Island of Ramiseram. 79 
occasion any delay in crossing the ferry, an express will run 
from Columbo to Madras in eight days ; the journey was once 
accomplished in seven. ' 
The isle of Ramiseram, the limits of the Hindoo religion 
in more modern times, and of the conquests of the Mussulman 
princes, is separated by Adam's bridge, as already mentioned, 
- from Ceylon. The island is low, sandy, and uncultivated, with 
merely a few scattered Palmira and Cocoa trees. Its pagodas, 
for which it is so famous, lie on the Ceylon side, near the 
sea ; and are the resort of innumerable multitudes of different 
sects of religion in India during the season of certain festivals. 
The pagodas are many, and in the same stile of building as 
those on the Coromandel coast ; they are surrounded with the 
houses of the bramins, priests, and other religious persons 
whose zeal leads them to attend on their temples ; among whom 
in particular may be seen the descendants of the Tamuls, Telin- 
gas, Canarians, Mahrattas, and Orias, who compose a great body 
the original inhabitants of the southern peninsula. Their houses 
are built of the cocoa-tree in small squares and streets, where 
you see their families reclining on the little mud terraces and 
under the payals or virandahs. — They do not allow Europeans 
to enter these temples, but we could see they resembled those 
of the coast in their crouded ornaments, spires of brick work, 
long porches in front, and vistas, at the extreme end of which 
were placed the deities in an obscure situation, surrounded by 
lamps burning day and night. The same reserve to strangers 
continues amongst all the southern brahmins. At Tanjore, Din- 
digul, Seringam, and Trichinopoly, I was universally denied ad- 
mittance. 
The brahmins allow no labour or cultivation to be carried on 
