256 journal, r.a.s. (ceylon). [Yol. II., Part II. 



the exception of qz and q^, which are peculiar to the Elu ; 

 (9, which is used only in Elu and Pali ; and £ and ®, 

 which, though used in Pali and Sanskrit, are therein 

 pronounced long, as S and 6D. 



It is not a little curious to find that the sound of f } utterly 

 unknown to the Sinhalese, and so difficult to be pronounced 

 by the natives, is to be found in the Sanskrit. See Saras- 

 vativydkarane. 



A brief elucidation of the so-called Sinhalese alphabet 

 leads me to a consideration of the prose writings of the 

 Sinhalese, which I confess are not so many and varied as 

 their poetical works. Nor indeed are they so recent as the 

 last-mentioned. 



In prose, as in poetry, nothing is more to be desired than 

 clearness and elegance of expression. What that clearness 

 and elegance are can be decided by none but those 

 intimately acquainted with the language ; for that which is 

 elegance in the English is the very opposite in the Sinhalese. 

 To enter into a detail of the rules of composition is indeed 

 to translate the " Sidatsangarawa" into English. But since 

 the object of the writer is to give the English reader a 

 sketch of the distinguishing features of the Sinhalese 

 literature, I may as well call his attention to the sine qud 

 non in Sinhalese composition, the necessity of introducing 

 one^s entire thoughts and ideas on a subject into one 

 unbroken sentence. In this respect the Sinhalese is as 

 different from, and as much opposed to, the English, whose 

 " soul " is i( brevity," as any two things can possibly be. If 

 the reader will take the trouble to examine some of the 

 prose writers, he will find a great similarity between their 

 writings and the superabundantly exact style of an English 

 conveyancer, or the tedious legal phraseology of an Act of 

 Parliament. 



