rigin in the parts where it now occurs is uncertain. The mountains
between Kutch Gundava and Mekran seem to form the area of the Brahui;
some eastern branches of which population I presume to be British, mixed
with Biluch.[51]

* * * * *

_Ceylon._--The inhabitants of the northern part of Ceylon speak the
Tamul language, and are Brahminists in creed. They are not, however, the
true natives of the island. These latter use a Hindu tongue, called the
_Singhalese_. Its philological relations are exactly those of the
Mahratta, Bengali, and Udiya,--neither better nor worse defined, more or
less unequivocal. Some make it out to be of Sanskrit, others of Tamulian
origin. All that is certain is, that it is more Sanskritic than the
proper Tamul, and more Tamul than the Bengali. It is _written_; and
embodies a copious, but worthless literature, its alphabet being derived
from that of the Pali language.

This introduces a new characteristic. The Pali has the same relation to
Buddhism, that the Sanskrit has to Brahminism. It is the language of the
Scriptures, the priest, and the scholar, and, although, at the present
moment, it is as little recognized as a holy tongue on the continent of
India, as the Greek of the New Testament is at Rome, it divides with the
Arabic and Latin, the honour of being the most widely-spread literary
language of the world. All the forms of Buddhism in the transgangetic
peninsula are embodied in Pali writings. So are those of the Mongols;
and so, to a great extent, those of the Tibetans as well. This makes the
language and the creed nearly co-extensive. In China, however, and
Japan, where great changes have taken place, and where either the
development, or the deterioration of Buddhism has gone far enough to
abolish the more palpable characteristics of the original Indian
doctrine, the Pali language is no longer the medium. It _is_ so,
however, for the vast area already indicated.

In Buddhism, as opposed to Brahminism, there is a greater tenderness of
animal life in general, whilst less respect is paid to the ox-tribe in
particular. There is less also of the system of caste; and, in
consequence of this, fewer of those elements of priestly influence,
which originate in the ideas of the hereditary transmission of
sacro-sanctitude. Buddhism, too, has the credit of running further in
the dream-land of subjective metaphysics than Brahminism,--though this,
as far as my own ver