NO. 41. — 1890.] REBELION DE CEYLAN. 



473 



appear to be the apes of our ritual, for they have priests 

 whom they call Changatares* who live in monasteries, chant 

 in unison, walk in processions, and go about with their heads 

 shaved ; clothed, as a rule, in yellow gowns, and like madmen 

 walk about muttering to themselves ; people look up to them 

 with great veneration ; but those who hold the first place and 

 are looked upon as saints are the Jogues^ almost the shadow of, 

 or corresponding unto, the Gymnosophists of the Ethiopians ; 

 these last wander from pagoda to pagoda, and for penitence 

 and vices the devil has no greater martyrs. Only in the 

 succession of estates is there any great difference between the 

 Zing alas and Malabars, for the former adhere to the natural 

 laws of inheritance to the sons and not to the nephews, if 

 we are to believe Diego de Couto as an eye-witness against 

 that which the author of the Life of St. Francis Xavier says 

 to the contrary. 



As to what relates to the customs, the cause of the Island's 

 fertility and cheapness, and to the natural corruption which 

 predominates there more than in any other part, there is not 

 a prouder, more sensual, and vainer race in all the East than 

 the Zing alas, nor one which hates more agricultural labour 

 or any other labour for the acquisition of property : for they 

 are contented with little or nothing, not through lack of 

 greed, but from over-confidence. Since with only four larins 

 (equal to two reales) they fancy themselves rich, and after- 

 wards become vain ; although I think this vanity may have 

 been somewhat caught from their communication with the 

 Portuguese : for defects and vices adhere to one more easily 

 than virtues do. By this false parsimony they are born in 

 poverty, living disgracefully, and taking such little care of 



* I. e,, those who practice Sangata (Sin.), the religious observances of 

 Buddhism. — B., Hon. Sec. 



f Jogee, S. Hind. Jogi : Hindu ascetic, and sometimes conjuror. — One 

 who practices Yoga, a system of meditation combined with austerities, 

 which is supposed to induce miraculous power over elementary matter. 

 In fact the stuff which of late has been propagated in India by certain 

 persons under the name of Theosophy and Enteric Buddhism, which is 

 essentially the doctrine of the Jogis. 



