CERVETRI

Geronimo Moran attached to the édition de luxe of Don Quixote, in 3 vols. imp. 4to, Madrid, 1863. Cervet'ri (from Care Vetus), a village of Italy, 19 miles WNW. of Rome, on the site of the ancient Care or Agylla, formerly one of the most important cities of Etruria. Conquered and degraded by the Romans in 353 B.C., it experienced but a brief renewal of prosperity under the empire as a watering-place (the warm Bagni del Sasso, still used), and finally fell into decay in the 13th century. Many Etruscan remains have been found near by. Cer'vidæ and Cervus. See DEER. Cervin, MONT. See MATTERHORN. Cesalpino. See CÆSALPINUS. Cesarewitch. See CZAR.

Ce'sari, GIUSEPPE (sometimes called ARPINO), an Italian painter, born at Arpino about 1568, was greatly honoured by no less than five popes, and died at Rome, 3d July 1640. His works-in fresco and oil-display lively imagination, and great tact in execution.

Cesarotti, MELCHIORE, an excellent Italian poet, was born 15th May 1730, at Padua, where he filled the Greek and Hebrew chairs. He gained a reputation by his translation of Macpherson's Ossian (1763). The versification of this work, like that of his free translation of the Iliad, under the title of La Morte di Ettore, was admired by Alfieri, and Cesarotti unquestionably threw fresh life into Italian literature. He also wrote on the philosophy of language and of taste. His Lingue (8 vols. 1785) and Ragionamento sulla Filosofia del Gusto

are his best works. He died 3d November 1808.

Cese'na, a town of Central Italy, 12 miles SE. of Forli by rail, with a cathedral and a trade in silk, wine, hemp, and sulphur. Cesena gave birth to two popes-Pius VI. and VII. Pop. (1881) 11,435. Here Murat defeated the Austrians, 30th March 1815. Ces'nola, CoUNT LUIGI PALMA DI, archæologist, was born near Turin, June 29, 1832. He served with the Sardinian contingent in the Crimean war, went to New York in 1860, and served as a volunteer in the civil war. Appointed American consul at Cyprus in 1865, he commenced a series of excavations which he continued for about ten years with the most remarkable success. His splendid collection of statues and figures, lamps, vases, inscriptions, and other antiquities, was opened in New York in 1872 as the Cesnola Collection of Cyprian Antiquities. Doubts expressed in 1879 as to the authenticity of part of the collection were proved to be groundless. His chief work is Cyprus, its ancient Cities, Tombs, and Temples (1877).

Ces'pedes, PABLO DE, Spanish painter, born at Cordova in 1536, studied at Rome under Michael Angelo and Raphael, and in 1577 became a prebendary at Cordova, where he established a school of art, and was also active as an architect, painter, and writer. He died 26th July 1608.

On

Cessio Bonorum (Lat. 'cession or surrender of goods'), a process which the law of Scotland borrowed from that of Rome, and which also appears in most of the continental systems. making a surrender of estate to his creditors, the debtor was granted a judicial protection from imprisonment in respect of all debts then due by him. As, however, imprisonment for debt was abolished by the Debtors Act, 1880, except in the case of rates and taxes due, cessio as a process for the protection or liberation from imprisonment of insolvent debtors is now practically obsolete. The Act of 1880, however, introduced a new process of cessio, resembling sequestration, and really a cheap

and summary method of distributing a small estate among the creditors. The petition must be presented in the sheriff-court either by a creditor or by the notour bankrupt himself. Notice is given in the Gazette, there is a meeting of creditors, the debtor is publicly examined, the sheriff grants a decree appointing a trustee and ordering the debtor to convey all his estate (except working tools, alimentary funds, and future acquisitions) to the trustee, who then ranks the various claims on the estate, subject to an appeal to the sheriff. A most important change was introduced by the Bankruptcy and Cessio Act, 1881, which provides for the first time that the debtor under a cessio may obtain a statutory discharge, but only if he pays 5s. per £1, or satisfies the sheriff that failure to pay such a dividend is not due to his fault. The process of cessio must be distinguished in some of its effects from the English and American assignment for the benefit of creditors under insolvent statutes. See BANKRUPTCY, SEQUESTRATION; Goudy on Bankruptcy (1886).

