DEMON WORSHIP. 



7 



importance, do engage, and will continue to engage, his serious 

 attention, so long as he continues to be a Buddhist. As the first of 

 these, viz., Buddhism, relates only to his spiritual interests, affecting 

 him in another life, so the last three concern his temporal interests 

 in this life; the fruits of the first being tasted only in another state 

 of existence, while those of the last, are enjoyed immediately, and 

 during every moment of this life. To which of these therefore a 

 Singhalese resorts oftenest, and with the greatest eagerness, it is 

 easy to imagine. He has one religion for his soul, and another for 

 his body, both highly reverenced, and maintained as essential to his 

 well being; a convenience which, as far as we are aware, no other 

 nation in the world possesses. 



The most remarkable feature in the character of a Singhalese is, 

 not that he is a follower of any one of these superstitious systems, 

 but that he is a follower of each and all of them at one and the 

 same time; for the doctrines of some of these appear to be contra- 

 dictory to, and inconsistent with^ each other. For instance, Gra- 

 haism maintains, that the movements of the Planets influence man 

 in every thing; that sometimes they bring disease, death, poverty 

 and every other imaginable misery, not only on himself, but sometimes 

 even on those connected with him; that at other times they give him 

 health, wealth, honours, happiness, and every thing else desirable; 

 but that all the aforesaid calamities may be prevented by propi- 

 tiating the planets by certain ceremonies. On the other hand, the 

 fundamental doctrine of the religion of Buddha, being, that every 

 man is what he is, owing to Karma, that is, to the nature of what 

 he has done, good or bad, in a previous state of existence, Buddhism, 

 or at least every Buddhist Priest admits, in a spirit of compromise, 

 as it were, that many of the calamities or turns of good fortune, 

 which befall men, do take place according to the movements of the 

 planets, but contend, that these movements are not arbitrary and 

 optional with the planets themselves ; that they are the result of a 

 certain fixed order according to which the planets must move; that 

 the planets are only a sort of intermediate agents, serving merely 

 as blind instruments in the hands of Karma, to prefigure to [the 



