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They are quite distinct, though they both originally came over from India, and in the old days when the Cingalese gave a line of kings to the island they were always fighting the Tamils; to-day both live together peacefully under British rule. This place is a positive bazaar!
Colombo is a fine place in which to study types, and nothing is more peculiar than the Cingalese man, with his long hair braided in a knot at his neck, with the broad shell comb resting on his crown; on State occasions the chief waiters at the hotel appear in an exceedingly high head piece perched above their customary shell ornament, which they told us was the style of a hundred years ago.
He could not sleep. He listened for any outcry. To think that he might have let an enemy into his own home! Comale rose upon his elbow to listen. The walls of Cingalese houses are not carried up to the roof, and, because of this, an outcry or conversation in one room can be heard all over the house. Comale listened.
In 1853 these amounted to no more than one ton. Cingalese are curious people, and do not trouble themselves about exports; they waste or consume all the beeswax. In this manner immense quantities of this valuable article are annually wasted.
It contains word for word almost the whole of the life of Gautama given by Turnour, from a commentary on the Buddhavansa, "which is the account of the Buddhas contained in the second Pitaka." An account taken by Spence Hardy from Cingalese books of a comparatively modern date.
Tall Sikhs, whose hair and beards have never known scissors or razor, and who stride along with a swagger and high-caste dignity; effeminate Cingalese; Hindoo clerks, smirking, conceited and dandified too, according to their own notions; almost naked palkee-bearers, who nevertheless, if there is the slightest shower, put up an umbrella to protect their shaven crowns; up-country girls with rings in their noses and rings on their toes; little Bengalee beauties; Parsees, Chinese, Greeks, Jews and Armenians, in every variety of costume, are to be seen bargaining on the quays, chaffering in the bazaars, loading and unloading the ships, trotting along under their water-skins, driving their bullock-carts, smoking their hookahs or squatting in the shade.
Deluded stranger, this is only another disappointment; it is a Cingalese Appo a man no, not a man a something male in petticoats; a petty thief, a treacherous, cowardly villain, who would perpetrate the greatest rascality had he only the pluck to dare it. In fact, in this petticoated wretch you see a type of the nation of Cingalese.
These divers are generally Cingalese, who practice the exercise from infancy. As many as 500 small boats can be seen about the field of operation, each equipped with divers. A single diver makes about ten voyages under the water, and then rests in the bottom of the boat, when his comrade takes his place.
We had a long day's work, and we were returning home in the afternoon when we suddenly observed a herd of deer grazing in the beautiful park. The headman of this part of the country is a first-rate sportsman, and has always accompanied me in shooting through this district. This man, whose name is Banda, is the only Cingalese that I have ever seen who looks like a man of good birth in his nation.
This munificent charity from the man of the waters to the poor Cingalese was accepted with a trembling hand. His wondering eyes showed that he knew not to what super-human beings he owed both fortune and life. At a sign from the Captain we regained the bank, and, following the road already traversed, came in about half an hour to the anchor which held the canoe of the Nautilus to the earth.
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