onsecrating
influence of great antiquity. The oldest Japanese bronzes are valued
at their weight in gold; indeed, that precious metal forms a large
percentage of the material of which they are composed. Modern bronze,
as compared with that of ten centuries ago, in Japan, is a very
different and inexpensive compound.

Any person who has been at sea in a severe storm when there were
Chinamen on board the ship has seen the superstitious Mongolians throw
bits of "joss-paper" overboard, bearing certain inscriptions and
mysterious characters, intended to pacify the water-devil, as they
call the spirit of the storm.

A peculiar race of wild people, called Veddahs, inhabit the forest
fastness of Bintenne, a district situated southeast from Kandy forty
or fifty miles, and a hundred and twenty or thereabouts from Colombo,
in a northeast direction. The territory to which these people confine
themselves is known as Vedda-ratta, or country of the Veddahs, whither
their ancestors retired more than two thousand years ago, when their
Singhalese conquerors came to Ceylon from the north. Bintenne, which
gives its name to the district, transcends Anuradhapura in antiquity.
Long before the Wijayan invasion, it was one of the chief aboriginal
cities, and for centuries was the most important place in Ceylon.
During the Dutch dominion Bintenne was made a place of note, and is
spoken of by them as "the finest city in the island." It is now
remote, a circumscribed and secluded district; very few Europeans have
ever penetrated any great distance within its borders. Indeed, the
density of its jungles forbids access to those who know not its
solitary footpaths. The singular people of whom we write are now
inconsiderable in number, speaking a language understood only by
themselves, and are doubtless descendants of the aborigines of the
island, a race who lived here previous to any dates of which we have
record. The country which they inhabit is about ninety miles long by
half that distance in width, in the southeastern part of the island,
and extends towards the sea from the base of the mountain region of
the central province, commencing near the base of the Badulla hills.
There is abundant evidence connecting these barbarians with the
Yakkos, who were the oldest known race in Ceylon. They live mostly
upon the game which they kill with bows and arrows. They build no
regular habitations, live in caves, grass huts, and the open air, and
avoid inte