No. 54,-1903.] NOTES ON A DUTCH MEDAL. 
133 
It is not clear whether the term meester has any special 
significance in this inscription ; such an honorific does not 
appear in any of the seventeen other Dutch medals I am 
acquainted with, Mr. F. H. de Vos has pointed out to me 
that the Portuguese-speaking class in Ceylon call a vedardla 
(native doctor) a meester, I have found the term veda 
mestri applied to a radaivd (dhoby) in a deed of 1859. 
We Sinhalese also apply the term mestri to a barber, who 
were the original surgeons among European races ; among 
the Galle smiths a mestri is said to have been a petty 
headman attached to the local arsenal. The smith family, 
known in 1730 as Iivadu Achdrige (i,e,^ arrowsmiths), had 
become in 1808 ^wadum^s^/'^g^e (Prov. Ct., Matara,No. 1,470). 
'-^ Betmas^' says Mr. de Vos, ''were districts in which the 
hunt took place." In 1650 there were four hetmas^ viz.: — 
Each had its viddne or chief, and the hunt was under the 
superintendence of the Dissave. 
In 1758 the Betme-rdla was an officer of the hunting 
establishment, whose emoluments consisted of six amunams 
of accommodessan fields. In 1821 there were four Betme 
Muhandirams. The word Betme^ which is probably from 
the same root as the Sinhalese bandana and the English 
bind^ is still applied in the Matara District to a strong glue 
prepared from resin. The office of Master of the Hunt 
represents the Sinhalese Etbandana Viddne^ which subse- 
quently developed into the Kurmve Rdla and Kuruwe 
Mudaliydr, The title of Viddne was held by some officers 
of the highest rank : Don David Jayatilleke Abeysiri- 
wardhana Illangakoon, Maha Mudaliyar, was also Vidane 
of Makewita ; and Louis de Saram Wijesekera Karunaratne, 
Second Maha Mudaliyar, was Maha Vidane of Panadure. 
For particulars regarding the elephant hunt, vide 
R. A. S. Journal, vol. XI., p. 249, vol. XV., p. 190, and 
Danvers^ Portuguese Recoids, p. 133. All castes were 
Hitigalle 
Gollogamma 
Cacunegodde 
Girreway 
