Narrative of the Circumnavigation of the Globe by the Austrian Frigate Novara Volume I Part 18

[Footnote 75: One of the s.h.i.+pwrecked crew of the _Meridian_, in an article in the _Nautical Magazine_, for 1854, p. 75, describes at some length the difficulties of access to this island. We quote it here as a supplement to our own experiences:--"After we had clambered up to the top by means of ropes, and after much exertion and considerable danger, we found the island for a s.p.a.ce of two or three miles thickly covered with reeds, from 5 to 8 feet high; behind rose a lofty hill, also clothed with reeds.

Fortunately, during our stay on the island, there was a sufficiency of fresh water, although in summer, in all probability, there is a great scarcity. So long as we remained, constant rain fell upon the summit of the mountain, and kept the numerous little brooks full of water. In order to signal our situation to any s.h.i.+p that might be pa.s.sing, we set the reeds on fire; but the flames spread more furiously than we had antic.i.p.ated, so that our lives were endangered. A considerable quant.i.ty of young birds were picked up, which had fallen victims to the flames. On the 29th August, to our great joy, a s.h.i.+p, the _Monmouth_, hove in sight, and observed our signal; but the surf was at this time so violent that no boat could reach us. At last, on 31st August, a boat came near enough to the sh.o.r.e to make us a signal to proceed eastward over the rocks. We set off at once, but found the path very rugged, and owing to the immense ma.s.ses of rock lying around, excessively difficult. Besides reeds and brushwood, there were no other plants but parsley and endive (_cichorium intybus_).

During the first half of the following day we found no water, but we found the hail very grateful, which day and night fell incessantly, alternating with rain. At the first watering-place we came upon an English sailor, whom the captain of the _Monmouth_ had despatched to a.s.sist us. He informed us we must make for the north side of the island, as no boat could reach the sh.o.r.e at the spot where we had gone ash.o.r.e. The south-coast is the worst part of the island; there the surf breaks continually against the iron-bound coast; there is nothing resembling a beach--only here and there enormous blocks of a hard species of stone, that have fallen from time to time from the cliffs above. On 2nd September, we had neither provisions nor water. The following day, however, we found water, and a few cabbage-stalks, which several years before had been sown by some whalers, and fortunately had thrived. On 5th September, we reached what is called the Cabbage Garden, and the same evening arrived at the place where the boat was awaiting us."]

Fortunately, this gigantic conflagration must have done far more good than harm to this desolate island, covered as it was for the most part with reeds, since, without destroying any of the vegetation that could be of service to man, it will greatly facilitate examination by future voyagers, and adapt it for settlement by fishers and others, who at present seem to leave it utterly abandoned.

Towards 6 P.M., as it was already getting dark, our two boats set out on their return to the frigate, from which in the course of the day they had been distant about fifteen miles. However a fresh Northerly breeze having sprung up we were able to make sail, and at 7.30 P.M. once more reached the frigate, when we were received with a storm of questions, princ.i.p.ally turning upon the mysterious far-visible conflagration,--which had been kindled by a couple of humble Vienna lucifers! During our visit to the island a variety of observations were also made on board the frigate, to obtain the position of Amsterdam, as also to determine the elevation of the most prominent peaks of the island, and the outline of the sh.o.r.e. The results of these gave the following: lat.i.tude 37 58' 30" S.; longitude, 77 34,' 44" E. of Greenwich; elevation of the highest summit (nearly corresponding with previous observations), 2891 English feet; of the second highest, 2651 feet; the length of the South coast, as measured from the frigate, 32,359 feet; of the Western sh.o.r.e, 5507 feet.

There was still some faint hope that we might visit the island next day.

However, during the night the wind sprung up, the weather became variable, and we saw ourselves compelled to renounce our cherished desire to investigate the island thoroughly, the rather that, owing to the unpropitious weather during the last few weeks, the stay of the _Novara_ in these lat.i.tudes had been prolonged so considerably beyond the period fixed, that no more time could be spared, if it were desirous to avoid sacrificing the objects of the Expedition with reference to other and more important departments of scientific enquiry, by engaging in them at a season in all probability highly unfavourable for the purpose.

