CHRISTIAN WORK IN CEYLON
Salvation Army—Work of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel—
Work of the Church Missionary Society—Cyclone in 1884—Work in Pallai
and the Wannie—Converts from Hindooism—Tamil Coolie Mission—
Christian lyrics—Kandyan itinerancy—Converts from Buddhism—Mission
at Cotta—Trinity College, Kandy—Summary.
However deeply we sympathise with the efforts of ‘all who love our Lord
in sincerity,’ we cannot but regret that, considering the number of
agencies[230] already at work in this Isle (where Christian growth has
been so cruelly impeded by the jealousies of successive gardeners), the
Salvation Army should have introduced a fresh element of confusion by
selecting for their campaign, not purely heathen villages, but several
in which much good work had already been done. Still more unfortunately,
a marked characteristic of some of their leaders has been such violent
antagonism to other Christian denominations, that one who has hitherto
been a subscriber to the funds of the Army has recently declared their
position in Ceylon to be that of persecutors and hinderers of Christian
workers.
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Footnote 230:
I regret that lack of space compels me to omit all details of the
Presbyterian and Baptist Missions. The latter numbers about 6,000
adherents, of whom 550 are communicants. The former has 2,500
adherents, of whom about 1,000 are communicants.
-----
Sad as such dissensions must ever be, they are tenfold more distressing
in presence of those whom we would fain win from the worship of idols
and sacred cattle and the reverent use of cow-dung, and who very justly
think that Christians should at least agree amongst themselves before
they try to teach others.
For the same reason it is deeply to be regretted that even within the
fold of the Church of England the converts should have been perplexed by
‘High Church’ and ‘Low Church’ questions, resulting for a while in
serious difficulties. These, happily, have in a great measure subsided,
and though it is certain that this division of the house against itself
expedited the disestablishment of the Anglican Church from its position
as the Established Church of the Isle, there is good reason to hope that
in this, as in other matters, apparent evil has been overruled for good,
the necessity for united action having led to a more perfect fusion of
the interests of all members of the Episcopal Church, and to such
resolute effort to meet the consequent pecuniary difficulties, that
there is now little doubt that when the last props of State support are
removed, the Episcopal Church of Ceylon will be found stronger and
healthier than in her previous condition. Already she has her own Synod,
her own constitution, and is generally well afloat.
It is worthy of note that she has thus been compelled to take up the
self-same work which she has for many years been urging the native
Church to undertake, namely, not only the entire support of its own
institutions, but also the duty of contributing the needful funds for
sending teachers to its heathen countrymen.
So since June 30, 1886, all State-aid has been withdrawn, with the
exception of the stipends of such Government chaplains, Episcopal and
Presbyterian, as were appointed prior to July 1, 1881, such aid, of
course, ceasing with the individual lives.
The total number of clergy of the Episcopal Church in the diocese of
Colombo (in other words, in Ceylon) is now seventy-one. Of these,
thirty-four (_i.e._, eighteen European and sixteen native) are in the
service of the Church Missionary Society, and fifteen (including nine
natives) in that of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. The
native clergy are Singhalese, Tamil, and Burgher; some are half-Burgher,
half-Singhalese.
Let us briefly glance at the work of the two great Societies whose
representatives have striven so earnestly to build up this Church.
The CHURCH MISSIONARY SOCIETY began work here in 1818. THE SOCIETY FOR
THE PROPAGATION OF THE GOSPEL, generally known as the S.P.G., followed
suit in 1840.
The S.P.G. has from the beginning imported very few European clergy. It
has rather aimed at assisting the Government chaplains (whose recognised
official duty was simply to minister to such as were already
Christians), and by enabling them to extend their sphere among the
surrounding heathen, give a missionary character to their work also.
In 1845 the Isle, which had previously been included in the See of
Madras, was made a separate diocese, and Dr. Chapman was consecrated
first Bishop of Colombo. By his exertions and liberal gifts, aided by
the S.P.G., St. Thomas College at Colombo was founded and endowed with a
special view to training native clergy and schoolmasters.
Here English, Singhalese, and Tamil lads receive most careful religious
teaching, combined with such high secular education as may fit them for
any profession; but the College maintains its original missionary
character, inasmuch as it furnishes almost all the native clergy in the
employment of the Society, and also supplies the ever-increasing demand
for schoolmasters.[231]
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Footnote 231:
For details of this college see Chapter ii.
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A high-class school for girls has for some years occupied a pleasant
bungalow close to the Cathedral, and the Society has also established a
female boarding-school at Matara, which is a very important centre of
Mission-work, the attendance at the various schools being upwards of
1,100.
A very interesting S.P.G. work is the large orphanage of Buonavista,
near Galle, of which I have already spoken.[232] It supplies Christian
teachers, both male and female, for the surrounding village-schools.
About one sixth of the children attending these are Christians, and a
much larger proportion are removed by their relations so soon as they
evince a strong bias in favour of Christianity. Then Buddhist priests
are called in, and a period of home persecution ensues, which, however,
rarely succeeds in extinguishing the light thus early kindled.
-----
Footnote 232:
See p. 430.
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Apart from these centres, a quiet work is progressing in many places,
such as Badulla, and several of the neighbouring villages, where a
special effort is now being made for the extension of Mission-work in
the hitherto neglected province of Uva. About 400 children have been
gathered into the Anglican schools in this district.
To return to the earliest efforts on behalf of Ceylon by the Church
Missionary Society. Between 1818 and 1821 work was commenced at four
points, which have ever since been important centres. These were Jaffna,
in the extreme north; Kandy, in the centre of the Isle; Cotta, near
Colombo, and Baddigama, in the extreme south.
In the first instance, the Rev. Joseph Knight was sent to commence work
at Jaffna. Finding the Americans and Wesleyans already in the field, he
established himself at Nellore, in the immediate neighbourhood. There,
six years later, he was joined by the Rev. W. Adley, and together they
studied, and taught, and preached; but seven more years of patient work
elapsed ere their hearts were cheered by making a single convert.
At length, in 1830, Mr. Adley’s Tamil horse-keeper renounced idolatry
and sought baptism, and ere that year closed a little band of ten
Christians formed the nucleus of the future Church. One of these, named
Matthew Philips, who had been working with Mr. Knight as his pundit ever
since his arrival in the Isle, became the first catechist, and from that
day till the hour of his death at Christmas 1884 (when he had completed
his ninetieth year), he proved a zealous and eloquent preacher and most
devoted Christian.
Such was the story of this Mission for the first twelve years. Ten more
elapsed, and the Church members had increased to twenty-five, but as yet
_did not include a single woman_. Ten years later the congregation at
Nellore had increased to eighty, a new station was opened at Kopay in
the immediate neighbourhood, and an old Portuguese Church at
Chundicully, also in the neighbourhood, was made over to the Mission,
together with its congregation of Protestant Burghers. By degrees other
stations have been included, and a large number of schools both for boys
and girls have been established, and in these all the teachers are
Christians; and thus the tree whose early growth was so slow has fairly
taken root. A very important detail was the commencement in 1842 of a
girls’ boarding-school at Nellore. Here about 270 girls have received
careful training, and many have become wives of the native clergy and
schoolmasters.
The Jaffna peninsula is the extreme north-west corner of Ceylon, a dead
level, palm-clad plain, twenty miles wide by thirty-six in length.
A glance at the map will show better than pages of description how
strangely the sea has intersected the land between this plain and the
main Isle, forming truly labyrinthine lagoons.
In October and December 1884 this district was devastated by terrible
cyclones, which, following on a period of prolonged drought and short
crops, proved terribly trying to the people. The first of these
appalling tempests was heralded by a pale-green sunset sky, flushing
blood-red on the western horizon. It resulted in the total destruction
of 66,000 cocoa-nut, palmyra, and areca-palms, and about 7,000 other
valuable trees, chiefly fruit-trees. On the morning after the cyclone
the peninsula resembled a newly-felled jungle, and even the streets were
blocked by fallen trees, including about a hundred of the beautiful
yellow suriyas,[233] torn up by the roots. About 120,000 plantain and
banana bushes were ruined. Even the trees that survived were stripped of
foliage and appeared as if scorched by fire. Fourteen thousand head of
cattle, sheep, goats, and buffaloes were killed, as were also
twenty-eight human beings. Thousands of crows were found dead with their
wings all twisted.
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Footnote 233:
_Thespesia populnea_, formerly called _Hybiscus_.
-----
The great breakwater which protected the town, the embankment, and
sea-wall were alike destroyed; the road skirting the sea for many miles
was washed away, as were also bridges and culverts, and thousands of
houses of the poorest sort were damaged. Twenty-seven vessels are known
to have been wrecked; some brigs and small schooners were carried miles
inland, and the town was strewn with wreckage. Small craft innumerable
perished, and hundreds of fishing and cargo boats were found in gardens
and fields, while some were left in the streets or on the half-ruinous
verandahs of houses! Others, which were recognised as belonging to
neighbouring islands, were found washed ashore.
Equally lamentable was the destruction of the rice-crops. In the October
storm hundreds of acres of paddy-land, which had been carefully ploughed
and manured, and were all ready for sowing, were so flooded as to
resemble only a vast lake. When the waters subsided, the wretched
farmers did their best to repair the damage, but the December cyclone
effectually blasted their hopes. Though in point of fury it was but as
an echo of the first, nevertheless the prevalence of unseasonable rain
destroyed the rice-crops and ruined the gardens.
A curious incident of the cyclone was the fall of the steeple of Kopay
Church, which was blown over, and in its fall exactly filled up an
adjacent well, a very grave loss in that region of droughts.
For a considerable period after this the poverty of the people was such
that many of the children used to come to school half-famished, and for
some time attendance was seriously diminished.
In this extremity many of the school-teachers shared their pittance with
the hungriest of their flock, but the suffering of all was severe. Of
course, diminished school attendance involves a reduction in Government
grants and in the salaries of the teachers, and this again, in the
American Mission, reacts on the modest income of the native pastor,
which is partly dependent on the offerings of the teachers, who, it
seems, are in the habit of devoting one-tenth of their salary to the
service of the Church.
About twenty years ago very decisive efforts were made by the
missionaries in order to root out any lingering idea that temporal
advantage attached to the profession of Christianity. In order still
more strongly to counteract such an impression, the native Christians
were urged, so far as lay in their power, not only to undertake the
support of their own institutions, but also to contribute the needful
funds for sending teachers to their heathen brethren. The result of this
movement has been, that whilst a limited number of mere professors
relapsed into heathenism, the majority have become very much more
decided and zealous, and the native Church has become in every respect
healthier and stronger.
This has notably been the case in the Northern Province (of which Jaffna
is the capital), where the effects of Mission-work on Hindooism present
a striking contrast to the results effected in the south of the Isle,
where only, as it were, the fringe of Buddhism has as yet been touched.
And yet those most practically acquainted with the work say that even in
North Ceylon ‘heathenism is still so gross and rampant that Mission
agencies can hardly count the battle there to be much more than begun.’
But those who are Christians are in real earnest; and so,
notwithstanding the poverty of the people, a Native Missionary
Association was formed in the autumn of 1883, which now supports several
native teachers to assist in the work commenced in 1862 by the Church
Missionary Society in two of the dreariest and hitherto most neglected
districts of the Isle, namely, the Wannie and Pallai.
The latter is only about twenty miles from Jaffna, a sandy tract of
cocoa-nut plantations and malarious fever-haunted jungle. So unhealthy
is the climate, that of all the Mission agents who have been sent to
work here, not one has escaped the jungle-fever. The population numbers
about 10,000 persons, and in all this district there is but one medical
man, whose primary duty is to look after the planters. As for the
people, finding small benefit from their own medicine-men, and assuming
all manner of sickness and trouble to be the visitation of offended evil
spirits, they at once call in diviners and devil-dancers, who distract
the poor sufferer with their truly ‘infernal’ noise, or else they make a
pilgrimage to some favourite devil-temple. Anxious relations bring the
patient a drink of foul water, which has washed the feet of some filthy
fakir, and which is deemed precious medicine.[234]
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Footnote 234:
For astounding details of sorcery and criminal preparation of charms
by a native doctor, see Emerson Tennant’s ‘Ceylon,’ vol. ii. pp.
