A Naturalist's Rambles in Ceyloi 
; reached. Thus hfe itself, far from bein 
tage, is looked upon as a state of suffering, and, ever 
1 under the 
most favorable circumstances, as something neither tc 
) be envied 
nor desired. 
I have found the Buddhist priests in Ceylon an < 
exceedingly 
kind and worthy set of men. They live in the stricte 
;st celibacy, 
and in the most frugal and unpretentious manner. 
They are 
forbidden to own property, and must obtain their food by beg- 
ging. In the Singhalese villages one may therefore see the priest 
every day with his begging-bowl, a cocoanut shell, collecting rice 
from house to house. The command is that nothing must be 
stored up, but every meal has to be specially begged for, and by 
means of this excellent provision the accumulation of wealth in 
monasteries, with all its corrupting concomitants, is successfully 
prevented. The priests dress in long yellow robes (yellow being 
the sacred color), with the right arm hanging out naked, and the 
left concealed within the folds of the garment. They go bare- 
footed, bare-headed and closely shaven. I once asked an old 
priest for the origin of this custom of keeping their heads shaved. 
His answer was very remarkable: " Sahib," he said, " we follow 
in this, as in everything else, the example of our great master 
(Buddha). If we were to let our hair grow, we might occasion- 
ally be tempted to molest or kill certain small insects which, as 
you may have observed, are not of rare occurrence among, or 
rather on, the natives of this country. To avoid this we go 
shaved." Now the tonsure of the Roman Catholic clergy, along 
with many other rites and ceremonies of Catholicism, can be easily 
and unmistakably traced back to Buddhism whence they are de- 
rived, though I am somewhat doubtful as to whether Catholic 
priests will feel much flattered upon learning that the tonsure was 
merely inaugurated for entomological reasons, viz., in the sole 
and exclusive interest of parasites. 
Looking at the position of Ceylon on the map, one would 
naturally conclude that the island was once connected with the 
mainland of India. Such was indeed the opinion held by geolo- 
gists till comparatively recent years. It was taken for granted 
