as they have no .letters, figures, or hieroglyphics, all accounts
of their ancestors are oral. They suppose themselves
to have descended from the; eldest of the brothers who
peopled the earth, and who became an outcast for receiving
his portion of every thing eatable on aniold dish. They
have numerals in their own language for only one and two,
but use the Hindd words from two to twenty .’fet?
Bishop Heber saw some of. those people, whom he
describes “ as middle-sized or little men, but extremely
well made, with remarkably broad chests, long, arms, and
clean legs.” He adds, “ they are fairer than the Bengalees
; have broad faces, small eyes, and flatfish, or rather
turned-up, noses ; but the Malay or Chinese- character
of their features, from whom they are said to be descended;
is lost in a great degree on close inspection;” i
Section 6 ,-r-O / the Races of People inhabiting the Island
É Ceylon.
The northern part of Ceylon is inhabited by the Tamulian
race, who probably passed over from the southern extremity
of the continent and partly dispossessed; the Singhalese; who
still occupy the southern portion of the island. The Tamu-
lians, who are here termed Malabars, '■occupy about ©ne-
half of the sea-coast from Chilaw to Batfacaloa, and still
preserve their language, which is quite différent from that
of the Singhalese, and is nearly the same as the idiom spoken
in the southern parts of the Bekhan. There are Malay
colonies on some parts of the coast. But the remainder as
well as the interior is inhabited by .people who speak different
dialects of one speech., and constitute one race, though
subsisting in very different degrees of civilisation.
“ In ancient times it appears that thé people of Ceylon
were much more closely connected with the nations of com
tinental India, than they have -beën for some centuries.
Ravana, the king of Lanka, is said to have had extensive
possessions in the Peninsula : his dominions reached northward
as far as Trichinqpoli, on the eastern coast, and to
Haiga, on the western side.* The religion of the Brahmans
probably prevailed in those times over the whole of Ceylon;
and pilgrims from the continent, who now stop at the Isle of
Ramiseram, continued their progress to the temple of Siva,
at Divinur, at the:southern extremity of Ceylon., Of this
temple there are. still extensive remains, resembling, in the
style of its architecture; the temples of the Carnatic.’’f
The religion, of B uddha appears, from the late researches of
Mr. Prinsep and the Honourable Mr; Turnour, to have been
introduced 'into ^Ceylon^in, the reign of Asoka, the great
patron qi&ithat creed, who'was a powerful monarch in Hindustan,,
and reigned, as-we hav.eè^;een, in the third century
before the Christian era. From that era the Pali language
has been used by the sacerdotal order, and the Singhalese
has also been cultivated. The relations between this language
and the. idioms of the Indian Continent have not
yet been/elucidated-in a satisfactory manner. Like the
idioms of the Dekhan it borrows much fröm the Sanskrit,
but tlwese additions have passed into the Singhalese through
thensmedium of the Pali.
The Singhalese race may be considered as divided into
three great, tribes^—pthe proper Singhalese, the Kandians,
and the wild Vaddahs, who are regarded as the aborigines
of/the island.
The following account of the Singhalese is given by Dr.
Davy:—
The.pure-Singhalese of the interim’, whom alone I shall
describe, are completely Indians in person, language, man
ners, customs, religion and government.-s.
‘‘ Like.; Indians in general, the Singhalese differ from
Europeans less: in features than in the more trifling circumstances
of colour, size,, and form. The colour.of their skin
varies from light brown to black. The colour, too, of their
hair and eyes varies, but mot so often as that ;of, the skin :
black hair and eyes are most common : hazel eyes are less
uncommon than brown h air; grey eyes and red hair are
* Dr. F. Buchanan’s Journey in Mysore,. &c.
t Captain Colin Mackenzie’s Remarks on some antiquities on the coasts of
Ceylon.—Asiatic Researches, vbl. vi.