Cesspool. See SEWAGE.

Cestoid Worms (Cestoda), an order of flat worms (Plathelminthes), of internal parasitic The adult consists of an asexual head,' attached habit, and generally known as Tapeworms (q.v.), by hooks or suckers or both to the host, and budding off a long chain of flat sexual, hermaphrodite joints,' which become mature at a certain distance from the 'head,' have a measure of individuality and independence, and are eventually expelled. There is no alimentary canal nor vascular system; the nervous system is usually complex, but of a low order; there is a well-developed excretory system of branching tubes. The reproductive organs of the joints' are usually very complex. The liberated joints' or 'proglottides' break up, and set free embryos, which find their way into other hosts, and undergoing considerable change become bladder-worms, develop a head, or in some cases heads, and only become sexual when their host is in turn eaten by the original species in which the tapeworm flourished. There is thus an alternation of generations between the asexual bladder-worm and the sexual tapeworm. The order includes about 25 genera and 500 species, mostly parasitic in vertebrates. The genus Tania (tapeworm) includes more than half the known species. The Cestodes are linked to the flukes or Trematodes by forms like Amphilina, Caryophyllæus, and Archigetes, which have no joints, and a single reproductive system; and there is a well-marked series from these up to the most specialised Tania. Echineibothrium, Phyllobothrium, Anthobothrium, Acanthobothrium, Tetrarhynchus, Ligula (q.v.), Bothriocephalus (q.v.), are the important genera

besides Taenia. See TAPEWORMS; also BLADDERWORM, PARASITISM, and Leuckart's Parasites of Man.

Cestracion, a genus of sharks, regarded as constituting a distinct family, Cestraciontidæ, although not more than four species are known as now existing. It is characterised by having two dorsal fins and one anal, the first dorsal situated over the space between the pectorals and ventrals; a spine forming the front of each dorsal; a short wide tail, with its upper lobe strongly notched beneath; the mouth at the fore end of the snout; spiracles distinctly visible, rather behind the eyes; and small gill-openings. The front of the mouth is armed with obtuse angular teeth, whilst the margins and inner surface of the jaws are covered with pavement-like teeth, presenting a general continuity of surface, as in skates, and disposed in rounded oblique scrolls the former evidently adapted to the seizing of food, the latter to the

crushing and bruising of it. They are of obvious use with a diet of hard-shelled crustaceans and

A

Upper Jaw of Port-Jackson Shark (Cestracion philippi). molluscs. The front teeth are sharp in the young forms. The egg-case has two curious spiral ridges surrounding it. The Port-Jackson Shark, or Nurse' (C. philippi) of the Australian seas, and the Cat Shark of Japan and China (C. zebra), seem to differ chiefly in the patterns of colour. None exceed five feet in length. The Cestråciontidæ are particularly interesting to geologists, for the oldest fossil sharks belong in great part to this family. 'The remains are found even in the Paleozoic strata; they become more numerous in the Carboniferous series; they are very numerous in the Lias and Chalk Outside view of formations; but there they cease Egg-case of almost entirely, the strata of the Cestracion Tertiary series containing scarcely philippi. any of them.' In modern times the species are reduced, as we have seen, to four at most, and other types of shark have become more prevalent. The fossil forms were abundant, also much larger, and the cestracions thus furnish a particularly good illustration of a decadent family.

Cestui que Trust, a person for whom another is a trustee. The term is Norman-French, and means in English law, and also in the United States, exactly what Beneficiary (q.v.) means in Scots law.

Cestus (Gr. kestos, embroidered'), a girdle worn by Greek and Roman women, but at what part of the body is somewhat uncertain. It was worn apparently between the cingulum, which was a sash or girdle over the tunic just under the bosom, and the zone, worn mostly by young unmarried women lower down the body, just above the hips. According to Winckelmann, the cestus was itself worn round the loins; according to Heyne and Visconti, immediately under the bosom. The cestus of Aphrodite was covered with such alluring representations of the joys of love that she who wore it was irresistible. It was borrowed by Hera when she desired to win the love of Zeus. -CESTUS, or more correctly, CESTUS, the boxing gauntlets worn by the ancient prize-fighters, which consisted of leather thongs bound round the hands and wrists. They sometimes reached as high up as the elbows, and were armed with lead or metal bosses to increase the force of the blow.

