The Press. — London, England, 1854-12-16 00:00:00

DECEMBER 16, 1854 petticoats and back-combs is striking enough for extract : On landing at Point de Galle you are beset by a non descript and anomalous crowd, attired in scanty petticoats T eaching to the anclee, parasols in their hands, and their long hair drawn off the forehead, and turned up behind with a high tortoiseshell comb. These peculiarities of dress, together with their full busts and effeminate features, and the waddling gait caused by the restraint of the petti coats, impress the traveller with the idea that he has landed amongst a nation of women ; but when assured of their masculine gender, the similarity amongst them all is so great that he immediately jumps to the conclusion that, on the other hand, there are no women at all ; and it is not till he has had some days' experience that he begins with any success to discriminate between the male and female portion of the community. The only visible distinction between the sexes consists in the women wearing rather shorter jackets than the men, enjoying generally rather coarser features, and dispensing with the masculine appen dages of combs and parasols. When watching those mincing conceited creatures sitting in groups, combing and annointing their long black hair, I have felt infinitely more disgust at their occupation than I have ever experienced in viewing the amicable phrence logical investigations mutually exchanged by Italian beggars at Naples and elsewhere. The Cingalese firmly believe in the trans migration of souls; and so far do they carry their confidence in the truth of their creed that " a man, when oppressed by his superiors or " condemned by the judge," Mr. Sullivan tells us, " expresses his intention of returning in a " future state as a cobra to bite his oppressor's " children, or as an elephant to ravage his "crops." However, in the main, they care very little about their religion, and still less, apparently, about any other : The Cingalese will attend chapel, listen with attention, and apparently assent with understanding, but he will go from chapel to his idol, from the preaching of Christianity to the abominations of his degrading profession, without the slightest trace of change effected. Mr. Sullivan conceives that missionaries make few sincere converts, though Roman Catholic priests secure worshippers by bring ing their rites into close resemblance with those of Buddhism : I have frequently entered Roman Catholic, chapels in Ceylon, and seen the priest seated on high at the altar, surrounded by trashy finery and blazing lamps, receiving the grovelling prostration of the worshippers, and it could not fail to strike me that the ceremony appeared too much like the adoration of the priest himself, the substitution of an animate for an inanimate object, and that the idol-wor ship of the Buddhist, and the pnest-worship of the Roman Catholic, were but different forms tending to the same end. Among the native inhabitants of Ceylon, which consist of three distinct races—viz., Cingalese, which inhabit the interior and sea coasts ; the Malaoars, which occupy the north ern and the eastern portions of the island ; and the Moors, who are the industrial and com mercial class in every part of the island—there is yet among the Cingalese a singular tribe, called Veddalis, about whom many most ex traordinary theories have been long extant, such as their having tails and being allied to the baboon, all of which absurdities Mr. Sulli• van very properly ridicul"s, and tells us, from his own personal observation, that they are Much " the same as any other species of the " human race, with the exception of being " very small," which probably arises from the unhealthiness of the dis tricts they have for generations inhabited, and from poverty and scarcity of nourishment. Living in a country which is frequently overrun by elephants, they are doubtless obliged occasionally to take refuge in the trees ; but that these are not their ordinary habitations may be proved from the fact of their possessing huts and temporary villages, and cultivating their plantains, much as the other races of Ceylon. They speak a language but very slightly under stood by the cingalese themselves, they never marry out of the tribe, and avoid as much as possible all intercourse with the natives. They are probably the last remnants of the aboriginal inhabitants of Ceylon, slowly but surely dying out. The elephant hunts contain the usual amount of hairbreadth escapes, disappoint ments, and successes. The following is a lively sketch of the daring hardihood men show when pursuing a flying enemy. Having started three or four elephants. who took refuge in a muddy tank, the hunting party pursued them across the tank with great energy, but much trouble : We were up to our waists in mud, and were so helpless in the case of a charge that, had he been strong, he might with ease have