262 Terms of address in use 



the half-English and half- Singhalese salutation of some, the 

 nolens -volens nod of others, and the ill- looking bow of that 

 foreign people whom a Gajabahu made the settlers of the 

 Alootcoor Korle. Like their outward forms of salutation, 

 their language, too, is a mixture of Singhalese and foreign 

 idioms, and is different from that spoken by the real descen- 

 dants of the Sinha race. 



Amongst the Singhalese, a present of some little thing, 

 when made by an inferior to a superior, is considered as a 

 high mark of respect ; and to refuse it is to insult the donor. 

 The Natives usually take forty leaves of bitel, as the arghya* 

 of our Hindu neighbours, on visiting their chiefs. A " pingo," 

 or hada of cakes and fruits is not unfrequently presented ; and 

 this is ornamented with white tender leaves of the cocoanut 

 palm. Amongst equals, presents are exchanged as a mark 

 of attention; and, if from a low-caste man, one of a higher 

 caste receives a favor, the latter shows his respect by 

 visiting the former with a pingo, which he takes no farther 

 than the stile of the low -caste man's garden. 



Whilst it is a fact that all classes reciprocrate the com- 

 mon courtesies of life, it is also a fact, and one worthy of 

 attention — that the Budhist priests, who receive the homage 

 of the laic, never return the obeisance of any one. 



This is, perhaps, from a notion that as a ee son of Budha," 

 and indeed, one of 6 the three gems of adoration,' the priest is 

 entitled to the same reverence,! which Budha exacted from 

 all beings. For, it is stated by that sage, in his first dis- 

 course in the Parajika, on being remonstrated by Viranja 

 against what he considered an unjustifiable departure from 

 decorum and propriety on the part of Gowtama, by not 



* " She comes with an arghya, a present indicative of respect to a superior. 

 It matters not of what it consists." — Wilson's Hindu Theatre, I. p. 312. 



\ " The protection of the Sangha cannot be received by any one who sits near 

 a priest without permission." — Hardy's Eastern Monachism, p. 210. 



