When a divorce takes place, and both men and women often marry and divorce several times before they can fix on a partner for life, the woman carries with her the portion she brought, in order to make her as good a match for her next husband, "Owing to the early intercourse of the women with the other sex, for they are in general even regu. larly married at twelve, they soon lose the appearance of youth, and get old and haggard in their looks immediately after they pass twenty."

In Ceylon every man is his own physician: a plaster of herbs or cow-dung is the panacea; leprosy is common; and the cow-pox was not introduced at the time Mr. Percival's account was composed. The language of the Ceylonese is peculiar to the island. Mr. P. thinks it allied to the Maldivian, which race they resemble in shape, complexion, and habit. To read and write are no ordinary accomplishments among the natives of Ceylon; a sect of learned men, called gover, are retained by the king of Candia to execute all the writings of state, and those which respect religious affairs. For writing they usually employ the leaves of the talipot-tree, which are smooth, and cut into long slips; on these they engrave, as it were, the Arabic characters, by means of a fine pointed steel pencil, like a bodkin. Palm leaves are sometimes employed, and a sort of paper is made from the bark of a tree. The progress of the Ceylonese in the other arts of life, is proportionate to their literature; their agriculture is in the rudest state; and perhaps there is no part of India, says Mr. P. where the lands are cultivated with more negli gence. Mr. P. gives reasons for be lieving that the arts were better understood among them formerly than they are at present.

The religion of the Ceylonese is gloomy and superstitious to the very lowest degree; their whole conduct is regulated by omens; and if an astrologer declares that a child is born to misfortunes, the parents frequently anticipate its future evils by destoying it! Mr. Percival considers "the excess of trembling superstition, which unhinges the

minds of the Ceylonese," as attributable to their climate: the noise of the thunder is terrible, and the effects of the lightning dreadful; they consider these frequent storms as a judgment from Heaven, and a proof that their island is abandoned to the dominion of devils. This explanation derives plausibility from the prevalence of similar appre hensions among the Malabars and Indians, who are subject to thunder storms of equal violence. The priests profit by these superstitious fears, encourage them, and of course impede the progress of civilization,

The Ceylonese are rigid predestinarians; they believe in the immortality of the soul, and the resurrection of the body; that the souls of the just are admitted into the rank of gods, whilst those of the wicked, particularly tyrants and impious priests, are supposed to pass

into wild beasts and reptiles. They worship the one Supreme Being as the creator and ruler of heaven and earth, but they have a number of subordinate deities, good and evil.

"The next in dignity to him is their god Buddou, the saviour of souls. This idea of a saviour seems in some degree to pervade every religion in the world, although tainted by a variety of different superstitions which are joined to it; and what is remarkable, the expectations formed from the interference of this saviour are in almost every religion nearly the same. Buddou, according to the spirit of a good man, who was again sent to most general tradition, was originally the revisit the earth; and after having performed a prodigious number of virtuous actions, and been transformed into a hundred and ninetynine different shapes, reascended into hea ven, and is still employed in procuring the pardon of his worshippers."

Ceylon is universally believed to have been the residence of Adam, the seat of Paradise, and on the summit of a mountain called Hamalleel, is the print of a man's foot. On this spot Adam is supposed to have taken his farewell view of Paradise, and have crossed over to the continent of India, which was at that time joined to the island; but no sooner had he passed what is to this day called Adam's-bridge, than the sea closed behind him, and cut off all hopes of return. The origin of these traditions, says Mr. Percival, I do not pretend to trace, but their connection with scriptural history is very evident; and they afford a new instance how universally the opinions with respect to the origin

of man coincide with the history of that event, as recorded in the Bible.

The priests of Buddou are called Tirinanxes, and are held in such high estimation at the court of Candy, that their persons are held sacred, and the king himself has no power to punish them, even for a conspiracy against his own life; they are exempted from all taxes. They are, however, placed under certain restrictions, and are totally debarred from wine and women. Mr. Percival, however, tells us a secret, which indeed we should very probably have guessed, namely, that they find an opportunity of escaping from these restraints, and are allowed to lay aside their order when it suits their inclination. The Tirinanxes are elected by the king from the nobles, and are consequently men of independent power and influence. The priests of the inferior deities are a set of lazy impudent vagabonds, who live upon the tricks and extortions which they practise upon their credulous and deluded votaries. The christian priests and missionaries often make converts. Notwithstanding the general similitude between the Candians and Cinglese, the independence of the former who retir ed from European invaders into the fastnesses of their native mountains, gives a manliness to their character, which the latter, who, from the nature of the country which they inhabited, were compelled to unconditional submission, have almost lost. In exchange, however, the Cinglese are more humanized and softened in their dispositions; they are quiet, inoffensive, gentle, and friendly, and have scarcely any of the false, treacherous, and designing arts which are often found among the Candians. The deportment of the Cinglese denotes, however, that he has been a slave to the Europeans, he is submissive, he is abject, because he is helpless. The Candians are haughty, and may justly boast of their independence: their mien is lofty, their habits are warlike; and they look upon the Cinglese as a mean and despicable race, who barter their natural rights for peace and protection.

