NO. 40. — 1890.] ACCOUNT OF CEYLON, 



345 



On occasions of marriages and festivities, the women and 

 girls know how to prepare delicate and savoury dishes, 

 especially those who have had intercourse with Portuguese 

 women. They know very well how to cook, stew, or roast 

 chickens, of which you may buy twenty-five for a rixdollar in 

 some places. Their bread is rice boiled in water. They sit 

 upon mats, the legs under the body, and thus eat from the floor. 

 Their table cloth and napkins aredeaves of the Indian fig-tree,* 

 which are of a man's length, very clean, of strong 

 tissue, and very common all over India. In their greatest 

 enjoyments they never, or only very seldom, take strong 

 drinks, but almost exclusively water, which they keep in pots 

 or light jugs made of clay, in which the water remains very 

 cool. They do not put their mouth to the brim, but pour the 

 water from a certain height, as from a spout, into the widely 

 opened mouth. They do not like to drink with each other 

 in any other way. 



Everybody stands very much upon his descent, handicraft, 

 or knowledge, and this is useful, because nobody is allowed 

 to change his profession. The sons must follow the calling 

 of the fathers, however mean and despised it may be. The 

 sons of weavers must become weavers, of tailors, tailors, 

 blacksmiths' sons must stand behind the anvil all their lives. 



The peasants and cultivators, called Bellalifi are next to the 

 Bramines the most highly esteemed people in Ceilon 

 they are considered far above people of other vocations. 

 They dress with a fine cloth round the waist, but are other- 

 wise naked. Many of them are Christians, possessing fine 

 houses and fertile lands. They thresh corn with oxen, 

 which (according to the custom of the children of Israel) 

 are unmuzzled. 



They know how to make butter with the help of little 

 sticks in the form of a cross, which are turned rapidly. They 

 often bring curdled milk and cream for sale in small clean 

 white bags. In manners they surpass many other castes in 



* Plantain. — D. W. F. 



f Vellala. — D. \V. F. 



