amongst the Singhalese. 243 



if they adopt in their families a stranger or an illegitimate 

 child, after baptizing him "in their own name" — which follows 

 a registration of the baptism in the Thombo — he would, in 

 the event of their death, be entitled to inherit the property 

 of " the adoptive parent's estate ;"* Kula -waddanatva was 

 originally used amongst the Singhalese : but its application 

 at present to the baptism of legitimate children, as well 

 as natural offspring, and children by adoption, is to be 

 regarded merely as a species of catachresis in the language. 

 Kula-icadtlana wa again, is not "admission into rank? 

 but "admission into family" — a recognition of one's civil 

 rights. Thus, the Kula devatava in the Hindu playsf is 

 the household deity, the " object of hereditary and family 

 worship," the domestic god of the Brahamans. In the Sela- 

 lihinisandesa, the poet directs his winged messenger " cheer- 

 fully to remember his household god." 



I presume the notion regarding the " distinction," which 

 it is thought baptism conferred on the native, is without 

 foundation ; and Sir Emerson is equally misinformed, when 

 he states, that To gentigud, which he interprets to mean 

 " unbaptized wretch," is applied by budhist to bud hist as a 

 " term of reproach." Gentigu is a Portuguese word used in 

 the sense of " gentile," or " pagan," and is only applied by 

 Christians to their Budhist brethren by way of reproach; as 

 many of the slander cases before the District Court of 

 Colombo, amply testify. It has no connection whatever 

 with baptism ; and I may safely affirm, that no native uses it 

 to a co-religionist, much less by a Budhist to one of the same 

 creed. 



* This is a notion still entertained by many Native Singhalese, although the 

 Dutch law, to which they are now subject, had completely upset the right which 

 the child of adoption acquired by the Singhalese law. — See Sawer's Notes on 

 Kandyan Law, p. 25. 



f Vol. I. p. 21. 



