NO. 42. — 1891.] ANCIENT INDUSTRIES, 



3 



of its disposal. Some special circumstances bearing upon 

 these subjects, which are peculiar to this Island, were 

 also specified for their influence on the industries of the 

 people. 



The way would then have been clear for the treatment of 

 the ancient industries of the Island, the special subject of 

 these Papers, but for a statement made by so high an 

 authority as that of Sir J. Emerson Tennent that on the 

 arrival of Wijayo, 543 B.C., when the authentic history 

 of Ceylon commences, " agriculture was unknown here, 

 and that grain, if grown at all, was not systematically 

 cultivated." "The inhabitants," he says, "appear to have 

 subsisted then, and for some centuries afterwards, on fruits, 

 honey, and the products of the chase." If this were true, 

 industry, in the common acceptation of the term, was still 

 unknown. 



It became necessary, therefore, to show that at the time of 

 Wijayo's invasion the people of Ceylon had settled forms of 

 government, courts, cities, a grammatical language, and other 

 institutions, indicative of a certain measure of civilisation 

 such as usually denotes the existence of a national 

 industry. 



The history, from which we derive all the information we 

 possess, respecting the period in question, was written by 

 priests, whose main object was to record the origin and 

 progress of their religion in the Island. All else is recorded 

 only to exhibit this central object of their graphic narrative, 

 « or to magnify the virtues and achievements of particular 

 heroes. We search in vain, therefore, in its pages for any 

 ' direct account of the industries or the condition of the people. 

 Nevertheless, the events recorded, and the accessories 

 of the picture the historians have drawn, afford material 

 sufficient to establish, by logical inference, the facts stated 

 in the Second Paper ; and the history itself, according to 

 Tumour, " is authenticated by the concurrence of every 

 evidence which can contribute to verify the annals of any 

 country." 



B 2 