The interior of the island, owing to the jealousy of the Dutch in the first place, and the Candians in the second, has been little explored by Europeans. The Dutch were fearful that some conrection might be formed injurious to their own interests; and it was the necessary policy of the Candians to conceal

whatever might excite the avarice and rapacity of the Europeans. When General Macdowal went as embassador to Candy, his suite were admitted only by torch-light, and always retired before break of day. Mr. P. lived on the island upwards of three years, and traversed the interior, even to the capital; but such was the vigilant suspicion of the Candians, that during the whole progress of the embassy not one female was permitted to be seen! This suspicion was excited by the conduct of the Dutch. The Candians are not jealous, but kept their females out of sight from a fear of intelligence being communicated to the Europeans. The dominions of his Candian majesty are on all sides separated from those of the Europeans, by almost impenetrable woods and mountains. All travelling is performed on foot, his majesty suffering no roads to be cut, or woods to be cleared, lest communication should be made easy. What reflections does such a prohibition excite? what are we to conceive of that system, the cruelty, rapacity, and perfidy of which could have driven the native monarch of the island, and his highspirited mountaineers, thus to conceal themselves amidst their own impervious rocks and pathless jungles, in order to avoid being hunted down like beasts by their inexorable pursuers? There is every reason to hope and to believe, that the liberal and humane policy of the English government will in time uproot this antipathy against the Europeans.

The city of Candy itself is a poor miserable looking place, and the perse verance of the Dutch has more than once enabled them to reach it, when the mo narch has been compelled to shelter himself in some still wilder and more impenetrable retreat.

The government of Candy is an absolute despotism; and any resistance to the will of the king, without power to maintain it, is sure to be attended with immediate destruction. The Candians are divided into casts, which are strictly preserved from intermixture: in the arrangement of them artificers rank before husbandmen and soldiers This singular circumstance, says Mr. P. bespeaks a degree of civilization, and a love for the arts, which certainly do not correspond with the present state of these islanders; but, together with some ar chitectural remains of superior taste and workmanship, which have escaped the

ravages of time and the foe, indicates that the arts were more successfully cultivated, and that civilization was farther advanced in former times than it is

ΠΟΥ.

Mr. Percival devotes an interesting chapter to the nature of the Candian government, and its civil and military establishments. We must pass it over, as the most singular part of the inhabitants of Ceylon yet remain to be de scribed, the Bedaks or Vaddahs; a race of savages who, when the Portugueze first visited the island, occupied, as they do now, the deepest recesses of its forests. The origin of this race of savages bids defiance to conjecture; they are an anomaly in the natural history of man; living upon the precarious produce of the chace, and exposed to the fury of wild beasts, they prefer this barbarous and solitary life to the luxuries of the Cinglese, and the arts of the Europeans, which they are accustomed to witness. The Bedahs differ from the other Ceylonese in complexion and in language; in the province of Bintan, where they are most numerous, they are completely savage, holding no intercourse with the other natives, and are rarely even seen by them; they sleep on trees, or at the foot of them, and climb up its branches when any noise alarms them, with the utmost expertness and celerity. This tribe acknowledges no authority but that of its own chief and religious men, and adhere without the slightest variation to its own laws and customs, from generation to generation. There are some few who will even traffic with the Cinglese; "but the wilder class, known by the name of Ramba Vaddahs, are more seldom seen, even by stealth, than the most timid of the wild animals."

"The dogs of the Bedahs are remarkable for their sagicity, and not only readily trace out game, but also distinguish one species of animals from another. On the approach of any carnivorous animals, or of a stranger, they immediately put their masters upon their guard. These faithful aniinals are indeed invaluable to them, and constitute their chief riches. When their daughters are married, hunting dogs form their portion; and a Bedah is as unwilling to part with his dog as an Arabian with his horse. Some time before the last war broke out between us and Holland, a Dutch officer procured a couple of these dogs, which he carried to Surat, and sold for four hundred rix-dollars.

"Those Bedahs who venture to converse

with the other natives, are represented to be courteous, and in address far beyond their state of civilization. Their religion is little known. They have their inferior deities corresponding to the demons of the Cinglese, and observe certain festivals. On these occasions vistuals of various sorts are placed at the root of a tree, and the ceremonies of the festival consist in dancing around them.”

