2 



GENERAL REMARKS ON 



debasing and revolting character. And although there is scarcely 

 a single country in the world, in which this belief does not more 

 or less prevail in some form or other, yet we do not think there is 

 any, in which it has developed itself in such gigantic proportions, 

 or such hideous forms, as in this beautiful Island. Elsewhere it 

 may sometimes exercise considerable influence and even command 

 many devoted votaries; but here it has been moulded into a regular 

 religion, arranged and methodized into a system, and carefully 

 preserved in writing: so that the amount of influence, which it ex- 

 ercises over the thoughts, the habits, the every day life of a 

 Singhalese, is such as can hardly be believed by a stranger to the 

 character of a genuine Singhalese Buddhist. 



A series of writers commencing with Knox and ending with Sir 

 Emerson Tennent, have, at different periods, during the last 200 

 years, given to the public the results of their enquiries and expe- 

 rience in matters connected with this Island, in a number of inter- 

 esting and able works of which Sir Emerson's is the last and the 

 greatest: yet none of these writers seem to have perceived, in any 

 adequate degree, the extraordinary amount of gross superstition 

 which prevails among the people, of whose manners, customs, and 

 history they professed to treat; not that they have omitted to mention 

 the worship of gods and demons, as well as Buddhism and a few 

 other superstition, as existing among our countrymen, and even in 

 some instances, gone into considerable details respecting them, 

 but they do not appear to have been fully aware of the extraor- 

 dinary degree of influence they exercise over the mind of a 

 Singhalese. This is owing partly to the circumstance of these 

 writers being Englishmen, mostly unacquainted with the native 

 languages, and partly to a certain reluctance, which a demon- wor- 

 shipper always feels, to communicate full and unreserved informa- 

 tion to a stranger who professes a different religion, suspecting that 

 the object of the Englishman, in seeking for information respecting 

 a system in which he himself does not believe, is only to publish it 

 in his books and newspapers, and thereby expose it to public ridi- 

 cule. 



