CHAP. XI.] DEMON-WORSHIP OLDER THAN BUDDHISM. 



539 



around them, instead of the reign of universal happiness 

 and the apotheosis of intellect and wisdom, nothing but 

 the ravages of crime and the sufferings produced by igno- 

 rance, have turned with instinctive terror to propitiate the 

 powers of evil, by whom alone such miseries are supposed 

 to be inflicted, and to worship the demons and tormentors 

 to whom their superstition is contented to attribute a cir- 

 cumscribed portion of power over the earth. 1 



DEMON-WORSHIP prevailed amongst the Singhalese be- 

 fore the introduction of Buddhism by Mahindo. Some 

 principle akin to it seems to be an aboriginal impulse of 

 uncivilised man in his first and rudest conceptions of reli- 

 gion, engendered, perhaps, by the spectacle of cruelty and 

 pain, the visitations of suffering and death, and the con-, 

 templation of the awful phenomena of nature storms, 

 torrents, volcanoes, earthquakes, and destruction. The 

 conciliation of the powers which inflict such calamities, 

 seems to precede, when it does not supplant, the adoration 

 of the benevolent influence to which belong the creation, 

 the preservation, and the bestowal of happiness on man- 

 kind ; and in the mind of the native of Ceylon this ancient 

 superstition has maintained its ascendancy, notwithstanding 

 the introduction and ostensible prevalence of Buddhism; for 

 the latter, whilst it admits the existence of evil spirits, has 

 emphatically prohibited their invocation, on the ground 

 that any malignant influence they may exert over man is 

 merely the consequence of his vices, whilst the cultivators 

 of virtue may successfully bid them defiance. The demons 

 here denounced are distinct from a class of demigods, who, 

 under the name of Yakshyos, are supposed to inhabit the 

 waters, and dwell on the sides of Mount Meru, and who 

 are distinguished not only for gentleness and benevolence, 

 but even by a veneration for Buddha, who, in one of his 



1 See ante, Vol. I. pp. 331, 370. 

 The Spaniards found amongst the 

 Indians of the Essequibo the same 

 worship of the principal of evil based 

 on the motive of fear. " Demonem 



tantummodo venerantur, non quod 

 malum esse ignorant, sed ne illis 

 malum induat." DE LAET Nows 

 Orbix, 1. xvii. c. 17, quoted by HELPS, 

 Spanish Cotiqitest, of America. 