Consequently our observations in Amsterdam remained most imperfect; although the geologist of the expedition was enabled to clear up the uncertainty hitherto prevailing as to the geological structure of the island, and to determine upon scientific data, that Amsterdam is an extinct volcanic cone, of precisely the same character, and belonging to the same order of volcanic formation as the sister island of St. Paul; that it probably contains on itself all the usual indications of its volcanic origin, and that its upheaval probably took place at the same period. On the other hand, the naturalist regretted to see slip the opportunity so rarely vouchsafed, of inst.i.tuting a comparison between the respective vegetations of these islands, and of making evident how, simultaneously with the advance of a more luxuriant, and more multiform vegetable organization, there also appears an entirely new race of animals, and how closely allied in the economy of nature is the existence of individual specimens with certain fixed pre-existent types. In any case St. Paul, which we enjoyed an opportunity of examining in the utmost detail, is, of the two islands, the most important to the commerce of the world, not merely as a finger-post on the most frequented deep-sea route in the Indian Ocean, but also as a haven of refuge for s.h.i.+ps and crews.

Already the crater-basin of St. Paul has served in case of need as a desirable asylum for s.h.i.+ps that are half unseaworthy. Not many years since an English man-of-war steamer came to St. Paul, after a severe storm in the Indian Ocean, during which her engine broke down, and her rudder was knocked away, after which she, for twelve days, was steered by a temporary rudder. The vessel, after discharging the heaviest part of her equipment, was easily brought into the interior of the crater-basin, and was there hove down for several months on the Northern barrier, undergoing repairs.

On the 8th December, about 4 A.M., only a dark cloud of smoke in the distant cloudless horizon indicated the position of Amsterdam. The island itself, properly speaking, was actually out of sight, for a fresh N.W.

breeze had driven us merrily along during the night. The last hope was now dissipated of being able to obtain a view of the North side of Amsterdam.

We were now rapidly approaching the region of the S.E. Trades. The breeze freshened and crept gradually to the West, thence to the South, and finally to the Eastward. This veering of the wind proved to be a fore-runner of the Trades, which we got into on 14th December, in S.

lat.i.tude 28 1', E. longitude 85.

On that day a merchantman hove in sight, which, with favouring breezes and all sail set, soon bore down on us. She came down without any flag, and stood right across our bows at so short a distance that we could plainly read her name--the _Bunker's Hill_, of Boston--on her stern. Thereupon we ran up our flag; and, as it is as gross a breach of the code of maritime politeness for a s.h.i.+p to pa.s.s across the bows of another in the open ocean without saluting, as for a man on land to brush quickly across another's path without apologizing, a blank shot was fired at this unmannerly American. To this manifestation etiquette lays it down that, as the hoisting of her flag by a man-of-war is a direct challenge for any merchantman that may be in sight to hoist its flag, any neglect of these universally recognized rules must involuntarily give rise to suspicions.

After we had fired the blank shot, the American, by a telegraph of flag-signals, enquired the lat.i.tude and longitude, which in merchant s.h.i.+ps in the open sea is pretty frequently resorted to, in order to know where precisely they are, as they are not able to make such frequent observations as s.h.i.+ps of war. Before anything else, however, it was necessary to settle the question of saluting; and this the obstinate Yankee, in spite of the warning signal, seemed resolved not to notice, although he well knew the seriousness of his position, as was abundantly evident in the celerity with which several ladies and gentlemen, whom we could discern on deck, flew to seek shelter below! A second report, accompanied by a ball over his stern, at last brought this pertinacious captain to his senses, and the whistling of the shot had the desired effect. The "Stars and Stripes" were run up, upon which we signalled the required lat.i.tude and longitude. Probably it was but a petulant explosion of a silly national vanity, as also the consciousness of commanding a handsome crack "clipper," that could speedily run out of gun-shot, which led to this premeditated and persistent violation of one of the most ordinary rules of politeness. Indeed, even the vessels of the North American navy itself are frequently compelled in the open sea to treat their fellow-countrymen in a similar manner; and the captain of the war-steamer _Minnesota_, looking after the North American interests in China, was obliged, as we learned afterwards at Shanghai, to enforce a compliance with established sea usages on one of his seafaring compatriots, by dint of cannon-shot, in accordance with the undoubted practice of all maritime nations.

The south-east Trade, which we had hoped would drive us on our destined course, was not so strong or so steady as we had expected, chiefly perhaps in consequence of the influence exercised by the Australian continent, the temperature of which during this, the summer season of the Southern Hemisphere, is raised to an extraordinary degree by its sandy surface, that when the air has become thus warmed, it ascends and becomes more rarefied in its lower strata, in consequence of which its elasticity becomes so great as to drive back the surrounding colder atmosphere, and only admit it to contact with the heated air at its most remote limits.

