Chap. IV.] THE KODIYAS AND OTHER OUTCASTS. 189 



kuppiyame.^ The most dreaded of all punisliments 

 under the Kandyan dynasty was to hand over the lady 

 of a high caste offender to the Eodiyas ; and the mode 

 of her adoption Avas by the Eodiya taking betel from 

 his own mouth and placing it in hers, after which till 

 death her degradation was indehble.^ 



Under the rule of the British, which recognises no 

 distinction of caste, the status of the Eodiyas has been 

 nominally, and even materially, improved. Their disqua- 

 hfication for labour no longer exists ; but after centuries 

 of mendicancy and idleness they evince no inchnation 

 for work. Thek pursuits and habits are still the same, 

 but their bearing is a shade less servile, and they pay a 

 profounder homage to a high than a low caste Kandyan, 

 and manifest some desire to shake oiT the o])probrious 

 epithet of Eodiyas. Their houses are better built, and 

 contain a few articles of furniture, and in some places 

 they have acquired patches of land and possess cattle. 

 Even the cattle share the odium of their owners, and to 

 distinguish them from the herds of the Kandyans, their 

 masters are obhged to suspend a coco-nut shell from 

 their necks by a leathern cord.^ 



Socially their hereditary stigma remains unaltered ; 

 their contact is still shunned by the Kandyans as 

 pollution, and instinctively the Eodiyas crouch to their 

 own degradation. In carrying a burden they still load 

 the pingo (yoke) at one end only, instead of both, hke 

 other natives. They fall on their knees with uphfted 

 hands to address a man of the lowest recognised caste ; 

 and they sliout on the approach of a traveller, to warn 

 him to stop till they can get off the road and allow him 

 to pass without the risk of too close a proximity to 

 their persons. 



^ From a MS. Memorandum mi the 

 Hodit/as by Mr. Mitford, C.C.S., 

 Davy relates that shortly after the 

 British o;ot possession of Kandy, some 

 police Vidahns, who were ordered to 

 ari'est eertain Rodiyas for murder, 



refused to pollute themselves by lay- | 1853, p. 240. 



ing hands on them, but offered to 

 shoot then doicn from a distance. 

 (Ch. iv. p. 131.) 



2 Rev. R. Spexce Hardy, 77ie 

 Friend, vol. ii. p. 15. 



^ Casie Cuitty, Ceylon MisvcU. 



