No. 4.— 1848.] SINHALESE RURAL ECONOMY. 



31 



THE RUKAL ECONOMY OF THE SINHALESE, 

 (MORE PARTICULARLY WITH REFERENCE TO THE 

 DISTRICT OF SABARAGAMUWA) s WITH SOME 

 ACCOUNT OF THEIR SUPERSTITIONS. 



By R. E. Lewis, Esq. 



(Read Atk November, 1848.) 



The prosperity of a country without manufacturing pre- 

 eminence, and wanting in commercial advantages, will natur- 

 ally be tested by its adaptation for agricultural pursuits, and 

 the industry and skill displayed by its inhabitants in cultivat- 

 ing the earth. 



Ceylon, as the country of the Sinhalese, is not a commercial 

 country even at its principal port, Colombo : The number of 

 natives engaged in trade is comparatively few,— the Chetties 

 (merchants of India) and Moormen carrying on the far greater 

 part of the intermediate trade between the European importer 

 and the consumer, these classes also being the chief importers 

 of grain and cloth from India. 



The chief pursuit of the Sinhalese is undoubtedly agricul- 

 ture, though it would appear from the large importation of 

 grain, equal in value to £460,000 annually, that their skill and 

 industry is upon the most limited scale. Making every allow- 

 ance for the influx of a large immigrant population of Malabars 

 from India, to cultivate the coffee estates which have been 

 planted by Europeans within the last eight years, it is yet well 

 known and proved by the importations previous to that date, 

 that the rice required for their own consumption has been 

 partially supplied from other countries. The population is also 

 very thinly scattered, many fine tracts of country being wholly 

 uninhabited, and amounts to about one million and a half of 



