Romantic Ceylon: Its History, Legend And Story

The author reveals that like the Mahavamsa, an ancient Sinhalese chronicle, this book is written ?for the supreme joy and emotion? of its readers. Intended purely to interest and amuse, it lays no claim to historical completeness or scientific method, the selection of the incidents which form its contents being governed primarily by the accident of the localities in Ceylon where the author has worked. Each chapter endeavours to illustrate one of the myriad tags which form the huge variegated patchwork of Ceylon history and legend, but, apart from the chronological grouping of events connected with separate districts, a stereotyped system of construction has been avoided. The variety of interest thus ensured serves to emphasize the fact that the whole of Ceylon is a vast storehouse of legend and folklore, wherefrom a negligible proportion of material has been drawn to fill the following pages, not omitting the oldest stories, because they are usually the best, but also, it is hoped, including a number of tales which to most readers, at least, will be new. The book contains numerous illustrations and maps to delineate the subject properly. It was first published in 1929.