confusion of their ideas with regard to religion, when we find that the same people who adore one Supreme Being more powerful than all others, should at the same time offer up their devotions to devils, animals, and the very productions of the earth.

"Besides the one Supreme Being, who is worshipped as the Creator and Ruler of heaven and earth, the Ceylonese have a number of inferior deities besides tormenting demons. The inferior deities who watch over them for good are supposed to be the souls of good men; while the demons are looked upon as the spirits of the wicked; and both are supposed to act by the permission of the Supreme Being. The next in dignity to him is their god Buddou, the saviour of souls. This idea of a saviour seems, in some degree, to pervade every religion in the world, although tainted by a variety of different superstitions which are joined to it; and, what is remarkable, the expectations formed from the interference of this saviour are, in almost every religion, nearly the same. Buddou, according to the most general tradition, was originally the spirit of a good man, who was again sent to revisit the earth; and, after having performed a prodigious number of virtuous actions, and been transformed into a hundred and ninety-nine different shapes, re-ascended into heaven, and is still employed in procuring the pardon of his worshippers. The introduction of the worship of Buddou into Ceylon is fixed at about forty years after the Christian æra, at which time, some say, a violent quarrel took place between

the Brahmins and the followers of Buddou, who then formed one of the religious sects on the continent. The Brahmins prevailed, and the Buddites were compelled to take refuge in Ceylon. What religion subsisted there before, or if the same religion then prevailed, is a fruitless and unavailing inquiry. The Buddites are said to have been originally a sect of monks, or rather hermits, who led a wandering solitary life, remarkable for chastity, renouncing all the pursuits of the world, and all care of property, and contented with the support of piety amidst the extremest poverty.

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"It is alleged that Buddou is worshipped in Pegu and several other parts of the continent, under a different name, the deity of the moon.

"The priests of Buddou are in Ceylon accounted superior to all others. They are called Tirinanxes, and are held in high estimation at the court of Candy, where indeed they have the chief management of affairs. The king has no authority over them, but endeavours to gain their good-will by respecting their immunities, and loading them with distinctions. They have on many occasions shown their gratitude for these attentions, and have materially as sisted him both in repressing dis turbances in his own dominions, and by exciting the people to sup port him in his wars against the Dutch. The followers of Buddou believe in the immortality of the soul, and its transmigration into various bodies before it reaches Nimban, or the region of eternity.

"In such high veneration are the Tirinanxes held that their persons are accounted sacred; and the king of Candy, absolute as he is,

has

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