s 
Portuguese of Ceylon. 163 
smoke. Tlie women are in general very neat and exact in the 
arrangement of tlieir sitting-rooms, and where they receive com- 
pany; these are kept remarkably clean, and the tiled floors are 
highly polished. But I cannot say so much for their inner apart- 
ments and the other parts of their houses, which are quite 
the reverse. I do not mean to insinuate that I have parti- 
cularly examined their sanctoriums, which indeed few Euro- 
peans are tempted to do, but all the houses in India are so 
open and exposed, that thus much may be observed by a pas- 
sing glance of the eye. Their furniture is remarkably heavy and 
clumsy, and of a shape which was perhaps in fashion some cen- 
turies ago. Their carriages and other pleasure vehicles in par- 
ticular present the most grotesque and ludicrous appearance 
imaginable, and often afford a subject of much diversion and 
laughter to our countrymen, who have been accustomed to more 
recent modes. 
A race known by the name of Portuguese forms another 
part of the inhabitants of Ceylon. From their name, it miglit 
be supposed that they were the descendants of that European 
nation wdiose appellation they bear ; but this in fact is by no 
means the case. The name is indeed derived from the spurious 
descendants of that people by native women, who were scattered 
in great numbers over this island and all their other settlements 
in India. But both the manners and colour of these original 
Indian Portuguese are now equally lost among that race which 
now bears their name. The present Portuguese of Ceylon are 
a mixture of the spurious descendants of the several European 
possessors of that island by native wminen, joined to a number 
of Moors and Malabars. A colour more approaching to black 
than white, with a particular mode of dress, half Indian, and 
