116 JOURNAL, R.A.S. (CEYLON). [VOL. XV. 



displayed, toto coelo, from the weak conventional " silhou- 

 ettes " of present-day Sinhalese artists. Of the twenty-two 

 faces left in " pockets " ' A ' and * B ' at Slgiri-gala only 

 three are in profile. 



In one essential particular do the figures of the Sigiriya 

 frescoes differ from the generality of those in the paintings 

 at Ajanta : the latter are usually shown at full length from 

 head to foot ; the Ceylon figures are all cut off short at the 

 waist by cloud effects, no doubt to economize space — a clever 

 device, by which — to slightly vary Milton — "more is meant 

 than meets the eye " ; whilst the pose of the head and body, 

 coupled with the action of the hands, conventionalised yet 

 not unnatural, unmistakably convey the meaning the artist 

 intended. 



In some of the caves at Ajanta " on different parts of the 

 walls two layers of painting can be distinctly traced, " and 

 the painting is " of two or even three periods." 



Two coatings of colour are not unknown to the Sigiriya 

 frescoes. A patch of the upper layer of chunam scaled off 

 the green waist-cloth of figure No. 12 in " pocket " ' B ' 

 reveals an under-coating of crimson. For all we know — or 

 can know without completely wrecking the present frescoes — 

 this may signify nothing more than that a co-temporary 

 artist was given a free hand to bring the ladies' dresses up 

 to the " latest Court fashions," or, perchance for some 

 peccadillo, to put the fair penitent (as in the case of the 

 second figure in " pocket " 'A' literally) under a cloud. 



The frescoes still to be seen on the western face of Sigiri- 

 gala (casual patches of colouring excepted) are found now 

 only in the two rock chambers or " pockets" (' A,' ' B ') some 

 15 yards above the " gallery " floor at its south end. They 

 consist of twenty-two half-figure portraits — one and all 

 female. Of these, five are in " pocket " ' A,' seventeen in the 

 larger chamber * B.' All have suffered more or less from 

 nesting swallows and the clay-building mason bee, some 

 terribly. 



