500 



SCIENCES AND SOCIAL ARTS. 



[PART IV. 



The Eajaratnacari states that the arrows of the 

 Malabars were sometimes " drenched with the poison 

 of serpents," to render recovery impossible. 1 Against 

 such weapons the Singhalese carried shields, some of 

 them covered with plates of the chank shell 2 ; this shell 

 was also sounded in lieu of a trumpet 3 , 'and the disgrace 

 of retreat is implied by the expression that it ill becomes 

 a soldier to " allow his hair to fly behind"* 



Civil Justice. Civil justice was entrusted to pro- 

 vincial judges 5 ; but the King Kirti Nissanga, in the 

 great tablet inscribed with his exploits, which still 

 exists at Pollanarrua, has recorded that under the 

 belief that "robbers commit their crimes through 

 hunger for wealth, he gave them whatever riches they 

 required, thus relieving the country from the alarm of 

 their depredations." 6 Torture was 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 established ad- 

 joining the place of execution and the cemetery. 7 It was 

 abolished in the third century by King Wairatissa; but 

 the frightful punishments of impaling and crushing by 

 elephants continued to the latest period of the Ceylon 

 monarchy. 



be found on any ancient monument, 

 Egyptian, Assyrian, Grecian, or Ro- 

 man ; but that it was regarded as 

 peculiar to the inhabitants of India 

 is shown by the fact that ARRIAN 

 describes it as something remark- 

 able in the Indians in the age of 

 Alexander. " 'O7rXi<rtoc Si TTJS 'Ivwv 

 OVK wvrog flf rpoTrof, a\\' ol ftiv 

 irt&i avroiffi TOOV rt EXOVOIV, ItrofiriKig 

 rtf (poptovn TO roov, icai TOVTO tcdriit 

 firl rrjv yijv fevrif icai T(f irodi r< 

 apiartpy avTifidvTfe, ovrwg tKrofrvovot, 

 Tt}v vtvpijv ttri fi'tya oTrlffto cnr ay ay 6v- 



rtg" 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 given of a 

 Caboclo archer in the attitude; but, 

 unlike the Veddah of Ceylon, the 

 American uses both feet. 



1 Rajaratnacari, p. 101. 



2 Rajavali, p. 217. 



8 Mahawanso, ch. xxv. p. 154. 



4 Rajavali, p. 213. 



5 Inscriptions on the Great Tablet 

 at Pollanaxrua. 



6 Ibid. 



1 Mahawanso, ch. x. p. 66. 