This occurs the more readily, that the heated air, after it has risen to the more rarefied tracts, expands on all sides, and at a certain distance from the lower level, begins to add to the pressure of the atmosphere. In this self-acting zone of increased atmospheric pressure, the winds, however, are naturally more faint, and, to observers who happen to be on the exterior of this zone, always appear to take their rise from the further side. For this reason, probably, we fell in with easterly breezes, so long as we had the Northern portion of Australia to the eastward of us.

At any rate, the equilibrium of the air seemed to be disturbed, as we could plainly perceive from the weather and the confused sea. At last on 18th December, the heavens seemed somewhat more propitious, though the wind still continued easterly; indeed occasionally blew from the north, and frequent squalls of rain poured pitilessly down upon us. The more, however, we increased our distance from the Australian continent, that is, from all land to the eastward, the more steadily blew the south east Trade. And so we kept standing steadily forwards, till at last, on the 24th December, in 6 4' S. Lat., and 82 34' E. Long., we reached the eastern boundaries of the Trades and got into that of calms.

The heat, which thus far had spared us, began now to be most oppressive, and was felt all the more owing to the air being extraordinarily damp and dense. Frequently in the afternoon a pa.s.sing shower of rain, which would sometimes completely flood the deck, would cool the air for a few fleeting moments. Occasionally indeed we had westerly and more rarely north-westerly breezes, but these were never of long duration, and were incessantly broken by rains and squalls.

And at this same season, at which in our distant Fatherland, palace and hut are decked out with unwonted attention, when golden fruits and elegant presents glitter from the green fir-branches of the Christmas Tree, all lit up with the neat little wax-tapers, when man's heart seems to overflow with cheerfulness and love of his fellow-creatures,--at this season we were languis.h.i.+ng far from our dear ones, tormented with the intense heat, scarcely able to realize to ourselves, that at home it must now be snow and frost, while keen Boreas is whirling the snowflakes aloft, and howling a grim accompaniment the while! However, we promised ourselves the satisfaction of enjoying these pleasures at our own firesides, whereupon our recollections of home and dear friends imparted to our minds a wholesome stimulus, arising from the soul-inspiring conviction, that we too were present in their minds and hearts at this hallowed season. Nay, several of the officers of the _Novara_ Expedition were surprised when far at sea, in the very midst of the Indian Ocean, with Christmas gifts, which thoughtful friends had many months before entrusted to the care of discreet fellow-voyagers.

After constantly struggling against calms and contrary winds, exactly at the first stroke of the New Year, at midnight of 31st December-1st January, we reached the Equator, which we were now crossing for the second time, and began the year 1858 in the Northern Hemisphere.

On this New Year's Day we had nearly had a great disaster. A lad who was coming down the shrouds fell overboard. The sea was perfectly calm and smooth, but already on the morning of this very day we had seen many sharks, those dreaded foes of man in the domain of ocean, so that the life of the unfortunate youth seemed seriously imperilled. The same instant in which the youth fell, saw a life-buoy thrown over, a boat prepared for lowering, and all usual appliances for a rescue made available. But although an excellent swimmer, he seemed to lose all presence of mind, probably through fear, and must undoubtedly have been drowned, had not the boatswain's mate, and two other sailors, leaped into the water and made all haste to his a.s.sistance. Meanwhile the boat had been got into the water, by which rescued and rescuers were got safe on board again.

A few months later, the boatswain's mate, for his gallant conduct on this occasion, received, by the express orders of His Majesty, the silver cross of merit, while the sailors were advanced one grade.

The current, which runs northward along the coast of Australia, but turns off to the westward about the tenth degree of South lat.i.tude, so as to pa.s.s southward of Ceylon, directly along the Equator to the Coast of Africa, carried us far to the westward, in consequence of which we had overcast, uncertain weather, with, for the most part, calms or light breezes. As we found ourselves approaching the fourth degree of Northern lat.i.tude, a rather fresh N.E. wind sprung up, probably the trade wind of the Northern Hemisphere, which, however, as we neared Ceylon, again died away to a calm.

