No. /)6. — 1905.1 TWO OLD SINHALESE SWORDS. 
449 
SwORD No. 2. 
(7) The Mudaliydr's version of the inscription on this 
sword is nearly correct throughout. 
!• ^ §e) 9@aorf eo0 8cc «d9 o>sdc3 ©x^^i § qo^o^oS dee 
(8) The unread word at the commencement of line 2 begins 
with 6S and ends with «o or In the same line, despite 
the ispilia-Uke flourish above the word «5C53cs is doubtless 
meant — the cs being inserted above the line. Instead of 
t£^ti G^^oQ and 0-855, as misread, the actual wording is 
«3€5Da3df G^^dO and ^ScsD^s). 
(9) That the swords themselves, whether of* Indian or 
foreign make, may well have been granted by royalty for 
special services no one free from unworthy bias need question. 
Such bestowal of swords and other weapons on favoured 
persons by Ceylon rulers was not unknown.* 
(10) The inscriptions could in all good faith have been 
placed at a later date on the swords as family heirlooms, 
by descendants, in virtue of a generally admitted tradition 
of their having been gifted to distinguished ancestors of the 
possessors. 
* See Lawrie's Gazetteer, vol. II., pp. 677, 684, 761, 808. 
H. J(f. •BJCPAKDS, ACTING GOVBRN'MENT PRINTER, COLOMBO, CEYLON. 
