CHAPTER XV.
 

                SOCIAL  LIFE  AND CUSTOMS.



Social Life and Customs of the Natives of Ceylon—How Little Colonists

    may know of Village Life—Domestic Servants—Caste Restrictions

    —Curious Occupations among the People.



   THE variety of race, colour, physiognomy, and  costume

     among the people in the busy streets of Colombo—

especially  the Pettah, or native market-place—at once

arrests  the attention of the stranger.  But, save what

he sees in the public highways, and may learn from  his

servants,  the  ordinary  colonist,  may  live many  years in

the  island without learning much of the every-day life

and habits of the  people of  the land, whether Sinhalese

or Tamils, in  their own villages and homes.   There is a

beaten  track  now for the  European to follow,  be  he

merchant  or planter, and  there is so much of  western

civilisation and education on the surface that the new

comer  is apt to forget  very  soon that he  is in the midst

of a people with an ancient civilization and authentic

history  of their  own, extending far  beyond that  of the

majority of European  nations ;  and with social  customs

and modes of life, when separate from  foreign influences,

entirely  distinct from  anything to which he  has  been

accustomed.   The  foreigners who see somewhat  of this

inner life  of the people, especially in the rural districts,

are the civil servants and other public officers of  Govern¬

ment,  and the missionaries.   Now, as regards the work

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