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JOURNAL, R.A.S. (CEYLON). [Vol. VIII. 



Besides the bangle already described ("Personal Orna- 

 ments," No. 8), a larger piece of glass of a good quality, 

 and of as late a date, has been procured in the high-level 

 channel cutting which passed through part of the city. (See 

 u Household Utensils," No. 19.) This must have been made 

 some centuries after the other pieces of glass, bringing the 

 manufacture down to perhaps the 4th or 5th century A.D., 

 if not later.* It is of a rich green colour, and apparently 

 without flaw. The discovery of this latter piece makes it 

 still more likely that all the glass is imported from India. 



I now come to three substances which are certainly 

 importations. 



Rhinoceros Horn. — Among the houses of the artificers, at 

 the site of the Tissa sluice, a piece of black horn, which ap- 

 pears to form the spiral root end of the horn of a young 

 rhinoceros, probably R. sondiacus, the lesser Indian rhino- 

 ceros, was met with. This was used medicinally, and it 

 is still numbered among the native nostrums of the present 

 day as an effective antidote for snake-bite. It is taken 

 internally, mixed with human milk, some of the horn being 

 rubbed down or scraped off in a powder for the purpose. It 

 will be observed that the end of this piece of horn has been 

 rubbed down in this manner. It is very highly valued for 

 its medicinal properties, and this piece is said to be locally 

 worth several pounds sterling. 



Dr. Jerdon says that Rhinoceros sondiacus " is found at 

 present in the Bengal Sunderbuns, and a very few indivi- 

 duals are stated to occur in the forest tract along the 

 Mahanuddy river, and extending northwards towards Mid- 

 napore ; and also on the edge of the Rajmahal hills near the 

 Ganges. It occurs also more abundantly in Burmah, and 

 thence through the Malayan Peninsula to Java and Borneo." 

 (Mammals of India, reprint 1874, p. 234.) 



Jade. — The presence of jade among the remains of the 

 oldest date is perhaps, on some accounts, more interesting 

 than the discovery of glass. The pieces, including the bead 



* Samghatissa I. (242 —246 A.D.) is said to have placed " a glass pin- 

 nacle" on the spire of the Ruwanwseli dagaba ; but this is not unlikely to 

 have been a crystal. (See Mah. p. 229.) There is a crystal, now on 

 Thuparama. 