544-548.
-----
Here, indeed, is a fallow field awaiting medical missionaries endowed
with such love for their suffering fellow-creatures as to induce them to
face existence in such uninviting surroundings. It is, however, certain
that men born in the Isle might face the climate with less danger than
Europeans, and it is to be hoped that the Medical College at Colombo,
which is training so large a number of students, may yield the right
men. Certainly no other form of mission is so certain to go straight to
the hearts of these poor villagers, and it is satisfactory to learn that
the Jaffna Medical Mission has now been commenced in real earnest, and
is to be under control of the directors of the Jaffna College (_i.e._,
missionaries and native Christians in connection with the three
Missions).
Dr. Marston, formerly of Mildmay (London), has gone out to assume charge
of this great work, but as yet is the only missionary-physician among
the 316,000 inhabitants of the Northern Province; and what that means
may be inferred from the fact that within two months in 1888-1889 no
less than 2,000 persons died in Jaffna during an epidemic of malignant
fever, and such visitations of fever, small-pox, and cholera are by no
means rare, and invariably carry off thousands, who perish from
ignorance of the simplest laws of medicine.
Still more unattractive than Pallai is the dreary Wannie district, a
name chiefly associated with that of the virulent Wannie fever, which
not only incapacitates its victims at the time, but is very difficult to
shake off. This district comprises an area of about 14,000 square miles,
and its population, which averages one to the square mile, is scattered
along the sea-coast, and in about 200 small villages inland, each
surrounded by swampy rice-fields, the irrigation of which is a constant
care, as any failure of the water-supply from the village tank involves
famine. Most of these villages take their name from the tank; hence the
frequent termination of ‘Colom,’ a tank, _e.g._ Choendic-Colom,
Sundi-Colom.
These wretched people suffer terribly from pleurisy and from a swelling
in the glands of the throat, but worst of all from the fearful parangi
or karayo, that horrible disease, somewhat resembling leprosy in its
most loathsome form, which is aggravated by bad water and scanty fare.
Wherever the restoration of the ancient tanks has blessed a district
with a renewed water-supply and consequent abundant crops, then this
awful disease in a great measure disappears.
The people are described as being sunk mentally, morally, and physically
to the deepest degradation. Their faith is Hindooism of the very lowest
type, with a large admixture of devil-worship.
In this unpromising field, agents of the Church Mission were sent to
commence work at Mullaitivo, a town on the east coast about seventy
miles south of Jaffna, and at Vavania-Velan-Colom, a large inland
village, about fifty miles from Mullaitivo. From these centres,
evangelistic work of all sorts has been carried to the surrounding
districts. Here, as in the Pallai district, schools have been
established, and several of the most promising converts have been taken
to the Training Institution at Kopay, that they may eventually return as
teachers to their own countrymen. Thus an influence has gradually been
created, and prejudice so far overcome that now no opposition is offered
to the Christian teachers; on the contrary, their message is heard with
eager attention, and in several cases devil-dancers, and even the
priests of the devil-temples, have been among the earliest converts,
although their acceptance of Christ involved the sacrifice of their sole
means of living—a very strong test of faith.
Indeed, if the offertory by which this native Mission is supported could
tell the story of self-denial by which many of its small sums have been
obtained, no better proof could be given of how thoroughly in earnest
these poor Christians are; in fact, in the year when extreme poverty was
aggravated by cyclones, the subscriptions, so far from diminishing,
actually increased. Amongst its items are gifts from several young men,
who have been trained in the Institution, of sums equal to one-half,
one-third, or one-twelfth of their first year’s salary as schoolmaster.
In the records of this work we occasionally obtain a touching glimpse of
some of the difficulties which beset the Hindoo, whose reason and heart
alike incline to the Christian faith. Foremost among these are the
claims of deceased relations, and the supposed cruelty to these involved
in omitting the ancestral offerings; for as the dead of the last three
generations are believed to be entirely dependent on the living for
their supplies and deliverance from purgatory, and as only a son can
officiate at the funeral rites of his father, it is evident that when,
by becoming a Christian, a man incapacitates himself from fulfilling
these obligations, he is doing a grievous wrong to the dead, whom he is
most bound to reverence. Hence we hear of the ‘great fortitude’ shown by
a convert in refusing to take his part in the heathen rites at his
father’s funeral, and we know what tears, entreaties, and persecutions
he must have withstood from all the women of the family.[235]
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Footnote 235:
In ‘The Himalayas and Indian Plains’ I have given full details of the
requirements of _Ancestral Worship among the Hindoos_. See pp.
187-190, also 574, 575. And in ‘Wanderings in China’ I have entered
minutely into the still more extraordinary ramifications of the same
worship in that vast Empire.
-----
Moreover, when a Christian is taken ill, his sufferings are often
greatly aggravated by the persistent determination of his relatives to
perform noisy devil-ceremonies on his behalf, and also by the fear lest,
after his death, they should forcibly burn his body with heathen rites.
If some other members of the family are Christians, they can generally
succeed in preventing this dishonour to the dead, but very painful
scenes sometimes offend this solemn presence, as in the case of a young
schoolmistress, whose death-bed was a striking instance of calm
Christian peace, but no sooner had her spirit passed away, than her
heathen relatives commenced a terrible uproar in their determination to
enforce heathen rites. Her father and brothers, however, being also
Christians, stood firm; whereupon, all their kinsfolk forsook them,
refusing to have anything further to do with them.
Very striking is the manner in which these poor caste-ridden people
occasionally apply some story of our Lord’s tenderness and humility, as
contrasted with the harsh arrogance of the Brahmans. Thus a poor coolie
chanced to hear the story of Christ’s visit to Zacchæus. Next time he
visited the temple and presented his accustomed offering, he felt how
different was the action of the proud priest, who bade him lay his money
on the ground, and who then poured water over it and washed it with his
foot before he would take it up. So he went back to the house where he
had heard those good words, and stood outside listening during the
morning prayers, and one who saw him, bade him enter, and taught him,
and soon that man became a working Christian. Like St. Andrew, he ‘first
found his own brother, and brought him to Jesus;’ then he persuaded his
wife, and so the leaven of good has spread.
But very often, when a man resolves to take this great step, he is
rejected by all his relations; his own wife and sons utterly despise
him. Yet again and again, such a one has persevered in prayer for their
conversion, and although years may elapse ere one will join him, sooner
or later the change is wrought, and the patient convert has the gladness
of bringing his family to crave Christian baptism. Amongst those who
have thus been added to the Church was one of the most notorious
devil-dancers of Pallai, whose delight it was to ridicule the preaching
of the Gospel. Nevertheless, that he might be the better able to cavil,
he bought a Bible and began reading it, with the oft-told result. Light
entered into his heart so fully, that not all the prayers and tears of
his kinsfolk could shake his new-born faith; and so eager did he now
become to confess Christ in presence of all men, that those who
witnessed his baptism begged that he might be named Paul Vayrakiam (Paul
the Zealous). With him was baptized another young man, whose conversion
was due to the efforts of another recent convert from the devil-dancers.
For in these fever-stricken districts, and on those burning sandy
plains, the old, old story comes home to these poor neglected ones with
just the same love and power that it has done to myriads in all corners
of the earth wheresoever this Gospel has been preached. In the life of
many of the converts there is abundant proof of their having fully
realised their Saviour’s love, and of their living in the blessed
consciousness of His abiding presence; and there is just the same
earnest longing to lead others to a personal knowledge of the only
source of light and life, with apparently less of that shyness—perhaps
selfish shyness—which leads our more reserved Western natures to shrink
from speech on the subjects which we recognise as most vital to
ourselves, and yet often guard as jealously as though our neighbour had
no concern therein.
Grand enduring work has been done by many such loving disciples—work
known only to their Master—in the gradual upbuilding of His Church.
I must, however, turn to a less pleasant topic, to show how not only the
good leaven spreads, but also the evil; for, sad to say, here, as in
Japan and other countries, the bitter leaven of infidel teaching is
working with pernicious effect, and the writings of the leading
‘free-thinkers’ and atheists poison the minds of many a would-be-wise
young student. So the preachers of the Gospel have not merely to contend
with the systems of a debased Buddhism or Brahmanism but with all the
oft-repeated, oft-refuted difficulties and objections, which are deemed
so doubly wise because they are imported from Europe.
For instance, one of the chief Hindoo festivals in this district is
annually held at an ancient temple near Nellore, in honour of
Kandaswami, the youngest son of the god Siva. The festival continues for
twenty-five days, and on the tenth day the idol is brought forth and
placed on a splendid car, and so drawn triumphantly in sunwise circuit
round the temple. The most fanatical observances of olden days are now
prohibited, and here, as at the great Juggernath Temple of India,
devotees may no longer throw themselves beneath the wheels of the car,
but have to satisfy their zeal by rolling in the dust in its wake. This
is done by hundreds of the vast multitude who annually assemble from all
parts of the country in very earnest pilgrimage.
Such a gathering affords an opportunity of sowing good words broadcast,
which is not neglected by the Christian teachers who mingle freely in
the crowd, and do what they can by preaching and the sale and
distribution of books. Latterly they have been gladdened by hearing
comments on the good which Christianity was acknowledged to have
effected in Jaffna, and some were heard to say that doubtless forty or
fifty years hence all the population will have become Christian. But
though many listened with interest, an organised system of molestation
and interruption has now been set on foot by a party of young men, who
go about, not to defend the insulted dignity of Kandaswami, but to
distribute pamphlets and tracts compiled by themselves from the works of
atheistic Europeans.
In like manner, quite the most serious bar to the acceptance of the
Gospel by Buddhists is the energetic teaching of European exponents of
Theosophy and Esoteric Buddhism.
A very important branch of Church missionary work amongst the Hindoo
population of Ceylon is that known as the Tamil Coolie Mission, which
has for its object the instruction of all the legion of immigrants from
Malabar, who come generally for a term of five years or more, chiefly to
labour on the plantations, and do all the hard work of the Isle. This
Mission was commenced on a small scale about thirty years ago, and has
been mainly supported by the coffee-planters, who raise more than
1,000l. a year to maintain catechists and schools—a clear proof of their
estimate of this good effort.
Upwards of forty native agents are now thus employed; but so numerous
are the estates, that each catechist has to visit from forty to sixty,
and so can only go to each about once in three months, which does not
allow much chance of gaining individual influence with the utterly
ignorant heathen.
The Mission is superintended by three European and two Tamil clergymen,
whose lives are spent in one long round of difficult hill-travelling,
over an area so vast, that on an average they can only go over the
ground once in six months. Their district is about as large as Wales,
and much more mountainous; so this Mission may well be described as
under-manned, the more so seeing how many plantations lie beyond the
reach of any English service, save on these rare occasions.
To supply even this scanty spiritual fare involves an exhausting life of
ceaseless locomotion. Some folk in England might think it hard work to
be up and out every morning by 5 A.M. to attend the muster of coolies,
and preach to them before starting on a four or five hours’ walk,
beneath a blazing sun, over steep hills without one scrap of shade. Then
the native Christians on the estate, and perhaps some in the nearest
village, must be visited, and candidates for baptism or confirmation
examined and taught, and the catechist, if there be one, must be cheered
by a talk about his work, and on the morrow the same round must be
repeated on the next estate. And so each day of the week repeats itself
till Sunday, when there is a Tamil service for as many coolies as can be
mustered, and English service for the planters, many of whom come a very
long way to be present.
Small chapels are indeed scattered at wide intervals over the mountain
districts where the plantations chiefly lie, and in these two of the
Diocesan clergy minister regularly, and others occasionally, but many
estates are so remote that they are only visited at very rare intervals.
When we think of the multiplicity of church-going luxuries offered for
our selection in this country, we can perhaps realise how very much
neglected we should feel—in fact, how easily we might lose the mere
habit of Sunday observance—were our religious privileges limited to two
or three meetings in a coffee-store or a drawing-room in the course of a
year. Certainly it does seem a very unequal division of the Church’s
workers which leaves so wide a field with such limited pastoral care.
