TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 117 



was raised. It was evident that this was a British harrow of the bronze age. A pecu- 

 liarity of the mound was that it contained no flakes, showing that the custom of 

 throwing them into harrows was not universal. In another tumulus, near this one, 

 the author found no central grave ; but a layer of black coal, probably the result of 

 fire, was found just beneath the surface ; although in the centre a small hole was 

 clearly seen, where, no doubt, a burnt body had been deposited. There were a 

 great number of burnt flints, but no flake or implement of any kind. The author 

 described six tumuli (sections of which were exhibited) in the same locality. Burnt 

 bones, an iron Saxon knife, and other remains were found, which led the author 

 to fix the date of the erection of the tumuli at about 500 or 600 a.d. 



Some Rune-like Characters on Chalk. By J. Park Harbison, M.A. 



The author stated that the characters in question had been found in some chalk 

 galleries at Cissbury, in Sussex. He said they had all the appearance of early 

 characters, and had been accepted as such by several eminent palajographists, who, 

 however, were unable at present to decipher them. They were neither Scandina- 

 vian nor Saxon. He exhibited a diagram of a Runic inscription found on a granite 

 block at Smolensk for comparison with the chalk inscriptions. 



Tlu Ancient 'People and Irrigation-works of Ceylon. 

 By Bertram F. Hartshorne, M.A. 



The author pointed out generally the system of social polity and the high state 

 of civilization which existed in the island in early ages. The character and desti- 

 nies of the inhabitants were mainly determined by the influence of the Buddhist 

 religion, which was introduced into the island in the Gth century before Christ. 

 About 500 years later the practice of devil-dancing was added to the national reli- 

 gious observances, with the view of appeasing the malignity of the red-eyed 

 demon, to whose displeasure was attributed a famine and plague which happened 

 at that time. So popular was this new custom that one hundred years afterwards 

 King Budha Daasa ordained that every division of ten villages should have an 

 astrologer, a devil-dancer, and a preacher attached to it. At the present day 

 devil-dancing is of very frequent and general occurrence. The early Singalese 

 people were essentially a martial race, owing to the repeated invasions of the 

 Solleans from the south of India; but pearl-diving is recorded to have been a 

 regular occupation among them in the third century B.C. In later times the 

 social condition of the people is curiously illustrated by the rock inscriptions of 

 the date of about 1200 a.d. The King Parakrama Bahu I., we are told, thrice 

 visited all the towns and strongholds of his kingdom, and established such security 

 everywhere that " even a women might traverse the country with a precious 

 jewel, and not be asked, What is it?" His Majesty also, "wearing the crown 

 and decorated with the Royal armaments, caused himself, as well as his chief 

 queens, his son, and his daughter, to be weighed in a balance every year," and be- 

 stowed five times their weight of goods upon needy people, and made every one 

 happy " by causing a constant supply of rain." The great tanks remain as monuments 

 of the enlightened despotisms of various kings, who raised the country in turn to a 

 splendid height of prosperity. Some of them belong to periods long before the 

 Christian era. One, called Kalawewa, was an inland sea, thirty miles in circum- 

 ference, formed by damming up two rivers by means of an immense embankment 

 twelve miles long ; another, Padawya, must have occupied a million of people for 

 ten or fifteen years in its construction. Its bimd, or embankment, is eleven miles 

 in length, 70 feet high, and 160 feet thick at the base. The bed of the tank is now 

 overgrown with a magnificent forest, and for miles around there is not a Aestio-e of 

 man. Its last restoration was effected by King Parakrama Bahu I., and a stone 

 obelisk on the spot records how he accomplished this work, "in the hope of ob- 

 taining the happiness of this ns well as the nexl world." King Maha Son, who 



