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



When we wanted the natives specially to carry the 

 officers' wives in palanquins through the country, we used 

 to put strings through their ear-flaps and hold on to them, 

 so as to prevent them from bolting, if they saw a chance, and, 

 as indeed they often did, upsetting the ladies in the open 

 country and leaving them to their fate, whilst they them- 

 selves hid in the jungle. 



The women of Ceilon are as well f ormed as any I have seen 

 in the Indies. They dance very well to the music of bells, 

 which they are skilled in playing ; they can walk on a tight 

 rope, or dance on it with swords tied to their feet ; they whirl 

 round and round with such rapidity as to dazzle one's sight, 

 and you cannot see their heads, so fast do they turn : they 

 are so quick, too, with a hoop that it baffles description.* 



The children, boys and girls, especially those of social 

 position, have, like their parents, silver rings below the calves. 



The girls have a filigree silver girdle round their naked 

 waists, and in front hangs a piece of silver, heart-shaped. 



As regards boys, it is provided that none shall learn or 

 carry on any other calling but that which the father has 

 known and practised. For instance, if the father has 

 been a tailor, a waggoner, a turner, or the like, the sons 

 must follow that occupation, and no other, as long as they 

 live. 



They are clever people, and intelligent ; they can make 

 beautiful muskets, and powder, besides all sorts of cunning 

 gold and silver work, — in particular, pretty sword-hilts, 

 with figures of all kinds, and curiously carved buttons for 

 clothes and mantles, albeit their tools are few and inferior. 

 Yet, what is extraordinary but true is, that a peasant 

 is considered of better birth and higher grade than 

 a worker in gold and silver. An executioner is held in 



* He probably refers to women of the Oliya caste— one of the lowest 

 among the Sinhalese. By resolution of Council, December 20, 1659, the 

 Dutch Government decided to expel all " dancing women and other useless 

 people by which the Company suffered a loss," from the sixty villages they 

 inhabited in the Weligama and Galle Korales. (Journal, R. A. S., C. B., 1874, 

 p. 70.) 



