United States or Belarus ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Loitering beneath the shade of the trees contiguous to their cabins, queer family groups of Singhalese natives watch the passing stranger with curious, questioning eyes. Clothes are of little consideration in a climate like this, and consequently nudity is the rule.
The Singhalese not a Progressive People. Modern History of Ceylon. Captured by the English. The "Resplendent Island." Commercial Prosperity. Increasing Foreign Population. Under English Rule. Native Soldiers. Christian Sects and Churches. Roman Catholic Church. Expulsion of the Jesuits.
These Singhalese are believers in the doctrine of metempsychosis." "Who?" "Metempsychosis; that is, in the transmigration of the soul from human bodies into animals." "Don't see where that idea comes in," said the obtuse querist. "Why, if a fellow killed one of these impertinent rooks, don't you know, he might be murdering his dead grandmother!"
Belligam is a large Singhalese village, inhabited mostly by fishermen and farmers, numbering perhaps four thousand souls, among whom are few if any Europeans. A beautiful feature of the shore in this neighborhood is the numerous river-mouths which empty into the sea from out the dense cocoanut woods. The bay is rich in corals and beautiful shells.
The simplest police organization accomplishes this, though in former times, under insufferable tyranny of petty princes and foreign invaders, the Singhalese proved that they could fight for, and hold their own against considerable odds. Unless outrageously oppressed, they are of too peaceable a nature to arouse themselves to open rebellion.
This is not now the case; indeed, it is and has long been one of the principal imports from India and elsewhere. It is estimated that every native adult who can get it consumes a bushel of rice each month in the year. To the Singhalese rice is what wheat is to the average American, namely, the staff of life.
The author has never, even among the most barbaric tribes, quite isolated from contact with white men, known a people so deficient in this respect. Some few of the Singhalese planters regularly set aside a small portion of their rice-fields, and leave them unharvested, for the use of the demons!
Specimens of the true Singhalese species were, however, received in Europe; but in the absence of information in this country as to their actual habitat, they were described, first by Zimmerman, on the continent, under the name of, Leucoprymnus cephalopterus, and subsequently by Mr. Zool. Eleven years later Dr. Mr. Zool. Templeton's description with that already laid before them by Mr.
In one instance to which I was a witness, the conflict lasted for the latter part of a day, but towards evening the Coecilia was completely exhausted, and in the morning it had totally disappeared, having been carried away either whole or piecemeal by its assailants. The species I here allude to is a very small ant, which the Singhalese call by the generic name of Koombiya.
But see what is said on the size of topes in chapter iii, note 4. In Singhalese, Pase Buddhas; called also Nidana Buddhas, and Pratyeka Jinas, and explained by "individually intelligent," "completely intelligent," "intelligent as regards the nidanas." As the ideal hermit, the Pratyeka Buddha is compared with the rhinoceros khadga that lives lonely in the wilderness.
Word Of The Day