212 Religion of the Ceylonese. 
their original terrors; and look with regret and envy on the 
fortitude of the Europeans that is able to resist these delusions; 
for delusions they own and believe them to be even while they 
groan under their influence. Those, however, who live in Columbo 
and the other towns of the island where they have an opportunity 
of profiting by the example of Europeans, have been able to bring 
their minds to a comparative state of tranquillity. Some of 
them even go so far as to set their inferior deities at open de- 
fiance. It is not indeed uncommon with the Cinglese, upon 
not having their desires complied with, or upon meeting with 
a series of bad luck in spite of their repeated prayers, to 
quarrel with their divinities, revile them, and even trample their 
images under foot. It is probable that, by degrees, intercourse 
with Europeans will entirely do away these superstitious fears, 
as the Cinglese of the towns have already made considerable 
progress in subduing their gloomy apprehensions. 
Not so the poor wretched peasants who inhabit the more 
mountainous parts of the country, and live at a distance from 
our settlements. These unhappy people have never for a mo- 
ment their minds free from the terror of those demons who 
seem perpetually to hover around them. Their imaginations are 
so disturbed by such ideas, that it is not uncommon to see 
many driven to madness from this cause. Several Cinglese 
lunaticks have fallen under my own observation; and upon en- 
quiring into the circumstances which had deprived them of their 
reason, I universally found that their wretched stale was to be 
traced solely to the excess of their superstitious fears. 
The spirits of the wicked subordinate demons are the chief 
object of fear among the Ceylonese ; and impress their minds 
with much more awe than the more powerful divinities who 
