454 



JOUBNAL, R.A.S. (CEYLON). [Vol. IX. 



the Chinese, Sir E. Tennent has proved that "the tank 

 system " in Ceylon is of Tamil origin, and was introduced 

 from Hindustan in the fourth century of our era. 



After the previous statements no elaborate proof is needed 

 that neither Sinhalese nor Yeddas, at least in the form of 

 their skulls, present the slightest indication of any relation- 

 ship to the Mongols. Such a remarkably dolichocephalous 

 tribe has never yet been found among the Mongols. What 

 truth there is in the old Chinese story of the similarity of 

 the Sinhalese to the Liau in west China I cannot judge ; but 

 it is not even proved that this people is to be regarded as 

 belonging to the Mongols proper. "We might rather connect 

 them with the present Laos (on the boundary between China 

 and Siam), whom Gutzlaff,* according to their complexion, 

 distinguishes as black and white. According to the opinion 

 of Mr. Schott,f however, the Liau are rather identical with 

 the Ljaos, of whom he states only that they were " south- 

 western aliens," therefore, at any rate, not Chinese. Until 

 we have more precise information about this south-western 

 people, which happily is now in prospect, we cannot draw 



* Prichard, I. c. Third edition, London, 1884, vol. IV., p. 503. 



f Professor Schott communicates to me the following : " The word Ljao, 

 of which I thought at first, is the name of a river in the present Mandshooria, 

 after which a Tartar dynasty was named, who for some time ruled over 

 north China. Another Ljao (in different dialects lao, lio, I'm, formerly even 

 lot), which indeed is the one for us to consider, is written very like the 

 former. This signifies, with an added ja (' back tooth '), ' prominent 

 teeth,' and is besides, in itself alone, the name for certain south-western 

 outlandish tribes, as I see from the original dictionary, named after the 

 Emperor Kang-hi. The tribe southward from Yun-nan, called by the 

 Europeans Laos, is, as far as I know, by the Chinese never called anything 

 but Lao-tschua, from lao, ' old man,' and tschua, 1 to beat the drum.' This 

 drum-beating old man is evidently a mere counterfeit of a non-Chinese 

 word, as, for instance, lang-ja, i wolf -teeth,' is the Chinese rendering of 

 Langka, that is the Indian name of the Island of Ceylon. Corresponding 

 to the old name for a people or peoples, Hu, which designated, in general, 

 the population of central Asia to the north of China, and among these the 

 Hjiiu-nu, or Hjung-nu, who have often been confused with the Huns, and 

 are certainly in name identical with them, is a word signifying, in its 

 appellative sense, the dew-lap of an ox. Another Hu, differently written 

 and distincty national, I cannot trace." 



