80 



Forms of Salutation and Address 



settlement which had the effect of driving into the jungle, the 

 snake and demon tribes inhabiting the island, and proved the 

 foundation of a new and powerful dynasty, the Singhalese 5 

 so called from the singha or lion-like character of the con- 

 queror, or his my thological origin. 



The same term became also the designation of the lan~ 

 guage : what the name was previously does not appear, any 

 more than the national name of the subdued tribes. They 

 were the Yakhos of Lanka, and their language was the 

 language of the Yakhos. In point of fact, however, it cer- 

 tainly forms a constituent part of the Singhalese and, judging 

 from analogy, the continued existence of such is probably due 

 to some aboriginal element in the population, which it would 

 be interesting statistically to investigate. 



Sri was the affix of royalty, and g (Sree) the signature or 

 sign manual to royal grants and sannases. See Armour's 

 Kandy Law. Ceylon was §502^0 losses {Sri Lanka Dwipd), 

 and Adam's Peak g oo^ca ( Sripadaya ) the prosperous footstep, 

 the prosperous Lanka ; and sometimes also the epithet was be- 

 stowed both on temples and individuals, the prosperity 

 intended in all these and the like cases being Budhist pros- 

 perity, that is to say, the result of what they call merit ; as 

 in Budha's epithet "B8 csd^o (Sirigane), fdled with prosperity! 

 which is the salutation in the Bajawaliya, «*®§©«ncc3 

 (nama sri ghanaya), and the Soeialihini Sandese, <eft£g@^c3 

 (nama sree ghanaya), or as it is expressed in the Guttile 

 Jataka, in that extatic way in which Budha appears always 

 to be spoken of, 



Siya pin sirin sarae 

 prosperous in prosperity from his own merit f 



merit and prosperity standing with the Budhist, in the rela- 

 tion of cause and effect. 



There are several modes of reverence or obeisance among 

 the Singhalese, the shoes also off : — placing the right hand on 



