Chap. II.] 



INHABITANTS. 



1-23 



foam. The beach is carpeted with verdure down the 

 line of the yellow sand ; and occasionally the level sweeps 

 of the coast are diversified by bold headlands which ad- 

 vance abruptly till they overhang the Avaves, and form 

 sheltering bays for the boats of the fishermen, which, 

 all day long, are in motion within sight of the shore. 



Arboured in the shades of these luxuriant groves, 

 nestle the white cottages of the natives, each with its 

 garden of coco- nuts and plantains, and in the subiurbs 

 of the numerous villages, some of the more ambitious 

 dweUings, built on the model of the old Dutch villas, 

 are situated in tiny compounds \ enclosed by dwarf 

 walls and hues of arecas. 



In this particular, the taste of the low-country Sin- 

 ghalese, who like to place their houses in open and airy 

 situations, contrasts with that of the Kandyans, who are 

 fond of seclusion, and build their villages in glens and 

 recesses where their existence would be unsuspected, 

 were it not indicated by the coco-nut palms wliich are 

 planted beside them. 



Towards GaUe, the majority of this rural population are 

 of the Chaha caste ^, whose members, though low in con- 

 ventional rank, are amongst the most useful of the Singha- 

 lese population. They appear to have arrived originally 

 from the coast of India, as embroiderers and weavers, 

 and to have settled at Barberyn in the thirteenth century. 



* From campinho, a little field 

 (rortuguese). 



* Ptolemy gives to the inhabitants 

 of Taprobane the name of Saloe, 

 ^aXai, and to the island itself Salice, 

 2«At(c?/ (lib. vii. iv.), which Wilford 

 says is a derivative from the Sanskrit 

 Sala. (^Essay on the Sacred Isles of 

 the West, As. Hes., vol. x. p. 124.) 

 An ancient name of Adam's Peak is 

 Salmala, or the " Mountain of Sala." 

 Fra Bartolemeo traces the origin 

 of all these names to the Salej/ns, an 

 Indian tribe, called in the I'liranas 

 " Salavas," and it is a curious coin- 

 cidence, that the Chalia caste, who 



still inhabit the district suiTOunding 

 Ciallo, and extending- thence to Ne- 

 gombo, claim to call themselves Salias, 

 and say that their ancestors camo 

 originally fi'om Hindustan. The 

 legend is set out at lengtJi in an his- 

 torical sketch of the Chalias, MTitten 

 by AcRiAiSr Rajapvksa, a chief of the 

 caste, and embodied in a memoir 

 " On the Rellf/inn and Habits of the 

 People of Ceylon,'" by iSL JoiNVlLLi:. 

 As. Res., vol. vii. p. 399. 



The most satisfactory account of 

 this singular race that I have seen, is 

 in the Asiatic Joi'rnal for 1830, vol. 

 xl. p. 200. 



