amongst the Singhalese, 259 



So various are the modes of address, adopted by the Sin- 

 ghalese towards particular individuals, that the simple ©g 

 s yes/ used in familiar intercourse, is changed into €)^C5d8, 

 when the nobility are addressed ; and into 8®££>®8, when the 

 priesthood. The simple 'no" becomes ®£):T8, under 



similar circumstances; and 'good' is changed to 



c©2SDC3-d3 and 



Having thus considered the principal matters to which 

 Mr. Stark has attracted attention, I shall in the next place 

 notice the Si modes of reverence " referred to in the following 

 paragraph. 



" There are several modes of reverence or obeisance among the Sin- 

 ghalese, the shoes also off : — placing the right hand on the breast, and 

 bowing ; joining the hands, raising them thus to the forehead, and bow- 

 ing ; falling on the knees, and so doing; and prostration on the face upon 

 the ground." pp. 80, 81. 



No native of the lower orders ever thinks of entering a Wa- 

 lamca or "mansion" of a nobleman, without first leaving his 

 slippers at the gate. This is an ancient custom in the East, 

 which was enforced by Europeans for a very long time. Ben- 

 net, in his work on Ceylon, p. 100, notices a decision of Go- 

 vernment* respecting the assumption by natives of shoes and 

 stockings, which they did to avoid being obliged to leave their 



* " Mr. John Brixius De Zielfa, the present assessor of the District Court of 

 Galle, who wore shoes and stockings in Court with my unqualified ap- 

 probation, was refused admission into the Cutcherry with such European append- 

 ages. That gentleman felt that, as a British subject, he had as great a right to 

 wear shoes and stockings as those who were of European birth ; but as the Col- 

 lector chose to make a reference to the Governor, which was followed by the most 

 extraordinary decision, that ' His Excellency would not sanction the adoption of 

 the most comfortable portions of the European and Native costumes ; and that the In- 

 terpreter must choose one or the other;'' Mr. De Zielfa relinquished his visits to 

 the Cutcherry, rather than the comforts of his adopted dress." A writer in the 

 Calcutta Review, December 1849, p. 381, defends the policy of a similar decision in 

 India ; but the reader will perceive how different are the costumes of the turban- 

 clad Hindu, and the comb-wearing Singhalese, and therefore how very inap- 

 plicable are the writer's remarks to Ceylon, even if they can be justified upon 

 other grounds: "How much excitability, for instance, has been shewn (says the 



