542 BUDDHISM AXD DEMON-WOKSHIP. [Paet IV. 



more or less connected Avitli the Dewales and temples of 

 Hinduism. The sphits in whose honour these ceremonies 

 are performed, are all foreign to Ceylon. Some, such as 

 Kattregam and Pattine, are borrowed from the mythology 

 of the Brahmans ; some are the genh of fire and other ele- 

 ments of the universe, and others are deified heroes ; l^ut 

 tlie majority are dreaded as the inflictors of pestilence and 

 famine, and propitiated by rites to avert the visitations of 

 their mahgnity. 



The ascendancy of these superstitions, and the anomaly 

 of thek association with the rehgion of Buddlia, wliich 

 has taken for its deity the perfection of wisdom and 

 benevolence, present one of the most signal difficulties 

 with which Christianity has had, at all times, to contend 

 in the effort to extend its influences throughout Ceylon. 

 The Portuguese priesthood discovered that, however the 

 Singhalese might be induced to profess the worship of 

 Christ, they adliered with timid tenacity to their ancient 

 demonology. The Dutch clergy, in their reiterated la- 

 mentations over the failure of their efibrts for conversion, 

 have repeatedly recorded the fact, that however readily 

 the native population might be brought to abjure their 

 behef in the doctrines of Buddha, no arguments or expe- 

 dients had proved effectual to overcome their terror of 

 the demons, or check their propensity to resort on every 

 emergency to the ceremonies of the Capuas, the dismal 

 rites of the devil-dancers.^ The Wesleyans, the Baptists, 

 and other missionaries, who in later times have made the 

 hamlets and secluded districts of Ceylon the scene of their 

 unwearied labours, have found, with equal disappointment, 

 that to the present hour the villagers and the peasantry 

 are as powerfully attracted as ever by this strong super- 

 stition, bearing on their person the charms calculated to 

 protect them from the evil eye of the demon, consulting 

 the astrologers and the Capuas on every domestic emer- 

 gency, solemnizing their marriages under their auspices, 



1 Ilorcn. liisL Clirist. in Lulin, vol. iv. b. xii. cli. v. 



