12 



JOURNAL, K.A.S. (CEYLON). 



[Vol. X. 



that has collected around the Kalawewa tank, and the tales 

 its villagers tell of the terrible exactions of the "Aiyana 

 Dewiyo." 



But I may be allowed to add as a postscript two small 

 but interesting' discoveries made since this Paper was begun. 



1. I have unearthed the stone "sill" of a doorway made 

 for folding doors, near the Outer Circular road. Two shallow 

 holes are cut in it to receive the door-pins, and in each hole 

 there is a fragment of an iron door-pin firmly fixed in the 

 stone. It has always been supposed hitherto that the 

 ancient doors were made entirely of wood, revolving on 

 wooden pins. This small discovery possibly proves that the 

 ancients were much more addicted to the use of iron, and 

 adept at working it, than we are generally inclined to admit. 

 Perhaps the iron gate which secured the primeval citadel of 

 Vijitapura, and the tall iron pillar which several people have 

 seen in the Anuradhapura jungles, but can never find again, 

 are not mere fables after all ! 



2. Very little has hitherto been known of the irrigation 

 system of ancient Anuradhapura. Former and recent 

 jungle clearings have laid bare a large number of long rows 

 of stone blocks, which have been generally taken for boun- 

 daries or enclosures. This week we have, in the course of 

 some excavations, come across a channel about two feet down, 

 which runs up close to the side of the beautiful pokuna 

 north of the Public Works Department yard. Here a stone 

 water-pipe meets the channel, passes through the side of the 

 pokuna, and projects into it. This channel exactly resembles 

 in formation the long rows of granite blocks referred to 

 above, and appears to prove two things : (1) that these 

 pohunu were not dependent on the clouds for their supply 

 of water, but were all carefully connected by elaborate 

 irrigation works with the larger tanks (for the newly-found 

 channel can be traced right up to Basawakkulam, a distance 

 of three quarters of a mile) ; and (2) that the long lines of 

 granite blocks are not merely enclosures, but were all con- 

 nected channels, bringing water past the various religious 



