13S THE ISLAND OF CEYLON. 
company, yet they experience none of that attention and 
politeness to which the fair sex are accustomed in Europe. 
After the first salutations are over, the men seem to forget 
that the ladies are at all present; and will sit a whole even- 
ing talking politics over their pipes, without once addressing 
the women or taking the least notice of them. Indeed they 
avoid as much as possible this dead weight on their social 
enjoyments, and therefore usually get into another room by 
themselves ; or if they have not an opportunity to do so, 
they club together at one end of the room, and leave the 
other to the ladies. 
When such is the treatment which they experience from 
the men, it is not to be expected that the women can be 
very polished or skilled in the arts of pleasing. In the fore- 
noons their dress is particularly slovenly. I have seen many 
of a morning with only a petticoat and a loose gown or 
jacket upon them, their hair rolled up in a knot on the 
crown of their heads, without either shoes or stockings on 
their feet; and yet these very women at their evening par- 
ties appeared dressed out in abundance of finery. Their 
minds are still less cultivated than their bodies ; and they 
are nearly as ignorant on their wedding-day as in their 
infancy. Those charms of polite conversation, and that know- 
ledge of useful subjects which render the society of our fair 
countrywomen at once so delightful and improving, are utterly 
unknown among the ladies of Ceylon. Their education indeed 
is such, that accomplishments of any description are not to 
