NO. 48. — 1897.] ARCHAEOLOGICAL SURVEY, SIGIRIYA. 97 



in all probability, to wholesale desertions, and perhaps 

 necessitated the total abandonment of further operations for 

 the year. 



Fever, and simple abrasions incidental to earthwork — 

 from neglect not infrequently degenerating into ugly sores — 

 kept a small proportion of hands in the "lines" now and 

 again ; but only two men left, temporarily, to be cured at 

 the Dambulla hospital. 



The climate of Sigiriya has usually proved bracing to 

 coolies, the majority of whom live for two-thirds of the 

 year in the jungle-bound chenas and low-lying lands about 

 Anuradhapura. Month by month they " put on flesh," 

 despite the unspeakable heat which an eight-hours' spell of 

 work upon the bare Rock involves ; and return, after the 

 four months' absence, robust and sleek, with a stock of 

 health that enables them to battle the better against the 

 insidious malaria of the North-Central Province. 



Again, this year no accident of any sort happened — good 

 fortune, for which I cannot be too thankful. 



No amount of precautions avails against the mad reckless- 

 ness of the Tamil cooly let loose on Sigiri-gala. He becomes 

 for the nonce a veritable " indiarubber idiot on the spree," 

 risking life airily a dozen times a day. 



When it is remembered that in the past three seasons at 

 least 20,000* persons have climbed to the top of Sigiri Rock, 

 have spent hours at work on its limited surface and steep 

 slopes, with a sheer fall all round of 300 to 400 ft., yet 

 that every man, woman, and child has descended in safety,— 

 no one will grudge me the satisfaction I feel at a record 

 smirched by not a single casualty. 



Summary of Work. 



After a couple of years' experience it is fair to expect 

 that operations, at a given site and by practically the same 

 hands, should proceed smoothly and apace. 



And so it has been at Sigiriya. The past season's work 



* Say, eighty coolies daily for three seasons of three months ; or, 80 by 

 3 by 3 by 30 = 21,600. 



