CHAP. VI II.] 



FOEM OF GOVEENMEXT. 



497 



use at the same early period, and ivory was largely 

 employed in inlaying the more sumptuous articles. 1 

 Coco-nut shells were used for cups and ladles 2 ; earthen- 

 ware for jugs and drinking cups 3 ; copper for water- 

 pots, oil-cans, and other utensils; and iron for razors, 

 needles, and nail-cutters.* The pingo, formed of a lath 

 cut from the stem of the areca, or of the young coco-nut 

 palm, and still used as a yoke in carrying burdens, 

 existed at an early period 5 , in the same form in which 

 it is borne at the present day. It is identical with the 

 asilla, an instrument for the same purpose depicted on 

 works of Grecian art 6 and on the monuments of Egypt. 



EGYPTIAN YOKE. 



SINGHALESE PINGO. 



Form of Government The form of government was 

 at all times an unmitigated despotism ; the king had mi- 

 nisters, but only to relieve him of personal toil, and the 

 institution of Gram-sabes, or village municipalities, which 

 existed in every hamlet, however small, was merely a 

 miniature council of the peasants, in which they settled 

 all disputes about descent and proprietorship, and main- 

 tained the organisation essential to their peculiar tillage ; 

 facilitating at the same time the payment of dues to the 

 crown, both in taxes and labour. 



Revenue. The main sources of revenue were taxes, 



1 Mahawanso, ch. xxvii. p. 163. 



2 Ibid., ch. xxvii. p. 164. 

 s Ibid., ch. xv. p. 85. 



* Rajaratnacari, p. 134. 



s Ibid., p. 103. This implement is 

 identical with the " yoke ' so often 

 mentioned in the Old and New Tes- 



tament as an emblem of bondage and 

 labour ; and figured, with the same 

 significance, on Grecian sculpture and 

 perns. See ante, Vol. I. Pt. I. ch. iii. 

 p. 114. 

 6 ARISTOTLE, Khet. i. 7. 



VOL. 



K K 



