CuAr. VI.] 



THE KANDTANS. 



223 



observation, were it not tliat tlieir position is betrayed 

 by the croAvns of the few coco-nut pahns A\dth which 

 they are ordinarily surrounded, or the deUcate green hue 

 of the terraces for the cuhivation of rice. 



Coupled with this love of retirement and impatience 

 of intrusion, one of the main features m the general 

 character of the Kandyans is their feudal subserviency 

 to the conventional authority of their chiefs, and the 

 unreasonable devotion mth which they worship rank. 

 Although all real power for oppression or coercion 

 has been abohshed under the mild rule of the British, 

 this form of traditionary subjection remams unaltered, 

 and apparently indehble in the national instincts of the 

 peasantry. 



In intelhgence and acuteness they are inferior to the 

 people of the low country, whose faculties have been 

 sharpened as well by longer intercourse with Euro- 

 peans, as by educational training ; but it is doubtful 

 whether in moral and social qualities, the Kandyans, 

 with all then- \ices, are not superior to the Singhalese.^ 

 Tyranny has made both races cowardly, and cowardice 

 false, till such is the prevalence of prevarication, that 

 shame has ceased to operate ; judges estimate the truth 

 of e\ddence by probabihty ; and during my o\vn tenure 

 of office, a chief, with the native title of Bancia, equiva- 

 lent to the rank of a " prince," petitioned for the re- 

 mission of his punishment for perjuiy, on the groimd 



^ A sketcli of the national clia- 

 racter of tlie Singhalese will be found 

 in Sir J. Emekson Tennext's His- 

 tory of Cliristianity in Co/Ion, ch. vi. 

 p. 249. De Qfincet, iii an article 

 on Ceylon, in Blackwoocr s Magazine 

 for November, 1848, ^yllic•ll has since 

 been embodied in the collected edi- 

 tion of his works, has described the 

 Kandyans as ''a desperate variety 

 of the tiger-man, agile and fierce, 

 but smooth, insinuating, and full of 

 subtlety as a snake." As compared 

 with the low-coimtry Singhalese, 



whom he paints as soft and passive, 

 the Kandyan is represented as " a 

 ferocious little bloody coward, full of 

 mischief as a monkey, grinning with 

 desperation, and laughinglike a hye- 

 na." — I)e Quikcet, Works, vol. xii. 

 p. 14. The extreme exaggeration and 

 inaccuracy of these passages are ac- 

 counted for by the personal inexpe- 

 rience of the author, De Quincey 

 having applied to the nonual con- 

 dition of a race, epitliets merited by 

 rare barbarities, such as tlie massacre 

 of Major Davie's companions. 



