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



themselves by utilising them. For instance, coir is a thri- 

 ving industry in some places, and is neglected in others 

 because of the special contamination caste assigns to it. 



It would far exceed the limits of this Paper to specify the 

 numerous forms of discouragement caste imposes on our 

 industries, but many will appear in the sequel. The influ- 

 ence it exerts must be constantly kept in view in considering 

 each one in particular, if justice be done to the subject. 



Probably the worst evil consequent on caste is that which 

 makes it a degradation to accept wages. It virtually requires 

 a man to be either a partner or a slave of his employer. 

 Knox shows that it is not the work itself, generally, but the 

 doing it for wages, which degrades the man. He says : 

 " Husbandry is the great employment of the country. In this 

 the best men labour, nor is it held to be any disgrace for one 

 of the greatest quality to do any work, either at home or in 

 the field, if it be for themselves, but to work for hire with 

 them is reckoned for a great shame, and very few are there 

 to be found who will work so, but he that goes under the 

 notion of a gentleman, may dispense with all works but 

 carrying — that he must get a man to do, for carrying is 

 accounted the most slave-like work of all. " We daily experi- 

 ence the truth of this remark, by observing with what 

 avidity the Sinhalese will undertake almost any kind of work 

 by contract, which comparatively few would be induced to 

 do for wages. The task or contract evades the ignominy 

 of hire. Even yet, notwithstanding some relaxations effected 

 by European influence and example, the degradation which 

 caste assigns to certain occupations, and to labouring for hire, 

 continues in strong force. There are at this day hundreds 

 of thousands of able-bodied Sinhalese, who would gladly earn 

 the wages their labour would procure, but for the shame of 

 that terrible scare, and the sacrifice it would entail of their 

 social status and that of their descendants. 



The strength of caste feeling in the native mind may be 

 inferred from the following remark of Sir J. F. Dickson in 

 in his article on Ceylon in the Encyclopaedia Britannica : — 



