p 0i 0, — 1856-8.] DISTRICT OF NUWARAKALAWTYA. 



149 



neighbours will pay him for anything in cash, he therefore finds 

 it necessary to grow something which he may sell to strangers, 

 and he soon discoyers that, cceteris paribus, the less bulky these 

 goods are the better, after providing for the daily wants of 

 himself and his family ; he will therefore clear a che'na and 

 cultivate, say sesame. The produce he then removes to Trinco- 

 malie, and sells for cash. He now finds that the sum he has 

 received is greater than the amount of tax which he must pay, 

 and in wandering through the bazaar his fancy is struck by 

 some gaudy handkerchief, some bright brass vessel, some china, 

 &c. ; he buys the article and returns home. The sight of these 

 purchases gives pleasure to his household, and creates in them 

 new desires and new wants. To gratify and relieve these, he 

 will in the next seasen clear a still larger che'na, and so the 

 process continues. The increasing influence of money is strik- 

 ingly apparent in the instance of* headmen and people of family, 

 who now care much less than heretofore about keeping up 

 large bodies of dependents. In a paper on the statistics of 

 the Futtalam district, which I had the honour to transmit to 

 the Society some years ago, 1 shewed that the fishers there 

 were most anxious that the now discontinued fish-tax should 

 be renewed ; and, on the whole, I believe, that at present the 

 people ought to be comparatively heavily taxed, not indeed to 

 such an extent as to discourage them, but to such that they 

 may be incited to industry. 



The castes are the same as those in other districts, with this 

 exception, that there is one here not general over the Island, 

 and which is superior to that which is elsewhere considered 

 the highest— I mean the Wanni caste, who call themselves 

 Wanniwaru, the latter being a mere honorific. These persons 

 are the descendants of certain Tamils who came over from the 

 continent in the time of Raja Sen, who granted to each extensive 

 tracts of land. They are very numerous here, and very 

 troublesome, as they will not accept any inferior appoint- 

 ments, and for the most part think it quite beneath their 

 dignity to educate themselves. As their claim to fill all the 

 high offices has been rejected } they now frequently intermarry 