The Bedahs live entirely upon the produce of the chace, and upon the fruits which grow spontaneously around is an art which they never attempt to them. The cultivation of the ground practise.

After this ample description of the island of Ceylon, and the several races in plain unscientific language to give of its inhabitants, Mr. Percival proceeds some account of its natural productions. Among the animals the elephant ranke first; those in Ceylon are produced in dered superior to any in the world.. very great abundance, and are consi

"These lords of the forest, though from their size and strength formidable to all its other inhabitants, themselves live in contiwhich neither their sagacity nor their prowess nual apprehension of a small reptile, against

can at all defend them. This diminutive creature gets into the trunk of the elephant, and pursues its course till it finally fixes in his head, and by keeping him in continual agony, at length torments the stupendous animal to death. So dreadfully afraid are the elephants of this dangerous enemy, that they use a variety of precautions to prevent his attacks; and never lay their trunks to the ground, except when to gather or sepa rate their food."

The manner of catching elephants here differs from that practised on the continent of India, but we cannot spare room to describe it.

Neither the horse nor the sheep is a native of Ceylon: the horses generally used are a mixture of the Arab and

Carnatic breeds. They are scarcely ever castrated. Indian horses are extremely spirited, and often defend their riders against the attack of other animals. "I have myself been indebted to their prowess," says Mr. P. " for my preservation from the fury of a buffa io." Two attendants are constantly attached to each horse: one follows him wherever he goes; and Mr. P. assures us, that some of these horse-keepers have kept up to his horse for twenty or thirty miles together, while he was proceeding at the rate of five or six miles an hour!

The oxen of Ceylon scarcely exceed

in size our calves of a year old; bullocks and buffaloes are employed in bearing and drawing burdens. These latter, which are very numerous, are fierce and rough, and extremely obstinate and untractable: to the scarlet coat they have an unaccountable antipathy, the sight of it makes them perfectly outrageous. Although Ceylon produces few domestic animals, it contains a great variety of wild ones.

The small species of tygers infest the woods; tyger cats, wild hogs, leopards, and monkies abound; the hyena and bear are natives, but rarely met with; there are no foxes, but jackals in abundance; porcupines, racoons, armadillos, squirrels and mungooses are found here; hares are extremely numerous; but there are no rabbits.

"Varieties of deer and elks are every where met with in the woods and jungles, One species of deer is particularly calculated to attract attention. It is a very small creature, in size not exceeding our hare; it is called by the Dutch the moose-deer, and by the natives gazelle. In every thing but in size they are complete deer; and their sides are beautifully spotted, or streaked like the fallow-deer. It is usual for the natives to catch them, and bring them down in cages to our markets, where they are sold at about a shilling a piece. Their flavour is much stronger than that of the hare, and when stewed they are excellent.

"The Indian ichneumon is a small creature, in appearance between a weazel and a mungoose. It is of infinite use to the natives, from its inveterate enmity to snakes, which would otherwise render every footstep of the traveller dangerous. The proofs of sagacity which I have seen in this little animal are truly surprising, and afford a beauti ful instance of the wisdom with which Providence has fitted the powers of every animal to its particular situation on the globe. This diminutive creature, on seeing a snake ever so large, will instantly dart on it and seize it by the throat, provided he finds himself in an open place where he has an opportunity of running to a certain herb, which he know instinctively to be an antidote against the poison of the bite, if he should happen to receive one. I was present at an experiality of this circumstance. The ichneumon procured for the purpose, was first shewn the snake in a close room. On being let down to the ground, he did not discover any inclination whatever to attack his enemy,

ment tried at Columbo to ascertain the re

but ran about the room to discover if there was any hole or aperture by which he might get out. On finding none, he returned hastily to his master, and placing himself in his bosom, could not by any means be induced ried out of the house, however, and laid to quit it, or face the snake. On being cardown near his antagonist in an open place, he instantly flew at the snake and soon destroyed it. He then suddenly disappeared for a few minutes, and again returned as soon as he had found the herb and eat of it. This

useful instinct impels the animal to have reit is engaged with a snake, whether poisoncourse to the herb on all occasions, where ous or not. The one employed in this experiment was of the harmless kind, and procured for the purpose."

Flying foxes abound here, and rats of various descriptions. Birds are very numerous; one of the most remarkable is the honey-bird;

which it discovers the honey concealed in "So called from a particular instinct by

trees.

As if designed for the service of the human species, this bird continues to flutter about and make a great noise till it has attracted the notice of some person, and induced him to follow the course it points out to him. It then flutters before him, till it has led him to the tree where the bees have off the honey, leaving a little for the use of lodged their treasure. The man then carries the bird, which silently and contentedly watches till it is permitted to enjoy its reward. As soon as it has eaten up its portion, it renews its noise, and goes in quest of another tree, followed by the man, who finds a guide here provided for him by na

ture."

