se with foreigners, and ignorant of
navigation, held the pursuits of the merchant in no esteem.

_Caste_.--Amongst the aboriginal inhabitants _caste_ appears to have
been unknown, although after the arrival of Wijayo and his followers the
system in all its minute subdivisions, and slavery, both domestic and
praedial, prevailed throughout the island. The Buddhists, as dissenters,
who revolted against the arrogant pretensions of the Brahmans, embodied
in their doctrines a protest against caste under any modification. But
even after the conversion of the Singhalese to Buddhism, and their
acceptance of the faith at the hands of Mahindo, caste as a national
institution was found too obstinately established to be overthrown by
the Buddhist priesthood; and reinforced, as its supporters were, by
subsequent intercourse with the Malabars, it has been perpetuated to the
present time, as a conventional and social, though no longer as a sacred
institution. Practically, the Singhalese ignore three of the great
classes, theoretically maintained by the Hindus; among them there are
neither Brahmans, Vaisyas, nor Kshastryas; and at the head of the class
which they retain, they place the _Goi-wanse_ or _Vellalas_, nominally
"tillers of the soil." In earlier times the institution seems to have
been recognised in its entirety, and in the glowing description given in
the _Mahawanso_ of the planting of the great Bo-tree, "the sovereign the
lord of chariots directed that it should be lifted by the four high
caste tribes and by eight persons of each of the other castes."[1] In
later times the higher ranks are seldom spoken of in the historical
books but by specific titles, but frequent allusion is made to the
Chandalas, the lowest of all, who were degraded to the office of
scavengers and carriers of corpses.[2]

[Footnote 1: _Mahawanso_, ch. xix. p. 116.]

[Footnote 2: Ibit., ch. x. p. 66. The Chandala in one of the Jatakas is
represented as "one born in the open air, his parents not being
possessed of a roof; and as he lies amongst the pots when his mother
goes to cut fire-wood, he is suckled by the bitch along with her
pups."--HARDY'S _Buddhism_, ch. iii. p. 80.]

_Slavery_.--The existence of slavery is repeatedly referred to, and in
the absence of any specific allusion to its origin in Ceylon, it must be
presumed to have been borrowed from India. As the Sudras, according to
the institutes of Menu, were by the laws of caste consigned to he