tion, and are then bound and led out by tame elephants, who lash the refractory ones most unmercifully with their trunks. And in this way they are tamed and disciplined, and after a due course of training they are rendered fit for work. Among the other wild animals, the wild boar is a very destructive animal, and also a very dangerous one to ineet, as also is the wild buffalo, as they will attack without any provocation. Chetas, too, which are pretty commonly found in any place covered with jungle, will carry off children and dogs; but as they are cowardly animals, they will not often attack men. Perhaps accidents as frequently happen from alligators as any other wild animal, as they are very numerous in some places, and there are not many rivers quite free from them. Yet it would surprise a person newly arrived in the country, to see the natives bathing and swimming about, and wading up to their necks in the water in places known to be infested by alligators. The reason, however, of this is, that the habits of the animal do not lead it to carry off people in this way. Whether it is considered as a point of etiquette not to take any unfair advantage of a man, or whether to promote confidence between man and alligator, but so it is, that the animal prefers generally to go a longer way to work. The most common thing is for a canoe, with one or two men in it, to be upset by the beast swimming up behind and putting his fore-leg on it, and then seizing his prey in the water, and carrying it down to the bottom to be devoured at leisure. They are sometimes seen lying in wait, like a great log of wood on the bank, for whatever may chance to come by, but they seldom venture far from the water. They breed by eggs about the size of a goose egg, and from this they grow to the length of twenty-six and even thirty feet. The most common way of destroying them is by shooting them, but they can seldom be got at without catching them first, which is done by tying a large hook, with a rope attached to it, on to a dog, and leaving the latter to bewail his miserable lot on a little raft, or on the shore, and the alligator seldom fails to attend to his cries. And when he has thoroughly gorged the bait, he is drawn sufficiently out to be shot. In passing from an account of the wild animals to that of the rational ones, we must not omit to notice a sort of intermediate link that there is in Ceylon in the shape of VOL. XXV.-NO. XLIX. 6 wild men, or, as they are commonly called, Veddahs. This race of beings, which may be described as undomesticated men, is growing very scarce, so that they are now very rarely seen, and one has no opportunity of making the investigation concerning them that would be so interesting. From what has been learnt, however, concerning them, it seems that they wear but little or no clothes, that they are without any houses or shelter of any kind, but live with their families and all in the trees. Their food is roots, berries, and wild fruit, besides venison and wild fowl, which they are very expert in killing with bows and arrows. No traces of any thing like a religion has been found among them; and the language which they have among themselves, is one not understood by the people. Knox tell us in his book, that whenever they wanted their arrows sharpened, or anything of that sort done, they would leave it by night at the door of some blacksmith, and if he did what was wanted, and left it in the same place, they would repay him in a day or two by some venison, but if he neglected to attend to them, they would be sure to take their revenge. They seemed to be a very harmless sort of people, keeping quite to themselves in the thickest of the jungle. But, if attacked, they were a dangerous foe. We come next to speak of the population of Ceylon. This amounted, in 1833, to 1,126,808 souls; but it is probable that, owing to the great progress of commerce in the island since that time, and the great number of labourers who have come over from the continent of India in consequence, it is now very much greater. This number is made up of different nations. Besides the Singhalese and the Kandians, who may be considered as the natives, there are Portuguese, Dutch, Malabars, and a class which goes by the name of Moormen. The numbers of English, exclusive of the military, amounted, in 1833, to but 125, men, women, and children, but there are now many thousands. Besides these there are also a few Malays, Hindoos, Chinese, Caffres, and others whom chance and commerce has brought to the island. We will begin with a few words on the Singhalese. This word, according to the accounts of the natives themselves, is derived from two native words, Singha, lion, and la, blood; yet it must be confessed that they have the least possible claim to be called lion-blooded men now, whatever they may have been in former times. In point of size, they are diminutive; in physical and muscular strength, they are remarkably weak, nor do they make up the deficiency by personal courage; on the contrary, they are timid and cowardly. The Kandians, or Highland Singhalese, who are said to be a distinct race, are certainly very superior to the rest in these respects, yet even they fall far behind the European standard. Altogether, courage and the active virtues are plainly not their line, but rather what is so hard to those in higher latitudes, great powers of endurance. The climate itself, which is very enervating and relaxing, tends to make them what they are indolent, inactive, and without energy. The only thing which seems to have power to rouse them at all, is their excessive spirit of curiosity. A Singhalese, whose greatest felicity is to lie on his back all day and chew betel, will yet go a long journey to see something which he is inquisitive about. As they can live on next to nothing, he will take a small bag of rice with him, and saunter along the whole day at an easy pace, and at night will find some place of shelter, where he and his fellow travellers will boil their rice, and find a piece of old mat to sleep on till break of day, when they will pursue their