That the island requires for the maintenance of its internal tranquillity such a large body of troops as that now stationed in it, is, to say the least, more than doubtful. The Kandian provinces include all the disaffected, whose numbers are even now very limited, and are rapidly diminishing. The populous districts on the sea-coast have no community of feeling with the inhabitants of the interior, and have ever evinced a desire to support rather than to resist the British Government. Ceylon is, however, an excellent point for concentrating a large military force, as, from its centric position, troops may, without difficulty, be despatched by sea to either the Malabar or Coromandel coast. It is, probably, on this account that so large an establishment has been kept up in the island during a period of profound peace.* Having thus hastily sketched the most prominent features of the society of Ceylon, it may be amusing to observe and trace the wide distinction that exists between the manners and customs of the Anglo-Cingalese and those of their fellow-countrymen in the peninsula of Hindostan. The insular position of Ceylon would, at first sight, seem to be the principal cause of this dissimilarity, but there are innumerable other and more important circumstances that operate to produce the striking contrast which is here alluded to. In the first place, Ceylon, being a colony under the direct control of the British Government, is unconnected with the Anglo-Indian world by those ties, arising from a community of interests, that unite in a common bond of alliance, offensive and defensive, all the civil and military servants of the East-India Company. The climate of Ceylon, so mild and equable when compared with that of India, has a considerable effect in banishing many articles of luxury that are by some considered as absolute necessaries of life within the tropics. The comparatively brief residence of both civilians and military in the island is another, and by no means the least, of the causes that tend to create a vast dissimilarity between the habits and ideas of the English in India and of those in Ceylon. In India, the habits of the European societies are tinged with the delicacy of Oriental luxury. A multitude of servants supply every want, and almost anticipate every thought. But the pride of caste amongst the Hindoos, which absolutely compels the Anglo-Indian to maintain a great number of domestics to perform the most trivial offices, is almost unknown to the less scrupulous Cingalese, of whom a less numerous establishment than is usual in India is found to answer every purpose. Palanquins and tonjohns, which are universally used throughout Hindostan, are rarely, if ever, seen in Ceylon. In short, the English on the Asiatic continent seem to accommodate themselves to the climate of the country in which they are destined to reside, while those in Ceylon pertinaciously endeavour to resist the soft allurements of Eastern indolence, and to imitate, as far as may be practicable, the mode of living in England. It may be questionable whether in this, as in the majority of cases, the adoption of a happy medium between English habits and Indian customs would not prove to be the most judicious plan of proceeding. But to enter into the comparative merits of the modes of living here contrasted, and fully to discuss this intricate subject in all its bearings and dependencies, is an undertaking to which I confess myself incompetent, and accordingly leave to the pens of more experienced Orientalists. * Since this was written, a considerable reduction has been effected. There is, however, one regulation in the code of Eastern etiquette that appears so opposed to our laudable English prejudices as to demand the earnest reprobation of all good and true Englishmen. I allude to the practice which obtains throughout India, of requiring those who have recently arrived at a station, to make the first advances towards forming the acquaintance of their neighbours, and then to force themselves, as it were vi et armis, upon the society in their vicinity. For this singular custom, which so strongly militates against all the previously-formed ideas that new-comers from England are wont to entertain, no justification is ever attempted, and the querulous griffin is usually silenced, if not convinced, by the aphorism, "Do at Rome as Romans do." To the honour of the Anglo-Cingalese community be it said, that they have ever resisted the introduction of this law of fashion, which in India appears, like those of the Medes and Persians, to alter not. Comparisons, however, at all times and under all circumstances, are dangerous, and often, as Mrs. Malaprop justly observes, "oderous." As, in the course of these papers, I have endeavoured to "nothing extenuate nor aught set down in malice," I am unwilling, in this concluding chapter, to incur the pains and penalties resulting from the neglect of that invaluable maxim. To flatter the Anglo-Cingalese at the expense of their continental brethren were indeed an unworthy, and, to me, an ungrateful task. A pleasing recollection of the kindness and hospitality that so eminently characterize our countrymen in India, will ever be prominent amid my reminiscences of men and manners in the East. On the 24th October, 1839, I sailed for England on board H.M.S. Jupiter, and, as the shades of evening gradually enveloped the fast receding mountains of Ceylon, bade a long adieu to "the clime of the East" and "the land of the sun." APPENDIX. HEIGHTS OF SOME OF THE PRINCIPAL MOUNTAINS, &c. In the INTERIOR OF CEYLON. (L, by levelling; A, geodesical operations.) Sea customs-duty on imports and exports, exclusive of cinnamon, 66,418 1 8 ... ... 74,631 0 10 RETURN OF THE REVENUE AND EXPENDITURE OF EACH YEAR, FROM 1821 to 1836, INCLUSIVE, SHEWING THE EXCESS OF REVENUE OR OF EXPENDITURE IN EACH YEAR. SIR J. G. WILKINSON'S "MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS."* THE second series of Sir Gardner Wilkinson's "Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians" completes one of the most successful and satisfactory works of an archæological character ever published. It is, indeed, a monument of what zeal, industry, and skill may accomplish in a province of antiquarian research, which, like a Serbonian bog, has swallowed up the ill-directed labours of centuries. The results which have attended the successful study of the Egyptian monuments in very recent times may, perhaps, be measured most accurately by reference to the accounts left us by the earliest Greek writers, and we shall thence find that our present information regarding ancient Egypt is, in many respects, more full and precise than that possessed by contemporary nations, who had the means of visiting the extraordinary people who inhabited it. Another and an important fruit of these researches is the light they throw upon "the oldest and most authentic record of the primeval state of the world," the Old Testament. It will afford a lesson to those whose indiscreet jealousy for the character of Holy Writ tempts them to discourage such investigations, lest they might discredit its veracity, to find that the Jewish and the Egyptian records reflect mutual lustre upon each other, and that the oldest writings and the oldest monuments in the world are in perfect harmony. We refer to our review of the first series of this most valuable work for a sketch of its plan. The superabundance of his materials obliged the author to omit several subjects in the previous portion, which he has fully treated of in this, especially religion and agriculture, two very important features of ancient Egyptian civilization. These subjects are discussed with immediate reference to the original monuments still extant (of which exquisite plates are given, many of them richly coloured), but they are also illuminated by a research which seems to have left no early writer unexplored. The ancient Egyptians, as we have before observed, seem to have employed sculpture and painting not only as a substitute for historical chronicles, but as memorials of their arts and sciences, their religious rites and observances, their institutions and manners, their pursuits and amusements. It is hopeless to suggest more than a probable theory for this; we may conjecture that its object may have been to counteract any spirit of innovation, which is hostile to the temper and manners of all the Asiatic and African families of mankind. Recollecting, indeed, the desire which animated the earliest societies of men, to build "a city and a tower," in order to "make them a name," and coupling this recorded fact with the pyramids and other ponderous structures of Egypt still existing, we might surmise that these multitudinous records of the religion, the arts, the science, and the manners A Second Series of the Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians, including their Religion, Agriculture, &c., derived from a Comparison of the Paintings, Sculptures, and Monuments still existing, with the Accounts of Ancient Authors. By SIR J. GARDNER WILKINSON, F.R.S., &c. &c. Two vols, and a vol. of Plates. London, 1841. Murray. ↑ A. Journ, vol, xxv. pp. 187, 297. |
