they
appear to have an idea that some invisible evil power is antagonistic
to them and their well-being, and that their safety lies in offering
homage in some form to that power. Of any supreme influence for good,
they have no conception. They have heard of the white man's God, but
believe their Devil is far more powerful. Like the humbler class of
Italians, they have a mortal dread of something equivalent to the
"evil eye." Such was an explanation given to us by an intelligent
Buddhist at Kandy, who had once been a priest.

The worship of the serpent as an emblem of divinity has been
attributed to the earliest inhabitants of this island, but the Veddahs
have no such faith. One of the most ancient among the multiplicity of
names which Ceylon has borne is Nagadipa, or "snake island," in
reference, it is thought by some, to this special worship of the
aborigines. To the author, however, it seems much more reasonable that
the name may have arisen from the great number of these reptiles which
were, and which still are, found upon its soil. There are still some
tribes in Ceylon who reverence the serpent as an emblem, and who
actually devote temples to them, as the Hindus have done to bulls and
monkeys for ages.

The Veddahs are considered to be utter barbarians, but we very much
doubt if many of their customs are any more barbaric than some which
prevail among the Singhalese. Take, for instance, the revolting
practice of polyandry, which is still countenanced in Ceylon. This
custom, so strange and unnatural, has existed here for thousands of
years, and longer still in India proper, as well as in Thibet and
Cashmere. History tells us that this odious custom was common in
Britain at the period of Caesar's invasion. It is said to be dying out
in this island since the advent of the English. Let us at least hope
so, though the author was informed upon the spot that it was not
unknown among the natives of the Kandian district at the present time.
Conventionality has all the force of enacted law. Vice and virtue, it
would seem, are relative terms, both being amenable to latitude and
longitude. There is a custom among the Alaska Indians, deemed by them
to be simply a rite of hospitality, which would consign a person to
state prison if perpetrated in New England. Is there not also a
legalized system of social debasement in Japan, so utterly vile in our
estimation as to be absolutely unmentionable in detail?

We have not yet in r