journey. And this is perhaps in order to stand staring, for a whole day or more, at something or another which one would think had nothing particularly interesting in it. The same thing is shown in their conversation. They are full of curiosity to hear everything, and the questions they ask are very intelligent. They are very quick of apprehension, ingenious and clever at contriving or devising anything, and so would easily make great progress in anything they undertook, did not their indolent disposition interfere. But they are so fickle and inconstant, that it is very difficult to keep them steady at one thing. Their moral character, too, is not very good. They have no regard to truth, and are great thieves; yet if a thing is entrusted to their care it is pretty safe, as their way is rather to make free with things secretly, and when it would be supposed that they had nothing to do with them. Gratitude, chastity, and humility, are virtues for which they seem to have neither the words nor the ideas; yet this does not leave their character so bad as at first sight it might be thought to do. Humility, indeed, being altogether a Christian virtue, were not to be expected from heathens; and they are not, generally speaking, very proud or vain; at least, we do not think that their pride can be very deep rooted, or they would not be so docile and tractable as they certainly are. The only thing is, that a man having a low opinion of himself, or humbling himself to do what is beneath his rank, could not be conceived by the Singhalese to proceed from anything but a mean and low spirit. Gratitude they certainly are wanting in. A Singhalese will seldom think of thanking a person who bestows any favour on him, nor, indeed, is there any word in his language to do so, but they are obliged to make use of a Portuguese word. Yet this does not by any means imply the hardheartedness and want of feeling which it would with ourselves, but it is a good deal to be attributed to the state of feeling prevalent among them, which leads them to think it a part of greatness to confer favours, and that the kindness done is in accepting them; nor is there, at the present day, anything which will so wound and offend a Singhalese, as to refuse his present. Moreover, they are an exceedingly kindhearted people. And one continually meets with instances of their taking care of friends and relatives who have no sort of claim on them, quite as a matter of course, without expecting or receiving any thanks. And they are in general very charitable and hospitable. The absence of almost any notions about, or esteem for, the virtue of chastity, cannot be so easily got over. Indeed, this is, we suppose, their great national failing, and that which, in making them Catholics, is the greatest difficulty to be conquered. Yet even in this there is nothing of the disgusting depravity which accompanies these excesses where people acknowledge the virtue, and yet wilfully neglect it. In Ceylon (we speak merely of the heathen population) the case is simply this, that chastity is not a virtue; so that, whenever it is inconvenient, it is not observed. And of course it is a very difficult thing to introduce a new state of feeling on the matter. It is a most common thing, if a couple disagree, for them to separate, and find fresh partners. Or, a man marries, perhaps, and finds, after a time, that it would be for his advantage to remove to another place; it does not by any means follow, as a matter of course, that his wife goes with him. If she prefers the society of her friends and neighbours to that of her husband, she stays behind, and he sets up house anew in the place where he is gone to. And we have known, when it has been objected by a missionary to such a man, that he ought not to have taken another wife since the first was still alive, of his answering with the greatest simplicity, "What was I to do, I had nobody to cook my rice?" We, however, who might have been expected to improve the natives in these respects, have taught them to know better, and to do worse. The English, so far from being respected by the natives as more virtuous than themselves, are quite looked down upon. pon. Nor can this be wondered at, as we have talked about virtue, and told them that this and that was wrong; while our own people have been worse than themselves, committing all sorts of excesses, not with the simplicity of one who knows no better, but with a viciousness and beastliness quite revolting. An English soldier is regarded by all respectable natives with a sort of abhorrence and disgust. Smoking, and swearing, and hard drinking, which before were not common, have been introduced by us; indeed, drunkenness is now becoming very common. One virtue the natives of Ceylon possess in their natural state, which is not commonly found prevailing to the same extent; namely, temperance and general moderation. With them, the man who has fewest wants, and can do with least, is most respected. They eat and drink but little, and can go long without food. And they are disposed to be frugal and prudent; so that, taking into consideration what a very small sum is sufficient for all a man's necessary wants there, it will have been anticipated that there is very little, if any real poverty. One curious quality which prevails at present_among the Singhalese, is their excessive litigiousness. It probably arises from their never having been accustomed to be treated with so much attention and respect as to have their grievances and injuries taken notice of; but however that may be, they look upon it now as a sort of exploit or adventure to have gone to law with a man. They will not unfrequently completely ruin themselves in carrying on some expensive law-suit about some little patch of ground that is not worth many shillings; and even if they lose their cause at last, yet still they look upon themselves as having done something noble and heroic. But the Police Courts recently established, which deal very summarily with petty cases, will no doubt have the effect of lessening in time this propensity of theirs to go to law. |