Inhabitants.—The Singhalese, the most numerous of the natives of C., are the descendants of those colonists from the valley of the Ganges who first settled on the island 543 n.e. In their customs, costume, and general appearance, they have remained unchanged since the days of Ptolemy. The dress of the men, who have delicate features and slender limbs. is singularly effeminate, and consists of a combay or waist cloth, very much resembling a petticoat; their long hair, turned back from the forehead, is confined with combs, and ear-rings are- worn by way of ornament. The women, in addition to the tomboy, cover the upper part of the figure with a white muslin jacket, and adorn themselves with necklaces, bangles, rings, and jewelry. The Singhalese are false and cowardly, but manifest a strong affection for their relatives, and a reverence for old age. Polyandry still lingers in the interior of C., and was formerly universal; it is now, however, chiefly confined to the wealthier classes, amongst whom one woman has often three or four husbands. The Kandyans, or Highlanders, are a more sturdy race, and maintained their independence for three centuries after the conquest of the low country by European settlers. The 3lalabars, or Tamils, have sprung from those early invaders of C., who from time to time swept across from southern Hindustan, and con tended with the Singhalese kings for the sovereignty of the island. They have formed the chief population of Jaffna for full 2,000 years, and constitutionally excel the Sin ghalese and Randyans. The Moormen, who are the most energetic and intelligent of the native communities, are met with in every province as enterprising traders. They are a very distinct race from the Singhalese, but have no tradition of their origin. Euro peans generally believe them to be of Arab descent, but Tennent is of opinion that " they may be a remnant of the Persians, by whom the island was frequented in the 4th and 5th centuries, The " burghers" of C. are a people of European descent, who have become natural ized. Those of Portuguese extraction hold the lowest place, and are mostly tradesmen and artisans; but the Dutch burghers frequently fill responsible posts, and are employed in the government offices.
Besides the races already alluded to, there is a remarkable tribe of outcasts—the Ved dahs—hardly removed from the wild animals of the forest, and believed to be descended from the Yakkhos, the aboriginal inhabitants of the country. They occupy a district in the eastern part of the island, and have there preserved their ancient customs and manner of living unaltered for more than 2,000 years. They appear to be without the instinct of worship, and have no knowledge of a God. The tribe is divided into the Rock Yeddahe and the Village Veddahe. The former hide themselves in the jungle, live by the chase, and sleep in trees or eaves. They use fire to cook their meat, and their greatest gastronomic treats are the iguana lizard and roasted monkey. Their language —if the few words they make use of can be called by that name—is a dialect of the Singhalese. The Village Veddalis locate themselves in the vicinity of the European set tlements, on the eastern coast, living in rude huts of mud and bark, and are hardly more civilized than their brethren of the jungles. The exertions of government to reclaim this harmless but degraded people have in some degree succeeded, and a prom ising colony has been formed.
Population.—Sir J. E. Tennent is of opinion that C., when iu the height of its pros perity, must have been ten times as densely peopled as at the present day. In the official returns for the year 1870, the area and population of the six provinces of Cey lon are given as follows (total pop. in 1871, 2,405,287): Singhalese are devoted to Buddhism (q.v.), which is the prevailing religion of the island. It does not exist, however, in that state of purity in which it is still found in the Indo-Chinese peninsula,. Its sacred books are identical with those of Burmah and Siam, and both record the doctrines of Gautama in the Pali language; the deviations are in matters of practice. The Malabar kings adulterated Buddhism to a considerable extent with Brahmanism, introducing the worship of Hindu deities into the Buddhist temples, and this contiuues more or less to be the case. More than once have the Buddhists of C. sought to restore the purity of their faith—at one time send. ing deputies to Siam, at another to Burmah, with this object in view. The Burmah or Amarapura sect have long been the reformers of Singhalese Buddhism,and maintain no very friendly relations with the party, who. supported by the priests of Siam, acknowl edge the civil power in matters of religion, sanction the worship of Hindu deities and the employment of the priesthood in secular occupations, uphold caste, and restrict the sacred books. Caste was acknowledged by the Singhalese prior to the introduction of Buddhism, which in principle is opposed to it; but so firmly was it rooted, that it still endures, though more as a social than a sacred institution. Gantainti Buddha is said to
