CHAP. VIII. J DOMESTIC LIFE. 495 



of buildings, some of them two and three stories high, 

 and its subterranean apartments are of great extent." 



The native descriptions of Anarajapoora, in the 7th 

 century, are corroborated by the testimony of the foreign 

 travellers who visited it about the same period. Fa Hian 

 says, "The city is the residence of many magistrates, 

 grandees, and foreign merchants ; the mansions beautiful, 

 the public buildings richly adorned, the streets and high- 

 ways straight and level, and houses for preaching built at 

 every thoroughfare." l The Leang-shu, a Chinese history 

 of the Leang Dynasty, written between A.D. 507 509, 

 describing the cities of Ceylon at that period, says, " The 

 houses had upper stories, the walls were built of brick, 

 and secured by double gates." 2 



Carriages and Horses. Carriages 3 and chariots 4 

 are repeatedly mentioned as being driven through the 

 principal cities, and carts and waggons were accustomed 

 to traverse the interior of the country. 5 At the same 

 time, the frequent allusions to the clearing of roads 

 through the forests, on the approach of persons of dis- 

 tinction, serve to show that the passage of wheel 

 carriages must have been effected with difficulty 6 , along 

 tracks prepared for the occasion, by freeing them of the 

 jungle and brushwood. The horse is not a native of 

 Ceylon, and those spoken of by the ancient writers 

 must have been imported from India and Arabia. 

 White horses were especially prized, and those men- 

 tioned with peculiar praises were of the "Sindhawo" 

 breed, a term which may either imply the place whence 



1 Foe-koue-ki, ch. xxxviii. p. 334. ! buy ginger and saffron" (Mahawatiso, 



2 Leang-shu, B. liv. p. 10. I ch. xxviii. p. 167) ; and in the 3rd 



3 B.C. 307, Mahawanso, ch. xiv. j century after Chnst a wheel chariot 

 p. 80, 81 ; B.C. 204, Ib., ch. xxi. ! was driven from the capital to the 

 p. 128. A carriage drawn by four Kalaweva tank twenty miles N. W. of 

 horses is mentioned, B.C. 161, MaJw,- Dambool. Malmicanxo, ch. xxxviii. 

 wanso, ch. xxxi. p. 186. I p. 260. See ante, Vol. II. p. 445. 



4 B.C. 307, Mahawanso, ch. xv. 6 FORBES suggests that on such 

 p. 84 ; ch. xvi. p. 103. journeys the carriages must have 



5 B.C. 161, " a merchant of Anara- , been pushed by men, as horses could 

 japoora proceeded with carts to the { not possibly have drawn them in the 

 Malaya division near Adam's Peak to i hill country (vol. ii. p. 86). 



