POSITION

AND ASPECT

OF THE ISLAND-GALLE AND COLOMBO-NEWERA ELLIA AND PEDRO-TALLA-GALLA-ADAM'S PEAK AND KANDY-THE RUINED CITIES, ANURAJAPURA AND ISLAND.

CEYLON

BO

TREE-THE
IN THE

POLLONARUA-CHRISTIANITY

EYLON in shape and position hangs like a pear from the south-east coast of the Indian Peninsula. The isthmus called Adam's Bridge forms as it were the stalk connecting the island with the continent; the name Adam's Bridge arising from the Mohammedan legend that on his expulsion from Paradise Adam passed by this singular causeway into Ceylon. The isthmus connects Ramisseram with Manaar, and is cut in one place only by a channel called the Paumbam Passage, through which vessels drawing ten feet may pass ; but larger ships and steamers to and from Madras and Bombay must go all the way round Ceylon. Ceylon. The northern portion, answering to the thin part of the pear, is one vast forest-interminable jungle-dotted sparsely with specks of yellow green cultivation, but containing the ruins of the two ancient capitals, and on the east coast, the

port of Trincomalee. The lower half of the island swells out in the Kandyan provinces into a mass of gneiss and granite mountains, with a margin of rich and luxuriant lower land; and here we find the best scenery, and the chief centres of modern enterprise. Almost in the middle of the island is the capital Kandy, connected by railway with Colombo on the west coast; and at the south-west corner is the ancient and well-known port of call, Point de Galle.

To the sea-trained eye of the voyager across the hot Indian Ocean from the east or west, Ceylon unfolds a scene of loveliness and grandeur unsurpassed by any land. It enjoys two monsoons in the year, and the abundant supply of moisture thus afforded, clothes it with perpetual green. Its slopes are enamelled with verdure; flowers of gorgeous hues deck its plains, palms of all descriptions abound, climbing plants rooted in the rocks hang down in huge festoons, and trees dip their foliage into the sea. By the Brahmans the island was called Lanka, "the resplendent;" by the Buddhists "a pearl upon the brow of India;' by the Chinese "the island of jewels;" by the Greeks "the land of the hyacinth and the ruby." It has with reason been regarded as the country whither the ships of Solomon came for "gold and silver, ivory, and apes, and peacocks" (1 Kings x. 11, 22), and "the almug trees, and precious stones in abundance from Ophir," are the most obvious productions of Ceylon. The very terms by which these things are designated in the Hebrew Bible are identical, Sir J. E. Tennent tells us, with the Tamil names by which some of them are still called. Fable contributes to the charm attaching to Ceylon. The tale of Sinbad in the Arabian Nights runs that in the Indian Ocean, near a mountainous island of loadstone, the ships fell asunder, and nails, and everything of iron flew to the loadstone; and hence native boats are put together without the use of iron nails. The "spicy breezes" of poetry, moreover, though hardly in keeping with fact, because the cinnamon gives forth its odour only when crushed, yet bear

B.Sc.

ITS INHABITANTS.

witness to the same fascinating charm belonging to the island, and Milton has immortalised them in his great epic where he says:

"To those who sail

Beyond the Cape of Hope, and now are past

Mozambic, off at sea north-east winds blow
Sabean odours from the spicy shore

Of Araby the blest."

Ceylon is a little smaller than Ireland, and its population now is two millions and a half. They are mainly of two races, the Tamils, of black complexion and slight-limbed, ac

tive and wiry, a mixed Dravidian race from South India, and the Singalese. The Singalese, again, are of two types, the Kandyan type or highlanders, of robust frame, hairy chest, open countenance, yellow brown tint, and the coast Singalese, effeminate-looking, with little beard and long hair rolled into a lump at the back of the head and fastened by a tortoiseshell comb. The Tamils of the north are in religion Brahmans, the Singalese of the south are Buddhists. Buddhism was brought hither from India fully two centuries B.C. Its sacred books in Pali, written on Olas, i.e. Palmyra palm leaves, are called the Pitakas, the three baskets, treasuries, or collections, viz.: 1, Rules of the Order; 2, Doctrine; 3, Supplementary matter. Its temples are called Dagăbas. A dagoba-from dhatu, a relic, and gabbhan, a shrine-is properly a monument raised to preserve one of the relics of Gautăma Buddha. Fragments of his bones, locks of his hair, are inclosed in masses of masonry; a dome of brickwork resting on a square elevated platform covers the shrine, and is surmounted by a tee or pinnacle. The oldest of these shrines is that raised by King Tissa, B.C. 200, over the collar-bone of Buddha. The Dagoba of Anurajapura, built B.C. 89, was four hundred feet high-forty feet higher than St. Paul's. Besides Buddhism in the south, and Brahmanism chiefly in the north, there is Mohammedanism among the Moormen, who are in the main of Persian origin. Romanism, planted by the Portuguese,

took its complexion from Buddhism, and in its rites conformed to the heathen customs of the people; indeed, the churches at Jaffna, in the north, were fitted up as theatres. The Parawas, or fishermen class, were the first to embrace Christianity.

The Dipawansa, "island history," and the Mahawansa, "great history," contain the Chronicles of Ceylon. They tell us that for four hundred years, from the seventh to the eleventh century, the incursions and exploits of the Malabars harassed the island. What tended to civilise-as the huge reservoirs

called "consecrated lakes" to water the paddy or rice lands still bear witness-was introduced by the northern rulers; and all that contributed to debase is traceable to the Malabars. The reign of Prakrama Bahu, A.D. 1150, stands out prominently as a time of prosperity and advance. Religion and agriculture went hand in hand, and huge tanks were constructed, called "seas of Prakram;" security of life and property was established, so that a girl decked with gold might traverse the island in safety. But it came to pass that in the year 1505 ships from Portugal arrived at Jaffna and Colombo. The Portuguese by degrees gained a footing along the coast, and they held territory there for a hundred and forty years. In 1602 the Dutch began to come, and by degrees overthrew and supplanted the Portuguese, occupying Galle in 1640. Theirs was a military tenure, and lasted also one hundred and forty years. In 1796 their settlements were in turn ceded to the British, who have borne rule ever since, and in 1815 won by conquest the Kandyan provinces.

MOORMEN HAWKERS.

Nearing Galle, but still some miles from land, we met several of the curiously constructed "double canoes" which the Singalese fishermen use. They are from twenty to thirty feet long, only twenty inches wide, three feet in depth, including the washboard, which is sewn to the gunwale, and are hollowed out of a single stem. The most striking feature about them is the balance-log, a solid buoyant outrigger the same length as the boat,