common to all oriental narratives, no one who has visited the regions now silent and deserted, once the homes of millions, can hesitate to believe that when the island was in the zenith of its prosperity, the population of Ceylon must of necessity have been at least ten times as great as it is at the present day.

The same train of thought leads to a clearer conception of the means by which this dense population was preserved, through so many centuries, in spite of frequent revolutions and often recurring invasions; as well as of the causes which led to its ultimate disappearance, when intestine decay had wasted the organization on which the fabric of society rested.

Cultivation, as it existed in the north of Ceylon, was almost entirely dependent on the store of water preserved in each village tank; and it could only be carried on by the combined labour of the whole local community, applied in the first instance to collect and secure the requisite supply for irrigation, and afterwards to distribute it to the rice lands, which were tilled by the united exertions of the inhabitants, amongst whom the crop was divided in due proportions. So indispensable were concord and union in such operations, that injunctions for their maintenance were sometimes engraven on the rocks, as an imperishable exhortation to forbearance and harmony.1

Hence, in the recurring convulsions which overthrew successive dynasties, and transferred the crown to usurpers, with a facile rapidity, otherwise unintelligible, it is easy to comprehend that the mass of the people had the strongest possible motives for passive submission, and were constrained to acquiescence by an instinctive dread of the fatal effects of prolonged com

1 See the inscription on the rock of Mihintala, A.D. 262, TURNOUR'S Epitome, Appendix, p. 90; and a

similar one on a rock at Pollanarua, Ibid p. 92.

motion. If interrupted in their industry, by the dread of such events, they retired till the storm had blown over, and returned, after each temporary dispersion, to resume possession of the lands and their village tank.

The desolation which now reigns over the plains which the Singhalese formerly tilled, was precipitated by the reckless domination of the Malabars, in the fourteenth and following centuries. The destruction of reservoirs and tanks has been ascribed to defective construction, and to the absence of spill-waters, and other facilities for discharging the surplus-water, during the prevalence of excessive rains; but independently of the fact that vast numbers of these tanks, though utterly deserted, remain, in this respect, almost uninjured to the present day, we have the evidence of their own native historians, that for upwards of fifteen centuries, the reservoirs, when duly attended to, successfully defied all the dangers to be apprehended from inundation. Their destruction and abandonment are ascribable, not so much to any engineering defect, as to the disruption of the village communities, by whom they were so long maintained. The ruin of a reservoir, when neglected and permitted to fall into decay, was speedy and inevitable; and as the destruction of the village tank involved the flight of all dependent upon it, the water, once permitted to escape, carried pestilence and miasma over the plains they had previously covered with plenty. After such a calamity any partial return of the villagers, even where it was not prevented by the dread of malaria, would have been impracticable; for the obvious reason, that where the whole combined labour of the community was not more than sufficient to carry on the work of conservancy and cultivation, the diminished force of a few would have been utterly unavailing, either to effect the reparation of the watercourses, or to restore the system on which the culture of rice depends. Thus the process of decay, instead of a gradual decline as in

other countries, became sudden and utter desolation in Ceylon.

From such traces as are perceptible in the story of the earliest immigrants, it is obvious that in their domestic habits and civil life they brought with them and perpetuated in Ceylon the same pursuits and traits which characterised the Aryan races that had colonised the valley of the Ganges. The Singhalese Chronicles abound, like the ancient Vedas, with allusions to agriculture and herds, to the breeding of cattle and the culture of grain. They speak of village communities and of their social organisation, as purely patriarchal. Women were treated with respect and deference; and as priestesses and queens they acquired a prominent place in the national esteem. Rich furniture was used in dwellings and costly textures for dress; but these were obtained from other nations, whose ships resorted to the island, whilst its inhabitants, averse to intercourse 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 prædial, 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 Chandalos, the lowest of all, who were degraded to the office of scavengers and carriers of corpses.2

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 helpless bondage, so slavery in Ceylon was an attribute of race; and those condemned to it were doomed to toil from their birth, with no requital other than the obligation on the part of their masters to maintain them in health, to succour them in sickness, and apportion their burdens to their strength.* Whilst the liberality of theoretical Buddhism threw open, even to the lowest caste, all the privileges of the priesthood, the

slave alone was repulsed, on the ground that his admission would deprive the owner of his services.1

Like other property, slaves could be possessed by the Buddhist monasteries, and inscriptions, still existing upon the rocks of Mihintala and Dambool, attest the capacity of the priests to receive them as gifts and to require that as slaves they should be exempted from taxation.

Unrelaxed in its assertion of abstract right, but mitigated in the forms of its practical enforcement, slavery endured in Ceylon till extinguished by the fiat of the British Government in 1845.2 In the northern and Tamil districts of the island, its characteristics differed considerably from its aspect in the south and amongst the Kandyan mountains. In the former, the slaves were employed in the labours of the field and rewarded with a small proportion of the produce; but amongst the pure Singhalese, slavery was domestic rather than prædial, and those born to its duties were employed less as the servants, than as the suite of the Kandyan chiefs. Slaves swelled the train of their retainers on all occasions of display, and had certain domestic duties assigned to them, amongst which was the carrying of fire-wood, and the laying out of the corpse after death. The strongest proof of the general mildness of their treatment in all parts of the island, is derived from the fact, that when in 1845, Lord Stanley, now the Earl of Derby, directed the final abolition of the system, slavery was extinguished in Ceylon without a claim for compensation on the part of the proprietors.

Compulsory Labour.- Another institution, to the influence and operation of which the country was indebted for the construction of the works which diffused plenty throughout every region, was the system of

1 HARDY'S Eastern Monachism, ch. iv. p. 18.

2 An account of slavery in Ceylon,

and the proceedings for its suppression, will be found in PRIDHAM'S Ceylon, vol. i. p. 223.