190 



COLOMBO TO KANDY, 



[i'akt vir. 



Their habits are lilthy, and their appetites oiiiiiivo- 

 rous. Carrion is as accej)table to them as the flesli of 

 monkeys, squirrels, the civet-cat, mongoos, and tor- 

 toises ^ ; and they hover near ceremonies and feasts 

 in hope of obtaining the fragments. The men are 

 employed occasionally on the coffee estates, and in 

 making roads, but they are generally stigmatised as 

 imbecile, and shunned as reputed thieves. The charac- 

 ter of the women is still more disreputable ; they wander 

 as jugglers, and at feasts perform dances, during which 

 they keep two polished brass plates rotating, one on the 

 top of each fore-fingei'. 



The Rodiyas who have established tliemselves in the 

 vihage of Kaduganawa, are remarkable for tlie beauty and 

 fine figures of the females, which are displayed to ad- 

 vantage by tlie Hghtness of their conventional costume. 



' Casik C'hitty in Ceijhn MisccIL, p. 288. 



