542 BUDDHISM AXD DEMOX-WORSHIP. [PART IV. 



more or less connected with the Dewales and temples of 

 Hinduism. The spirits 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 genii of fire and other ele- 

 ments of the universe, and others are deified heroes ; but 

 the majority are dreaded as the inflictors of pestilence and 

 famine, and propitiated by rites to avert the visitations of 

 their malignity. 



The ascendancy of these superstitions, and the anomaly 

 of their association with the religion of Buddha, which 

 has taken for its deity the perfection of wisdom and 

 benevolence, present one of the most signal difficulties 

 with which missionaries have had, at all times, to contend 

 in their efforts to extend Christianity throughout Ceylon. 

 The Portuguese priesthood discovered that, however the 

 Singhalese might be induced to profess the worship of 

 Christ, they adhered with timid tenacity to their ancient 

 demonology. The Dutch clergy, in their reiterated la- 

 mentations over the failure of their efforts for conversion, 

 have repeatedly recorded the fact, that however readily 

 the native population might be brought to abjure their 

 belief 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, and the dismal 

 rites of the devil-dancers. 1 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, solemnising their marriages under their auspices, 



Houon, Hist. Christ, tw India, vol. iv. b. xii. ch. v. 