Even Sunday does not necessarily bring rest from travel; for instance,
the native clergyman (Tamil) at Pelmadulla holds an English service at 8
A.M., and then one in Tamil, after which he either travels twelve miles
to hold an English service at Ratnapura, or to some other district. But
in truth, neither clergy nor people spare themselves in this respect,
the distance which some of these people walk to be present at a service
being almost incredible; as, for instance, at Rackwane, in the south, to
which some of the congregation were in the habit of walking fifteen
miles every Sunday, till a Christian conductor undertook to hold service
in one of the coffee-stores. (The Principal of Trinity College, Kandy,
mentions that one of his late pupils travelled 130 miles in order to be
present at the early morning service on New Year’s Day.)
As a matter of course, the work of this Mission is greatly helped or
impeded by the attitude of the authorities on each estate. In some cases
the planters themselves, or their superintendents, take a hearty
interest in its progress, and I have recently heard of one who, being
present at the baptism of five of his own coolies, addressed them in
their own tongue, in such plain, manly words as they were not likely to
forget, especially exhorting them so to live that they might be the
means of bringing others also to Jesus. That speaker’s words are so
happily illustrated in his own life, that one of his Singhalese
neighbours expressed a devout hope that he may eventually become a
Buddha!
Happily, within the last few years, a considerable number of the
planters have awakened to the duty and privilege of thus exerting a
strong personal influence on the men in their employ, while on other
estates much is done by earnest Christian _Kanganis_, _i.e._, coolie
overseers, who supplement the work of the catechist by reading the
service on intermediate Sundays, or in some cases by holding
prayer-meetings (for many catechists have charge of a very much larger
district than any one man can work satisfactorily). In at least one
district the habit of family evening-prayer is now general amongst the
Christians, though to assemble in the morning is impossible, owing to
the early hour when work begins.
On the other hand, where the _Kangani_ is a heathen and antagonistic to
the Christians, he can greatly impede the work of the catechist and
embitter the lives of the converts. Thus, in one district, where till
recently there were four Christian _Kanganis_, a change in the
management of the estates has led to their being all replaced by
heathens—a very grievous matter for the little band of converts whose
taskmasters they are.
A considerable number of conversions have been entirely due to the
influence and persuasion of Christian fellow-coolies. This has notably
been the case in Uda Pussellawa, where, about twelve years ago, a
Canarese man and his wife were converted. They had for many years been
working on Ceylon estates, and probably had a large acquaintance among
their fellows. Every evening since their baptism, when the long day’s
work is done, they have assembled in their house as many as they could
collect for Bible-reading and prayer, and it is mainly due to this
effort that a congregation of upwards of a hundred persons now meet for
worship every Sunday in a pretty stone church, towards the building of
which ‘Isaac’ and his wife contributed the first hundred rupees. The
congregation prove their zeal by walking from six to ten miles from
other estates, no small effort on this their only day of rest. These are
only poor coolies, but somehow, I fancy that in the Great Hereafter many
of us who now daily _say_ (I doubt if we as often really _pray_ that
oft-said prayer) THY KINGDOM COME, will vainly wish that in all our
lives we had done as much to prepare the way for our Lord’s coming as
these humble folk have done.
Certainly it is enough to make us all think, to note how often a few
words of Scripture or of exhortation have so impressed poor ignorant
heathen Tongans, Fijians, or Chinamen, that they have returned to their
own villages and endured persecution for years staunchly, never resting
till they have persuaded others, and so each has become the nucleus of a
church; whereas we, on whom all teaching and Christian privileges have
been lavished from our cradles, what have we individually ever done to
induce one from without the fold to enter?
I never hear the story of Ebed-melech, the Ethiopian eunuch (whom so
many white men would contemptuously have described as ‘only a nigger,’
but to whom alone the prophet was bidden to convey the Divine assurance
of safety amid all the horrors of the capture of Jerusalem and the
slaughter of all the princes and nobles of Judah[236]), without a
thought of that day of surprises, when so many great lords, temporal and
spiritual, will have to take the lowest places, and others who are now
last and least will find themselves first and greatest in THE KINGDOM.
-----
Footnote 236:
Jer. xxxviii. 7, 8; and Jer. xxxix. 6, 7, and 16-18.
-----
In another case recently reported, eighteen persons came forward to ask
for baptism, all of whom had been very carefully instructed by another
Christian couple. Thirteen of these had walked thirty miles through a
continuous downpour of rain to present themselves to the clergyman on
his visiting the district. Of course all candidates are subject to most
searching examination to prove their sincerity, and the answer of one
suggested how truly he had grasped the principle of the new life.
‘Doubtless,’ he said, ‘some may be Christians in name only, but such
have only joined Christianity without being united to Christ.’
Of course the difficulty of obtaining a permanent influence over these
coolies is greatly enhanced by their migratory habits, which often take
them from one district to another, or back to India, before much
appreciable good has been done. Nevertheless, some of the workers are
convinced that, even as the dawn advances to high noon—imperceptibly—so
the Light is radiating silently but surely; and though as yet only about
fifteen hundred of the Tamil coolies now on the Isle have received
baptism, a considerable number have returned as Christians to their own
country, and very many listen with earnest attention, and some say they
are convinced of the truth of the Gospel, but dare not face the anger of
their relations should they openly embrace Christianity. It would be
difficult to find a more remarkable proof of their goodwill than is
shown by the generosity with which they sometimes contribute to purely
Christian objects, as, for instance, the building of a substantial
church at Rackwane, where the congregation is very small and very poor,
and about three-fourths of the requisite sum has been given by heathen
overseers and coolies!
Among what I may call ‘insensible influences’ for good are some
exceedingly popular Christian lyrics, something in the style of ‘The
old, old story,’ composed by a Tamil poet. They are Christian stories
told in the native style of poetry, and set to native tunes, which find
great favour with the people. Many of the converts who cannot read, know
these by heart, and their companions, attracted by the melody, learn
them also; and so the story is sung, and often well sung, by those who
as yet know little of its meaning. Thus one whose heart is in his
Master’s work, chanced to be travelling by coach to Kandy, when one of
the passengers commenced singing Hindoo songs so cheerily that his
companions begged him to continue. One at least of his hearers was
considerably astonished when the next song selected was one of the most
beautiful of these lyrics, ‘Jesus carrying His Cross,’ a text which
furnished the subject for earnest words to an attentive audience of
Hindoos and Buddhists. The singer said he had learnt the lyric from
hearing it sung by a Roman Catholic convert in a distant part of the
country.
When we remember that in the Jaffna peninsula alone the three Missions
have 15,000 children in training, all of whom are taught to sing sacred
stories, it is evident what a far-reaching agency for good this must
prove. The schools have periodical concerts, when all the relatives come
to hear and admire, and the children and Bible-women teach the mothers,
who like to sing them in their own homes, so that they are gradually
replacing the very objectionable mythological songs even in homes which
are not yet altogether Christian.
To those who have not noted elsewhere how often a mighty tree grows from
a tiny seed, the feeble first-fruits of work in some large centres of
heathenism may seem almost contemptible. Thus in the town of
Kurunegalla, the Tamil Christian congregation consists of three very
poor families; one is that of a fisherman, another of a man who climbs
palm-trees to draw ‘toddy,’ while the third householder is a
road-coolie, who at his baptism selected the name of Zachariah, his wife
naturally assuming that of Elizabeth. The latter tends a flock of sheep—
a few sheep we must assume, since at night she folds them all in the
largest room of her little hut, she and her husband contriving to stow
themselves away in the other room, which measures 5 feet by 6 feet!
Truly a tiny flock, both pastoral and spiritual, but as regards the
latter, its shepherd is satisfied that it will erelong prove the nucleus
of an ever-widening congregation.
I must repeat that I am speaking only of the Tamil Christians of
Kurunegalla, the Singhalese and Burgher congregations being of course
quite distinct. Of the former, a recently-acquired member is a native
headman from an outlying village, converted through the instrumentality
of his brother. These two men, being the only Christians in that
neighbourhood, have had to face considerable opposition; indeed, before
his baptism this young man had given very strong proof of his
determination, in resolutely refusing to offer incense in the great
temple at Kandy, where he was obliged to be present in his official
capacity; his refusal gave great offence to his superiors. To those who
can realise the scene within that beautiful temple—the crowd of devout
worshippers bearing their offerings, the gorgeously dressed headmen, the
throng of yellow-robed priests urging the recreant to compliance with
this simple ceremony—only the burning of a little incense—such an
incident suggests a picture of wondrous interest.
Indeed, in all Oriental scenes the picturesque element presents itself
at every turn in a manner undreamt of by those who insensibly illustrate
these outlines from their own Western thoughts. Thus in the case of the
tiny Tamil congregation of which I spoke just now, the reader whose mind
sees only three very poor English families would conjure up a very
different picture from the little group of turbaned brown men and of
women whose brilliantly-coloured drapery is worn so very effectively,
and whose poverty must be dire indeed if it forbids the display of rings
and bangles, always in good taste, however base the metal. Even the
sheep lying in the shade on the verandah of that humble hut are quaint
lanky animals with long drooping ears, very much more attractive to the
artist than those approved of by British farmers.
While the TAMIL COOLIE MISSION seeks to reach the Hindoo immigrants, a
corresponding organisation known as the KANDYAN ITINERANCY works over
nearly the same area of hill-country in the three central provinces. It
appeals especially to the Singhalese village population, supplying (to
the best of its ability) Christian schoolmasters and catechists, under
the superintendence of two European and two Singhalese clergymen of the
Church of England.
But considering over what a vast expanse of mountainous and forest
country these four men must travel in order occasionally to minister to
their widely-scattered flock, we can well believe that this Mission also
suffers from being ‘under-manned.’ Nevertheless, a wide-spread influence
for good has been established; in many districts a spirit of interest
and inquiry now replaces the dull apathy of sleepy Buddhism, and a
multitude of tiny congregations form so many little spots of leaven in
the great mass of heathenism.
It is not to be supposed that the paths of the converts are always paths
of peace, for even the non-persecuting Buddhists contrive to make life
very unpleasant to relations who venture to differ from them; young
converts especially are occasionally removed from school and beaten to
induce them to kneel once more at Buddhist altars, and the dread of
being so treated prevents many from expressing their convictions. For
instance, two youths, who ventured to say they wished to become
Christians, were at once compelled by their parents to assume the yellow
robe and prepare for the Buddhist priesthood.
The contemplative life, however, sometimes results in a more absolute
conversion, as in the case of a lad who had for four years attended the
Mission-school at Baddigama, when he was inveigled away by the priest of
a neighbouring village, who painted in glowing colours the easy life and
abundant food of the priesthood, and the honour and homage he would
receive from the people would he but take upon him the vows of Buddha.
The influence of the parents was secured by the promise of an annual
gift of twelve bags of rice from the temple. So the lad yielded, and was
duly shaven and invested with the sacred yellow robes, and for three
years he continued in the service of the temple with an ever-reproachful
conscience.
At length his spiritual conflict was evident to all his companions, and
every means, fair and foul, was tried to hold him fast. Some tried
bribes, and one man threatened to stab him if he would not say that
Buddha and the priests were the most high refuge. But the lad gained
courage, and throwing off the yellow robes, he returned to his first
teachers, and after due probation was baptized and confirmed, and is now
a communicant. His parents were present at his baptism, and there seemed
every reason to hope that they would follow his example.
In various parts of the Isle men who were once priests of Buddha have
likewise found the True Light, and are now working steadfastly under
Christ’s banner.
At the present moment, when a leaning to Buddhism and its twin-brother
Agnosticism has become a sort of fashion in England, it is interesting
to note the reasons for renouncing the former which are given by men
born and bred in that faith. One says he does so ‘because Buddha nowhere
says a word about the Eternal God; all things in heaven and earth
declare His wisdom and power, but as concerns loving, obeying, and
believing in Him, Buddha is dumb. Hence communion with God in prayer,
which is the very life of the soul, is absolutely ignored, since,
according to this teaching, there is no one to whom prayer can be
offered—no one to hear and no one to answer.’
An old man about seventy-five years of age said that all through his
long life he has been seeking rest. He wrote out sacred books, he gave
large alms, and performed long pilgrimages to Adam’s Peak and
Anuradhapura and other holy shrines, hoping thus to heap up merit; but
it was all to no purpose till at last Christ came to him (for truly, he
says, it was not that he had sought Christ), and in Him he found the
rest he craved. The old man was one of a congregation of upwards of
seventy communicants in a village where a few years ago there was not
one Christian.
