190 



IS I. AND OF CEYLON. 



than one hundred and eighty rix-dollars a year. Amethyfts, 

 and an infinite variety of cryftals and cryftalline gems, are found 

 in that neighborhood. The account of my able correfpondent 

 well merits perulal. 



Inmiabitants. The inhabitants are the Cingaleje ; thefe are aboriginal, and 

 differ totally in language from the people of Malabar.^ or any 

 other neighboring nation. Their features more like Europeans 

 than any other. Their hair long, moft commonly turned up. 

 They are black, bvit well made, and with good countenances, 



RELiGfoM. and of excellent morals, and of great piety. Their religion is 



derived from Buduoy a profelyte of the great Indian Foe: his 

 do6trine Ipread over Japan and Siam, as well as that of Foe*. 

 It confifts of the wildell idolatry, and the idols, the objedls of 

 their worfliip, are the moil monftrous and phantaftic. The pa-- 

 godas are numerous, and many of them, like feveral in India:, of 

 hewn-ftone, moft richly and exquifitely carved. The Cingalefe 

 beliQVQ Buddo to have come upon earthy and that to him be- 

 longed the falvation of fouls : all human happinefs, fay they, 

 proceeds from him : all evil, from the devil, to whom he per- 

 mits the power of punin.:iment. When fick, they dedicate a red 

 cock to that being, as the Romans did one to EJculapius, During 

 the time he inhabited the earth, they tell us, that he ufually fate 

 under the fhade of the Jicus religiofa, which, in honor of him, 

 is called in the Cingalefe tongue, Budagbaba. His religion is 

 the eftabliflied religion of the ifland. 



Government. The civil government is monarchical. The emperor, in the 

 time of Knox, was abfolute, and clamed the moft iindifputable 



* Knox, 72, 73, 75, Kaempfer's Hift. Japan, i. 241. 



right 