Cetacea, an order of mammals, of aquatic habit and fish-like form. The head is large, the

CETEOSAURUS

neck indistinct; there is generally a median dorsal fin, and the tail has lateral flukes; the fore-limbs are reduced to paddles, the hind-limbs are at most represented by slight internal traces; the skin is smooth, and, with the occasional exception of a few bristles near the mouth, hairless; there is thick layer of fat or blubber under the skin which serves instead of hair as a heat-retainer. The eye is small, there is no external ear, the nostrils are situated vertically. The bones are spongy and oily, the neck vertebræ are compressed and often fused, there is no union to form a sacrum. The skull is peculiarly modified, the brain-case being high, and the front part prolonged into more or less of a snout. There are no collar-bones; the bones of the arm are flattened and stiff; the joints of the second and third fingers are always above the normal number; the whole arm forms a flipper; the hip-girdle and hind-leg are degenerate. In one group teeth are absent except in the fœtus, and are replaced by 'whalebone' growths from the palate; in no case is there more than one set of teeth. The stomach has several chambers; the intestine is simple. The liver is less divided than usual, and there is no gall-bladder. The bloodvessels form wonderful networks (retia mirabilia). The top of the windpipe is prolonged forwards so as to form, when embraced by the soft palate, a continuous air-passage from nostrils to lungs. The brain is large. The placenta is 'non-deciduate and diffuse.' The teats are two in number, and lie beside the female genital aperture; the milk is squeezed into the mouth of the sucking young.

The Cetacea are widely distributed in all seas and in some large rivers. They swim powerfully, and the tail works up and down, not sideways. They rise to the surface to breathe, and do not spout sea-water from their blowholes. The expiration is periodic and violent, and the forcibly expelled air being laden with water, vapour may condense in a pillar of fine spray, or the ascending column may carry up some surface sea-water along with it, but it must be recognised that the process is simply that of ordinary expiration in peculiar conditions. They are mostly inoffensive, generally social in habit, vary from 4 to 60 feet in length, and feed on jelly-fish, crustaceans, pteropods, cuttlefish, fishes, and in one genus (Orca) on seals and on other whales.

Two very distinct series have to be distinguished -(a) the Toothed Whales or Odontoceti, and (b) the Baleen Whales or Mystacoceti. The former include Sperm Whales (Physeter), the Bottlenose (Hyperoodon), the genus Platanista and its allies, and the great family of Dolphins (q.v.). The latter sub-order includes the Right Whale (Balæna), the Humpbacks' (Megaptera), and the Rorquals (Balaenoptera).

In the Eocene, Cetacea are represented by primitive, less specialised forms, known as Zeuglodons, but the remains are, as one would expect, somewhat fragmentary, and the conclusions to be drawn from them very uncertain. In Miocene and Pliocene strata still more fragmentary cetacean remains have been found, and are grouped together in the genus Squalodon.

There is much doubt and dispute in regard to the origin and affinities of Cetacea. They are related by some to Carnivores, but the researches of Professor Flower have made it more probable that they have much closer affinities with Ungulates. He regards it as not unlikely that the whole group had a fresh-water origin. Fuller details must be sought under the article WHALE. See Flower's article Mammalia,' Ency. Brit.

Ceteosaurus (kētos, 'whale;' sauros, lizard'), a large dinosaurian reptile belonging to the Jurassic System (q.v.). According to Professor

CETEWAYO

Phillips, it may have reached a length of 50 feet, and when standing at ease' was probably not less than 10 feet in height and of a bulk in proportion, It appears to have frequented the marshes and river-sides of the period, and to have been a vegetable-feeder. The word is also spelt Cetiosaurus. Cetewayo. See ZULUS.

