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JOURNAL, R.A.S. (CEYLON), [VOL. X. 



What diversities of creed, custom, and facial features prevail 

 among the low-country Sinhalese and the Kandyan Sinhalese, 

 between Tamils of the Brahmin or Vellala castes and of the 

 Paraya caste ! And yet do they not pass respectively as Sin- 

 halese and Tamils, for the simple reason that they speak as 

 their mother-tongue those languages ? Language in Oriental 

 countries is considered the most important part of nation- 

 ality, outweighing differences of religon, institutions, and 

 physical characteristics. Otherwise each caste would pass 

 for a race. Dr. Freeman's contention, that "community of 

 language is not only presumptive evidence of the community 

 of blood, but is also proof of something which for practical 

 purposes is the same as community of blood," 1 ought to 

 apply to the case of the Ceylon Moors. But, of course, in 

 their case it is not language only that stamps them as Tamils. 

 Taking (1) the language they speak at home in connection 

 with (2) their history, (3) their customs and (4) physical 

 features, the proof cumulatively leads to no other conclusion 

 than that the Moors of Ceylon are ethnologically Tamils. 2 



1 Art. on Race and Language, Contemp. Mevieiv, p. 739, March, 1877. 



2 Besides our Dutch rulers, who believed that the Moors were only Tamil 

 Muhammadans, other authorities, who have mixed and moved with the 

 people of Ceylon and taken pains to study them, may be cited : such as 

 the Rev. James Cordiner, whose duties as Director of all Schools in Ceylon 

 during the administration of Governor North, 1798-1805, afforded him great 

 opportunities of collecting information and judging on all matters con- 

 nected with the sociology of the Island. At p. 139 of his work on Ceylon 

 he declares that the Moors are Tamils by race. 



I would mention also the name of Mr. Simon Casie Chetty, who was a 

 Member of the Legislative Council of Ceylon for some years since 1838, 

 and whose opinions are recorded in his Gazetteer. 



The editors of the Ceylon Observer, in their issue of December 10, 

 1885, said, " We believe that fully 80 per cent, of the Muhammadans of 

 Ceylon are Tamils." 



And Mr. A. M. Ferguson, C.M.G., who has lived and laboured in Ceylon 

 for over fifty years, speaking at a meeting of the Royal Asiatic Society, 

 Ceylon Branch, held on January 26, 1888, observed, in reference to the 

 Paper read on that day, as follows : — " The obvious reason why the marriage 

 customs of the Muhammadans were mainly Tamil was due to the fact, 

 that most of the proselytes made by Muhammadans in South India and 

 Ceylon were from the Tamil race." 



