370 



THE SINGHALESE CHRONICLES. 



[PART III. 



B.C. Yakkhos *, under the superintendence of Brahman engi- 

 4 ' neers. 2 This, to some extent, accounts for the prodigious 

 amount of labour bestowed on these structures ; labour 

 which the whole revenue of the kingdom would not 

 have sufficed to purchase, had it not been otherwise 

 procurable. 



Under this system, the fate of the aborigines was 

 that usually consequent on the subjugation of an infe- 

 rior race by one more highly civilised. The process of 

 their absorption into the dominant race was slow, and 

 for centuries they continued to exist distinct, as a subju- 

 gated people. So firmly rooted amongst them was the 

 worship both of demons and serpents, that, notwith- 

 standing the ascendancy of Buddhism, many centuries 

 elapsed before it was ostensibly abandoned ; from time 

 to time, " demon offerings " were made from the royal 

 treasury 3 ; and one of the kings, in his enlarged libe- 

 rality, ordered that for every ten villages there should 

 be maintained an astrologer and a " devil-dancer," in 

 addition to the doctor and the priest. 4 - 



Throughout the Singhalese chronicles, the notices of 

 the aborigines are but casual, and occasionally contemp- 

 tuous. Sometimes they allude to " slaves of the Yakkho 

 tribe," 5 and in recording the progress and completion of 

 the tanks and other stupendous works, the Mahawanso 

 and the Rajaratnacari, in order to indicate the inferi- 

 ority of the natives to their masters, speak of their 

 conjoint labours as that of " men and snakes," 6 and 

 " men and demons." 7 



^ *. RajavaU, p. 237, 238. Excep- 

 tions to the extortion of forced labour 

 for public works took place Under the 

 more pious kings, who made a merit 

 of paying the workmen employed in 

 the erection of dagobas and other 

 religious monuments. Mahcnvamo, 

 ch. xxxv. 



9 Mahawanso, ch. x. 

 3 Mahawanso, ch. x. ; TTJEXOTJR'S 

 Epitome, p. 23. 



4 TTTKNOTJU'S Epitome, p. 27 ; Raja- 

 ratnacari, ch. ii. ; Rajavali, p. 241. 



5 Mahawanso, ch. x. 



6 Ibid., ch. xix. p. 115. 



7 The King Maha-Sen, anxious for 

 the promotion of agriculture, caused 

 many tanks to be made " by men and 

 devils." Mahawanso, ch. xxxvii. ; 

 UPHAM'S TransL; Rajaratnacari, p. 

 69 ; Rajavali, p. 237. 