destroyed the whole party. Our only chance of escape, as we settled afterwards, would have been to have anhmerged ourselves entirely, and to have hid our diminished heads under some lotus leaf. This last charge, like that of Charlemagne's famous Paladin at RonearaUM, THE VitESS. although unavailing to himself, secured a retreat for his companions ; and, although wt continued the chase to the opposite batik, any farther chance of overtaking them was hopeless. it was almost dark when we reached the hank ; and, really, when 1 threw myself down on dry land, 1 don't know that I ever felt so completely exhausted—every muscle and every nerve had been at full stretch, under considerable excitement, for nearly an hour and a half. Our chance of being crushed by the elephants, or smothered in the mud, was agreeably varied by the prospect of being shot by some of the gun carriers, who, in their excitement (their nerves never being of the very best), floundered about with guns at full-cock, or hammers on the nipples; and with muzzles pointing in every imaginable direction, front their masters' heads to their own stomachs, none of which circumstances comluced much to our chance of reaching the opposite side in safety. One nnlbrtunate coolie, up to his shoulders in mud, In handing • gun to his master, also in the same hampered position, let off both barrels close to his own head, but so great was the excite ment that I, who happened to be rather nearer than the rest of the party, was the only one present, excepting his master, who was aware that any accidental discharge whatever had taken place. Another of the party, calling upon his gun-carrier for his second gun, had the pleasure of receiving one already discharged, and did not discover his error till, advancing close to the elephant, he had the satisfaction of hearing both hammers click one after another, without so much as the explosion of a copper cap. One instance of the remarkable sagacity of the elephant will be read with curiosity : We passed an elephant working on the road ; and it was most interesting to watch the half-reasoning brute ; he was tearing out large roots from the ground by means of a chain and hook, fastened round his neck with a species of collar. Ile pulled like a man, or rather like a number of men, with a succession of steady hauls, throwing his whole weight into it, and almost going down on his knees, turning round every now and then to see what progress he was making. Really the instinct displayed by the elephant in its domesticated state is little short of reason in its fullest sense. There is no doubt they do think, and also act upon experience and memory, and their capacity seems to increase in an extraordinary degree from their intetconrse with man. The remarkable nicety and trouble they take in squaring and arranging the blocks of hewn stone when building a bridge is incredible, unless seen ; they place them with as much skill as any mason, and will return two or three times to give the finishing touches when they think the work is not quite perfect. They retire a few yards and consider what they have effected, and you almost fancy you can detect them turning their sagacious old noddles on one side, and shutting one eye in a knowing manner, to detect any irregularity in the arrangement. Sidney Smith's anecdotes of elephants' reason in his lee• tures on moral philosophy, although most astonishing, do not fail for the want of corroboration. I heard numerous anecdotes almost as extraordinary as those he mentions; and, amongst others, one of an elephant at Tinnevelly that had been engaged all day in piling logs of timber, but in the evening, becoming angry at some promise his keeper had neglected to fulfil, he went of his own accord and undid every stroke of work he had completed during the day. Upon the whole, this book will be found lively and entertaining. as far as Mr. Sullivan's personal adventures are concerned, but we think that 11 is remarks upon the habits and manners of the Cingalese, and particularly upon the Buddhist faith, are too prejudiced for a traveller in this enlightened age. Rural and Historical Gleanings from Eastern Europe. By Miss M. A. Birkbeck. London : Darton and Co. Is a modest and unpretending little volume Miss Birkbeck has given us some of the most characteristic sketches that we remember to have read of Hungary and the Hungarians. (lathered partly from a friend who had long wandered about the country, and partly from social conversations with illustrious exiles Miss Birkbeck has so skilfully handled her materials as to give her book an aspect of originality and truth. Her le gends and tales of the Theiss and the Puszta are told in a most picturesque but at the same time simple style. The remarkable geographical position of Hungary seems in a great measure to have influenced her destiny as a nation. Situated in that valley of the Danube which separates the Eastern from time