THE ISLAND OF CEYLON. 
187 
There is something very peculiar in the pronunciation of 
the Ceylonese. They seem to steal out the first part of the 
sentence in such a manner as scarcely to catch the attention, 
and then dwell with a loud and long accent on the conclud- 
ing syllables. They are particularly fond of closing with an 
emphatic ye or ah , which forms the last syllable of a great 
number of their words. 
They divide their time nearly as we do, only their year 
commences on the twenty-eighth of March. The manner in 
which they make allowance for Leap-year, and the odd por- 
tions of time which are not rcduceable to the regular calcu- 
lation, is by beginning their year a day sooner or later, or 
in other words by adding a day to the former year. The 
first month of the year they name IFasachmahaye , the second 
Pomahaye, and so on; every one ending in the favourite syl- 
lable aye. Their months are, like ours, divided into weeks 
of seven days. The first day of the week which corresponds 
with our Sunday, they call Fridahe, then, Sandudahe > Onglio - 
rudahe , Bodadahe, Braspotindahe \ Secouradahe , Honour adahL 
Wednesday and Saturday are the days on which they per- 
form their religious ceremonies. The day, which is reckoned 
from sun-rise to sun-set, is divided into fifteen hours, and the 
night into as many, which forms a pretty regular division of 
time, as the length of the day and night varies very little in 
this latitude. 
In their state of society, the exact measurement of time is 
B B 2 