Now note the reply of a young convert, who, when urged by his father to
return to his ancestral faith, replied, ‘I cannot go back to Buddhism. I
must believe that there is a Creator of the world. I need forgiveness of
sin, and there is no Saviour, no forgiveness in Buddhism. There is no
one who has the power to forgive, therefore, everyone must of necessity
endure all the consequences of his sins. I want to be happy after death,
and there is no hope in Buddhism—but in Christianity I find all these.’
The latter is the son of a rigidly Buddhist family, and had been brought
from another province by the priest at Kurunegalla on purpose to teach a
school which he had opened in opposition to that of the Mission. This
young man’s uncle was sent for to reason with him, but instead of
reclaiming the wanderer, he confessed the validity of all his arguments,
and presented himself as a candidate for baptism.
It is also instructive to note that the aforesaid priest, in urging his
neighbours to withstand the teaching of ‘those lying fools the
Christians,’ instead of himself preaching pure Buddhism, recommends the
villagers to join the Society of Theosophists. There is, unfortunately,
no doubt that Buddhism has received a real impetus from the example of
certain foolish Europeans, who (most assuredly lacking any personal
knowledge of ‘THE MASTER’ whom they so dishonour) have thrown in their
lot with the teachers of so-called Theosophy and Esoteric Buddhism—
systems which those who understand them best, classify as ‘Bedlamite
balderdash,’ ‘blatant humbug,’ and ‘impudent imposture.’
I would shrink from quoting such expressions regarding any phase of true
Theosophy or ‘Divine knowledge,’ but the leaders of this society in
Ceylon (well aware that there could be no fellowship between seekers
after knowledge of God and the atheistic system of Buddhism, which does
not acknowledge any God) were wise in their generation, and adopted as
their title the Paramawignanartha, or Supreme Knowledge Society.
Consequently it embraces whatever may be the individual ideal of highest
good, whether it be how best to enjoy this world, and how to get on in
it and get wealth, or how best to attain to Nirvana and the extinction
of all desire.[237]
-----
Footnote 237:
Taking Theosophy even at its best, as now preached in Europe, an
unbiassed student of its teaching writes: ‘There is no note which
vibrates more constantly in the soul of every true man than the
prayer, “Lord, be merciful to me a sinner!”... To that heartfelt cry I
do not find any answer in Theosophy. I find, on the contrary, an
almost exultant assertion that GOD is not a Being with a Father’s
heart, that for sin there is no expiation, and for the sinner no
forgiveness.’
-----
I think the European disciples of these schools would be rather startled
were they to realise the practical working of the systems for which they
are content to abjure Christianity. For instance, in the neighbourhood
of the Mission-station at Cotta, Colonel Olcott succeeded in stirring up
the Buddhist priests to such hostility, that for a while the attendance
at the Christian schools was sensibly diminished. In the village of
Udumulla the priests under this influence opened a rival school, and
pronounced a very singular form of excommunication against all who
should persist in sending their children to the Mission-schools. Such
offenders were to be fined a rupee and a half, and were further
admonished that ‘the dhobie shall not wash their clothes, the native
doctors shall not attend any of them in sickness, _the devil-dancers
shall not perform demon ceremonies for them (!), and the astrologers
shall not consult the planets for them on the birth of their children,
or concerning marriages and other important events_!’
We need scarcely wonder that those who have escaped from this debased
system are proof against all arguments of the Theosophists. Colonel
Olcott did his utmost to persuade a Buddhist priest who had become a
Christian to resume the yellow robe. When he had exhausted his
arguments, the ex-priest replied, with more force than polish, ‘I am not
a dog that I should return to my vomit. Pray spare your pity. If you can
believe that there is no right, no wrong, no soul, no conscience, no
responsibility, no God, no judgment, you need for yourself all the pity
you possess and more.’
Yet it is to this system that so great an impetus has been given even in
Europe and America by the agency of so beautiful a writer as Sir Edwin
Arnold, who, in his passionate admiration for the good and noble,
depicts things not as they really are, but as he would have them to be;
for truly what he calls ‘The Light of Asia’ has most practically proved
to be only bewildering darkness.
Surely such an ovation as was accorded to him by the Buddhists when he
visited Ceylon in 1886 was doubtful honour for a Christian. At one
Buddhist college near Colombo well-nigh three thousand Buddhists
assembled to testify their gratitude to the poet who has painted their
leader in colours all borrowed from the life and teaching of Him Who is
the true LIGHT OF THE WORLD. The honoured guest was placed on a raised
platform beneath an honorific canopy, while Buddhist ecclesiastics robed
in yellow satin chanted chorals, litanies, and anthems in Pali and
Singhalese, Sir Edwin replying in Sanskrit.
One of those best acquainted with practical Buddhism in Ceylon describes
it as ‘the most cunningly-devised system of atheism and negation, of
idol-worship, tree and serpent worship, demon-worship, and pessimism
which has ever held the human mind in bondage’—a system exactly
answering to the awful Scriptural summary, ‘Having no hope, and without
God in the world.’
Archdeacon Farrar says, ‘Buddhism, as it appears, not in “The Light of
Asia,” but in the original “Life of Gautama,” is but a philosophy of
despair, which knows no immortality, no conscience, and no God. Humanity
has groped in blindness after its Creator; in Christ alone has it
learned the love of His Fatherhood and the riches of His salvation.’
Here are the two creeds. The Buddhist Gospel of Misery teaches that all
is vanity and all is suffering, and that complete cessation of craving
for existence is the only cessation of suffering, and, therefore, the
one thing to strive after.
He ‘who is able to keep us from falling’ says, ‘Be ye perfect, even as
your Father which is in heaven is perfect.’ And His Apostle says, ‘Work
out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God which
worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure.’ And, as the
goal for which we strive, he says, ‘AND SO SHALL YE EVER BE WITH THE
LORD.’
Christ bestows now on all who truly give themselves to Him the gift of a
spiritual life, one with His own, which shall exist in conscious,
perfect union with Him throughout eternity.[238]
-----
Footnote 238:
Jesus says, ‘He that hath the SON HATH LIFE. He that hath not the SON
OF GOD HATH NOT LIFE. I am come that they might have Life, and that
they might have it abundantly. Where I am there shall also My servant
be.’
-----
Can anything more pitiful be conceived than that human beings born
within the pale of the Christian Church can deliberately sacrifice the
privilege of individual personal communion with the ever-present
Almighty Friend who cares for each one of us, in exchange for an utterly
irresponsive negation—a theory of perfection only to be attained through
self-conquest, at which poor weak human beings are advised to aim
through ages of lonely life-long struggles extending over many
transmigrations, without one prayerful look to the Divine Helper who
alone can keep our wayward wills from wandering after all manner of
evil? And all this in order to gain the cessation of their individual
life.
Buddha made no offer of the Divine Gift of Life, for it was not his to
bestow.[239] Of Christ it is true now as of old, that ‘as many as
receive Him, to them gives He power to become the sons of God, who shall
dwell with Him for ever and be like Him. Buddha offers no power nor help
of any sort. He merely gives rules how so absolutely to conquer every
natural instinct, that, after untold ages of weary agonising, men may
attain to a cessation of their very undesirable individual existence, in
other words, to Nirvana, _i.e._, the condition of a flame after it has
been blown out. The highest ideal of bliss is the attainment of
perfection in the colourless, loveless condition of a dewdrop falling
into the ocean, thenceforth to exist only as merged in the Infinite. It
is not a very inviting goal for which to agonise, except as a means of
escape from the prolonged miseries of innumerable transmigrations.
Surely not worth even a passing thought from any one who has received
Christ’s gracious offer of immortality—His own gift of Eternal Life in
Himself.
-----
Footnote 239:
When Prince Gautama was born the world had still six centuries to wait
ere man might again have access to the Tree of Life (the tree of
which, according to the old allegory, Eve failed to eat, and the
approach to which was thenceforth guarded, lest, having sinned, she
should nevertheless eat of its fruit and live for ever in estrangement
from God); and so the Redeemer reveals Himself not only as the Life,
but as the Life-Giver. ‘To them who by patient continuance in
well-doing seek for ... immortality, He giveth Eternal Life.’ ‘To him
that overcometh will I give to eat of the Tree of Life, which is in
the midst of the Paradise of God.‘ ‘THIS IS LIFE ETERNAL, that they
may know Thee, the Only True God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast
sent.’
-----
I think if good Prince Gautama had been born 600 years later, and within
hearing of the truth as revealed in Jesus Christ, he would assuredly
have been the most earnest and devoted of His apostles, and he would now
be spared the grief of seeing dim-eyed men turn from the fulness of the
True Light to grope after the pale glimmer which, when he kindled it in
the black night of unmitigated idolatry, was so eagerly blessed, even as
the weary watcher prizes the feeble rushlight if he has nothing better;
but candle and lamp alike pale before the glow of the Eastern dawn.
To us Christians the whole of life is glorified and gladdened by the
consciousness of living union with our ever-present loving Lord, and the
certainty (too often proved in our own experience to leave any room for
doubt) of His sympathy and care for all that concerns us. But for the
Buddhist there is no such companionship, only lonely striving after a
perfection unattainable to the weakness of unhelped humanity.
He seeks absolute perfection here. The Christian knows his life here to
be but the embryo of what it shall be; of the next stage he knows no
more than the dull grub, working out its little round of existence,
dreams in what perfection of life and radiancy of colour it will emerge
from its chrysalis coffin. Our life here is that of the chick cradled
within the egg-shell—a life hid (but hid with Christ in God), and even
now being formed and developed, soon to burst the shell and pass through
whatever stages may yet be needed to bring us to perfection.
‘It doth not yet appear what we shall be,’ any more than a vast
collection of birds’ eggs of all nations can suggest the myriad forms of
beauty which they represent—the soaring eagles, swift sea-birds,
jewelled humming-birds flashing in the sunlight, too quick for sight to
follow, bright birds of paradise, all varied types of radiant plumage
and musical song, and all developed from a lot of empty egg-shells. So
from the soul-cases in which we now dwell shall go forth the living US
to be perfected, each after his kind, and dwell for ever in His
presence, which is fulness of joy.
Of course one radical difference between the striving after perfection
enjoined on the Christian and on Buddhists, Parsees, Brahmans and
Mahommedans lies in the motive for good works. The Christian knows he is
bound to do his very utmost as a thank-offering for the free gift
bestowed on him, whereas, in all other creeds, the one idea is that of
purchasing salvation by works. Multiply acts of self-denial, external
rites, pilgrimages, prayers (though Buddhism ignores God), and by these
means weave a robe of self-righteousness—the dearest of all to human
pride.
In the case of Buddhism, repeat the name of Buddha as a perpetual charm.
You can never say it often enough; so go on and on all your life. If you
could be sure that you had thus, or by any other means, acquired
sufficient merit, there would be no occasion to pay the monks for
reciting endless acts of devotion (which cannot be prayers) on your
behalf, to get your soul out of the many purgatories in which devils
will delight in tormenting it. Oh! the hopelessness of such a creed,
with its weary prospect of successive transmigrations, each carrying
forward the account of good or ill from the previous state of existence.
Kandy, as might be expected in the city of the sacred Tooth, has as yet
proved a rocky soil, unfavourable to the growth of Christian seed; and
though the Episcopal Church, the Wesleyans, and the Baptists are all at
work, it has been well said that the atmosphere is as full of heathenism
as it is of heat. Seeing the very important bearing on this subject of
female education, it is somewhat remarkable that, with the exception of
the Wesleyan industrial schools for poor girls, no female
boarding-school should have been established in the mountain capital.
Mission-agents send their daughters from here to Cotta, but for those of
influential Kandyan gentlemen no such education is available, though it
has been proved that wherever such schools are opened, parents willingly
send their daughters, though well aware that a considerable number
invariably embrace Christianity. This subject is one of increasing
importance, not merely on account of the influence which might thus be
acquired in many influential homes, but as the surest hope of providing
suitable wives for such converts as may be won from among the high-caste
Kandyan boys who are now being trained at Trinity College, Kandy.
