214 



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



sometimes impaled per fess, and crests are placed over the 

 coats of arms of ladies — a heraldic anomaly. 



As regards the Sinhalese, it would not be quite correct 

 perhaps to say that they had no system of heraldry. No 

 doubt it did not obtain among them in the sense generally 

 understood in Europe, but we have it on the authority of 

 Frangois Valentyn* that the respective castes were distin- 

 guished by the flags they carried, on which distinctive 

 devices were charged. Thus, the " Visschers " (Fishers) 

 carried a white flag with a fish charged thereon. Those 

 belonging to the Magoel Doerawo and Nattaribowo castes 

 carried a white flag called an Addealanchody ; with a red lion 

 as its charge. The Navandannajo used a flag with an ape 

 depicted on it. But the system in vogue in Europe, by 

 which certain armorial bearings were assigned to and used 

 by certain families, was unknown in the East. It is curious 

 therefore to find in an account given by a Dutch traveller 

 in Ceylon (Dr. iEgidius Daalmans, 1687-89) of the obsequies 

 of the King of Kandy, a description of the coat of arms of 

 the king, which, he says, was " on a field or a lion gules "\ 



As regards the Portuguese, J. Ribeyro (Lee's translation, 

 p. 46) says : " There were more than 900 noble families 

 resident in the town of Colombo (1656 A.D.)." 



The absence therefore of Portuguese tombstones with 

 armorial bearings on them is remarkable. One, however, has 

 been found bearing the De Fonseca arms, viz., Uarg. 

 a cinq etoiles 2, 1, et 2.% The Portuguese tombstones were 

 most probably destroyed by the Dutch. This was the case 

 in Jaffna. § The Portuguese were also in the habit of carry- 

 ing with them in their ships marble pillars with the arms of 

 Portugal carved thereon, which they set up at every place 

 they conquered.|| None of these have been discovered in 



* " Beschry vinge van net Eyland Ceylon." 

 f Journal, R.A.S.C.B., vol. X., No. 35, p. 149. 

 % See 2 C.L.R. 358. 



§ Journal, R.A.S.C.B., vol. X., No. 39, p. 312. 

 || See 3 C.L.R. 146; 4 C.L.R. 196 



