106 



SOUTHERX AXD CENTRAL PROVINCES. [Pakt YII. 



Moodliars, Molianclirams, and other native chiefs, in their 

 rich official uniforms, ^vitli jeweUed buttons, embroidered 

 belts, and swords of ceremony. 



One peculiar custom of the Singhalese in this district 

 not only attracts the eye of every stranger by its smgu- 

 larity, but presents the most remarkable instance, with 

 which I am acquamted, of the unchanging habits of an 

 eastern race. Seventeen hundred years ago, Ptolemy, 

 speakhig of the people of Taprobane, alluded to the 

 length of then- hak ; and Agathemerus, who, if not a 

 contemporary, lived immediately after Ptolemy, describes 

 with minuteness their mode of dressing it. " The men," 

 he says, " who inhabit Ceylon, aUow then' hair an un- 

 hmited growth, and hind it on the crown of their heads^ 

 after the manner of women.'" ^ Agathemerus had doubtless 

 been told of the custom by some Grecian 

 seamen returning from Galle, for this 

 fashion of di"essin2; the hau' is confined 

 to the south-west coast of the island, 

 and prevails neither in the interior nor 

 amongst the people of the north and 

 east. So closely do the low-country 

 Singhalese follow the manners of women 

 in their toilet that their back-hair is first 

 rolled into a coil, called a konde ; this is 

 fixed at the top of the head by a large tor- 

 toise-shell comb, whilst the hair is dra"v\Ti 

 back from the forehead, a I'imperatrice, 

 and secm^ed by another chcular comb. 



A SINGHALESE 

 WITH HIS COMBS. 



^ " Toi'C KaToiKovvraq avTi]v tivcpaQ 

 fiaWoig yvi'dininc nt'a^tladai rdf K-f- 

 <pa\ac" — AfiATnEirERUS, Geor/r., lib. 

 i. cli. vi ; IIuDSOX, vol. ii. p. 45. It 

 is strange that among the multitude 

 of ancient writei-s who have treated 

 of Ceylon, Agathemeiiis and Ptolemy 

 should be tlie only two who have told 

 of this peculiarity of the low-countiy 

 Singhalese. I have found it noticed 



nowhere else except in the Ejntomc 

 of Geor/raphj/, compiled in the fifth 

 centuiy by Closes of Chorene, who 

 evidently copied it from Agathe- 

 menis, " viri regionis istius capillis 

 muliebribus sua capita redimiunt." — 

 Mosis Chokenexsis, Hist. Annenife 

 et Epit. Geoyr.y edit. "WTiiston, 1720; 

 p. 307. .^riin,4t^m.'*tA^Aye'4,*^.^ 'yi-fK-Zftf 4'C . 



