LANGUAGES AND RELIGIONS,

3

and the chronicles, compiled in Pali in the fourth and fifth
centuries A.D. out of the archives of the great Buddhist
monastery at Anuradhapura (it is the peculiar distinction
of the Sinhalese among
Indian peoples to possess
such histories), describe
the establishment of the
Buddhist religion in the
Island by Aryan influences
 in the third
century B.C. These
same chronicles ascribe,
and with all probability,
the previous civilization
of the Island to Aryan
immigration.
The Sinhalese language
 is closely akin to
the Sanskrit; that is, it
is one of that group of
Indo-Aryan languages
of which Sanskrit is the
literary type. It comes
nearer probably to the
Bengali than toany other
of the present forms of
this group.
The Veddas (or “huniers”’),
 who perhaps represent
 the aboriginal
pre-Aryan population of
Ceylon, are a race of great
ethnological interest. It
may be doubted whether
a distinction of race has
been established, and
certainly the peculiarities
 of the Veddas have
been exaggerated—e.g.,
that they cannot laugh!
Some of them have been
induced to adopt a civilized
 life, and are called
“Village Veddas;” these
speak Sinhalese or Tamil,
according to their neighbourhood;
 they fish,

SINHALESE BASKET WOMEN.