No. 5.— 1850.] 



THE ELU LANGUAGE. 



259 



At the temple called Jetawana, in the city of Sewet [like unto 

 the city of Alaka, the seat of the powerful king Kuwera],* 

 full of prosperity, teeming with the wealthy and possessed of 

 armies composed of soldiers (foot), horsemen, elephant-men 

 (cavalry), and cars containing men (artillery); numbers of brave 

 and intrepid troops able to withstand the demi-gods ; beautiful 

 fleet horses ; splendid elephants with huge double teeth, and 

 which with their spreading ears remove swarms of bees that hover 

 over them, invited by the tempting odour of the matter which 

 greatly oozes from their (elephants') cheeks ; splendid rows of 

 beautiful white spacious squares of sizes (small and large); hills 

 as large as the Himalayas ; and gates, entrances, porticos, towers, 

 batteries, and fortresses (at the aforesaid temple of the afore- 

 said city) — did Buddha, presiding, speak as follows to the summoned 

 priesthood. 



Besides the above division of prose compositions into the 

 " simple " or " common," the " elegant," and the " refined," 

 they are susceptible of another classification into the " pure " 

 and the " mixed." The first comprehends the pure native 

 Sinhalese, and the second a style compounded of Sanskrit 

 and Pali words derived into the Sinhalese. Of the first 

 species the first and the third sentences above extracted are 

 examples ; of the second, the second from the Bauddka 

 Satakaya is a specimen. 



Turn we next to the poetry of the Sinhalese, a de- 

 partment of literature cultivated to great perfection, if 

 prefection could indeed be attained in any human perfor- 

 mance. That the Sinhalese poets have over-excelled the 

 great and celebrated Indian authors is perhaps not true ; 

 but that there are a few Sinhalese works which equal in merit 



* Kuwera, in the Indian Mythology, stands for the Grecian Plutus. 

 He is the lord of wealth and master of nine inestimable treasures. 

 His city, called Alaka, is situated on Mount Kailasa, and inhabited by 

 Yakkho, demi-gods. 



57—87 K 



