Manners and Customs of the Ceylonese. 187 
parts which acknowledge only the authority of their native 
princes, are distinguished by the name of Candians, from the 
country they inhabit. The constant intercourse of the Cinglese 
with Europeans, and the aversion which the Candiaiis have uni- 
formly entertained to their several invaders, have introduced 
considerable shades of difference into the manners of these two 
branches of the same people. In most points however they 
still continue to resemble each other ; and a description of the 
one cannot fail to include most of the circumstances which 
characterize the other. I shall therefore give an account of the 
circumstances which apply to both under the general name of 
Ceylonese, and then point out those characteristics which dis- 
tinguish the one from the other. 
Whether the Cinglese were the original inhabitants of the 
island, or from what other country they came, and at what time 
they effected a settlement there, are points of which neither 
they themselves nor any one else has been able to give a dis- 
tinct account. There is an ancient tradition among them, that 
after the expulsion of Adam from this island, which they uni- 
versally look upon to have been Paradise, it was first peopled 
by a band of Chinese adventurers who accidentally arrived on 
its coasts. This tradition is however extremely improbable, as 
they have nothing in common with the Chinese, either in their 
language, manners, or dress. Those who suppose that Ceylon 
once formed part of the continent of India, and was disunited 
from it only by some unusual shock of nature, find no diffi- 
culty in peopling it with the same race who inhabited it before 
it became a separate island. Indeed the distance is so small 
between Ceylon and the continent, that it requires no stretch of 
imagination to suppose that it was peopled either from the Co-» 
