GtJIDE TO THE COLOMBO MUSEUM. 181 



fifteenth and sixteenth centuries regardmg the amazing size of the 

 jewels possessed by the Sinhalese kings. The Ceylon stones and the 

 Ceylon pearls have been always considered superior to others in 

 point of lustre. 



A brief word may be said with regard to the jewellery produced 

 under European influence, which is entirety distinctive from the 

 purely Eastern t3rpe which has so far been described. A curiously 

 distorted taste which prevailed among the ladies of the Iberian 

 Penmsula in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries has left its 

 mark on the heavy and inartistic silver work mounted with tourma- 

 lines, of which there is a large collection on view. Size and quantity 

 was in estimation among them, rather than beauty or rarity ; the 

 figure of the low-country Sinhalese woman in Case 36 shows the effect 

 of Portuguese influence till the middle of the nineteenth century. 

 The jet ornaments were employed exclusively for mourning purposes, 

 and fashionable ladies attending a funeral would have two joints of 

 every finger covered with these rings, as they pressed a dainty 

 handkerchief to their streaming eyes. Under Dutch influence a 

 good deal of very beautiful diamond jewellery was made in the 

 country, though there are no specimens of it in the Museum. The 

 Coronchiya — a name derived direct from the Portuguese — is still 

 used in crowning a bride — a custom also prevalent in various parts 

 of Europe, and which has been largely adopted among those classes 

 of the Sinhalese who came most under European influence. 



The visitor should notice the golden 'pata tahaduwa which is in 

 Case 39. Under the Sinhalese kings high officials were invested by 

 securing this band round the forehead with a silken ribbon, an 

 honorific name being at the same time conferred upon the recipient. 



Coins (Case 42). 



The collection shown in the Museum can be divided into two 

 classes, the first consisting of coins struck in the country itself by 

 native or foreign Governments, and the second of those which were 

 introduced by foreign traders. To the first class belong those struck 

 by the Sinhalese, Portuguese, Dutch, and EngKsh ; to the second 

 the Roman, and a large variety of Indian coins. (See Plate 

 XXXIII.) 



The oldest of the series are represented by the Karshapana, which 

 go back to a period considerably anterior to the birth of the Buddha. 

 They are oblong, square, and circular in shape, without any legend, 

 and distinguished by punch marks of various Buddhist symbols. 

 These appear to have been current in the Island till about the 

 eleventh century of the Christian era, but it is not possible to say 

 definitely whether they were struck in the Island or imported from 

 India, or both.* These coins are chiefly of silver. 



After the commencement of the Christian era an improved issue 

 of these coins seems to have been made in copper, of a circular shape 

 and about 1| in. across. These coins are extremely rare, and also 

 display no legend, the two faces being fully occupied by various 

 symbols, among which the swastika, the elephant, and the trisula 

 are prominent. Contemporaneously with these there appears to 



* For further information see a paper on " Notes on a find of Eldlings made 

 in Anuradhapura," by John Still. Journal, R. A, S., 1907, Vol. XIX., 

 p. 191. 



