LITERARY REGI8TEK SyPPLEMENT: 
AND CEYLON 
"NOTES AND QUERIES." 
[Under this heading, in future, we mean to give a four ov eight page " Supplement " with our Tropical 
..Agricultv/rist, from quarter to quarter, according as there is matter of sufficient value so to be preservecl.] 
MiiRCM, I.901. 
EARLY SINHALESE LITERATURE, 
" ENCYCLOPEDIA OF INDO-ABYAN RESEARCH." 
We have been favoured with a copy of 
Part 10, VoL 1., of this learned German pub- 
lication, containing an article on the Liter- 
ature and Language of the Sinhalese by 
Wm. Geiger. The introduction is worth 
translating from the German and quot- 
ing, as showing who are our chief learned 
writers of note : — " The first and last great 
effort to describe Sinhalese Literature con- 
nectedly was undertaken by J. d'Alwis 
(Grammar of the Sinhalese Language trans- 
lated . . . Colombo, 1852.) Of publications be- 
fore that there need only be mentioned Spence 
Hardy's 'The Language and Literature of 
the Sinhalese ' ; also his ' List of Booits in 
the Pali and Sinhalese Languages ' Mr. 
d'Alwis's work, very valuable for that time, is 
now in many respects antiquated. Even 
now we are far from being able to give a com- 
plete account of the Literature. I can there 
fore give little more taan a list of titles and 
authors. And even this I could not have 
done but for the assistance in Ceylon itself 
of the Mudaliyar Simon de Silva and, after 
my return, of my indefatigable friend, the 
Mudaliyar A. Mendis Gunesekara, who, in 
numerous letters, was ever willing to answer 
my inquiries. Also, of value to me was 
Louis de Zoysa's ' Catalogue of Pali, Sinha- 
lese and Sanskrit Manuscripts in the Temple 
Libraries of Ceylon, Colombo, 1885.' I would 
also mention a small work in Sinhalese by 
Rhys Davids, 'Handbook of the Yogava- 
cara.' " — The author, Mr. Geiger, describes his 
work very modestly, but really we find 
nearly 100 quarto pages devoted to the liter- 
ature, inscriptions and grammar of Ceylon, 
which must be most mteresting to those 
who have any previous knowledge of the 
subject. A translation of the whole might 
be worthy of embodiment in the I'ecords of 
our local Royal Asiatic Society. 
PROF. W. GEIGER ON THE LITER- 
ATURE AND LANGUAGE OF 
THE SINHALESE. 
On previous occasions we noticed in our 
columns works by Dr. Wilhelm Geiger, one 
on his visit to Ceylon, and two others on the 
dialect of the Rodiyas and on Sinhalese 
etymology. Now, as further fruit of his 
mission to our island in 1895-96 we are glad 
to welcome from the pen of tlie learned 
Erlangen professor another valuable work, 
viz., Litterahir und Sprache der Singha- 
lesen. This forms part 10 of vol i. of the Grund- 
I'iss der Tndo-Arischen Philologie und Alter-- 
ttimskunde founded by the late lamented 
Prof. Buhler and continued by Prof. P- 
Kielhorn with the co-operation of a number 
of eminent scholars. Dr. Geiger's book con- 
sists of nearly 100 pages, in the first 25 of 
which he treats of the Sinhalese inscriptions 
and literatvire in an exceedingly interesting s 
and able manner; though, unfortunately, 
in deahng with the former he has been 
hampered by the paucity of material, and 
for the latter has had to depend largely on 
the late James Alwis's valuable but not 
quite reliable Introduction to his translation 
of the Sidat Sangard. Mr D. M. de Z. 
Wickremasinghe's admirable Catalogue of 
Sinhalese Manuscripts of the British. Musetim 
(noticed by us recently) reached Dr. Geiger 
too late (as he mentions at the end of his 
book) to be utilised by him ; otherwise 
some errors with regard to authorship of 
works and dates of authors would not have 
appeared here. In the second part the 
author deals with the grammar of the 
Sinhalese language in a masterly fashion, 
the portion treating of phonology being 
especiaily valuable. In the third and final 
chapter Prof. Geiger shows what is the 
linguistic character of Sinhalese, the con- 
clusions he arrives at being as follows : — 
" 1. That Sinhalese is an Aryan language. 
—2. Historical relations declare tint the 
