CiiAP. VT.J A TAMIL DOCTOR. 547 



giving some colour to lii.s assertion, that the infants 

 whose remains were disinterred had died a natiural death ; 

 whilst he was able to offer a plausible explanation 

 for the mutilation of tlie body that liad been found, 

 by declaring that it was devoured by a Pariah dog. 

 His papers were seized by the magistrate, among 

 which was a volume of receipts for compounding ne- 

 farious preparations and poisons ; — and along with these 

 a manuscript book containing the necessary diagrams 

 and forms of invocation to " Siva the Destroyer," for 

 every imaginable purpose — " to seduce the affections 

 of a female — to effect a separation between a husband 

 and wife — -to procure abortion — to possess with a 

 devil — to afflict witli sickness," — and innumerable 

 directions " for procuring the death of an enem3\" 

 In this remarkable treatise on domestic medicine, there 

 was not one single receipt for the cure of disease amongst 

 the numerous formulas for its infliction ; nor one in- 

 struction for effecting a harmless or benevolent purjiose 

 amidst diagrams and directions for gratifjdng the de- 

 praved passions, and encouraging the fiendish designs of 

 tlie author's dupes. 



Thus the same energy of character in whicli tlie 

 Tamils of Jaffna constitutionally excel the Singhalese 

 and Kandyans, and which is strildngly exhibited in all 

 their ordinary pursuits, is equally perceptible in its 

 vicious as in its moral developments. In both parti- 

 culars the two races that are most nearly assimilated 

 in Ceylon are the Hindus of the northern province, 

 and the active-minded and vigorous Moors of the south 

 and east; — next to these are the mountaineers of 

 Kandy and Oovali ; whilst the weakest and the most 

 cunning are the natives of the lowlands and the mari- 

 time districts. The statistics of crime as exlubited by 

 the calendars of the Supreme Court are demonstrative 

 of these local peculiarities. Amongst the Singhalese of 

 the l(^w country, the majority of the crimes cognisable 

 by the higher tribunals are generally of a secondaiy 



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