Cetinje (also spelt Cettigné), capital of Montenegro, lies in a rocky valley 2093 feet above sealevel, and 17 miles E. of Cattaro, with which it is connected by a carriage road. It is the residence of the prince, and of an archimandrite, and consists of an unpretentious palace, a few private houses, an abbey, gaol, arsenal, theatre (which serves also for the state library and national museum), hospital, theological seminary, gymnasium, and a girl's highschool, maintained at the charge of the Empress of Russia. Behind the palace is an elm, under which the prince delivers judgments. Pop. 1200. Cetotolites, a name given by Owen to fossil cetacean ear-bones, which occur in great abundance in the Red Crag of Suffolk (see PLIOCENE). They are rubbed and water-worn, and have evidently been washed out of some earlier strata, which remain yet unrecognised. The extent of these earlier strata must have been very great, seeing that the crag beds now extend over a large district in Essex and Suffolk, and attain a thickness in some places of not less than 40 feet. Professor Henslow in 1843 drew the attention of agricultural chemists to this deposit as a source of materials for manure, and since then superphosphate manures have been manufactured from it to the value of many thousand pounds annually; a striking example of the valuable practical results which frequently flow from a purely scientific dis

covery.

Cette, an important seaport town of France, in the department of Hérault, is built on a neck of land between the lagoon of Thau and the Mediterranean, 23 miles SW. of Montpellier. The space inclosed by the piers and breakwater forming the harbour can accommodate about 400 vessels; and the harbour is defended by forts. A broad deep canal, lined with excellent quays, connects the port with the Lake of Thau, and so with the Canal du Midi and the Rhone, thus giving to Cette an extensive inland traffic; it has likewise an active foreign commerce. The principal trade is in wine, brandy, salt, dried fruits, fish, dyestuffs, perfumery, and verdigris. Cette has shipbuilding yards, salt-works, glass-works, factories for the manufacture of syrups and grape-sugar, &c. is a resort for sea-bathing, and has extensive fisheries. Colbert founded it in 1666. Pop. (1872) 25,181; (1886) 36,762.

It

The

Ce'uta, a fortified port belonging to Spain, on the coast of Morocco, opposite Gibraltar. town occupies the site of the Roman colony of Ad Septem Fratres, so called from the seven hills rising here in a group, of which the most prominent are Montes Almina and Hacho; on the latter, the ancient Abyla (one of the Pillars of Hercules), is a strong fort, and on the former, among beautiful gardens, lies the New Town. Ceuta contains a cathedral, a hospital, and convents, but is chiefly of importance as a military and convict station. The harbour is small, and exposed to the north, but has a lighthouse and some small trade. The mixed population number about 9700. The place was a flourishing mart under the Arabs, who corrupted its Roman name to Sebtah; there the first paper manufactory in the Western world is said to have been established by an Arab who had brought the industry from China. In 1415 it was captured by the Portuguese, and annexed Portugal; it fell to Spain in 1580. It has resisted

to

several sieges by the Moors (1694-1720 and 1732), and is still the most important of the four African Presidios (q.v.).

Cevadilla. See SABADILLA.

Cévennes (ancient Cebenna), the chief mountain-range in the south of France. With its continuations and offsets, it forms the watershed between the river-systems of the Rhone and the Loire and Garonne. Its general direction is from north-east to south-west, commencing at the southern extremity of the Lyonnais Mountains, and extending under different local names as far as the Canal du Midi, which divides it from the northern slopes of the Pyrenees. The Cevennes extend for over 150 miles, through or into nine departments. The central mass lying in Lozère and Ardèche, where Mont Lozère attains 5584 feet, and Mont Mézenc (the culminating point of the chain) 5754 feet. The average height is from 3000 to 4000 feet. The mountains consist chiefly of primary rocks, covered with tertiary formations, which in many places are interrupted by volcanic rocks. For the religious wars of which the Cevennes have been the arena, see ALBIGENSES, CAMISARDS, WALDENSES ; and for a vivid description of the scenery and the peasantry, Mr R. L. Stevenson's Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes (1879). Ceylanite. See SPINEL.

Ceylon (the Taprobane of the Greeks and Romans, and the Serendib of the Arabian Nights), an island and British crown colony in the Indian Ocean, to the south-east of India, from which it is

Extreme length from north to south, from Point Palmyra to Dondera Head, 266 miles; greatest width, from Colombo to Sangemankande, 140 miles. Area, 24,702 sq. m., of which more than one-fifth is under cultivation.

