On the other hand, if we turn our at tention to the rest of the world, we shall find that many of the gymnastic spurts are in full use at this moment, without the in habitants suspecting that nations very re mote from them had similar some thou sand years past. Two instances of this fact are so exactly in point, the we can not refrain from giving them. Mr. Cor diner, who very lately presented the pub lic with an excellent work, descriptive of the island of Ceylon, relates the particu lars of a Cingalese play, in the following words : " Gay and noisy amusements do not of ten interrupt the predominant repose of the genuine Celonese ; but a sort of comical representation is sometimes at tempted, to gratify d man of elevated rank, or to celebrate an occasion of extraordina ry festivity. On the 28th of December, 1803, while Lord Viscount Valentia was visiting Governor North, at Columbo, a numerous company of the British inhabi tants were favoured, after dinner, with the sight of an exhibition, called by the natives a Cingalese play, although, from the rude nature of the performance, it can hardly be ranked among the productions of the dramatic art. The stage was the green lawn before his Excellency's villa at St. Sebastian, and the open theatre was lighted with lamps supported on posts, and flambeaus held in men's hands. The entertainment commenced with the feats of a set of active tumblers, whose naked bodies were painted all over with white crosses. They walked on their hands, and threw themselves round, over head and heels, three or four times successively, without a pause. Two boys embracing one another, with head opposed to feet, tum bled round like a wheel, but necessarily with a slower motion, as a momentary stop was required, when each person touched the ground. The young per formers, singly, twisted their bodies with a quickness and flexibility which it would be difficult to imitate in a less relaxing climate. Some of the movements produ ced sensations by no means agreeable, as they conveyed the idea of occasioning un easiness to the actors. After this, six or seven professed dancers appeared on the stage. They were dressed like the gay damsels on the coast of Coromandel; but the greater part of them appeared not to be females, and an inferiority of gesticu lation was visible in the style of their per formance. Two men, raised upon stilts,
walked in amongst them, exhibiting a most gigantic stature ; pieces of bamboo were tied round their legs, reaching only a little above the knee, and elevating them three feet from the ground ; they moved slowly, without much ease, and had nothing to support them but the equipoise of their own bodies : a man then appeared masked, armed with a sword and switch, and habited in the old Portuguese dress ; two others, resem bling Dutchmen, and masked, preceded, who skipped about and drove all before them in an imperative manner ; groupes of horrible masks, set with teeth, one of which had the head and proboscis of an elephant, followed ; the persons who bore them carried lighted torches in each hand, those they whirled rapidly round, alternately lighting and extinguishing them in the course of their revolutions ; these personified devils, and sometimes laughed to excess, but said little ; imita tions of wild animals next appeared ; "but the prettiest part of the entertainment was a circular dance, by twelve children about ten years of age ; they danced op posite to one another, two and two, all curtsied at one time down to the ground, shook their whole bodies with their hands fixed in their sides, and kept time to the music with two little clattering sticks, one in each hand. Going swiftly round, being neatly dressed, of one size, and perfect in the perfbrmance, this youthful dance pro duced a very pleasing effect, and brought to remembrance the pictures of the fleet ing hours." Captain Cook relates, in the second vo lume of the account of his voyage to the Pacific Ocean and the Sandwich Islands, that the natives play at bowls with pieces of whetstone, in shape resembling a small cheese, rounded at the edges, highly po lished, and weighing about a pound. "They also use, in the manner that we throw quoits, small, flat, round pieces of the writing-slate, of the diameter of flea bowls, but scarcely a quarter of an inch thick, also well polished."