No. 56.— 1905.] POKTUGUESE INSCRIPTIONS. 35^^ 
It will be noticed that one of these inscriptions begins 
" Sepultura de " The tomb of "] and two Esta sepultura 
hede" [''This tomb is of"]. These were the two com- 
monest forms for the beginning of a Portuguese monumental 
inscription. A third form was Aqui jaz " Here lies"] 
and a fourth " Pater noster pola alma de " A pater noster 
for the soul of "]. I have examined thirty-one inscriptions 
of the 17th and 18th centuries given by Professor Ismaei 
Gracias in his ''Inscriptions and Epitaphs"" of Goa, and 
I find that eighteen of them begin'' Sepultura de,"four " Esta 
sepultura he de," one *'Aqui jaz," and one " Aquiespera." 
The form " Pater noster," &;c., as will appear later, occurs in 
a Mannar inscription and in one in the Colombo Museum. 
It will also be noticed that the Jaffna inscriptions end " e de 
sens herdeiros " or " erdeiros " [" and of his or their heirs "], 
This was the conventional ending. Of the Goa inscriptions, 
seventeen end " e de sens herdeiros " and four <' e de sens 
erdeiros. " Both forms of the word for " heirs" (" herdeiros" 
and " erdeiros") appear to have been used, which would seem 
to show that Cockneyism is not confined to the English 
language. 
So much for JafEna. I am afraid there are no more 
Portuguese tombstones to be found there, though a Portu- 
guese church existed within the Fort, at the opposite corner 
apparently to that occupied by the Dutch church,t and 
somewhere near the entrance to the present jail. Further 
search failed to find any. 
I happened to be at Mannar the following September, and 
* Insripsgaos e Epitaphios 
por 
J. A Ismaei Grracias 
Primeiro Fasciulo 
I. Igrija de S. Lourengo de Agacaim 
II. Convente de N Sra Do Pilar em G-oa VeJha — 
Nova Groa 
Empressa Nacional 
1890. 
The author is Professor of Economics at Nova Goa. 
f See the i^lan in BaJdaeus. 
