4g 
ciplined soldiers, profoundly obedient to 
command, and submit without a mur- 
mur, and without a thought of revenge, 
to any sentence from a court-martial: 
it is an ordinance of their religion, to 
pay implicit obedience to all their of- 
cers, European as well as Malay, and 
to execute military orders with the 
strictest punctuality. Mr. Percival is 
of opinion, that mild and generous treat- 
ment-may in time subdue their native 
ferocity; but the only way of radically 
extirpating it is, by the introduction of 
christianity among them. 
The native Ceylonese compose the 
great majority of the inhabitants of the 
island; those under the dominion of 
Europeans retain their original appella- 
tion of Cinglese; the rest, whoacknowledge 
the autherity of their native princes 
alone, are cailed Candians, *The Cey- 
lonese, of both. sexes, are remarkably 
clean and neat both in their persons and 
their houses, abstemious in their diet, 
and so scrupulously nice in their eating 
and drinking, cockery, &c. that to avoid 
touching with their lips the vessel out 
of which they drink, they hold it at some 
distance from their heads, and literally 
pour the drmk down their throats. The 
Ceylonese are courteous and polite, cha- 
ritable, honest, for Jndians, and mild; 
when their anger is roused, their re- 
venge however is mortal; and a Cey- 
lonese has often been known to kill him- 
self in the presence of his foe, in order 
that the latter, as the presumptive mur- 
derer, might suffer from it. The Cey- 
lonese are grave and punctilious; their 
gravity may be derived from the gloomy 
superstition with which they are haunted 
from their cradle to their grave, and 
from the dispiritedand oppressed state in 
which they have been so long kept by 
their tyrannous masters, the Portugueze 
and the Dutch. Sports and diversions 
seem almost unknown among them. We 
donot kr.ow how to reconcile their unu- 
sual. continence with respect to women, 
with the account which immediately fol- 
lows of their unbounded licentiousness, 
page 176, et seq. A. mother. makes 
no scruple of disposing of her daughter’s 
favours for a smail sum, to any one that 
desires them; and to have béen con- 
* Althouch there are some shades of difference between the Candians and -Cinglese, 
their characters and custon:s are so generally alike, that.a.description of the Ceylonese wilk 
be found sufficiently characieristie ofboth. In a subsequent chapter, Mr. Percival, with 
that care and acemacy which stamp so high a value on his work, has enumerated those cir- 
‘cumstances which distinguish the Candiaus from the Cinglese. 
VOYAGES AND TRAVELS. 
usa striking idea of the total want of indos- 
‘brmging her home, and celebrating the 
nected with an European isan honour 
which excites envy. As marriages are 
dissolvable at the opera of either party, 
polygamy, though lawful, is not general, 
it is expensive, and not necessary. Mar- 
riages are often contracted by parents. 
during the childhood of their children, 
with a view to the observance of rank, 
and are often dissolved almost as soon ~ 
as consummated. 
«* It is also eustomary for those who in- 
tend to marry, previously to eohabit and 
niake trial. of each other's temper; and if 
they fiud they cannot agree, they break off 
without the interference of the priest, or any 
further ceremony, and no disgrace attaches 
on the oceasion to either party, bat the wo- 
mun is quite as much esteemed by her next 
lover as tf he had found her in a state of yir- 
ginity. 
«« Afier the parties have agreed to'marry, the 
first step is, that the man present his bride 
with the wedding-clothes, which indeed are 
not of the most costly kind: they consist of 
a piece of cloth, six or seven yards in length, 
for the use of the bride, aud another piece 
of cloth to be placed on the bed, It gives 
try among the Ceylonese, and their extreme 
state of poverty, that even these simple mar- 
riage presénts are frequently beyond the abi- 
lity of the man to purchase, and that he is 
often obliged to borrow them for the occa- 
sion from some of his neighbours. F 
«« The wedding presents gre prespated by 
the bridegroom ini person, and the following 
night he is entitled to lie with the bride, 
Upon this occasion is appointed the day for 
wedding with festivities. On that @ay he 
and his relations repuir to the bride's house, 
carrying along with them what they are able 
to contribute to the marriage feast. ‘lhe 
bride and bridegroom, in the presence of this 
assembly, eat out of one dish to denote that 
they are of the same rank. Their thumbs 
are then tied together; and the ceremony 
concludes by the nearest relations, or the 
priest, when he is present, cutting them 
asunder. This, hawever, is accounted a lesg 
binding ceremony, and indeed scarcely in 
tended for continuance. When it is desired 
to make the marriage as firm end indissolu- 
ble as the nature of their manners will allow, 
the parties are joined together with a long 
piece of cloth, which is folded several times 
round both thetr bodies; and water is then 
poured upon them by the priest, who always 
officiates at this ccremony although rarely 
atthe former. After the marriage eeremony, 
ooh Evan Spel 
e Wideeh eee Bait 
