No. 34. — 1887.] jottings from a jungle diaky. 9 



Now I cannot help thinking that some interesting links 

 with other civilisations might be discovered by a careful 

 analysis of the glaze on these Anuradhapura tiles. I would 

 call attention to the fact that the prevailing colour in these, 

 as in the Egyptian tiles, is blue ; and perhaps the various 

 pieces of pure copper which we have found in the course of 

 our excavations may have a close connection with that colour. 

 But I must leave such a subject in the hands of more 

 scientific investigators than myself. 



One or two minor details remain to be mentioned. A 

 great deal of old iron has been found, — mostly in the form of 

 nails, clamps, and bolts, — proving, I think clearly, that most 

 of these stone pillars bore superstructures, and that the 

 superstructures were of timber. The only articles of domestic 

 use I have found are two old keti, a pair of long iron 

 scissors of a peculiar design, and one leg of an iron arecanut- 

 cutter, ornamented with the head of a mythical beast. 



There is an old Italian saying, that the safest time to turn 

 heretic is when the Pope is dying. Perhaps it may appear to 

 be somewhat on the same principle that, in connection with 

 the carvings and buildings we have been discussing this 

 evening, I venture to suggest a theory to which I know that 

 our President, of whom we are to take regretful leave to- 

 night, will not agree. But I cannot help thinking that it is 

 just possible that the Tamil invader, who is generally looked 

 upon as a mere iconoclast, was both the artist who designed 

 and the workman who carried out the patterns and mould- 

 ings of the Great City. Of course one would like to believe 

 that these delicate and chaste designs were the spontaneous 

 outcome of the artistic Aryan mind, and spread from the 

 cities of the Aryan invaders in Ceylon to the dark Draviclian 

 continent, its neighbour on the north. Mr. Phoebus, the 

 prophet of Aryan principles in Disraeli's " Lothair," " did not 

 care for the political or commercial consequences of the Suez 

 Canal, but was glad that a natural division should be 

 established between the greater races and the Ethiopian. It 

 might not lead to any considerable result, but it asserted a 



