66 journal r. A. s. (ceylon). [Vol. VII., Pt. II, 



his mother and sister. The mother, however, having warned 

 him his parentage would disgrace him in the eyes of her 

 countrymen, they concealed the real nature of his father. 

 Meanwhile the King-lion ravaging the neighbouring lands in 

 search of his family, the King of the land to which the lion- 

 son had gone was in extreme peril from him, on which the 

 lion-son treacherously killed his own father with a dagger — 

 the father dying with forgiving love to his son. 



On the eclair cissement that ensued, the King deciding he 

 must not break his pledge of reward, and also refusing to 

 allow the parricide to remain in his territory, equipped two 

 vessels, and in one sent off the lion-son with a retinue of men 

 to seek his fortune, and in the other sent off a retinue of women. 

 The history is here silent, but as the ships were sent off in this 

 manner, each on its own course, it is only natural to suppose the 

 lion-son's sister and mother were banished in that with a female 

 retinue, which is said to have gone towards Persia. That 

 which contained the lion-son and his male retinue reached "the 

 isle of jewels," and as many valuable articles of merchandize 

 were procurable there, they settled, and after killing some of 

 the chief merchants already settled there, married their widows 

 and established a kingdom, calling it " the Lion-kingdom." 



We have only here to understand by lion, not the quadruped 

 but a Gangetic hill chieftain, with the title of Sinha (not un- 

 common), and the tradition is a highly probable partial account 

 of the origin of the Tamil coast race (which I assume to be 

 the Yakkhos of ancient accounts) as settled in N.W. and E. 

 Ceylon, in the country of the Nagas or aboriginal snake 

 worshippers. 



This is again supported by a passage in Upham's Rdjdwali 

 (p. 168) not hitherto connected with the above tradition. In 

 this second legend the Rdjdwali says that the Yakkhos came to 

 Ceylon when the country was lying devastated and depopulated 

 by the wars between Rama and Iiawana. 