Such is the anxiety for a good English education, that the parents of
these lads and young men are eager to secure it, notwithstanding a
well-grounded impression that it will probably result in the
renunciation of Buddhism. The college is under the direction of two
English clergymen and a staff of ten masters. The two hundred
day-scholars and the forty boarders are of all denominations, but the
majority are professedly Christian, as are also all the masters; and
when we hear of these scholars holding prayer-meetings by themselves,
and that in one year eight of the senior students dedicated themselves
to active Christian work, it is evident that the tone of the college
must be encouraging to any Buddhist lad who is inclined to think
seriously on the subject.
I have already spoken[240] of the great school at Cotta, commenced by
the Church Missionary Society in A.D. 1822, with its boarding-school for
girls and training-institution for native clergy.
-----
Footnote 240:
Page 108.
-----
In addition to these varied duties, the Principal of Cotta, the Rev. R.
T. Dowbiggin, has also the general superintendence of upwards of fifty
village-schools, twenty-seven for girls and twenty-five for boys. These
are scattered over an area of five hundred square miles, and have an
average daily attendance of 1,100 girls and 1,600 boys, most of whom are
Buddhists. This extension of girls’ schools is deemed a most
satisfactory feature, full of promise for the future, were it only for
the breaking down of caste prejudice. As in the schools for Hindoo girls
in the Northern Provinces, so here Singhalese girls of four distinct
castes now sit on the same benches and learn the same lessons. This
result has been achieved with far greater facility in the boys’ schools
than in the girls’. But the fact that girls should be allowed to live in
the houses of Christians, and eat food cooked by them, proves that caste
in Ceylon is a less grievous yoke than it is in Northern India.
This caste question, however, does prove a very serious difficulty, not
only among the Tamil people, who, of course, keep up the regular Hindoo
caste distinctions, but also among the Singhalese. One of their own
pastors, the Rev. L. Liesching, writes, that although born and bred in
Ceylon, he could not have believed how strong its influence really is.
He says that even the Duriya (low-caste) Christians, on whose behalf he
has to combat the prejudice of their higher-caste neighbours, show just
as much unwillingness to associate with those who are of inferior caste
to themselves. And as regards the highest castes, this is undoubtedly
the greatest obstacle to their conversion. This is the more remarkable
as caste is not a sacred institution among the Singhalese, for Buddhism
does not recognise any such distinction of rank, and the Buddhist
priests, to whom all yield reverence, are admitted from every caste.
Here the distinction is simply social; nevertheless the line of
demarcation is so marked, that no amount of wealth can overcome it, or
induce the native aristocracy to admit a man from a lower caste to
social intercourse, far less to intermarriage.
Thus, of all the races who people Ceylon, the Moormen alone are
apparently free from caste trammels, at least I suppose they are as free
as average Christians, which, after all, is not saying much, especially
in free America, where the general interpretation of social equality
seems to lie in being the equal of all superiors and the immeasurable
superior of all of lower degree.
The Church Missionary Society did not commence work in Colombo till
1850. Three years later a large church was erected on the Galle Face
Esplanade, in which English, Singhalese, and Tamil services have been
constantly held for the three races. Here the Society also has district
schools for boys and girls, and a boarding-school for Tamil Christian
girls. It also carries on all manner of evangelistic work among Hindoos,
Mahommedans, Buddhists, and Portuguese.
The work amongst the latter is most discouraging, the majority being so
steeped in hopeless poverty that their life seems to have lost all
spring; and as Ceylon has no poor laws, all such are dependent for
relief on a voluntary association called the Friend-in-Need Society,
which, at best, can merely mitigate the sufferings of the most needy.
Though of Portuguese descent, many of these poor Burghers, living in the
lanes and alleys of Slave Island, are absolutely heathen; so the
Wesleyans have latterly commenced holding services in Portuguese for
their benefit, while the Church of England endeavours to reach some by
means of a ragged-school and special services in Singhalese, which the
majority can understand better than English. Their own language is a
very debased Portuguese. Of course the well-to-do Dutch Burghers form a
large and very important class of the community. As may be guessed by a
glance round any of the churches one may chance to enter, they fill all
sorts of responsible positions, but the Portuguese seem never to have
got over the crushing oppression to which their ancestors were subjected
by the Dutch, and to this day few rise high in the social scale.
In the Southern Province, where the population is principally
Singhalese, and consequently Buddhist, the Church of England Mission is
carried on chiefly by the S.P.G. and Diocesan clergy, the only station
of the Church Missionary Society being that at Baddigama, which was
commenced about A.D. 1820. Here one European and two native clergymen
superintend the work of fifty male and female lay teachers. Baddigama is
a large district, extending as far north as Bentota, and including a
population of 100,000 souls, of whom only 526 are as yet professedly
Christian. Twenty-six church-schools, with an average attendance of
about sixty-seven children, are, however, so many centres of good
influence, though there are villages where the schoolmaster himself is
as yet literally the only Christian. Yet even in these the people seem
quite willing to listen, and many profess to have lost all belief in
Buddhism.
These villages are generally in the poorest districts, which have been
almost abandoned by the Buddhist priests, and the temples left to fall
into decay. This points to the fact that in the low country there are
few rich temple endowments in land, such as were bestowed on the
priesthood by the Kandyan kings, and which make the priests of the
Central Province altogether independent of the people. That the people
themselves desire education is certain, and at one of these low-country
villages the Bana Maduwa (Buddhist preaching-place) was offered to the
Mission by the village headmen, to be converted into a Christian school;
and when this was declined because it adjoined the _pansala_, _i.e._,
temple-school, they at once erected a new building for the purpose.
It is, however, to be feared that the present ‘Buddhist revival,’ so
diligently fostered by Europeans, will awaken much priestly activity in
regard to long-neglected schools. Thus, in September 1890, a Buddhist
school was opened at Welligama, the temple south of Galle, which was
endowed by ‘the Leper King,’ apparently for no other purpose than to
draw away the children from the Wesleyan and S.P.G. schools there. Sixty
were allured from the former, and twenty from the latter, and a few days
later a dastardly attempt was made to burn down the Wesleyan schools.
That a period of renewed struggle and difficulty may be at hand seems
only too probable. Yet, on the whole, there is good ground for
encouragement. In summarising the present position of Ceylon in regard
to Christianity, it must be borne in mind that, apart from actual
conversions, a very much wider work has been accomplished in the
softening of prejudices, the general loosening of the far-reaching roots
both of Buddhism and Brahmanism, and especially in awakening a real
interest in religious questions in place of the former utter apathy.
This last change is, doubtless, due to the amount of careful Scriptural
training which has for so many years been imparted to many thousand
children in the schools of all the Protestant Missions. These at present
number over forty thousand.
Consequently, in any district where Mission-schools have been at work
for any length of time, a Christian preacher may be sure that many of
his hearers have some previous understanding of the subject, which in
itself is an immense help. Moreover, Christian teachers are more and
more supplanting the heathen teachers in all the schools, so that all
influence is in the right direction.
It is quite evident that the way is now open for real progress, if only
the Mission-field were provided with a sufficient working staff. Whether
these can be supplied must depend in a great measure on the pecuniary
support placed at the disposal of the various working societies. Of
Ceylon, as of so many other lands, it must be said, ‘The harvest truly
is plenteous, but the labourers are few.’
From the present position of Buddhism, it is evident that every month of
delay in occupying any fresh Mission-field in Ceylon will increase the
difficulties and diminish the prospect of success; therefore, it is
surely the plain duty of English Christians to rouse themselves to a
resolute effort on behalf of the beautiful Isle where such a multitude
of England’s sons are striving to earn their living.
Now here, it seems to me, is one of the most practical bits of direct
work that could well be found. There lies the beautiful land, with, IN
ONE SINGLE DISTRICT, TENS OF THOUSANDS of neglected villagers, weary of
their own dark ignorance, and ready to be taught by whoever will first
enter the field. Earnest workers who have gladly devoted their lives and
consecrated every energy to ploughing and sowing in neighbouring
districts, look longingly on this great field which now lies white to
the harvest, and from their lonely stations they send home to rich
Christian England such a cry for help in this great need as must surely
arouse the most indifferent to a true understanding of their privilege
in being allowed to help such a work from those funds which we know we
each hold in trust, to be accounted for hereafter, as we so often need
to remind ourselves, as we say ‘Both riches and honour come from THEE,
and of THINE own do we give THEE.’
Our MASTER has deputed us to offer to all men throughout the whole world
His priceless gift of SPIRITUAL LIFE; and yet there are millions to whom
His message of love has never been delivered, because they to whom He
has entrusted His talents of gold and silver are either squandering them
on themselves, or hoarding them for other purposes than that of sending
messengers to carry this great Light to the nations who still dwell in
the darkness of heathenism.
The funds at the disposal of the various societies being quite
insufficient to supply the means of livelihood for even the native
catechists, schoolmasters, and Bible-women so sorely needed for the
work, it is evident that Europeans possessed of sufficient private means
to support themselves would be especially welcome. Surely there must be
some—and many are needed—who will recognise in this glorious work for
eternity a better use for God-given talents than that of shaping the
pleasantest career in England.
Why should not two friends who realise the true purpose of their lives
agree that whereas their companions are starting in couples in search of
big game in far countries, they too will start together as fishers of
men, to cast the Gospel-net in waters teeming with life? Assuredly in no
other career will they find so true a spring of joy and gladness for
their own lives as in this ceaseless effort to draw all around them to
the knowledge and love of their Saviour.
And of all Mission-fields, few offer greater attractions than this
beautiful Isle, with its mountains and forests, its bold crags and
picturesque rivers, its gorges and waterfalls, its lower hills and wide
verdant plains. Furthermore, as compared with such vast Mission-fields
as China or Africa, this has the charm of a simple language, a people
gracious and kindly to Europeans, the protection of the Union Jack, and
the possibility of at any time securing a day with some
fellow-countryman who will welcome the sound of his own mother-tongue.
Here then are the inducements:—A healthy open-air life in a lovely
country, ploughing and sowing fields which assuredly cannot prove
barren, inasmuch as the Lord of the harvest is Himself with His servants
to direct their work; and when the angel-reapers have garnered their
ripened grain, the patient sower will realise such everlasting gladness
as all the fleeting honours of earth fail to secure.