• have visited C. three different times to preach his doctrine, and his Sri-pada, or sacred footstep, on the summit of Adam's Peak (q.v.), still commands the homage of the faithful. Buddhism was not, however, permanently introduced into C. till 307 B.C., when Mabindo, obtaining the support of the king, established it as the national faith. The influence of the priests gradually increased, and, by the piety of the Singhalese kings, monasteries were richly endowed; for though the Buddhist monk is individually forbidden to possess goods, a community may own property to any extent; and it is a remarkable fact that, at the present day, no less than one third of the cultivated land of the island is computed to belong to the priesthood, and is exempt from taxation. The priests of C. are divided into two orders—the Samanaros, and those who, after a time of probation, receive the higher grade of Upasampada. The fraternity are not raised by education above their countrymen, and the respect paid them is directed more to the dress than to the person of the individual. Any member is at liberty to lay aside his ascetic character, and return to a secular life. The most celebrated Buddhistic relic in C. is the Dalada, or sacred tooth of Gautama, at Kandy, which is guarded with jealous care, and preserved in an elegant shrine; but it is well known that the original relic was destroyed by the Portuguese, and the present substitute is a piece of discolored ivory, bearing no resemblance to a human tooth. In all Buddhist countries, the sacred buildings present, with certain modifications, the same general character (see articles BUDDIIIS3I, BUR MAN, etc.); and in C. we find the three classes represented by the dagoba, or relic-shrine (data, a relic, and gabbhan, a shrine), the temple proper, and the vihara or monastery. The labor bestowed on these edifices in the early ages of the Singhalese monarchy is truly astonishing. In the n. of the island, ruined cities— buried for ages in the depths of the forest—have been discovered, revealing monuments that in dimensions may almost compare with the pyramids of Egypt. The most remarkable of these vestiges of an early civilization is Pollanarrua, the ancient capital of C.; and here is the celebrated Gal-ulhara, a rock-hewn temple, supposed to be "the only example in Ceylon of an attempt to fashion an architectural design out of the rock, after the manner of the cave-temples of Ajunta and E]lora." The reclin ing figure of Gautama is 45 ft. in length, the upright one measures 23 ft.; and the sitting image on the left is 16 ft. from the altar to the top of the head. The cave-temple of Darnbool was built 100 B.C., and is the most celebrated in the island. The bell-shaped tapering dagobas of C., as relic-shrines, answer to the pagodas of Burmah—which they very much resemble—and the topes of Afghanistan. The ruins of the Jaytawanarama dagoba still reach the height of 249 ft.; its diameter is 360 ft.; and from base to pinnacle it is covered with trees of the largest size. This enormous structure contains 20 millions of cubical ft.; and sir J. E. Tennent concludes that to erect such a mass of masonry, even in the present day, "would occupy 500 brick layers from six to seven years,' at the cost of a million sterling. The Ambustella of Mibintala is another remarkable dagoba. A very famous object in connection with Buddhism in C. is the sacred Bo-tree of Anarajapoora (peepul, fleas religiosa), which was planted there 288 years 13.C., and is by far the oldest tree in the world of which an authentic history exists. See BO-TREE. Amongst the antiquities of C. must be mentioned those wonderful monuments of the former greatness of the Singhalese people—the ruined tanks; with which almost nothing of a similar kind, whether ancient or modern, can be compared; 30 colossal reservoirs, and about 700 smaller tanks, still exist, though for the most part in ruins. The restoration of these magnificent works of irrigation has recently been begun. Brahmanism or Hinduism (q.v.) is the faith of the Tamils or Malabars, but the Moormen are Mohammedans. After the expul sion of the Dutch Christians, Protestant missions to the natives of C. were com menced by the Baptists in 1813. The Wesleyan Methodists followed in 1814, the Americans in 1816, the church of England in 1818, and Christian instruction has made some progress amongst the native populations. Of these the peasantry of the Kandyan hills have proved the least accessible to its influence. Schools, collegiate institutions, and female seminaries, under the direction of the missionaries, are in suc cessful operation.