86 CEYLON BRANCH— ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY. 



or unhallcw them, and the nominal christians are apprehensive 

 ]est we should discover that under the name of christians they 

 are still in heart buddhists. In the voyage of the French Am- 

 bassador to Siam in 1 685 mention is made of the Siamese 

 deity, Somonokkodon. This is the same whom they here call 

 Buddah. The description given in that work of the deeds of 

 the former agrees in a great measure with that given in the Sing» 

 halese books of Buddah, from whose death they calculate 2232 

 years. They say that Buddah departed to Pegu or Tanas- 

 serim, near Siam, The priests of Buddah, called Sangataans 

 wear the same costume as the Talapoins of Siam, The chief 

 priest here used to acknowledge the chief priest of that country 

 as his superior, from whom he received his instructions, A 

 few years ago the King of Kandy applied to His Excellency 

 The Governor for a ship to convey some of his priests to Ta- 

 nasserira. The chronicle of their Kings and first settlers in the 

 Island states that they arrived here under the command of the 

 son of a powerful monarch of Siam, and exercised the religion 

 of that country, which was the first religion established in Cey- 

 lon. But this prince and his 700 followers not having with 

 them wives, but obtained them from the opposite coast, the re* 

 ligion of the continent became propagated by the connection, 

 as also by the imigration of the coast people. To this circum* 

 stance is attributed the equal prevalence of the Tamil and Sing« 

 halese languages, and the increasing introduction of words from . 

 the former into die latter, " 



It was remarked about this time that Roman Catholic writers 

 speaking in their works of the manner in which the priests, 

 and especially the Jesuits introduced and propagated their doc* 

 trine in India and particularly in Ceylon say, that their mi§«> 

 jsionarits represented themselves to the native chiefs as persons 

 learned in astronomy, mathematics and natural philosophy, and 

 shewed, in order to make the better impression, some 

 instruments ©r machines ; that they began with giving instruc- 