INDEX
Aboriginal worship, 408, 410
Actors, Tamil, 261
Adahana Maluwa, a sanctuary, 216
Adam’s Peak, 523
Adult baptisms, 365
Aetagalla, 497
Agnew, Miss Eliza, 559
Agnosticism, 588
Alexander the Great, 538
Alexandrite, 319
Allegalla Peak, life on, 500;
footprint on, _ib._;
rain-storm on, 501
Alu-Vihara rock-temple, 239
Ambetteyos or barbers, outcasts, 380
Ambulam, 313
American Mission, 557
_Amherstia nobilis_, 38
Ancestral worship great hindrance to conversion, 587
Ant-eater and ant-lion, 337
Ants, red and black, 44, 82
— white, 43-45, 337;
eat dead timber, 326;
their foes, 337;
their ravages on tea-plants, 513
Anuradhapura, its tanks, 252, 257, 303;
origin of name, 264;
its ruins, 267;
buried city, 278;
history of, 283-285;
bo-tree at, 288-293
Arichandra, 261
Ark, sacred, 286, 314
Arnold, Sir Edwin, 598
Arrack, 418, 434, 470;
trade, 437-439;
farms, 437,
(Skinner on), 505
Arrows, of gods, 216;
of Saman, 314;
of Maha-Sen, 398
Artist’s difficulties, 186
_Artocarpus incisa_ and _integrifolia_, 119
Ashes, of cow-dung, 343;
of sandal wood, use sanctioned by Rome, _ib._
Astrologers, 197, 199, 598
Aukana Vihare, 266
Australian gums, 506, 514
Avissawella, 311
Axis, or spotted deer, 171, 346, 459
Badal-Wanassa, 182
Baddegama, 430
Badulla, 330, 331;
its church, 335
Baker, Sir Samuel, his farm on the Moon Plains, 137;
on honey as an industry, 152;
on climbing elephants, 154;
on sambur hunting, 171;
and the devil-bird, 388
Balalu-wewa, 250, 258
Bamboo, gregarious flowering, 152;
gigantic, 190
Bana Samanala, 311
Banana plant, 32
Bandarawella, 330
Bandicoot, 513
Banyan-tree, 86;
at Negombo, 104;
on the Nerbudda, 105;
near Kalutara, 472;
at Captain’s Gardens, 475
Baptisms, adult, 365
Barber, Tamil, 27
Barnes, Sir Edward, 57
Barringtonia, 472
Bassawa-kulam tank, 252, 258;
oldest, 303
Bats, nitre, 239, 303
Batticaloa, 362, 426;
derivation of, 363;
the harbour-bar, 428
Batticotta College for Tamils, 565-570
Bears, 357, 459
_Bêche de mer_, 95, 397
Bees, 151
Belligama, sand village, 443
Bentota, 466;
oysters, 468
Betel-chewing, 31, 32, 95
Bhuwaneka Bahu IV., King, 499
Bible-women, 562
Bintenne, 372
Birds’ nests, edible, 95, 397
Bishops of Colombo and Ceylon, 29, 37, 550
Blue-bells, 136
Blue Ribbon Army, 570
Boar, wild, 359, 360, 459
Boatmen, picturesque, 14, 87
Bolgoda Lake, 475
Botanical gardens, Hak-galla, 153;
Peradeniya, 187-192;
Henaratgoda, 192;
Anuradhapura, _ib._;
Badulla, 192, 336
Bo-tree, sacred, 105, 288-293;
prophecies concerning, 290;
cremation of branch, 291;
of leaves, 292
Bow and arrows of gods, 216, 314
Branding cattle, 26
Brazen temple, 279, 280
Bread-fruit tree, 119
Bridge of boats, 57
Brownrigg, Sir Robert, 65
Buddha, his birthday, 69;
as a roast hare, 211 _n._;
twenty-five Buddhas in Ceylon, 290 _n._, 547;
relics of Buddha, 273, 306;
dreary negations of, 304;
or Christ? 598-601
Buddhism, incorporates Hindooism, 58, 196, 211;
is Atheism, 60, 576;
and State patronage, 62, 65, 69;
and serpent worship, 92;
and Roman Catholicism, 341-343;
reasons given for abjuring, 596-598;
esoteric, 597
Buddhist, rival sects, 58;
robe, how worn, 59, 266;
temporalities, 63;
cosmology, 67;
fighting priest, 72;
reverence for animal life, 157 _n._;
heavens, 296;
stone railing, 297
Buffaloes, 109, 351, 353, 357, 359, 360, 402, 459
Bulan-kulum, 258
Bungalow, 41;
temporary, 184, 334, 380, 402;
beside a lake, 476;
on Allegalla Peak, 500
Buona Vista Orphanage, 430
Burning forest, 338, 339, 343, 344, 522
Buttercups, 136
Butterflies, 147, 381;
Samanaliya, 531
Cable-Rattans, 402
Cacao or chocolate-tree, 514
Cacti, 90, 93, 241, 345
Calico, white (royal cloth), 184, 209, 215, 314, 365, 380
Calpentyn, 93
Camphor, oil of, 46
Canals, 79;
ancient, 258, 259
Candle-nut tree, 113, 114
Canoes, 13, 87
Cape Barberyn, westernmost land, 466
Car festival, 314, 326
Cashew bark, 300
Cashew nuts, 96
Cassia, 49
— bark, 300
_Cassia fistula_, 299
Caste, 366;
persecutions, 366-369;
prejudices, 376;
Singhalese, 377;
fisher subdivisions, 473;
Singhalese, its strength, 603
— and outcast, 377-379
Cat’s-eye, 319
Cattle, humped, 27
— estate, 370, 371
Centipede, 83
Ceylon Rifles disbanded, 478
Chandivelle, 369
Chanks, temple trumpet, 183, 184
Chapman, Dr., first Anglican Bishop of Colombo, 29
Charms, 196-198, 442
Chekku oil-mill, 435
Chena-farming, 344
Chetahs, 167, 168, 349-356, 459
Chilaw, 96, 98
China, early trade with Ceylon, 396;
Ceylon tributary to, 397;
modern trade with, _ib._
Cholera, 465, 518
Christianity and other creeds contrasted, 601
Chrysoberyl, 321
Chunam, 41, 277
Cinchona plantations, 515, 516
Cinnamon, gardens of, 37, 44, 45, 50;
laurel and oil, 45-47;
sensitive nature of its perfume, 47;
peelers, 48;
in jungles near Negombo, 107
— doves, 46
— stone, 320
Civil servants, frequent removal of, 441 _n._
Clearing the forest, 338, 339, 343, 544, 522
Climbing plants, 345, 400
Close season for game, 346, 458
Clothes, smart, 146
Cobra, reverenced, 92;
five- or seven-headed, 92, 292, 295, 306;
tame, 93, 292;
and tic polonga, 293;
bite remedies, 301
Cock, red, sacrifice, 199
Cocoa plantation, life on a, 359, 369. _See_ Palm, Cocoa
Coffee, fields, 327, 340;
stores as churches, &c., 340;
thieves, 493;
disease, 507;
history of, 507-510
Coffin, stone, 296
College, St. Thomas’s, 28, 29;
Royal, at Colombo, 30;
Vidyodaya, 66
Colombo, its Cathedrals (Anglican), 29;
(Roman Catholic), 71;
its harbour, 7, 8;
ironworks, 9;
cotton-spinning, _ib._;
churches, 30;
fort, 34;
siege of, 34, 35;
lake, 38, 39;
its esplanade (‘Galle Face’), 39
Convolvulus, marine, 80, 90, 100, 421, 471
Coolies, 518
Coral-tree, 120
Cotta mission-station, 108, 601
Cottiar Bay, 412
Cow-catcher, 110
Cow-dung, plaster, 31, 337, 370;
ashes, 343;
boiling, 474
Crabs, 100, 421
Cremation of a Buddhist priest, 72, 73
Crime, regarded with indifference, 477, 480;
causes of, 481
Criminals, few women, 481
Crocodiles, 256, 303, 358, 403, 456;
longevity of, 403;
skin, 404
Crops, two, annually, 110, 262
Crow Island, 443
Cruelty to animals, 494, 495
Curry, 31
Customs, Singhalese and Tamil, 85
Dagoba, various kinds of, 210, 268;
Ruanweli, 268, 270, 277, 287;
Miriswetiya, 269, 276;
Abhayagiria, 270, 273, 276;
Thuparama, 271, 273;
Lankarama, 273, 276;
Jetawanarama, 273, 276;
of two classes, 274;
circle on a square, 275;
Hanguranketa, contents of, 276;
Seta-Chaitiya or Lajjikavihara, 276;
derivation of the word ‘dagoba,’ 276 _n._;
Kiri Wihara, 277;
at Buddha-Gaya rebuilt, 289 _n._;
Etwehera, 306;
Maha Seya, 306;
Ambustele, 307;
Rankot or Ruan-welle-saye, 276, 393;
Kiri, at Pollonarua, 393
Dambulla rock-temples, 240;
scene of last insurrection, 249
Datura blossom, 128, 133
_Datura fastuosa_, 301
Dawson, Captain, monument to, 122
Days of the week, 219
De and Don, Portuguese prefixes, 490
Deaths, falling from trees, 418, 419;
accidental, 492
Decoration, church, 142
Delada-Maligawa, at Kandy, 174, 201, 206, 221;
at Anuradhapura, 271;
at Pollonarua, 392
Delada-wanso, 220
Demon-worship, 197, 199, 371, 585, 586
Detractors of missionaries, 578
Devil-bird, 388
Devil-dancers, 183, 196, 199, 314, 585
Devils, how to deceive, 198
Devotion, legendary acts of, 201
Dewenipiatissa, King, 252, 273, 289, 303, 305
Dhatu-Sena and Mahanamo, 250, 260
Dhobie, village laundryman, 380;
prepares bungalows for travellers, _ib._
Dimbula district, 135
Dondra- or Dewa-nuwara, 285, 442, 446-448
Douglas, Sir John, 255
Doves, 467, 468
Dragonflies, 327
Drama, 261, 422, 423
Duel, historic, 242, 243
Dufferin, Lady, her medical school for women, 562
Dutch invasion, 550
— missions, 430
Dutugemunu, 243, 265, 268, 269
Ebed-melech, the Ethiopian, 592
Ebony, its durability, 43;
peculiar characteristics of, 57, 419;
raft of, 57
Eiswara, ancient worship of, 295
Elala, Prince of Mysore, 243, 265
Elephant Plains, 135
Elephant, Tom Skinner’s first, 123;
the war elephant, Kadol, 265;
shooting, 350, 357, 359;
a midnight adventure with an, 460, 461;
charmer, professional, 462
Elephants as surveyors, 125;
as climbers, 153;
natural history, 155-167;
cause of tender feet, 163;
export of, 166;
in full dress, 212;
bridge-building, 357;
close season and consequent increase, 458, 459
Elk (sambur deer), 169, 170, 346, 356, 459
Ella Pass, 334
Elu or high Singhalese, 204
Encroachments of the sea, 448-451
Eribuddu, 79
Esoteric Buddhism, 597
Eucalyptus, 506
Euphorbia, 462
Evil eye, dread of, 376
— spirits, how to deceive, 198
Eye flies, 347, 381
Fa Hian, Chinese traveller, 271, 288
Faiths, Blended, 196, 556
False accusation, murders to cause, 483
Farrar, Archdeacon, on Buddhism, 599
‘Father,’ American mission, 564
Feet of Buddha, 274. _See_ Holy Foot
Female medical students, 562
Ferguson, A. M., editor ‘Ceylon Observer,’ 52
Ferguson, William, botanist, 52
Ferns, tree, 134, 401;
maidenhair, 308;
climbing, 311, 471;
basket, 401
_Ficus religiosa_, _indica_, and _elastica_, 105, 106, 187, 188, 288
Field-hospitals, 333
Filters, the necessity of, 90, 381;
for village use, 382
Fire, sacred, 62
Fire-flies (beetles), 20, 81, 131, 315, 423
Fish, varieties of, 28, 98, 100;
culture, 139, 140;
in boiling springs, 416
Fishers, their attire, 14;
method of shooting by firelight, 364;
net drawing, 451;
the law of caste among, 473;
their allegiance to Rome, 549
Fishing, by torchlight, 79, 94;
with baskets, 94, 404
Flamboyant, 38
Floral offerings to Buddha, 61, 201, 278
Flowers, profusion of, 41, 129;
at Nuwara Eliya, 141, 142, 144
Flying fish, 424, 429
— foxes, 192, 400
— squirrels, 192
Foliage, brilliant, 12, 86, 132
Footprints, legendary, 523;
Christian, 525;
on Allegalla, 532;
on Adam’s Peak, 540, 541
Forest Department, 344
Forres, 534
Fort Austenburg, 406
Fort Frederick, 407, 411