At the same time, in lat. 5 32' N., 79 5' E., we fell in with a current running more than two miles an hour. We had, as it turned out, got to the westward of the roadstead of Point de Galle, in Ceylon, and found some little difficulty in making headway against the current. On 7th January, toward 3.30 P.M., land was made to the eastward, and an hour later, a Cingalese canoe was perceived making for the frigate under sail. It was the pilot boat, whose crew, having been informed by a Hamburg brig that a large s.h.i.+p was in sight, had put to sea to meet us.

At the first sight of this little canoe, it was hardly possible to refrain from amazement at the courage and hardihood with which the half-naked Cingalese boatmen could put off some 30 or 40 miles to sea in such a tiny, narrow boat, that barely gives them room to sit lengthwise. Two cross-bars, or outriggers, projecting on one side, where they are fastened externally to a rather ma.s.sive beam, which swims parallel with the boat, gave this canoe, apparently so fragile, such stability and seaworthiness, that it is at all times not less safe than a boat of European construction.[76]

[Footnote 76: These canoes resemble very closely the "proas," of the Polynesian Islands, carrying a beam on one side, which is quite straight, and always kept on the lee of the wind and sea, the change of course being effected by simply s.h.i.+fting the sail, and steering with the paddle from the opposite end.]

The natives steer with short paddles, and continue an incredibly long time at this most exhausting work, as we must conceive it to be. And yet they are to appearance a feeble race, except that the muscular system of the upper part of the body is remarkably developed.

The dress of these people is remarkably simple, and usually consists only of a piece of coloured linen cloth or calico, which, worn short like a woman's petticoat, is thrown single-fold round the loins.

The pilot, though he could only make himself intelligible in broken English, speedily came to a good understanding, and offered to sell us bananas, pine-apples, and cocoa-nuts, as also Ceylon jewels, the latter of which he carried on his person, secured in a parti-coloured cotton belt.

This reminded us that we were nearing the sh.o.r.es of the country in which costly stones are found, but precisely on that account, as was natural, our speculative pilot found but a poor market for his wares.

Off the coast we caught a shark 7 feet long, and 135 lbs. weight--a rather juvenile specimen--whose teeth, which we examined, were already strong and sharp enough to seize a man, and strip the flesh off him. Also a number of large dolphins and other fish, sported in the dead water under the frigate's stern, and provided plentiful employment for the harpoon and the rod. Presently we found ourselves within six miles of the land, when a large number of pirogues forthwith came swarming about us, all of a construction similar to the pilot boat, and each manned by four half-naked bronze natives. These offered fruits for sale, especially magnificent, gigantic cl.u.s.ters of banana. On one such cl.u.s.ter we counted, arranged in five rows, one over the other, not less than 175 bananas.

On the 8th January, we anch.o.r.ed in the unpicturesque haven of Point de Galle, surrounded by groves of cocoa-nut palms, directly opposite the lighthouse tower, and in a fine quartz sand bottom of 16-1/2 fathoms (103 feet English). All large s.h.i.+ps, that only intend remaining a short time, anchor in the open roadstead, the entrance into the inner harbour being rather difficult, owing to numerous coral reefs. In the roads also lay the English frigate _Shannon_, from which, in the absence of her captain, the first lieutenant immediately came on board the _Novara_, and in the handsomest manner put his services at our disposal.

As the only Austrian Consul on the island was resident in Colombo, M.

Sonnenkalb, the Consul for Hamburg, had the courtesy to receive us with the most hospitable of welcomes, and proceeded to do us the honours of the place.

On the 10th we hauled the frigate into the small inner harbour, in order to facilitate the s.h.i.+pping of stores. The entrance is rather winding, owing to the numerous shoals, and it is with some little difficulty that one can find a comfortable, commodious berth among such a crowd of s.h.i.+pping. We only saluted the flag of the dominant nationality--a customary courtesy--and were replied to by the batteries on sh.o.r.e. An officer of the frigate was then dispatched to announce our arrival to the governor of the station--a major in the English army. This gentleman seemed not to think it inc.u.mbent on him to put himself in the least out of his way for us. Indeed, we even experienced some little difficulty in procuring a sufficient supply of drinking water for s.h.i.+pment as stores; but we must at the same time add, in justice to the representatives of England in distant countries, that during our entire voyage this was the one solitary instance in which English military official men did not display that universal readiness to oblige, which, to their credit, is so conspicuously and so kindly displayed by them in their intercourse with foreign nations.

