192 



COLOMBO TO KAXDY. 



[Part VII. 



Christianity, tliey liad to enter stooping through a sepa- 

 rate porch into the chiu^ches, to touch the holy Avater 

 in a separate henitiei\ to pray in a separate recess, and 

 after death their dishonoiued remains were inteiTed in a 

 separate cemetery ; in one of which, as if to taunt them 

 with the perpetual remembrance that death was their 

 only escape from an existence in which enjopuent was 

 unknown, a column still remains with the inscription, 

 " absit gloriari, nisi in cruce Domini." 



But the most curious coincidence between the case of 

 the Eodiyas and that of the outcasts of France was, that 

 both tribes were doomed to the revoltuig emplopnent of 

 skinning dead cattle, and steeping hemp to be made into 

 ropes and cordage. Hence the Caqueux were known 

 as the rope-makers ('' cordiers ") of Basse-Bretagne, and 

 their villages were called " corderies," whilst the Cagots 

 were almost universally carpenters ; — the two trades 

 being ahke infamous at an early period, because those 

 who pm^sued the one were expected. to furnish gibbets 

 and instruments of torture, whilst the other provided the 

 halters for the executioner. ^ 



From the Eodiya village at Kaduganawa, there is a 

 gentle descent, for eight or nine miles, towards the 

 banks of the Mahawelh-ganga ; a bend of which flows 

 around Kandy, surrounding the city, as the Singhalese 

 say, "hke a necklace of pearls."^ The road still 

 passes through rich and romantic scenery ; moimtains 

 forest-clad to their summits ; valleys brightened by fer- 

 tihsmg streams, and villages and hamlets embosomed 



^ Michel, in his Ilidon/ of the 

 Outcast Haces of France and Spain, 

 thus accounts for this popidar pre- 

 judice : " Les Caqueux de la I^retapie 

 ne pouvaient exercer d'autre etat que 

 celui de conker ; mais il 6tait infanie 

 conime je suppose que celui de char- 

 peutier I'etait dans le sud-ouest de 

 la France ; et cela appareranieut par 

 la meme raison — car si les charpen- 

 tiers dressaicnt les gribets et les auti-es 



instruments de supplice, les cordiei-s 

 fournissaient les harts destines a niet- 

 ti"e un tenne a la vie des criniinels 

 condaninesa etre pendus." — Jllstoire 

 (Jes Races Maiulitcs de la France et de 

 VEsjiaifne, ch. v. torn. i. p. 310, &c. 



^ " ^Vnd, moreover, by the side of 

 the !Mahawelli-j>anfra, which is like 

 a neckhiee of pearls round the neck of 

 a queen of Ceylon, the King-," &c. — 

 Rajaratnacari, p. 130. 