Frescoes, in rock-temple of Dambulla, 242;
at Sigiri, 247
Frogs, 38;
embedded in stone, 68 _n._;
green, 400
Fruit, varieties of, 28;
tropical, cool when first gathered, 307
Fungi, brilliant, 326
Galgé, cell for chief priest, 296, 308
Galkulum, 267
Galle, its treacherous harbour, 6, 7, 429, 432;
relics of Portuguese and Dutch at, 17;
Buddhism at, 70;
its lighthouse, 432;
coral reefs, _ib._;
its excellent roads to Colombo, 470, 475
Gal Sannaso, 308
Gal Vihara, 395
Gambling, Singhalese love of, 17;
leads to crime, 480, 481
Gampola, 129, 285, 498
Gangarowa, 502
Gemming, 149
Gems, the gem notary, 315;
gems and gem pits, 315-324;
legislation concerning, 323
Giant’s canal, 258, 264
Giant’s tank, 251
Gigantic bean, 89, 401
— images, 395
_Gloriosa superba_, 470, 479
Glow-worm, 315
Goats, long-legged, 294
Gobbs, 74
Gogerly, the Rev, J., 204
Goldsmith’s curse, 182
Gordon, Sir Arthur Hamilton, as governor, 258-260
Gordon Cumming, John, 1st chena Inspector, 344;
his diary, 348
Grain, suitable to dry soil, 255
Grammars in rhyme, 206
Grasshoppers, 327
Grassy plains, 135
Grave-stones, domestic use for, 337
Green, predominance of, amongst submarine animals, 432;
prevalence of, in birds and butterflies, 469
Gregory, Lake, 139
— Sir William, 139, 257
Grove of the Tank Gods, 398
Gunner’s quoin, 397
Gutta-percha, 188
‘Habsidum,’ or retention of breath, 296
Haeckel, Ernst, the naturalist, 379
Hak-galla, 152
Haldummulla, 315
Hambantota, 327, 435, 457
Hanomoreyos outcasts, 379
Hanwella, 311
Happy Valley Mission, 330-333, 577
Haputale, 327, 330;
its railway system, 112, 329;
its pass, 328
Hardy, Rev. Richard Spence, 204, 205, 213
Hare, mark on moon, Buddhist legend concerning, 211 _n._
Hat-bodin, seven Bo-trees, 446
Havelock, Sir Arthur, 305
Haye, Admiral de la, 412
Head-covering, Tamil and Singhalese customs regarding, 85
Hedgehog-grass, 89
Hendala, leper hospital at, 444
Hibiscus, 33
Hindo-galla, 176
Hindoo-Buddhist procession, 211, 314
Hindoo images in Buddhist temples, 58, 196, 242
Hoffmeister on Kandy, 174
Holy Coat, 233
— Foot, or Feet, 523-525
— Footprint, claimed by various creeds, 523, 540, 541, 542
— Girdle, 231
Holy oil, how obtained, 228
— places in the forest, 398, 400
— teeth, a complete set, 226
— Tooth, 206-235;
burnt, 222;
manufactured, 222, 223, 225
— Trousers, 237
Home-sick Britons, 29
Honey-sucker, 194
Hooker, Sir Joseph, on gutta-percha, 188
Hornets, 151
Horoscope, 197
Horse-keepers, 26, 362
Horses, 362
Horton Plains, 134
Hospitals, 56, 333
Hot-springs, 415
Hounds, 169
Hydrophobia, 56, 494
Ibn Batuta, Moorish traveller, 39, 446, 538
Idol’s eyes, 70
Iguana, 80, 431
Images, Hindoo, in Buddhist temples, 58, 196
India-rubber tree, 106;
avenue at Peradeniya, 187;
how india-rubber is collected from, 187
Industrial homes and schools, 10, 332
Infidel books, 589
Inheritance, law of, 489
Inscriptions on rock or slabs, 244, 309;
the ‘Galpota,’ 391
Insects, noisy, 20
Iranative, snake-temple on, 91
Iron-wood, 38, 132
Irrigation works, 173, 250-264
Ixora, 387
Jackal’s horn, 302
Jackals, 171, 349, 355
Jaffna, Missions at, 554;
the Tamil College, 565-570;
the Iona of Southern India, 568;
devastated by cyclones, 582
Jak-tree, 119, 215
Jambu-tree, 365
Jay, blue, 149
Jaya-wewa, 303
Jetawanarama, temple at Pollonarua, 393;
irrigation works, 398
Jinrikisha, 8
Juggernath car, 314, 326, 342
Jungle fever, remedy for, 111
Jymkana, 143
Kaasyapa, the parricide, 246, 285
Kabragoya, 80, 431
Kaduganawa, 500
— Pass, 111, 122, 128
Kala-wewa tank, 249;
its feeders, 252
Kalidas, poet, 445
Kaloona, King, 285
Kalpitiya, 93, 95
Kalutara, 472
Kandy, its library, 118;
ancient approach, 122, 123, 201;
its history, 172;
its kings’ funeral ceremonies, 175;
chiefs’ dresses, 177;
ladies’ dresses, 180;
four Hindoo temples at, 215
Kannya, its hot-springs, 415
Kanthalay tank, 251, 256, 398, 400, 405
Kapok, 121
_Kapuas_ (devil-dancers), 183, 196, 199, 314, 585
Kapurales, 215, 216
Karajo or Parangi, 586
Karative salt-pans, 96
Kataragam Devale, temple, 215, 336
_Kattadia_ (devil-priest), 196, 197
Kattregam (Kataragama), 253, 398, 464
Kelany Ferry, 39;
its bridge of boats, 57;
temple, 58;
an inland town B., 306, 449
Kiklomani Mount, 139, 147
Kingfishers, 363, 405
Kirti Nissanga, King, 384, 391
Kitool, 182
Knox, Robert, captivity of, 283, 412
Kopay Church, fall of steeple, 583
Kumara Pokuna, 394
Kurukkan (grain), 255, 262
Kurunegalla, 241, 402, 497
Kushta, Rajah, 443, 444
Kutara Daas, king and poet, 445
Kuttam Pokuna, 303
‘Lagerstrœmia regina,’ 114
Lagoons, 38;
how formed, 39, 74, 363;
salt formations in, 456
Lajji-tissa, King, 276
Lake Gregory, 139
Lakes, artificial, 38, 39, 250
Langdon, the Rev. Samuel, 330, 331, 577
Lanka, 288, 384, 449
— Dwipa, the Happy Isle, 91
— Tileka, 498
Lantana, 345
Layard, Sir Charles Peter, 52
Leeches, 83, 84, 184-186
Legends and folk-lore, 243
Le Mesurier, Mr., 139
Lemon-grass, 136, 137
Leopards, miscalled chetahs in Ceylon. _See_ Chetahs
Leper King, 443, 444;
hospital, 444
Lettuce-tree, 38
Lighthouses, 448
Lilies, water, 82, 298;
white (virgin), 403, 421, 471;
the _Gloriosa superba_, climbing lily, 470
Litigation, prevalent among the Singhalese, 489
Lizards, 80, 81, 400, 403, 453
Loris, little, 302
Lotus blossoms, 298, 310, 387;
gold and silver representations of, 206, 210, 286
Lowa-maha-paya, Great Brazen Temple, 279-281
Luminous creatures, 315
Lunatics, 26
Lyrics, Christian, 593
Madoolseme, 338
Madulsima Mountains, 458
Maha Eliya (Horton Plains), 134
Maha-Sen, King, 251, 397-400, 405, 463
Maha-Wansae dynasty, 384
Maha-wanso chronicles, 204, 268, 283
Mahadova, 338
Mahagam, ancient city of, 458
Mahindo, royal missionary, 305-307
Mahindo’s bed, rock-ledge, 308
Maidenhair fern, 308
‘Makin’ a toil of it!‘, 519
Malaria in Dekanda Valley, 111
Maligawa, Tooth temple at Kandy, 174, 201, 206
Mana grass, 136
Mandeville, Sir John (fourteenth century), 549
Mangosteen, 473
Mangrove, 79
— swamps, 363, 471
Mantis, praying, 193
Manuscripts, ancient, 204-206
Maradankadawalla, 267
Maravilla, 103
March, on the, 347
Marine convolvulus, 80, 90, 421, 471
Masks, hideous, 183
Matale, 238, 239
Matara, 412, 445, 451
Mavalipuram submerged, 451
_Memecylon tinctorium_, 299
Midwifery, native, 560
Migration of butterflies, 147
Mihintale, 271, 276, 277, 303;
its 1,840 steps, 305
Mildew, 42, 272
Milk, Singhalese objection to, 81;
offerings of, 91, 291, 387
Millepedes, 194
_Mimosa pudica_, 301
— _sensitiva_, 190
Minery Lake, 251, 252, 384
Minery village, 398
Miracle plays at Chilaw, 101
Mission, native, 574;
Happy Valley, 577;
Tamil coolie, 589;
Kandyan Itinerancy, 595
Missionary detraction, 578
Missions, chronological table, 554;
summary of, 555;
American, commenced, 557;
Wesleyan, 571;
Native, to Burmah, 578;
Baptist and Presbyterian, 579 _n._;
Salvation Army, 579;
Episcopal, 580;
to Portuguese burghers, 604
Models of hands, arms, eyes, and ears, as thanksgiving offerings, 464
_n._
Mohammedan festival, 69
— mosque, characteristics of, 93
Monara or Mayura-paya, 279
Monastic records graven on rock, 310
Mongoose, 75, 95;
antipathy to cobra, 76 _n._
Monkeys, 78, 87-89, 459;
mischievous tricks of, 380
Monoliths, 268, 273, 274, 277, 281, 303
Monsoon, seasons of, 40
Monteiro, Juan, first Catholic primate of Ceylon, 37, 550
Moondim Aar Lake, 369
Moon-stones (columns), ancient sculptural designs on, 278, 287, 390
— gems, 149, 319
Moormen (Mohammedans), 15, 93, 94, 315, 316, 458
Mosquito, 79, 381;
its fecundity, 140
Mouse-deer, 169, 459
Mudaliyar, dress of, 178
Mulgirigalla, Buddhist monastery, 454, 455
Munro, Sir Hector, 412
Murders to cause false accusation, 483, 484
Murray, Mr. A., inventor of clay sluice-pipes, 261
Musical instruments, 183, 266
— shellfish, 364
Naga Pokuna, 306
Naga-dipo, Isle of Serpents, 91, 377
Nainativoe, snake-temple on, 91
Nairs, peculiar undress of high-caste women, 248
Names, descriptive, 149;
of persons, 490;
of estates, 520-522
Nanu-Oya, 128, 130, 139, 328
Nationalities, divers, in Ceylon, 14, 15
Nattoor, river, 375
Navatkuda, 365
Negombo fort, 106, 107
— lake, 79, 104
Nellore, 555
Nestorian Christians in Ceylon, 548
Nests, curious moths, 193;
peculiar character of birds’, 194, 195
New Year, Tamil and Singhalese festival of the, 69
Nillo, 151, 152
Nine and three, mystic numbers, 214, 215, 218, 219
Nipple hills, 459
Nirvana, Buddhist ideal, contrasted with the Eternal Life of the
Christian, 266, 598-601
Nutmeg-tree, 51
Nuwara Eliya, 128, 130, 137;
its climate, 140, 143
Nuwara-Kalawiya, 256, 386
Nuwara-wewa, 303
Oath-stone at Pollonarua, 398
‘Observer, Ceylon,’ newspaper, 52
Officials, busy, 461 _n._
_Ola_ palm-leaf book, 118, 204, 206;
copy-books, 375
Olcott, Colonel, 598
Oliphant, Laurence, 536
Oodooville, first girls’ school, 558
Opera-glasses in the temple, its effect on the priest, 208, 209
Opium crave and the use of quinine, 516
— dens, 439 _n._:
Orchids, Wanna Rajah, 78;
yellow ground, 136
Orchilla, lichen, 94
Ordeal, boiling oil, 474
Oriental Bank Corporation, its failure and re-organisation, 509, 510
— Library, 66, 202, 204
Otters, 139, 171
Owls, 388
Oysters at Bentota, 468
Padda-birds, 90
Padivil tank, 251
Pali, 204
Pallagolla, 130
Pallai, 584, 585
Palm, Areca, 23;
blossoms of, 96;
characteristics of, 115
— _Coco de mer_, 189
— Cocoa, 23, 434;
at high elevations, 86;
with several heads, 107;
its cultivation encouraged by foreigners, 264, 433, 434;
life on a plantation, 359, 369, 426, 427;
oil and other industries connected with the cocoa palm, 435, 436;
the manufacture of toddy and arrack, 436-439;
legitimate uses of the cocoa palm, 440-442
Palm, Date, Thorn, Oil, and Sago, 189
— Jaggery or Kitool, 115
