Language of the Ceylonese. 201 
one limb completely white while the other retains its natural 
black colour. 
The disease which particularly excites their apprehension is 
the small-pox. It is looked upon as the immediate instrument 
of God‘s vengeance, and therefore they do not venture to use 
any charms or incantations for their recovery, as they are ac- 
customed to do in all other diseases. If any one dies of it, he 
is looked upon as accursed, and even his body is denied the 
rites of burial. It is carried out to some unfrequented place, 
and there left with a few bushes or branches of trees thrown 
over it. It is to be hoped that an intercourse with our country- 
men will in time do away these gloomy notions of fatality, and 
that the effect of remedies on the Europeans will induce the 
natives also to adopt them. It would be an object worthy the 
attention of Government to cause to be introduced among them 
the inoculation of the cow-pox, which has lately been discovered 
for the deliverance of mankind from a most fatal pestilence. 
The governor might insist that all the children within our ju- 
risdiction should undergo this operation. 
The language of the Ceylonese may appear the best clue by 
which to trace out their origin ; but it only serves to involve 
our conjectures in greater obscurity. Their language appears 
almost completely peculiar to this island. It is spoken by none 
of the Malabars or other nations on the continent of India; 
nor can any of them be instructed in it without considerable diffi- 
culty. If I might be allowed to offer an opinion on a subject 
that requires the profound investigation of the learned, I should 
say that it appears to me most nearly allied to the Maldivian. 
I had an opportunity of observing the similarity both in this 
and in other respects between these people and the Ceylonese. 
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