500 



SCIENCES KNJ) SOCIAL ARTS. 



[Part IV. 



The Rajaratnacari states that the arrows of the 

 Mahibars were sometimes " drenched with the poison 

 of serpents," to render recovery impossible.^ Against 

 such weapons the Singhalese carried shields, some of 

 them covered with plates of the chank shell ^ ; this shell 

 was also sounded in heu of a trumpet^, and the disgrace 

 of retreat is unphed by the expression that it iU becomes 

 a soldier to " allow his hair to fly behind."^ 



Civil Justice. — Civil justice was entrusted to pro- 

 vincial judges^ ; but the King Kirti Nissanga, in the 

 great tablet inscribed with his exploits, which still 

 exists at Pollanarrua, has recorded that under the 

 behef that " robbers commit their crimes through 

 hunger for wealth, he gave them whatever riches they 

 requu-ed, thus reheving the country from the alarm of 

 then" depredations."^ Torture Avas originally recognised 

 as a stage in the administration of the law, and in the 

 original organisation of the capital in the fourth century 

 before Christ, a place for its infliction was estabhshed ad- 

 joining the place of execution and the cemetery.^ It was 

 abohshed in the thh-d century by King Wairatissa ; but 

 the frightful punishments of impaling and crushing by 

 elephants continued to the latest period of the Ceylon 

 monarchy. 



be foimd on any ancient monument, 

 Egyptian, Assji-ian, Grecian, or Ro- 

 man ; but that it was regarded as 

 peculiar to the inhabitants of India 

 is shown by the fact that Aerian 

 describes it as something remark- 

 able in the Indians in the age of 

 Alexander, " 'OnXiaio^ Si rtjg 'IvSioi^ 

 ova u)vt6q t'lQ TpoTTog, aW ol /xtv 

 TTt^ol avToiai to^ov rt 'ixovaiv, iaofiriKiQ 



TC^ (poptOVTl TO rO^OV, Kai TOVTO KCLTO) 



iirl rrjv yijv f'svrff Kal rt^ ttoSi t<^ 

 apiaript^ avTi^avTiq^ ourojg f )cro|ei'oi'iTi, 

 T))v I'lvpi]!' iTTt fi'tya orricTb) cnrayayov- 



rfc-" — Arrian, Indica, lib. xvi. Ar- 

 rian adds that such was the force 

 with which their arrows travelled 

 that no substance was strong enough 



to resist them, neither shield, breast- 

 plate, nor armour, all of which they 

 penetrated. In the account of Brazil, 

 by Kidder and Fletcher, Philad. 

 1856, p. 558, the Indians of the Ama- 

 zon are said to draw the bow with 

 the foot, and a figure is jjiven of a 

 Caboclo archer in the attitude; but, 

 unlike the Veddali of Ceylon, the 

 American uses both feet. 



^ Rajaratnacari, p. 101. 



'^ Rajavali, p. 217. 



^ Mahaivanso, ch. xxv. p, 154. 



* Rajavali, p. 213. 



^ Inscriptions on the Great Tablet 

 at Pollanarrua. 



6 Ibid. 



■^ Mahawcmm, ch. x. p. 