[Ill.u.s.tration: CINGALESE CANOE.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: VIEW OF ADAM'S PEAK FROM COLOMBO.]

VIII.

Ceylon.

STAY FROM 8TH TO 16TH JAN., 1858.

Neglect of the Island hitherto by the English Government.-- Better Prospects for the Future.--The Cingalese, their Language and Customs.--Buddhism and its Ordinances.--Visit to a Buddhist Temple in the Vicinity of Galle.--The sacred Bo-tree.--Other Aborigines of Ceylon.--The Weddahs.-- Traditions as to their Origin.--Galle as a City and Harbour.-- Snake-charmers.--Departure for Colombo.--Cultivation of the Cocoa-nut Palm, a benevolent, Buddha-pleasing work.-- Polyandria; or, Community of Husbands.--Supposed Origin.-- Annual Exportation of Cocoa-nuts.--Rest-houses for Travellers.--Curry, the National Dish.--A Misfortune and its Consequences.--The Catholic Mission of St. Sebastian de Makun, and Father Miliani.--Annoying Delays with restive Horses.-- Colombo.--A Stroll through the "_Pettah_" or Black Town.--Ice Trade of the Americans with Tropical Countries.--Cinnamon Gardens and Cinnamon Cultivation.--Consequences of the Monopoly of Cinnamon.--Rise and Expansion of the Coffee Culture in Ceylon.--Pearl-fishery.--Latest Examination of the Ceylon Banks of Pearl Oysters, by Dr. Kelaart, and its Results.--Aripo at the Season of Pearl-fis.h.i.+ng.--The Divers.-- Pearl-lime, a Chewing Substance of wealthy Malays;--Annual Profit of the Pearl-fishery.--Origin of the Pearl.--Poetry and Natural Science.--Artificial Production of the Pearl.--The Chank-sh.e.l.l--The Wealth of Ceylon in Precious Stones.--Visit to a Cocoa-nut Oil Manufactory.--The Cowry-sh.e.l.l, a Promoter of the Slave Trade.--Discovery of valuable Cingalese MSS. on Palm-leaves.--The heroic Poem of "Mahawwanso," and Turner's English Translation of it.--Hospitality of English Officials in Colombo.--A second Visit to Father Miliani.--Agreeable Reception.--The Antidote-oil against Bites of Poisonous Snakes.--Adventures on the Journey back to Galle.--Ascent of Adam's Peak by two Members of the Expedition.--The sacred Footprint.--Descent.--The "Bullock-bandy," or Native Waggon.-- Departure from Galle for Madras.--The Ba.s.sos (shallows).--A Berlin Rope-dancer among the Pa.s.sengers.--Nyctalopia; or, Night Blindness.--Fire on board.--Arrival in Madras Roads.

The inquirer who becomes acquainted by personal examination with the important geographical position of the Island of Ceylon (called also Seilan or Singhala), her commodious harbours, her productiveness, and her marvellous climate, involuntarily wonders at the stepmother's part that England has. .h.i.therto played with respect to this renowned island of palms and spices, the Malta of the Indian Ocean, which of all the British possessions in distant parts of the earth, has, till recently, received the least care or attention.

It must be borne in mind, however, that Ceylon is an appanage of the British Crown, and it is not an independent, self-supporting colony. Those shortcomings of administration, for which the mother country is exclusively responsible, have been hitherto a complete drag upon her development. But the English people have this advantage over all other nations, that once anything has been recognized to be useful and imperatively required, they proceed to apply it with such energy, that they are enabled to make up for any neglect with giant strides. During late years many fetters have been knocked off which formerly impeded the more active development of agriculture and commerce. The harbour of Point de Galle (also called only Galle for shortness) has become a central station for the steam-boat trade with the East Indies, the Burmese Archipelago, China, and Australia. A telegraphic wire will ere long stretch from Ceylon to England, such as even now unites the island with the Coromandel Coast and India; a railway is in course of construction between the most important commercial centres of the island, and so obvious are the fundamental benefits it must confer, that ere long the cla.s.sical and incomparably beautiful island of Ceylon is destined to s.h.i.+ne a star of the first magnitude in the azure of the Indian Ocean, one of the most prosperous, wealthy, and blest of islands!

