296 journal, r.a.s. (ceylon). [Vol. II., Part III 



Having thus given a brief, and doubtless an imperfect, 

 account of Sinhalese poetry, I shall now proceed to show 

 a few rules of Versification or Prosody. 



Quantity, feet, and pauses are necessarily constituent parts- 

 of all verses ; and one great advantage which the Sinhalese 

 possess over the Western nations, is the existence in the 

 language of the former of symbols for long and short sounds, 

 indubitably expressed, and without reference to usage (very 

 often an uncertain arbiter) for the ascertainment of their 

 quantity. It is for this reason that I have throughout used 

 the word sound instead of letter. I must, however, not omit 

 to mention that there is a poetical license which permits 

 the use of a long letter for a short or a short for a long 

 letter ; but this is very rare indeed in good compositions. 

 The word Q^pili, " short," in the following line, is used for 

 the long 8<§ pili, " clothes " :-— 



©£533(3® @c£>3S}3 ®i8 q<§8(§ ©-^80 



Even if leaves can be worn by being woven together, 

 Coarse cloth can I not wear outermost ? 



The melody of the Sinhalese verse depends chiefly upon 

 the sounds or letters being short or long, — not to mention 

 what is common to all poetry, the choice of words, the seat 

 of the accent, the pause, and the cadence. As in English, 

 the ccesural pause* is not without effect in the Sinhalese. 

 Of this, the following beautiful lines from the celebrated 

 Guttila Jdtaka is a good illustration : — 



212 11212 =2 = 111211111 2 



21 2 2111 2=2 = 2122111 2 



* This pause sometimes falls before the middle of a line, but it does 

 not thereby render the poetry less sweet. 