Physical Features.-In natural scenery Ceylon can vie with any part of the world; and as it rises from the ocean, clothed with the rich luxuriance of a tropical vegetation, it seems to the voyager like some enchanted island of Eastern story. Its hills, 'draped with forests of perennial green,' tower grandly from height to height, till they are lost in clouds and mist. Near at hand, a sea of sapphire blue dashes against the battlemented rocks that occur at isolated points, and the yellow strands are shaded by groves of noble palms. In shape Ceylon resembles a pear, but its inhabitants more poetically compare it to one of their elongated pearls. Undulating plains cover about four parts of the island, and the fifth is occupied by the mountain-zone of the central south, which has an elevation of from 6000 to 8000 feet above the sea-level. Pedrotallagalla, the highest mountain in the range, attains the height of 8260 feet; the celebrated mountain of Adam's Peak, 7420 feet; and the tableland of Nuwara Eliya, 6210 feet.

Geology. The mountain-system is mainly composed of metamorphic rocks, chiefly gneiss, frequently broken up by intrusive granite. With the exception of some local beds of dolomitic limestone, the gneiss is everywhere the surface rock, and the soil is composed of its disintegrated materials. The northern part of the island is rising; and the immense masses of corals continually increasing, retain the debris brought from the Indian continent by the currents of the sea, and thus form a flat, ever-increasing madrepore plain.

Metals and Precious Stones.-Iron can be obtained in great quantities, and anthracite and rich veins of plumbago exist on the southern range of hills. Gold has recently been found. The gems of Ceylon have been celebrated from time immemorial. Sapphires, rubies, the oriental topaz, garnets, amethysts, cinnamon stone, and cat's-eye are the principal gems and precious stones of the island. The declared value of the precious stones exported is about £10,000 annually; but as large numbers are purchased by passengers calling at Colombo and by native merchants for sale in Southern India, the actual value is doubtless very far in excess of the sum named. The pearl-fisheries of Ceylon were known at a very remote date in the commercial history of the world. Under the Portuguese and Dutch governments, and now under the British government, the pearl-fisheries form a monopoly, and are under the inspection of an officer, who reports when a sufficient number of pearl-yielding oysters have reached maturity, and when the prospect of a successful fishing is thus probable. The fishings are intermittent and occur at irreg. ular dates. In 1863 the value of pearls obtained was £56,000; in 1874, it was £10,000; in 1877, £19,000; in 1879-80, £29,500; in 1881, £59,800; in 1887, £39,000; and in the intermediate periods between these dates there was practically no fishing at all.

Rivers.-The most important river in Ceylon is the Mahavila-ganga. It has its source in the vicinity of Adam's Peak, and after draining more than 4000 sq. m., it separates into several branches, and enters the ocean near Trincomalee. The south side of the island is watered by ten rivers of considerable size.

Harbours.-Galle, at the southern extremity of Ceylon, and Trincomalee on the eastern coast, are the only natural harbours capable of containing ships of large draught. The construction of a breakwater at Colombo, the capital of the island,

which provides safe anchorage for ships of any size in all weather, has concentrated the commerce of the island there, and has also attracted from Galle the mail and passenger steamers from Europe, India, Australia, and China, which used to coal and tranship at Galle. At Trincomalee are the naval stores and dockyard, and the harbour is the finest in eastern waters.

In climate, Ceylon has a great advantage over the mainland of India, and as an island enjoys a more equable temperature. The average for the year in Colombo (q.v.) is 80° in ordinary seasons. April is the hottest month; and in May the southwest monsoon commences amid a deluge of rain, and continues the prevailing wind till October, when the north-east monsoon sets in: 80 inches is the average annual fall of rain, though in an exceptional year 120 inches have been registered. The beautiful tableland of Nuwara-Eliya was first visited by Europeans in 1826, and is now used as a sanatorium. Here the thermometer in the shade never rises above 70°, while the average is 62°; the nights are cool and refreshing. The north of the island, including the peninsula of Jaffna, the plains of Nuwara-Kalawa, and the Wanny, may be reckoned as a third climatic division. Here the annual fall of rain does not exceed 30 inches, and irrigation is largely employed in agriculture.