Western world, related to the former by descent and to the latter by civilisation, perpetually exposed to the attacks of the Asiatic nomadic tribes on the one side, and on the other to the ceaseless aggressive po Hey of the German Emperors, her very exis tence as a nation has oftimes trembled in the scale, and her history from the days of Arpad to the revolution of '4B is only a record of constant warfare and continued struggle. Yet the energy of her enthusiastic people has never been destroyed by this constant warfare ; the Hungarian's love of country and of race has grown out of ages of conflict. and nationality is now so stamped upon his chtt 111 racter as to be the ruling influence of his life, his feelings, and pursuits. In no country in Europe is there so remarkable a variety of tribes as in Hungary ; each attached to its peculiar cos tune, and adhering to its peculiar creed and dialect. This diversity of character is so great that it seems almost impossible that such ob stacles to national union should ever have been overcome, and the kingdom have been swayed by one man. But that it was so is undoubted, until it became the policy of Austria to arouse the peculiar tribal feelings of the races of the kingdom one against the other—to array the Slovacks of the north and the Croats and Sla vonians of the south against the Magyars (pronounced MOdyor) of the centre ; and what kingdom divided against itself can stand ? First among these tribes must ho ranked the Magyars, numbering about four millions, origin ally an Asiatic race, belonging to the Mar subdivision of the great Caucasian family, and who, detaching themselves about the year 880 from their Asiatic connections, under a chief, Arpad, took possession of a large tract of coun try between the Danube and the Theiss, con quered the aboriginal inhabitants, and founded the Tiitar Slavonic kingdom of Hungary. Proud, fierce, and warlike, possessed of an indomitable love of freedom, staunch sup porters of the Reformed Church, tall and handsome in form, magnanimous in cha racter, enthusiastically attached to music and poetry, speaking the purest Hungarian idiom—the very language of a nation of war riors, solemn, deep, and impassioned—with peculiar pathos and power of expression, they are in truth a chivalrous nation. In contradistinction to the Magyars may be placed the Croats, who, although not number ing more than 800,000 in their tribes, _yet played a prominent part, under their Ban Jellachich, in '4B, and, iu spite of the small ness of their numbers, deserve the second place. Scarcely acquainted with the refine ments of civilisation, rude in habits, crafty in nature, bigoted Roman Catholics, excluding Protestants from even residing in their dis tricts, they possess little nationality and no elements of growth and greatness. Next, the Slovacks, originally peoi ling the fertile plains, until driven by the fierce Mag yars to the barren ranges of the northern Carpathians, but still occupying the southern districts between the Danube and the Theiss, numbering about three millions, of various creeds. In the north—belonging to the Re formed Church—they are industrious and skilful, cultivating their land with care, and offering a remarkable contrast to their tierce, drunken, indolent, Romanist and Greek breth ren of the southern provinces. Then the Serbians, idle in disposition yet loving freedom, Greek in creed and conse quently fanatical, ignorant and prejudiced, cruel and vindictive, hating every other race and every other faith. Warlike in spirit but bigoted by nature, slaves to their priests and primate, they have never lost an opportunity of waging an exterminating war of are and sword against those noble Protestant Magyars who in former times had granted them refuge and conferred upon them civil and religious liberty. Then comes a mountain tribe, the Szeklers, who must not be forgotten ; 300,000 hardy mountaineers, who for• centuries previous to the Magyar conquest had long been estab lished in their southeastern mountain fast nesses and primeval forests, and by those politic conquerors were confirmed in their possessions. Protestant in religion, they are remarkable for their advancement over aL neighbouring tribes in education and agricul ture. With a college in their chief town of Maros Vitsarkelsy, there is not a village but h:ts its public school and English university teachers—a very oasis of education in a desert of primitive ignorance. Sober and honest, poor and proud, with a lively imagination and poetic fancy, they present iu their industry and perseverance a remarkable contrast to their more bigoted brethren the Wallaehs, a powerful tribe who surround them on all sides. Numerically superior to the 1 1 .1xettlers as six to one, the Wallaehs, having all the bias of the Turks without their virtues, entertain an he reditary jealousy and hatred of their Seekler neighbours ; but even in 1848 9, when hemmed