NO. 42.— 1891.] ANCIENT INDUSTRIES. 



The passages above quoted comprise every mention of food 

 that occurs in the Mahdwansa, from the time of Wijayo's 

 landing, 543 B.C., to the death of Duttha Gamani, 137 B.C., 

 a space of 376 (or more probably 316) years, with the excep- 

 tion of an incidental mention by Pandukabhaya, when a boy, 

 to the son of a herdsman, when sending him on an errand, 

 that he would get " roasted meat" there. This was the flesh 

 of a " wild quadruped" the herdsman had killed, probably 

 some kind of game, and has little, if any, bearing on the ques- 

 tion of national diet. 



The most striking feature of these quotations is the remark- 

 able simplicity and uniformity of the fare, notwithstanding 

 that the occasions to which reference is made are nearly all 

 such as were sure to bring forth the best that even kings could 

 command for the entertainment of their most distinguished 

 guests. In every case, except the last of all, rice constituted 

 the substantial basis of the diet of prince and people, rich 

 and poor, whether served on a golden dish or eaten off a 

 plantain leaf. Then, as now, people, high and low, would 

 probably speak of their meals as eating their rice. 



In view of this remarkable simplicity of the fare, even on 

 State occasions, during three to four centuries after the enter- 

 tainment given to Wijayo by Kuweni, the question arises as 

 to how this lady came to possess the " vast variety of other 

 articles" of food with which she regaled her guests. Refer- 

 ring then to the precise terms in which that feast is described 

 it becomes more than doubtful whether the rice, which in 

 this, as in every subsequent feast mentioned in the Mahd- 

 wansa, formed the main item, was included~among the spoil 

 from wrecked ships ? It seems from the account, as given in 

 these words : 44 She distributed rice — and a vast variety of 

 other articles procured from wrecked ships :" that these 

 " other articles " unspecified, and not the rice, were what had 

 been so obtained. On this assumption the difference between 

 Kuweni's repast and all others mentioned in the narrative is 

 simply and naturally accounted for. There is certainly no 

 such vast variety of viand in any other of the entertainments 



