No. 36. — 1888.] THE MOORS OF CEYLON. 



241 



who have lived in this country for several generations. The 

 latter class represents those who have arrived from either the 

 coast or the inner districts of South India for purposes of 

 trade, and who intend to return to their homes. Hence the 

 distinction which the " Ceylon Moor " draws between himself 

 and the "Coast Moor" when he calls himself Chdnahan and 

 his co-religionist from South India Chammdnkdran, a com- 

 pound word made up perhaps of the Malay sampan, " boat," 

 and Tamil kdran, " man." 1 The Sinhalese being aware that 

 not only the "Coast Moors" but also the "Ceylon Moors" 

 came from abroad in sailing vessels, call them indiscriminately 

 Marakkaldha, derived obviously from the Tamil word maram 

 " wood," and kalam "vessel." As to the respective numbers of 

 these two classes, it was estimated in 1886 (on the evidence 

 of several Muhammadan gentlemen) by the Sub-Committee 

 of the Legislative Council which was appointed to consider 

 and report upon the Muhammadan Marriage Registration 

 Ordinance, that fully one-third of the " Moors " along the 

 maritime country from Kalpitiya to Matara are "Coast 

 Moors," and I have good reason for saying that much more 

 than one-half of the " Moors " in the northern, eastern, and 

 inland districts are also " Coast Moors." It may therefore 

 be concluded that the 185,000 Moors in the Island are divi- 

 sible almost equally between " Ceylon Moors " and " Coast 

 Moors." The English in South India call the Muhammadans 

 from whom our Ghammdnkdrar are drawn Lebbes or Lubbays, 

 most probably because Lebbe is a common ending to their 

 names. 2 The " Lebbes " call themselves, and are called 



1 In Crawford's Malay Dictionary, jung is given for " a large native 

 vessel," prau for "a boat," and sampan for "a small boat." For "a vessel 

 of European build and form " lie gives happal, which, is of course Tamil. If 

 Chamman-lidran is not to be derived from sampan, is it too much to derive 

 it from clidmdn, ''things," "wares," in which case it would literally mean 

 " a dealer in wares, a pedlar " 1 Cf . Chammdnhodu, the name commonly 

 given for Bankshall street in Colombo ; Hambantota, in the Southern 

 Province ; Chamman-turai, in the Batticaloa District. 



2 I have not been able to ascertain whence the word lebbe or lubbay 

 is derived. Freytag, in his Arabic-Latin Dictionary, gives labib (pi. alibba) 



