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



had admirable monuments of it in the shape of ruins and in 

 the irrigation works spread all over the country. Though 

 they had Mr. Ferguson's word for discrediting everything 

 that the Mahawansa records, and even if, as Mr. Ferguson 

 seemed to think, the Brazen Palace of Anuradhapura was a 

 myth of Oriental fancy, still they had other edifices, though 

 in ruins indeed, so that they could not but be reconciled 

 to the idea that these edifices had existed, as the Mahawansa 

 says they did, at the period to which Mr. Ferguson referred. 

 These ruins of so many palaces were sufficient evidence in 

 themselves that the Sinhalese at the time they were built 

 excelled in engineering skill. 



In conclusion, Mr. Corea said that it was his duty to 

 thank Mr. Wall, inasmuch as he knew that he had under- 

 taken the compilation of his Paper as an apology for a people 

 who had not many friends, and who, the speaker could not 

 help saying, had been much maligned. The Sinhalese owed 

 Mr. Wall their best thanks and a deep debt of gratitude. 



The Hon. Mr. Ramanathan said that Mr. Ferguson had 

 perpetrated a joke which had been misunderstood by Mr. 

 Corea. It was not right that Members should be taken to 

 espouse sides simply because they, belonged to certain 

 nationalities. For his own part, he forgot for the time that 

 he was a Tamil, and had spoken as one who was dissecting 

 evidence from a disinterested point of view. He was of 

 opinion that the balance of evidence on the subject lay with 

 Tennent. 



Mr. Wall answered briefly. He said that the conviction 

 which he had embodied in his Paper was forced upon him 

 by the reading of numerous books, more particularly that of 

 Sir J. Emerson Tennent, who he maintained was a very high 

 authority, as he had the advantage of earlier writers. When 

 he read the account in the Mahawansa regarding the dis- 

 persion of the ministers who accompanied Wijayo and about 

 their forming courts, the idea at once struck him that there 

 must have been a great many people who had to be sup- 

 ported. The Hon. Mr. Ramanathan endeavoured to explain, 

 in answer to his query, that the means by which the people 

 obtained rice was through its being imported from the 

 neighbouring continent ; but the hon. gentleman had for- 

 gotten the fact that imported rice had to be paid for, and 

 that one did not get out of the difficulty that way, for the 

 rice that the people consumed was equal to the purchasing 

 of their rice. It seemed to him impossible that such a state 

 of things as was reported to have transpired at the time of 

 Wijayo's landing could have been brought about by any 

 other means than by the customs of the country and of a 

 very considerable population supported by a local industry. 



