494 



SCIENCES AXD SOCIAL ARTS. 



[PART IV. 



garden l ; and a third displayed his skill as a surgeon, 

 in treating the diseases of elephants,- horses, and snakes. 2 

 The streets contained shops and bazaars 3 ; and on festive 

 occasions, barbers and dressers were stationed at each 

 of the gates, for the convenience of those resorting 

 to the city. 4 



The Lankawistariyaye, or " Ceylon Illustrated," a 

 Singhalese work of the 7th century, gives a geogra- 

 "phical summary of the three great divisions of the 

 island, Kohuna, Maya, and Pihiti, and dwells with 

 obvious satisfaction on the description of the capital of 

 that period. The details correspond so exactly with 

 another fragment of a native author, quoted by Major 

 Forbes 5 , that both seem to have been written at one and 

 the same period ; they each describe the " temples and 

 palaces, whose golden pinnacles glitter in the sky, the 

 streets spanned by arches bearing flags, the side ways 

 strewn with black sand, and the middle sprinkled with 

 white, and on either side vessels containing flowers, and 

 niches with statues holding lamps. There are multi- 

 tudes of men armed with swords, and bows and arrows. 

 Elephants, horses, carts, and myriads of people pass and 

 repass, jugglers, dancers, and musicians of all nations, 

 with chank shells and other instruments ornamented 

 with gold. The distance from the principal gate to the 

 south gate is four gows ; and the same from the north 

 to the south gate. The principal streets are Moon 

 Street, Great King Street, Hinguruwak, and MahaweEi 

 Streets, the first containing eleven thousand houses, 

 many of them two stories in height. The smaller 

 streets are innumerable. The palace has large ranges 



1 Mahmoanso, ch. xxxvii. p. 249. 



2 Ibid., p. 244, 245. 



3 Ibid., eh. xxiii. p. 139. 



* Ibid., ch. xxviii. p. 170; ch. 

 xxxiv. p. 214. 



'" Eleven Years in Ceylon, vol. i. 

 p. 235. But there is so close a re- 

 semblance in each author to the de- 



scription of the ancient capital of the 

 kings of Ayoudhya (Oude) that both 

 seem to have been copied from that 

 portion of the Ramayana. See the 

 translation by Carey and Marshman, 

 vol. i. p. 96, *and the French version 

 of Fauche, torn. i. p. 58. 



