132 
JOURNAL, R:A,S. (CEYLON). [VOL. XYIII. 
that has yet been traced, for the one which according to 
tradition had been conferred on Don Joan de Costa Manam- 
peri Rajapakse, Maha Mudaliyar of the Governor's Gate,^ 
is not forthcoming. 
The grantee, Rabel, is described by Baldaeus as "a brave 
Sinhalese, a native of Mature, in our service," during whose 
absence from the Fort of Hakmana in July, 1656, it was 
stormed by King Raja Sinha's troops.t By caste he was a 
Smith, a member of the important colony of tarahaluwb^ 
which is said to have been established in the eighth century of 
the Christian era by King Dapulu Sen, in the neighbourhood 
of Devi Nuwara, in connection with the worship of the red 
sandalwood image of Vishnu. According to the local belief, 
he was born of humble parents at Belideniya in Bambarenda 
of the Wellaboda Pattuwa, and as an infant was abandoned by 
his parents, who left him in the hollow of a jak tree, where 
he was discovered by a passer-by. As a youth he learnt to 
support himself by making fish-hooks, which he sold to the 
fishermen along the coast, till one day he chanced on some 
shipwrecked white men, to whom he was of assistance and 
one of whom subsequently returned as a high official and 
pushed his youthful friend into prominence. 
Rabel died before 1667. There is in existence a rare ola 
book of verse, apparently the work of a contemporary writer, 
which deals with his career ; but the only complete copy 
that I have heard of appears somehow to have got into the 
possession of the late Mr. H. Nevill of the Civil Service, 
and has since disappeared. 
Besides this medal, and about three others conferred on 
members of the petted Chaliya or Salagama caste, J no medals 
appear to have been granted by the Dutch to any save people 
of the Goyiwansa.§ 
* R. A. S. Journal, vol. XI., p. 366. 
t See 4: C. L. B., 128. 
X Vide K. A. S. Journal, vol. XVII., p. 62 ; 1 C. L. M., 303. 
§ For an interesting sidelight on the position occupied by the Smith 
caste at this time, vide Le G-rand's Note, Lee's Bibeiro, p. 63. 
