I 
192 Manners and Customs of the Ceylonese. 
a homeny, or kind of grater, which is an iron instrument like 
the rowel of a spar fixed on a piece of wood like a boot-jack^ 
and used to rasp their cocoa-nuts ; these and a few other ne- 
cessary utensils form the whole of their household furniture. 
They use neither tables, chairs, nor spoons ; but like other 
Indians, place themselves on the ground, and eat their food 
with their hands. The houses of the Candians are neater and 
better constructed than those of the Cinglese ; for although the 
latter are accustomed to better models, yet the abject state, to 
which their minds have been reduced by the successive tyranny 
of the Portuguese and Dutch, has made them rather go back 
than advance in improvement, since they ceased to form part of 
a barbarous empire. 
Their villages and towns, instead of presenting that compact 
appearance to which we are accustomed, look more like a num- 
ber of distinct houses scattered up and down in the midst of a 
thick wmod or forest. There is not the smallest regularity observ- 
ed, but every one places his hut in the centre of a cocoa-tree 
tope, in the most convenient spot he can find. In those moun- 
tainous parts where sustenance itself can scarcely be procured, 
and where the natives live in constant danger of attack from 
w ild beasts, of being annoyed by reptiles, or suddenly over- 
taken by inundations, it is usual for them to build their huts on 
the summits of rocks, or the tops of high trees. Some of them 
fix a number of high posts in the ground, and place upon them 
a sort of hurdle which serves them for a nocturnal habitation. 
To preserve themselves from the intense rays of the sun, they 
universally have the large leaf of the talipot-tree carried over 
their heads. A representation of this leaf is given in iv. plaie 
facing puge 112., 
