26 



CEYLON BRANCH 



violent heavings of the breasts, under which they replied with 

 a shrill voice, which appeared to proceed from the stomach, to 

 questions which were put them. Being asked by this pseudo- 

 prince who they were, like demons, whose servants they are, 

 they replied, the one that he was a certain devil from the oppo- 

 site coast, the others that they were devils from certain pro- 

 vinces of the Island, the names of which they mentioned ; the 

 fifth and most crafty one said he was Simon Cawi, a ruler in 

 the time of the Portuguese, who was a very cruel man and 

 therefore dreaded by the inhabitants even after his death. 



The Prince asked him what he intended doing hereafter, to 

 which he replied, that since the God without name (a term by 

 which the inhabitants in imitation of the ancient Indians, speak 

 of their prophet, Buddu, whom according to the Kev. E. 

 Hornbeek's work, they honor as a deity) was come> they ought 

 to drown themselves in the sea, which also he enjoined them to 

 do, saying they should not conceal themselves in any towns or 

 villages in the jungle. At the conclusion of all this, the cler- 

 gymen desired them to speak definitely of their religion and 

 its ceremonies, but to this the Prince objected, saying repeatedly 

 that these persons did not know the mysteries oftheir religion, 

 that what they did was more from custom. The resort to this 

 Prince from the neighbourhood and from afar increased conti- 

 nually, especially of sick and lame, whom he undertook to cure, 

 in attestation of which he sent to the clergymen with his ser- 

 vants two natives, whose eyesight he pretended to have re- 

 stored, which also the individuals themselves appeared to belie ve; 

 one of them however subsequently confessed the deception. 



As to these cures, he said, he exhorts the patients to pray 

 to God, promising them his own prayers, and after a few days 

 they come to him, saying they are cured. His dwelling was 

 not far from the town in a house of the Company, at Hulsts- 



