No. 39.-— 1889.] account of ceylon. 



245 



pleasant. When taking their meals, they sit with legs crossed 

 upon the floor on a mat, and eat with their hands in a some- 

 what swinish fashion, using no spoons. Their ordinary 

 drink is only water, and, as I said before, all dislike that we 

 should drink out of their cups or basins, unless we do not 

 touch them with our lips, but let the water run into the 

 mouth from a height.* They are afraid lest we have eaten 

 either pork or meat of a tame buffalo, which they consider 

 objectionable. 



They hold the buffalo in high esteem, and say that it does 

 more for them than father or mother : viz., it ploughs for 

 them, it threshes for them, they have butter and milk from 

 it ; wherefore they call it abbarf and they will not allow 

 it to be harmed, or fall into our hands. Once, one of our 

 lieutenants in a station four miles (Dutch) from Columbo 

 inland, called Malevanna,% wanted to buy two tame buffaloes 

 -at the request of our preacher, but nobody would sell them, 

 A week afterwards it appeared that a tiger§ had killed a 

 bullock, and (for it only sucks the blood) left the carcass. 

 As the natives had a great respect for us, the lieutenant made 

 use of this opportunity to point out that this was a special 

 retribution, because they had refused to let our Pater Grande, 

 our preacher, have some for money, and that if they con- 

 tinued to be so disobliging the tiger would come more often 



* See Knox, I.e., p. 87 ; and Pyrard ( Voyages, 1619, p. 401) of the Malabars. 

 t Perhaps the Sin. appa, " father." 



% Malwana, twelve miles from Colombo, in the Gangabada pattu, Siyane 

 korale — an outpost of considerable importance in the eyes of both Portu- 

 guese and Dutch. Ribeiro says, the King of Portugal styled his Governor- 

 General in Ceylon " King of Malvana " (Rei da Malvana~), to please the 

 Sinhalese (Cap. X.), but that it was rightly speaking a sanitarium, not 

 a fort, and had a church and resident chaplain. Schweitzer, in 1678, 

 found " the place very strong by a river. It hath pallisados, parapets, 

 and a ditch, and field pieces, and other necessaries, and 60 men to keep it. 

 It was very unhealthy by reason of the thick fogs ; and therefore the 

 garrison is often relieved from Columbo." (See also C. A. S. Journal, 

 1887, p. 168.) 



§ Felis pardus, or panther, usually called " cheetah" in Ceylon, though 

 neither that animal nor the tiger are found in the Island. 