The reptiles and insects of Ceylon are exceedingly numerous, and several species of them are very little known; serpents particularly abound, to the great annoyance of the inhabitants; alligators infest the rivers, and render them very dangerous. In the year 1799, one was killed in the neighbourhood of Columbo, twenty feet long, and as thick in the body as a horse: in its belly were found the undigested head and arm of a black man. Insects abound here as in all hot countries, of every description and degree of malignity. Ceylon is particularly prolific in plants also: almost all those fruits which are peculiar to India, and the countries within the tropical climates, are found here in great abundance, and of a superior quality:

pine-apples, oranges, pomegranates, citrons, limes, tamarinds, &c. grow spontaneously in the woods. The following are among the most estcemed and valuable vegetable productions: Ceylon produces two species of the bread-fruit tree: one of which is specifically called the bread-fruit tree, and the other jacka or jack-fruit. These fruits are invaluable preservatives against famine, and are eaten by the natives with great relish. Every part of the cocoa tree is useful: Mr. Percival has given a very full and interesting account of its various qualities. The nuts of the betcl-tree are in general use, and form a great article of trade among the natives. Ceylon, which has been so long renowned for its spices, produces several sorts of pepper: cardamoms, coffee, and the palm or pal mira tree grow here; the leaves of this latter are used by the natives to write on; a tough whitish skin, like that found at the root of the betel leaves, covers the body of the tree, and, like it, is employed by the natives to hold their victuals, their arrack, water, &c. The sugar-tree is a species of palm found in several parts of the island. "It bears a flower distinguished by the variety of its colours: on cutting off the flower and making an incision in the place from which it sprung, a juice distills, which by a slight process of boiling and straining, yields as good a sugar as that extracted from the cane, and far superior to the jaggery." The sugar-cane has also been introduced into the island, and plantations of it are found in the neigh bourhood of Caltura. The tea-plant has been discovered native in the forests of this island, and of a quality said to be equal to any which grows in China. That experiments should be made by government in the cultivation of the two last-mentioned plants, is a matter of immediate and peremptory importance. The tal-pot-tree derives its highest estimation from its leaves, which, as we have already noticed, are used by the natives for writing.

The leaf is completely circular, terminating in the most beautiful rays, it folds up into plait, like a fan, which in figure it neody re embles. In size and thickness it completely surpasses almost all other leaves.

The breadth of the diameter is from three to four feet, and the length and thickness is in proportion: it is large enough to cover ten men from the inclemency of the weather. 11s made into umbrella all sizes, and cerves equally to protect the natives against

the intolerable rays of the sun, and the rains which at particular seasons deluge their country. As it is of such an impenetrable texture as to defy either the sun or the monsoon, it affords a shelter even more secure than their huts. During the violent rains it is not unusual to see the natives prop up one end of a talipot leaf with a stick two or three feet long, and then creep under it for protection."

The banyan, the cotton-tree, the tickwood, and the beautiful calamander, together with that singular plant the nepenthes, are indigenous here: rice is cultivated on a very large scale, and constitutes the chief food of the natives. But the staple commodity of Ceylon, the most valuable and the most important article of the whole, is cinnamon. Mr. Percival has not suffered it to pass without that attention to which its superior value entitled it; he has given a minute account of the different sorts, and their respective qua lities; of the soil best adapted to its growth; of the general appearance of the plant, the properties and uses of its various parts; the manner in which it is cultivated, barked, harvested, housed, prepared for exportation, &c. &c.; and lastly, he has suggested some hints for the improvement and extension of its culture. The chapter is altogether very interesting and important. The interior is not so well adapted for producing this plant as the loose soil about the coasts; but of late years less has been produced there than formerly, in consequence of the cruel exactions and impolitic avarice of the Dutch; who at length reduced the king of Candy to such desperation, that he resolved, says Mr. P. to secure himself against their future attacks, byleaving nothing in his dominions which could excite their covetousness. With this view, since the last treaty he was forced to make with them, he has em ployed every means to prevent the growth and propagation of the cinna

mon tree.

We are now come to the minerals of Ceylon, which has scarcely been less celebrated for its precious stones than for its spices. In addition to the ruby, the topaz, and the diamond, are to be found the saphire, amethyst, aqua marine, and tourmalines of various colours. Pearls have already been mentioned as forming a considerable article of revenue and traffic. Lead, tin, and iron ores are found in the interior; but to disappoint the avarice and rapacity of the Dutch, they are never wrought or applied to any pur