Religion of the Ceylonese. 211 
minds of the Ceylonese, is in a great measure to be attributed 
to the climate in which they live. One might imagine from 
the frequency of thunder storms in Ceylon that the natives 
would become gradually accustomed to it. But the noise of 
the thunder is too terrible, and the unseen effects of the light- 
ning too dreadful, for the minds of any but those who know 
something of the causes of these natural phasnomena, ever to get 
completely rid of their apprehensions of them. The poor Cey- 
lonese looks upon these storms as a judgment from heaven, and 
as directed by the souls of bad men who are sent to torment 
and punish him for his sins. The frequency of thunder storms 
with them they consider as a proof that their island is aban- 
doned to the dominion of devils; and recollect with melancholy 
regret that this fated spot was once inhabited by Adam, and 
the seat of Paradise. The fiends which they conceive to be 
hovering around them are without number. Every disease or 
trouble that assails them is produced by the immediate agency 
of the demons sent to punish them: while, on the other hand, 
every blessing or success comes directly from the hands of tlie 
beneficent and supreme God. To screen themselves from the 
power of the inferior deities, who are all represented as wicked 
spirits, and whose power is by no means irresistible, they wear 
amulets of various descriptions ; and employ a variety of charms 
and spells to ward off" the influenee of witchcraft and enchant- 
ments by which they . think themselves beset on all sides. 
Such is tiie hold which these chimeras have, from their infancy, 
taken of the distempered brain of the Ceylonese, that they find 
it impossible by any extension of their knowledge, or experience 
of their folly, ever to escape from their grasp. Many, even of 
those who have been converted to Christianity, still labour under 
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