No. 43. — 1892.] ETHNOLOGY OF CEYLON. 



241 



existed lions in any part of Asia where believers in this 

 myth would like to locate the occurrence. The lion in the 

 sculptures in Ceylon, like the grotesque figures of lions made 

 by the Chinese, must be taken to have existed in art, and not 

 in the natural history of the country. 



The narrative proceeds to assert that though Sihabahu was 

 unanimously elected king by the people, he himself con- 

 ferred the sovereignty on his step-father, and taking 

 Sihasivali with him, returned to the land of his nativity, 

 where he founded the city of Sihapura, the capital of the 

 land of Lala, in which he formed villages for irrigation in 

 suitable localities. Sihasivali on sixteen occasions gave 

 birth to twin children, of whom the eldest was Vijaya. 



Such wonderful incidents are calculated to make us doubt 

 whether the land of Lala and the city of Sihapura were not 

 fanciful creations'.in tended to give a greater interest to the 

 proposed pedigree of kings invented by the writer compiling 

 this first part of the Malidwansa narrative, about 700 years 

 after the pretended events. Ideas from Buddhistical 

 legends compiled in the north of India may have been used 

 for embellishment. 



The misconduct of Vijaya as a prince in the land of Lala 

 is then related, and he comes to be banished in consequence. 

 Another improbable arrangement is adopted. Vijaya and 

 seven hundred men are put into one boat, their wives in a 

 separate vessel, and their children in a third. They drift 

 in different directions and land in different countries. 

 Nagadipa (conjectured by L. C. Wijesinha Mudaliyar, in his 

 English translation of the Malidwansa, to be some island to 

 the north of Ceylon) receives the children ; the wives settle 

 in Mahinda (a country which I believe is not yet identified), 

 and Vijaya, after first landing in some part of India, re- 

 embarks and lands in the division Tambapanni of this land 

 Lanka, that is, he and seven hundred companions. 



He finds the country populated, and receives information 

 from Vishnu in the form of a devotee. This bit of supernatural 

 machinery throws considerable suspicion on the genuineness 



