No. 24. — 1881.] SINHALESE KALAWA. 87 



difficulty, since the kaldwa can ordinarily be only counted with 

 30 lunar days. The sixteen kald, enumerated by the priest, 

 therefore refer to the intervals between these " days," and 

 correspond to the 16th part of the disc of the moon, which 

 will be referred to in a definition to be here quoted. 



In the month during which I was making these enquiries, 

 the new moon had risen on Wednesday, the 30th of March, 

 at 3*52 p.m. : the first quarter, on Wednesday, the 6th of April, 

 at 9*14 p.m. : the full moon on the next Thursday, at 5*9 p.m. : 

 and the last quarter moon on Thursday, the 28th of April, at 

 3-44 p.m. So that, even taking the particulars given in an 

 English Almanac, it must be a matter of difficulty for ordinary 

 natives to fix the exact time of the commencement and close 

 of each kaldwa, granting that it corresponds with a particular 

 lunar day. This probably led to the neglect of this part of the 

 native science in the empirical practice of the Vedardlas. It 

 will also appear that even with the assistance of the native 

 Tables (translations of which are appended), the science will 

 be of difficult application till the limits of each kaldwa are 

 more accurately limited. The duration of a particular kaldwa 

 may, of course, be roughly recognized during some part of a 

 lunar day, and the most ignorant native is usually aware of 

 the principal phases of the moon from the practice of faithfully 

 observing the poya days. 



L. De Zoyza, Maha-Mudaliyar, after kindly making en- 

 quiries at my request, wrote :— " I have received the explanation 

 of two of the best Vedardlas here about the kaldwa; but they 

 are somewhat contradictory, and I cannot make much sense 

 of them. The truth is that their ideas of the matter are 

 very vague. '\ 



Under these circumstances the derivation of the term is 

 calculated to throw some light on the subject. According to 

 the priest, already referred to, the term kald may be Sanskrit, 



