Appendix : — Proceedings of 



partly destroyed. The other little spotted creature, of an olive brown 

 colour, is evidently the young of a species of Aconitas, which is not 

 described in Gray's Catalogue ; if new, I shall have much pleasure in 

 naming it Aconitas Layardi. The only other species of the same genus in 

 the British Museum is A. meleagris from the Cape of Good Hope. In 

 form the genus Aconitas is very like Nessia, without the limbs, or exter- 

 nal opening to the ear. 



E. F. K. 



B. 



To the Secretary of the Ceylon Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society. 



Sir, 



I have deferred returning Mr. Brodie's letter on the subject of Sin- 

 ghalese Numerals, in the expectation of procuring a copy of an ancient 

 Singhalese work, which I had been given to understand exists on the 

 subject, and of submitting a translation of it to the Society; but being 

 disappointed in this expectation, I hasten to return the letter, with many 

 apologies for detaining it so long with me. 



I have, however, little or nothing of importance to add to Mr. Brodie's 

 explanation of the system of Singhalese Numerals, which appears to be 

 correct. These numerals may be found in Chater's Singhalese Grammar, 

 Prinsep's Comparative table of Alphabets, and in a recent work on Sin- 

 ghalese Grammar published by a learned Member of our Society. 



In reference, however, to that part of Mr. Brodie's letter, in which he 

 speaks of the difficulty of carrying on any arithmetical operation by means 

 of these numerals, and inquires how the " Native Astrologers make their 

 calculations," and whether " they do calculate at all?" I venture to submit 

 a few remarks, which I hope may not altogether prove devoid of interest. 



Mr. Brodie is quite correct in saying, that " the commonest arithmetical 

 processes become almost impossible under this system ;" but it must not 

 hence be inferred that the native astrologers make no calculations. I 

 believe it is well known that the natives do make "calculations, not only in 

 Astrology, but in Astronomy, which cannot be done without a consider- 

 able knowledge of the science of numbers, as is evident from the fact of 

 their being able to predict the eclipses of the sun and moon, and 

 determine the positions of the planets ; though of course on principles 

 less accurate and less perfect than those of Modern Europe. 



For the purpose of these calculations, however, they do not employ the 

 numerals in question, but either use some small shells or grains of paddy 

 (by means of which an arithmetical operation is easily carried on), or 

 another series of numerals called " Katapayadi ganana," in which numbers 

 are expressed much in the same way as in European systems of notation, 



