Ceylon: past and present

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J. Murray, 1857 - Sri Lanka - 196 pages

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Page 178 - What though the spicy breezes Blow soft o'er Ceylon's. isle ; Though every prospect pleases, And only man is vile : In vain with lavish kindness The gifts of God are strown : The heathen in his blindness, Bows down to wood and stone.
Page 73 - ... and provident in their families, commending good husbandry; in their dispositions not passionate, neither hard to be reconciled again when angry ; in their promises very unfaithful, approving lying in themselves but misliking it in others ; delighting in sloth, deferring labour till urgent necessity constrain them, neat in apparel, nice in eating, and not much given to sleep.
Page 38 - Unto this footstep they give worship, light up Lamps, and offer Sacrifices, laying them upon it, as upon an Altar. The benefit of the Sacrifices that are offered here do belong unto the Moors Pilgrims, who come over from the other Coast to beg, this having been given them heretofore by a former King. So that at that season there are great numbers of them always waiting there to receive their accustomed Fees. The Tree is at the North end of the King's Dominions at Annarodgburro.
Page 18 - ... about with turned banisters, one ebony and one painted, but not much prospect, standing between two hills ; and indeed the king lives there not so much for pleasure as security. The palace itself hath many large and stately gates...
Page 17 - Thus saith the Lord, Learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them.
Page 64 - God among them, when he was upon the Earth, did use to sit under this kind of Trees. There are many of these Trees, which they plant all the Land over, and have more care of, than of any other. They pave round under them like a Key, sweep often under them to keep them clean ; they light Lamps, and set up their Images under them : and a stone Table is placed under some of them to lay their Sacrifices on. They set them every where in Towns and High wayes, where any convenient places are : they serve...
Page 33 - These two Counties I last named, have the pre-eminence of all the rest in the Land. They are most populous, and fruitful. The Inhabitants thereof are the chief and principal men : insomuch that it is a usual saying among them, that if they want a King, they may take any man, of either of these two Counties, from the Plow, and wash the dirt off him, and he by reason of his quality and descent is fit to be a King.
Page 71 - They have no Towns nor Houses, only live by the waters under a Tree, with some boughs cut and laid round about them, to give notice when any wild Beasts come near, which they may hear by their rustling and trampling upon them. Many of these habitations we saw when we fled through the Woods, but God be praised the Vaddahs were gone.
Page 47 - Where there are no springs or rivers to furnish them with water, as it is in the northern parts, where there are but two or three springs, they supply this defect by saving of...
Page 73 - They of the lowlands are kind, pitiful, helpful, honest, and plain, compassionating strangers, which we found by our own experience among them. They of the uplands are ill-natured, false, unkind, though outwardly fair, and seemingly courteous, and of more complaisant carriage, speech, and better behaviour than the lowlanders.

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