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



A large population such as is essential to account for the 

 conditions described was an insuperable difficulty, with the 

 hypothesis of the wild mode of life ascribed to the people 

 by Tennent, but is an essential factor of an agricultural 

 system adequate to fulfil those conditions. Much of their 

 efficiency as a wealth-creating people would necessarily 

 depend upon their character and disposition, their industry 

 and submission to authority. 



Fortunately, the data afforded by the narrative of the 

 historians leave no doubt on this important subject. That 

 they were a peaceful people is indicated by the facility with 

 which Wi jayo established his rule over them. History gives 

 special prominence to all warlike demonstrations such as 

 occurred in later times, but records no opposition to Wijayo's 

 assumption of power. His massacre of the assembled 

 courtiers at the famous wedding festival is the only 

 occasion on which he appears to have had recourse to arms, 

 and that was no battle, but a surprise in which his victims 

 fell without formal resistance. 



The dispersion of his principal ministers into various 

 distant parts of the country, where they established their 

 courts and the supreme authority of their chief, is a con- 

 clusive proof of the pacific disposition of the people ; for 

 these officers would not have ventured to separate from 

 Wijayo and each other if the inhabitants had not manifested 

 a ready acquiescence in the new order of things. Such a 

 dispersion of the small party would have been practicable 

 only amongst a perfectly peaceful population. 



Further evidence to the same effect is afforded by the 

 passage through the country of the cortege that accompanied 

 Panduwo's daughter and her retinue of noble ladies and 

 their attendants, bearing valuable presents. Such a party, 

 unaccompanied, as they appear to have been, by any armed 

 force, would have afforded a rare opportunity for plunder to 

 a wild, nomadic tribe pursuing the mode of life ascribed to 

 them by Tennent. The fact, moreover, that Panduwo, who 

 described Ceylon as renowned, ventured to despatch the 



