Handbook to the ethnographical collections . snake-and-spirit worship-pers, who may be partially represented to-day by the Vedda, aI>rimitive people inha))iting the interior. During the earliercenturies of our era, wlien Buddhist art readied a high level inCeylon, there was a continuous Tamil innnigration from Southern 74 ASIA India. Tlie island has been subjected at different times toChinese, Mahiy and Arab influence; while from the sixteenthcentury it has been held successively by the Portuguese, theDutch and the British. Ceylon was in quite early times anemporium for the trade of the Far
Handbook to the ethnographical collections . snake-and-spirit worship-pers, who may be partially represented to-day by the Vedda, aI>rimitive people inha))iting the interior. During the earliercenturies of our era, wlien Buddhist art readied a high level inCeylon, there was a continuous Tamil innnigration from Southern 74 ASIA India. Tlie island has been subjected at different times toChinese, Mahiy and Arab influence; while from the sixteenthcentury it has been held successively by the Portuguese, theDutch and the British. Ceylon was in quite early times anemporium for the trade of the Far East on the one side, audof Africa, Arabia, and Europe on the other; but the >Sinhalesethemselves have never been navigators. The art and general culture of Ceylon are naturally more closelyconnected with India than with any other country, though theSinhalese have developed a distinctive artistic style. Brahmanismand Buddhism co-exist in the island, but the more primitiveveneration for evil spirits, the so-called devil-worship, is still. Fig. 61.—Shilialcse mask used in devil-dances. tolerated by the established religions. The set of grotesquepainted wooden masks on exhibition is connected with these large central mask represents the principal demon of disease(fig. 61). and the surrounding smaller masks are either his avatarsor incarnations, or else sul)ordinate demons (fig. 62). Eachmask is associated with a particular malady (malarial fever,dysentery, &c.). The devil-dancers, after preliminary ceremonies,put on the masks and dance before the sick man, uttering theinvocations proper to the several spirits. The masks are notintended to drive the devils away, but rather to attract them tothe spot; when they are supposed to have arrived, and to berefreshing themselves with the offerings, the priest professesto discover the spirit which has actually caused the disease, andto persuade him to desist. INDIA AND CEYLON 75 The Vedda are very primitive forest-dwellers,
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Keywords: ., bookauthorjoycetho, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, bookyear1910