Flora.-The general botanical features of Ceylon are in many respects similar to those of Southern India. A very large number of the species of plants is, however, peculiar to the island. About 800 species (nearly 30 per cent. of the whole number found in Ceylon) are endemic-that is, found nowhere else in the world. The tree-vegetation of the forests is almost wholly composed of such endemic species, and not a few of endemic genera. The affinities and near alliances of these are with the plants of the Malay Islands and Peninsula. Hence, to speak more correctly, the flora of Ceylon partakes of an Indian as well as a Malayan character, but is identical with neither. As may be expected from the climatic peculiarities of the country the flora is greatly diversified. In the south-west mountainous parts of the island, with the excep tion of some grassy tracts called patanas and the plantations of tea, coffee, and cinchona, the slopes and summits are forest-clad. The trees are evergreen, with thick coriaceous leaves, growing closely together and forming dark jungles. The under growth is largely made up of gregarious plants known as Nilu, species of the genus Strobilanthes, which only flower at regular intervals of five, six, or seven years. Tree-ferns, often 25 feet in height, scarlet-flowering rhododendrons, numerous tufted bamboos, melastomads, and orchids are found in mountain forests. In the low country the vegetation is marked by the prevalence of palms, the cocoa-nut being pre-eminent. beautiful areca-palm, the feathery jaggery or kitul, and the fordly talipat are the glories of Ceylon lowland vegetation. In the recesses of low-country forests the trees are high and closely packed. Amongst the timber-trees the most valuable are the calamander, satin-wood, and ebony. Two very interesting and peculiarly slender tree-ferns grow in the hot steamy forests of Ceylon, as also the most admired of Ceylon orchids, Dendrobium Maccarthia. There has been extensive cutting down of forest in the mountains of Ceylon to establish plantations, and the lowlands have suffered no less severely by the indolent and improvident practice of native cultivation. As a consequence numerous foreign weeds, such as the lantana, white weed, and Spanish needle, have established themselves to the exclusion of native vegetation in the hills; while in the lowlands coarse grasses and worthless scrub have

The

covered the country. The orchids of Ceylon number about 150 species. With the excep; tion of about a dozen Dendrobiums, Erias, and Saccolabiums, and the lovely Wana-rajah, there are few of a striking character. The ferns number about 270 species. Among the latter is an anomalous variety which bears spores on the upper instead of on the under side of the frond. One of the handsomest native trees of Ceylon is the Muruta (Lagerstroemia Flos-regina). To this might be added the Saraca indica, and the lovely Na (Mesua ferrea), or ironwood. In the forests climbing-plants and epiphytes of prodigious size and striking appearance cover the trees with a mass of parasitical foliage of extraordinary growth. In the north of Ceylon the dry forest-region is remarkable for its valuable timber-trees, such as the Palu, Halmilla or Trincomalee wood, and ebony. The characteristic palm of the north and of the peninsula of Jaffna is the Palmyra (Borassus flabelliformis).

Fauna.-In Ceylon, quadrumanous animals are represented by the Loris gracilis and five species of monkeys. Sixteen species of bats exist in Ceylon, including the flying-fox. Of the larger carnivora, the bear and leopard; and of the smaller, the palm-cat and the glossy genette (the civet of Europeans) may be mentioned. The tiger is not met with in Ceylon. Deer, buffaloes, and the humped ox of India are plentiful; the chevrotains (q.v.) are also said to be abundant. The elephant, which is for the most part tuskless, is emphatically lord of the forests of Ceylon. The wild boar is also found. Whales are captured off the coast. Three hundred and twenty species of birds are found. The song of the robin and long-tailed thrush, and the flute-like voice of the oriole, are heard over the whole mountain-zone and far down into the neighbouring plains. Eagles, the beautiful peregrine falcon, owls, swallows, kingfishers, sun-birds, bulbuls, crows, parroquets, pigeons, pea-fowl, jungle-fowl, and many others of the feathered tribe, might be mentioned did space permit. Myriads of aquatic birds and waders, amongst which the flamingo is conspicuous, cover the lakes and lagoons. The crocodile is the largest reptile in the island; tortoises and lizards are also found. There are a few species of venomous snakes, and of these the ticpolonga and the cobra da capello are the most deadly.

