No. 45.— 1894.] the music of ceylon. 



185 



Mechanics of Ceylon, Their language, as now spoken, is as 

 different from Portuguese as English is from Anglo-Saxon. 

 " There is still a large body of inhabitants at Colombo and 

 the other settlements in Ceylon known by the name of 

 Portuguese. A corruption of their original language is still 

 spoken all over the sea coasts. It is very easily learned, and 

 proves of very great utility to a traveller who has not time 

 to study the more difficult dialects of the natives."* 



There can be no doubt that the present enfeebled and 

 apathetic condition of this race is largely the result of the 

 religious persecution it suffered at the hands of the Dutch for 

 over a century and a half. In the face of numerous plakaats 

 forbidding the harbouring of priests, the solemnization of 

 Catholic marriages, attendance at religious service, and the 

 open observation of the practices of their faith, the Portu- 

 guese descendants stood steadfastly by their ancient creed. 



A colony of Portuguese, unable to endure the severities ot 

 the Dutch Government, fled to the village of Vahakotte, hidden 

 among the mountains of the Matale District, where their 

 descendants exist as a community at the present day, 

 professing the Roman Catholic faith, and still preserving, in 

 spite of their surroundings, a few at least of the quaint 

 customs of their forefathers. Writing on this subject Tennant 

 observes : — 



So effectually does this course of persecution and oppression 

 appear to have crushed the spirit and benumbed the ambition of those 

 subjected to its influences, that even at the present day, under a liberal 

 government, and after a lapse of nearly a century and a half, it is 

 rarely that a Portuguese Burgher aspires to rise above the position to 

 which his forefathers had been reduced by the penal laws of the 

 Dutch, f 



The music of the Mechanics constitutes a distinct form of 

 national music, and is not characterized by any close resem- 

 blance to the national songs of Portugal. It seems to have 

 ger minated and grown amongst themselves in their adopted 



; Cordiner's Ceylon, 1807, vol. I., p. 89. 



t Tennant's Christianity in Ceylon, 1850, p. 72. 



