SINHALESE LANGUAGE. 



151 



insult to pass over ' even the shadow of a copper coloured man.' 

 The colour as well as the features of the inhabitants of the Dekkan 

 are certainly distinguishable from those of the Sinhalese even by a 

 casual observer. An utter stranger to the various races cannot be 

 three weeks in this Island before he perceives the striking differ- 

 ence between the manners and habits of the Sinhalese on the one 

 hand, and those of the different other races on the other. Euro- 

 pean Teachers have frequently observed the facility with which 

 the Sinhalese pronounce European tongues, presenting in this 

 respect a quality distinguishable from every race of South-Indian 

 people. 



It may, however, be urged by those who advocate a contraiy 

 opinion that the use of long hair by the Sinhalese, a practice to 

 which Agathemerus, a Greek Geographer of the third Century 

 bore testimony,* is worthy of notice in an inquiry into the rela- 

 tions of the Sinhalese with the early Dravidians. It is true 

 enough that the usage referred to is equally characteristic of the 

 Dravidian race, j But I submit that we have no undoubted tes- 

 timony of the same usage not having existed in the Northern 

 territories from whence Ceylon was peopled. On the contrary, 

 the fact of Sagara's having imposed ' shaving the hair ' as a pun- 

 ishment on the Yavanas implies that it had been previously cus- 

 tomary to use the hair long: and it is also not a little remarkable 

 that Gotama Buddha a North-Indian is represented, like Siri San- 

 ghabodhi, one of our kings,J to have worn tresses and a top-knot. 

 But even supposing that such was not the case, and that the prac- 

 tice of twisting the hair into a knot at the back of the head is 

 identical with that of the Dravidian race; and that, as stated by 

 Mr. Caldwell, ' it was from Dravidian settlers in Ceylon that the 



* 'The natives cherish their hair as women among us and twist it round 

 their heads.' 



t "Up to the present day the custom of wearing the hair long, and twisted 

 into a knot at the back of the head is characteristic of all the inferior castes in 

 the southern Provinces of the Tamil Country"— Caldwell's Grammar p. 75. 



| See Attanagalwansa Cap. i § ii. 