Inhabitants.-The Singhalese (Sinhalese, also spelt Cingalese), the most numerous of the natives of Ceylon, are supposed to be the descendants of those colonists from the valley of the Ganges who first settled in the island 543 B.C., and speak an Aryan language closely allied to the Pali (q.v.). The dress of the men, who have delicate features and slender limbs, looks singularly effeminate, and consists of a comboy or waist-cloth, very much resembling a petticoat; their long hair, turned back from the forehead, is confined with combs, and earrings are worn by way of ornament. Polyandry still lingers in the interior of Ceylon; but this and many other customs repugnant to Christianity are disappearing under the influence of education, of which the Singhalese readily avail themselves. The Kandyans, or Highlanders, are a more sturdy race, and maintained their independence for three centuries after the conquest of the low country by European settlers. The Malabars, or Tamils, have sprung from those early invaders of Ceylon who from time to time swept across from Southern Hindustan, and contended with the Singhalese kings for the sovereignty of the island. They have formed the chief population of Jaffna for full 2000 years, and constitutionally excel the Singhalese and Kandyans. The Moormen, who are the most energetic and intelligent

79

of the native communities, are met with in every province as enterprising traders, and are generally believed to be of Arab descent. The burghers of Ceylon are people of European descent, who have become naturalised. Those of Portuguese extraction hold the lowest place, and are mostly tradesmen and artisans; but the Dutch burghers frequently fill responsible posts, and are employed in the government offices. There is besides a remarkable tribe of outcasts-the Veddahs-hardly removed from the wild animals of the forest, and believed to be descended from the Yakkhos, the aboriginal inhabitants of the country. They occupy a district in the eastern part of the island, and have there preserved their ancient customs and manner of living unaltered for more than 2000 years.

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Religion.-The Singhalese are devoted to Buddhism (q.v.), which is the prevailing religion of the island. Its sacred books are identical with those of Burma and Siam, and both record the doctrines of Gautama in the Pali language; the deviations are in matters of practice. The Malabar kings adulterated Buddhism to a considerable extent with Brahmanism, introducing the worship of Hindu deities into the Buddhist temples, and this continues more or less to be the case. than once have the Buddhists of Ceylon sought to restore the purity of their faith-at one time sending deputies to Siam, at another to Burma, with this object in view. The Burman or Amarapura sect have long been the reformers of Singhalese Buddhism, and maintain no very friendly relations with the party who, supported by the priests of Siam, sanction the worship of Hindu deities and the employment of the priesthood in secular occupations, uphold caste, and restrict the sacred books. Caste was acknowledged by the Singhalese prior to the introduction of Buddhism, which in principle is opposed to it; but so firmly was it rooted that it still endures, though more as a social than a sacred institution. Gautama Buddha is said to have visited Ceylon three different times to preach his doctrine, and his Sri-pada, or sacred footstep, on the summit of Adam's Peak (q.v.), still commands the homage of the faithful. Buddhism was not, however, permanently introduced into Ceylon till 307 B.C. The influence of the priests gradually increased, and, by the piety of the Singhalese kings, monasteries were richly endowed, and at the present day no less than onethird of the cultivated land of the island is computed to belong to the priesthood, and is exempt from taxation. The priests of Ceylon are divided into two orders; any member is at liberty to lay aside his ascetic character, and return to a secular life. The most celebrated Buddhistic relic in Ceylon is the Dalada, or sacred tooth of Gautama, at Kandy, which is guarded with jealous care, and preserved in an elegant shrine; but it is well known that the original relic was destroyed by the Portuguese, and the present substitute is a piece of discoloured ivory, bearing no resemblance to a human tooth. Brahmanism or Hinduism (q.v.) is the faith of the Tamils or Malabars, but the Moormen are Mohammedans. After the expulsion of the Dutch Christians, Protestant missions to the natives of Ceylon were commenced by the Baptists in 1813. The Wesleyan Methodists followed in 1814, the Americans in 1816, the Church of England in 1818, and Christian instruction has made some progress amongst the native populations. Schools, collegiate institutions, and female seminaries, under the direction of the missionaries, are in successful operation; and there is a government system of education.

Ancient Buildings.-In all Buddhist countries the sacred buildings present, with certain modifica