76 JOURNAL R. A. S. (CEYLON ). [Vol. VII., Pt. II. 



There remains only one farther matter in relation to my subject 

 to which I need still refer in recapitulation, and that is the bear- 

 ing on it of the ancient accounts of the inhabitants of Ceylon 

 before the Aryan immigration under and subsequent to Wijaya. 



They are described as of two classes, Yakkhos and Nagas. I 

 think it is now universally accepted that Nagas were an abori- 

 ginal tribe of snake worshippers, and formed, with an infusion 

 of Aryan blood, the bulk of our present Sinhalese. What 

 then were the Yakkhos ? Have I not succeeded in showing there 

 was from the Islands of Adam's Bridge on the North, down to 

 the Deduru-oya near Chilaw on the South, an ancient trading 

 district forming an emporium for the East and West, and under 

 a separate ruler of its own, opposed to the Chief King of the 

 Nagas at Lankapura and the Kings who succeeded Wijaya ? 

 What more natural than that the people of this colony of the 

 empire of Zabedj should be the Yakkhos, or demon worshippers 

 (? Saivites), as opposed to the Nagas, or snake worshippers, who 

 were the aborigines of the rest of the Island ; and what more 

 probable than that as the Sinhalese of to-day represent the 

 race of Nagas, so the Tamils of the Jaffna Wanni, Eastern 

 Province, and the Puttalam District represent the Yakkhos who 

 held the country in which was the port, and who were opposed 

 to the Nagas who held the rest of the Island. 



NOTES. 

 (1) 



I think the references here made to the Ceylon Nagas, as snake 

 worshippers, perhaps justify the following note: — 



In the Ceylon Museum will be found the pottery image of a coiled 

 cobra and also what looks like a lamp. These are of a peculiar aud 

 heavy pottery different to any I have yet seen from Ceylon. They 

 were the only relics found under a crumbling heap of brickwork 

 excavated on a little quoin rock in Bintenna, and are, as far as I know, 