— Palmyra, 86, 115, 416-421;
marriage with the banyan, 86, 420
— Talipot, 116
Palm-blossom, its resemblance to wheat, 96;
used for decorative purposes, 181;
charm against evil spirits, 442
Palm-leaf books, 118
Palm-leaf umbrella, 116, 286
Palms as lightning-conductors, 441
Pandals, erection of, 181
Pandanus, 79
Panduka-abaya, 303
Pansala schools, 63, 296, 330
Panther, 168
Pantura or Panadura, 475
Papaw, 120
Paradise in Ceylon, 520
Parangi or Karayo, 258, 262, 304, 462, 586
Park-Country, near Batticaloa, 334, 346, 372
Parroquet, yellow, 498
Patenas, 136, 137
Patipola dividing range, 328
Peacock Palace, 279
Pearl-fisheries, 5;
police regulation of, 495, 496
Peepul, 105, 288, 290
Pelicans’ nests, 251 _n._, 358
Pengolin or ant-eater, 338
Peradeniya Gardens, 188-192
— Station, 128
Perahera, at Kandy, 200, 211, 213, 217;
dates of the feast, 213;
at Ratnapura, 313;
at Dondra, 447
Periyakulam, 415
Perjury rampant, 486, 487
Pettah, 26-28
Phosphorescence, 20, 21, 94, 423-425
Pidaru-tala-galla, 139, 144
Pigeons, 152, 459, 467
Pig-sticking, 360
Pilgrimages, government regulation of, 464
Pilgrims, aged, 533, 535
Ping-chattie (water-jar), 468-470
Pioneer corps, 125
Plains, Horton, 134;
Totapella, 135;
Elk, 136;
Agra, _ib._;
Moonstone, _ib._;
Maturata, 136, 145;
Kondapallé, 136;
Patena, _ib._;
Uva, _ib._;
Matale or Mahatalawa, 336;
Moon, 137
Planet-worship, 196, 218, 219
Planters, life of, 359, 517-523;
aid in mission work, 591
Plays, ancient Buddhist, 272;
Tamil, 261, 422
Pleurisy, 585
Plumbago, 324, 325
_Plumeria acutifolia_, 61
_Poinciana regia_, 38
Pokuna, Kumara, 394
— Kuttam, 303
Police work, 477-496
Pollonarua, 284, 285;
derivation of name, 293;
as a city, 383
Polyandry, 450 _n._
Porcupine, 171, 359-361, 394, 459;
its ravages on tea-plants, 513
Portuguese, their invasion of Ceylon, 550;
names, _ib._;
present condition, 604
Potato-tree, 132, 335
Pottery, offerings of red, 400
Prakrama Bahu, King, 244, 253, 266, 285, 384, 385;
his statue, audience hall, and lion throne, 389
— Seas, 252, 384
Precautions in tropical countries, 300
Prescriptions, native, 300-302
Prickly heat, 83
Processions, Buddhist and Roman Catholic, 71;
Roman Catholic, at Chilaw, 101;
Roman Catholic, in coffee districts, 340, 341
Progress in Ceylon, 2, 4, 5
Proverbs, 297
Provinces, 181
Puliyantivu, 363
Pussilawa, 129
Puttalam, 93, 98;
Saltworks at, 96, 456
Quarries, 277
Quinine, as a cure for opium crave, 516
Races, diversity of, 14, 15, 85
Ragalla, 145
Rag offerings, 546
Railway, Colombo to Gampola, 110, 111
Rainbow, rose-coloured, 327
Rain charms, 387, 392
Rajah Battiyattissa, 306
Rajah-kariya, 6, 124, 173;
abolished, 253
Rajah Singha, 206
Rama, Prince of Oude and Ravana, 134, 449, 531
Ramayana, poem, 531
Rambutan, 28
Ratnapura, 311
Rat-snakes, 41, 129, 313
Rats, 41, 152, 171
Ravana, the demon king, 134, 449, 531
Razors, cheap, 520
Red-deer, 169, 459
Red rain, 445 _n._
‘Red thread’ to keep off witches, 244
Reformatory, 333
Regimental coats for coolies, 340, 520
Registration of servants, 492;
of carts, 494;
of dogs, 495
Relic shrines, 210, 275
Relic worship, 228;
blood of Thomas à Becket, _ib._;
Father Arrowsmith’s hand, _ib._;
arm of St. Augustine, 229;
the True Cross, _ib._;
toe-nails of St. Peter, 230;
corpse of the Bishop of Ischia, _ib._;
Sainte Ceinture, 231
Relics, recently discovered Buddhistic, 67-69;
several religious relics, 233-237
Religions, amalgamated, 58, 196, 211, 341-343
Religious conflicts, Roman Catholic, 71, 101
— intolerance, 566 _n._
— orders, 37
Reptiles, 53
Rest-houses, 312, 405
Rhododendron-trees, 133
Rice, cultivation of, 109;
from wrecked ships, 264
Rice-fields, terraced, 109, 239
Rice-name, baby’s, 197
Rita-galla, 350
River, the Kelani, 39, 57, 128, 311;
the Maha-welli-ganga, 73, 128, 130, 139, 172, 190, 381, 386;
the Maha-Oya, 80, 104, 128, 347;
the Ging-Oya, 80, 104;
the Luna-Oya, 82, 86, 102;
the Dedroo-Oya, 89;
the Moondalani, 90;
Puna-Ella and Garunda-Ella, 130;
Sita-Ella, 134;
Nanuoya, 139;
Fort M’Donald, 170;
the Ping-Oya, 238;
the Kala-Oya, 250;
the Malwatte, 252, 263, 298;
Ambanganga, 252, 386;
the Kalu-Ganga, 311, 472, 473;
the Manick-Ganga, 321, 465;
the Kataragama, 465;
the Belihul-Oya, 327;
the Welawe-Ganga, _ib._;
the Magama, 334;
the Dambera-Oya, 347;
Nattoor, 375;
Gindura, 430;
Nilwalla-Ganga, 442, 445;
Kumukkan, formerly called Kombookgam, 459;
Alutgama, 466, 474;
Sita-Ganga, 536
Road bungalows, 312
Roads, 475
Robert de Nobili, Jesuit, 342
Robin, Ceylon, 103
Robinson, Sir Hercules, 65, 256
Rock frescoes at Sigiri, 247
Rock-masses, huge, 240, 241;
rounded, 307, 497
Rock-snake, 352, 358
Rock-temples, Hindo-Galla, 176;
Alu-Vihara, 239;
Dambulla, 240;
Isurumuniya, 295, 528;
Ella Pass, 335;
Mulgirigalla, 454
Rodiya outcasts, 377-379
Rogers, Major, 155, 158, 159;
memorial church to, 160, 335
Roman Catholic Mission, 341, 556, 557
Roots of trees, peculiar buttress-like, 348, 498
Royal maiden, a, 450
Rubies, 316-318
Ruby sand, 465
Rugam tank, 348
Saami Rock, Trincomalee, 407-410
Sabaragamuwa, 317, 321
Sack-tree, 84
Saints, tradition regarding stature of, 528, 529
Salt-works, north-west coast, 96-98;
south-east, 456, 457
Saman, brother of Rama, 531
Sambur deer (miscalled elk), 196, 170, 171, 346, 459
Sanghamitta, 289, 307
Sanscrit, 204
Sapphires, 316-318
Satin-wood bridge, 120
‘Saved from smoke,’ 570
Schools, Wesleyan Industrial, at Colombo, 10
Scorpions, 443
Scotchmen, colonies of, 534
Screw-pine, 79
Seas of Prakrama, 252, 384
Seeds, varieties of, carried by rivers, 89;
as water purifiers, 90, 382
Sensitive plant, 190
Serendib, 423
Serfdom on temple lands, 64;
abolished, 253
Serpent bites, remedies for, 300, 301
— worship, 292, 293
Serpents, precautions against, 42;
tradition regarding magic virtue of stone serpent, 91, 336;
offerings of milk to propitiate, 91
Service Tenures Ordinance, 65, 253
Shadow, of Adam’s Peak, 540, 544;
of Fuji-Yama, 544
Shark-charmers, 457
Sharks, dangers from, whilst bathing, 407, 456;
and diving, 457
Shell-beds, 463
Shell-fish, musical, 364
Shrine, of St. Anna, 102;
of the Tooth, 206
Sigiri, fortress of, 245, 285;
rock frescoes at, 247
Singhalese children, 31, 85
— homes, 31
Sita, wife of Rama, 134, 449, 531
Siva, 92, 295
— shrine, 410
Skanda, temple to, 336
Skinner, Colonel, and the taking of Kandy, 122
— Major, the roadmaker, 122;
his rations, 126;
his work, 127;
and the ruins of Pollonarua, 283;
on district courts, 491;
his prophecy, 504
Skylarks, 171
Slave Island, 38
Sluice-pipes of clay, 261, 267
Smallpox, first appearance of, in Ceylon, 124;
goddess of, propitiation of, 200;
terrible visitation in 1801, 386
Snake, rat-, 41, 93;
sea-, 94
Snake’s Isle, 91
— temples, 91
Snakes, their fangs, 91;
superstitions regarding, 91, 92;
Buddhism and the worship of, 92, 292;
five- and seven-headed representations of, 92, 292, 295
Snipe, 371
Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, 495
— for the propagation of the Gospel, 605
Southernmost known land, 448
Soysa, Charles de, 55, 103
Spice-laden breezes, 13, 25
Spiders, 381, 452, 453
Sportsman’s paradise, 361
Spotted deer, 171, 346, 459
Squirrels, 152, 171, 192, 193, 452
Sri Pada, Holy Foot, 523
Sri-patula, sacred footprint, 296
Sri Wikrema Raja Singha, King, 173
Stag’s-horn moss, 182
Stick-insects, 193
Stilts, 184
Stone books, 309, 391
— bulls, 287
Strychnine-tree, 90
Suffrein, Admiral, 412
Sula-Wansae, or Lesser Dynasty, 283
Sun-birds, 414
Sunday-labour at Hong Kong, repressive regulations, 577 _n._
Sunwise turns (circles) by Pilgrims, 286, 287, 292, 314, 539
Suriya-trees, 33
Suriya-Wansae, or Solar Dynasty, 33
Tailor-bird, 195
Talavillu, 101
Talipot-leaf (palm of palms), 116-118
Talla-goya lizard, 81
Tamankaduwa district, 386
Tamarind-tree, 120
Tamblegam, brackish lake, 405
Tamil coolies as labourers, 518
— ladies, confirmation of, 98
Tangalle, 451, 454
Tanks, restoration of, 256-263;
at Batticaloa, 256, 362;
restoration around Pollonarua, 386
Tea, in 1660 and 1890, 2 _n._;
‘golden tips,’ 5 _n._;
how to cool, for traveller’s drink, 382;
introduction of, 507, 511;
adaptive to soil, 512
Teeth, a complete set, 226
Templer, Mr. and Mrs. Philip, 175
Tennant, Sir James Emerson, 119, 250, 251, 393
Theosophy, 597
_Thespesia populnea_, 17, 33
Thorny plants, 82
Three and nine, mystic numbers, 214, 215, 218, 219, 325
_Thunbergia_, 187
Ticks, 347
Tic polonga and cobra, 293
Timber, beauty and variety of Ceylonese, 56, 57
Time and tides, 40
Tiripane tank, 267
Tissamaharama tank, 462
Tissa-wewa, 253, 256, 258, 303
Titles, official, 179, 180
Toddy and arrack, 417-419, 436-439
Toddy-drawers, 366, 417-419
‘Tooth and State,’ 203, 225
Tooth, the original, 206-228;
its many temples, 221
Toparé (Pollonarua), 383, 386
Topa-Wewa, 383
Topaz, 320
Tortoises, 53-55, 75
Tortoise-shell, 16
Totapella Plains, 135, 137
Tourmaline, 321
Transmigration, 194;
of Buddha as a hare, 211 _n._
Travellers’ tree, 33
Tree of Life (palmyra), 86, 115, 416-421;
marriage with the banyan, 86, 420
Tree worship, 288-292
Trees, peculiar buttress-like roots, 348, 498
Trincomalee, 406;
additional fortification at, 407
Tulip-tree, 33
Turtle-doves, 46
Turtles, 53-55, 75
Turtles eggs, 428
Umbrellas, honorific, 116 _n._, 210, 212, 216, 268, 314;
low caste persecuted for carrying umbrellas, 366, 368
Uva, 135, 330, 333, 511
Vavuniya-vilan-kulam tank, 251
Vaz, Father Joseph, 552
Veddahs, rock, 372, 373;
their method of fire kindling, 374;
village and coast veddahs, _ib._;
high caste, 374, 377;
as archers, 375
Vegetation, nature’s laws regarding, 512
Vendeloos Bay, 375
Venomous creatures, 82
Vicarton Gorge, 238
Vidyodaya College, 66, 67, 69
Vigita-pura, 264, 265