No. 24. — 1883.] ANCIENT KALAHj ETC. 73 



so very small upon a map, although as I know myself, having 

 boated amongst all of them, after actual inspection, they leave 

 no mean impression upon one's mind, and Fa-Hian expressly 

 tells us they are quite small. 



Fa-Hian, I may add, returned from Ceylon to China in a 

 trading boat which held 200 men, and halted for six months 

 in Java, and thence he proceeded in a similar trading vessel 

 direct to China.* 



In this connection we must not lose sight of the disputed 

 narrative professing to be Philo's translation of Sanchoniathon } t 

 —a narrative which to me seems beyond a doubt genuine — if not 

 genuine as Sanchoniathon's, at least as that of some ancient 

 traveller. The stress laid on Sanchoniathon styling Ceylon 

 "the island of Rachius" as an evident plagiarism from Pliny is 

 to me a false argument, and the whole of his treatise on Ceylon 

 is literally a correct account of an ancient journey from the 

 Puttalam coast to a town near the modern Kurunegala, one of 

 the most ancient districts of former civilization. Philo's 

 island of Rachius may clearly be i the Raja's Island,' while 

 Pliny's Rachia is ' A'rachchiya,' an approximation at once 

 perceptible. All throughout the N.W. coast of Ceylon, and 

 as far in the interior as Anuradhapura and Kurunegala, the 

 whole country is one continuous scene of ancient settlements. 

 The extensive ruins of Tammanna Nuwara near Puttalam, and 

 the adjacent town and tank of Maha-tabuwa are known, and a 

 constant succession of reservoirs and hewn stones mark the 

 site of old villages and towns. 



These reservoirs are principally tanks made solely to preserve 

 water, and not like the historical ones of the Buddhist annals 

 as sources for irrigation. 



* Note (2). 



f Tennent, ''Ceylon," Vol. I. pp. 571-7. 



