178 
THE ISLAND OF CEYLON. 
«• 
scruple of disposing of her daughter’s favours for a small sum 
to any one that desires them. They are particularly fond of 
forming such connexions with Europeans ; and, instead of ac- 
counting it any reproach, a mother in quarrelling with any 
of her neighbours, will silence them at once on the score of 
her superior dignity, by telling them that her daughter has 
had the honour to lie with an European. Even women of 
the highest rank do not think themselves degraded by having 
connexion with Europeans, and are not ashamed to be seen 
by them in public. This forms a remarkable contrast with 
the Mahometan women of the continent, who would think 
themselves disgraced and polluted if any of their features 
were even by accident discovered to a stranger. 
In some respects the accounts given of the matrimonial 
connexions of the Ceylonese are incorrect. It has in par- 
ticular been said that each husband has only one wife, 
although a woman is permitted to cohabit promiscuously 
with several husbands. This however is not always the case : 
many of the men indeed have but one wife, while others have 
as many as they can maintain. There is no positive regula- 
tion on the subject, and it is probable that the ease with 
which promiscuous intercourse is carried on, and the ease 
with which marriages are dissolved, is, together with their 
poverty, the true cause why polygamy is not more general 
among them. In their particular circumstances indeed, where 
the houses consist often of but one apartment, and even the 
necessaries of life are so scanty, it is not to be supposed that 