The scientific researches of all kinds, which have in modern days been inst.i.tuted in Ceylon, have been attended with the most important results, bearing upon its history and its various tribes, as well as on its natural wealth; and the masterly and marvellous work Sir Emerson Tennent lately published on the isle of Ceylon, seems intended to compensate for many instances of neglect which Ceylon and its inhabitants have experienced from the English since they seized on it.

Embracing all the three kingdoms of nature, and following up with learned accuracy the history of the inhabitants, from the obscure traditions attending their earliest settlement down to the present day, Sir Emerson Tennent's work is a perfect pattern of a monography, although upon this subject the German inquirer will involuntarily, and not without an emotion of pride, recall to mind Carl Ritter's admirable, well-digested publication upon Ceylon, in his cla.s.sical work on Eastern Asia, doubly meritorious by the very fact that the German scholar never set foot in the country itself. There are, however, indeed few spots on earth which present such inexhaustible subjects for the study of the historian as well as the inquirer into physical science, of the poet and the political economist, as this romantically-beautiful island, which we have been taught to regard as the Garden of the World, as indeed the special site of the Garden of Eden, the first abode of the progenitors of the human race.

We have not to do here, as in most of the islands of southern seas, with a savage people, that have only, since the first appearance of Europeans, emerged from a state of barbarism, and been raised one step towards civilization, but rather find, as in the East Indies and China, a peculiar type of civilization, which, although widely differing from that of Europe, yet seems not less valuable and extraordinary. The whites (scarce 7000 in number, of whom 2482 are females), who live scattered over an area of 24,700 English square miles, have hitherto been too few in number to exercise any marked influence on the customs or mode of life of a native coloured population of 1,726,640 souls, and hence it is that Ceylon exhibits a more romantic and characteristic air than any other British settlement in distant parts of the globe.

A people like the Cingalese, of such ardent imaginativeness, with a splendid history, and a religion professed in the various realms of the East by more than 300 millions of people, gains in interest the more we become acquainted with them, and the more we make their traditions, their mode of life, and their customs, the object of special inquiry.

The Cingalese, or indigenous natives (so named to distinguish them from the other inhabitants of the island, belonging to other stocks and amalgamated races, who at various periods had settled here, and who call themselves Ceylonese), were entirely the offspring of Hindoo emigrants, who, about five centuries before the birth of Christ, came from Hindostan to Ceylon, and imported their own mode of government, and system of caste, as also their arts, language, and religion, from the continent into the island.

They const.i.tute the germ of the present population, and early divided themselves into four leading castes:--1st, that of the royal family;--2nd, the Brahmins;--3rd, the merchants, peasants, and shepherds;--and 4th, the sixty inferior common castes. At present there exist in Ceylon only the two latter. The most numerous is that of the peasants, who, however, meddle but little with the cultivation of the soil, but have arrogated to themselves the exclusive and hereditary possession of all employments, lay or ecclesiastical. The dress of the Cingalese usually consists of a cloth wound turban-fas.h.i.+on round their head, and long white drapery. On festive occasions they wear richly-adorned tight-fitting jackets of velvet or wool, and on such occasions rank and power a.s.sert themselves by the number of garments, to such an extent that frequently a wealthy man makes his appearance in several of these habiliments, worn one above the other. The Cingalese are shorter in stature than the Europeans, their average stature being 5 feet 4 inches to 5 feet 5 inches, English. Their _physique_, though graceful and delicate, is powerful and muscular, with a brawny breast, broad shoulders, the muscles of the thigh strongly developed, but with disproportionately small hands and feet. Their colour is commonly a light-brown, their hair black and quite straight. The women are beautifully formed, but even when they can, like Asokamalla of historic fame, boast all the forty and six marks of the Cingalese ideal,[77] they must fall far short of the European standard of female beauty, with their bodies anointed with oil, and their mouths stained with the betel-nut. As the Cingalese girls usually marry so early as 12 years of age, they speedily lose the bloom of youth, and frequently have the appearance of crones at 20. Another especially loathsome habit of the Cingalese is the chewing the betel-nut, a custom so universally prevalent among all Indian races, that not merely the men and women, but the very children exhibit an extraordinary predilection for it. The ingredients of this masticatory consist of the green tender leaves of the Betel-pepper-shrub (_Piper betle_), the nut of the areca-palm (_Areca catechu_, or cabbage-tree), some lime made of calcined sh.e.l.ls, and tobacco, which, according to the rank of the individual, they keep ready prepared by their side, in silver or bra.s.s boxes, resembling snuff-boxes. These corrosive substances at the same time stain the saliva so deep a red, that, after long use, the lips and teeth seem as though smeared with blood.

