538 - BUDDHISM AND DEMON"-WOESHIP. [rAUT IV. 



proacliing to infidelity. Even as regards the tenets of 

 their creed, the mass of the population exhibit the pro- 

 foundest ignorance and manifest the most irreverent in- 

 difference. In their daily intercom^se and acts, morality 

 and virtue, so far from being apparent as the rule, are 

 barely discernible as the exception. Neither hopes nor 

 apprehensions have proved a sufficient restraint on the 

 habitual violation of all those precepts of charity and 

 honesty, of purity and truth, which form the very essence 

 of their doctrine ; and in proportion as its tenets have 

 been shghted by the people, its priesthood are disregarded, 

 and its temples neglected. 



No national system of religion, no prevaihng super- 

 stition that has ever fallen under my observation presents 

 so dull a level, and is so pre-eminently deficient in popular 

 influences, as Buddhism amongst the Singhalese. It has 

 its multitude of followers, but it is a misnomer to describe 

 them as its votaries, for the term imphes a warmth and 

 fervour unknown to a native of Ceylon. He beheves, 

 or he thinks he believes, because he is of the same 

 faith with liis ancestors ; but he looks on the rehgious 

 doctrines of the various sects which surround him with a 

 stohd indifference which is the siu"est indication of the httle 

 importance which he attaches to his own. The fervid 

 earnestness of Cluistianity, even in its most degenerate 

 forms, the fanatical enthusiasm of Islam, the proud ex- 

 clusiveness of Brahma, and even the zealous warmth of 

 other Northern faiths, are all emotions utterly foreign and 

 unknown to the followers of Buddhism in Ceylon. 



Yet, strange to tell, under all the icy coldness of this 

 barren system, there burn below the unextinguished fires 

 of another and a darker superstition, whose flames overtop 

 the icy summits of the Buddhist philosophy, and excite a 

 deeper and more reverential awe in the imagination of the 

 Singhalese. As the Hindus in process of time superadded 

 to their exalted conceptions of Brahma, and the benevolent 

 attributes of Vishnu, those chsmal dreams and apprehen- 

 sions which embody themselves in the horrid worship of 



