184 
THE ISLAND OF CEYLON. 
part affected ; and I have seen the same remedy applied to a 
man in a high fever, when his whole body was daubed over 
with this ointment. Leprosy appears to be very prevalent 
among them, and the streets of Columbo swarm with Cin- 
glese beggars labouring under this distressing disease. I have 
seen some of these objects with their skins party-coloured, 
half black and half white ; for this disease leaves white 
blotches and spots in all those places of the skin where it 
breaks out, and it is not uncommon to see one limb com- 
pletely 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 instru- 
ment of God’s vengeance, and therefore they do not venture 
to use any charms or incantations for their recovery, as they 
are accustomed to do in all other diseases. If any one dies 
of it, lie is looked upon as accursed, and even his body is 
denied the rites of burial. It is carried out to some unfre- 
quented 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 countrymen will in time do away these gloomy 
notions of fatality, and that the effect of remedies on the 
Kuropeans 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 lor the 
cow-pox, which has lately been discovered for the deliverailce 
of mankind from a most fatal pestilence. The Governor 