[Footnote 77: Of these forty-six perfections of womanly beauty we extract the following by way of example, from a Cingalese author:--hair, glossy as the tail of a peac.o.c.k, and hanging in ringlets to the knee, eye-brows like the rainbow, eyes like sapphire, and the leaves of the manilla flower, a hawk nose, lips l.u.s.trous and red as coral, teeth small and regular, like the buds of the jasmine, neck thick and round, haunches broad, breast firm, and conical like the cocoa-nut, the figure slight, capable of being spanned by the hand, the limbs spindle-shaped, the sole of the foot without any hollow, the skin free from any prominence of the bones, sweeping in rounded curves, soft and tender.]

The language is an offshoot of the Sanscrit, copious, harmonious, and full of expression, with threefold grammar, and as many vocabularies, viz. for the royal tongue, the official or court tongue, and that of society at large. To these there must be added the Pali, the learned, but obsolete written language of the priestly caste, which the Cingalese have in common with the kingdoms of Siam and Ava, in the further Indies. In this language, itself but a dialect of the Sanscrit, all their sacred books, traditions, and poetry are written. In many parts of the island the knowledge of language and written lore are held in such high honour, that grammar and literature form the entire study of the inhabitants. Reading and writing are as common among the Cingalese as in England, except that in Ceylon the women take no part therein. They do not write as we do, with quill or steel pen upon paper, but engrave the characters with a fine-pointed iron graver, or _stylus_, upon the leaves of the Talipot palm-tree (_Corypha umbraculifera_), from which they slice a broad strip for the purpose about 2 feet long, and several inches broad. These require no further preparation than that they must be well smoothed beforehand, and all inequalities removed. In order to render the writing more clear and legible, the Cingalese rub it with a mixture of cocoa-nut oil and fine pulverized wood-ashes, which imparts to it durability and prevents obliteration. Great numbers, however, use the leaves of another species of palm for writing upon, viz. the Palmyra palm (_Bora.s.sus flabelliformis_), but those of the Talipot are preferred to all others for their closeness of texture, and are alone used in important records and other doc.u.ments.

The religion of the Cingalese is Buddhism, which in Ceylon still flourishes in these times in all its pristine vigour. Buddha is not the name of the founder of this belief, who is called Gautama, or Sakja-Muni, but is only one of the numerous t.i.tles of honour invented by that personage, who in the Sanscrit figures so conspicuously as a sage. Gautama was born in the province of Maghada (now known as Reha), in Northern Hindostan, B.C. 624. His parents were Suddhodana, King of Magadha, and his consort Maja. Contemplating the degeneracy and misery of man, sunk in deepest woe, Gautama attacked the doctrine of Brahma, rejected the Vedas, or holy books, and founded the new faith, which consists of the following fundamental propositions:--The Creator and Ruler of the world is a supreme, invisible, purely spiritual (and for that reason obviously impossible to be figured) Being, almighty, wise, just, beneficent, and merciful. Man most fitly recognizes and honours the Deity by silent contemplation: by the practice of chast.i.ty, temperance, and virtue he attains to happiness. The complete fulfilment of all his duties confers on him here on earth the dignity of a Buddha, or sage, and after death consigns him to the beatific repose of _non-existence_[78] (_Nirwana_).

Condemned souls are born again in the forms of wild animals. According to Gautama's teaching a fresh Buddha always appears at certain epochs, whose existence is manifested by his extraordinary spiritual powers, by his deeds, and by his prophecies, selected by destiny for the purpose of enlightening the world as to the decrees of the Supreme Being, and to restore religion to her pristine purity. The death of a Buddha is also the commencement of a new reckoning of time. Gautama, who died about B.C. 542, or some 2400 years since, was the forty-fifth and last Buddha that appeared to the Cingalese; his doctrine must continue to operate for 5000 years, when, according to the Cingalese traditions, the next Buddha, or Purifier, will appear. Gautama's belief, bequeathed by him to his disciple, the Brahmin Mahakaja, was immediately translated into Sanscrit, and speedily spread. Several hundred temples and monuments dedicated to him are scattered in various parts of the island, and remain to this day an evidence of the extent and influence of Buddhism.