the natives, so habitual the impulse to classify themselves and to look up to some one as their superior in the scale of society, that the custom descends through every gradation of life and its occupations, and in some of the villages the missionaries found it necessary to appoint two schoolmasters, even where there was less than occupation for one—­’influence,’ as well as ability to teach, being an essential qualification; and if the individual did not possess the former, it was most indispensable to associate with him some other who did.[A] Again, if a village could not furnish a master competent to teach, it was in vain to procure one from a distance; his ‘influence’ did not extend to that locality, and no pupils could he got to attend.  Nor was caste itself without the open avowal of its force, the children of a Vellala or high-caste family being on no account permitted to enter the school-house of a lower-caste master.  These are obstacles which prevail in all their original force even at the present day; and in the purely Singhalese districts, such as Matura, the prestige of caste is so despotic, that no amount of qualification in all other particulars can overcome the repugnance to intercourse with those who are deficient in the paramount requisite of rank.”—­SIR J. E. TENNENT’s Christianity in Ceylon, p. 286.

[A] MS. account of Baptist Mission.

[42] In the large towns this remark might not, perhaps, be justifiable.

[43] Since this chapter was written, I have received well authenticated information of a Pariah, who had acquired both wealth and position, having been adopted into a superior caste.  The caste was not a rich one, and he no doubt paid heavily for his admission into it.

[44] The farmers in Manjarabad invariably tack on the word “Gouda” to their names, and it seems to answer for our Mr.

[45] The natives imagine that every man’s fate is written in invisible characters on his forehead.

[46] Abbe Dubois.

[47] It is satisfactory to learn that caste feelings and regulations have a favourable influence with natives, even when they go to a foreign country; and it is equally satisfactory to quote the evidence of a gentleman who laughs at caste as an absurd custom.  Mr. W. Sabonadiere, in his work of “The Coffee Planter in Ceylon” writes as follows:  “The coolies who resort to Ceylon are of various castes.  Those mostly preferred by planters are the low castes, such as Pallans, shanars, and Pariahs, as being more accustomed to and fit for hard work; but, as a class, they are more given to drink, spend their money more freely, and are more quarrelsome than the higher classes, whom their caste forbids to drink arrack or spirits, and who are more cleanly in their habits, better behaved (as fearing to lose caste), who have land of their own on the coast, and are more interested in working regularly and gaining their wages to take away with them.”