( 3S ) 
to tlie seoon3 tloeumeflt he tiid not know whether 
it was possible for them to come hastily to a 
decision. There was a sense of genuineness about 
it, and, therefore, he llioughc if the question of 
genuineness was to be decitled it would be better 
to give all the raem'Devs of the Society time to go 
into the matter before coming here to discuss it. 
(Hear, hear ) 
Mr J Ferguson— said he could not follow 
the previous speaker into his learue Uy technical 
and probably useful criticism. He was most 
attracted by the hi-to<ical notes; by the re- ■ 
ference to the inurt'erous priest-king who 
caused both his rival to the hand of the queen, 
and the young princely heir, to be put to deaih. 
The time was a critical one for the Sinha!e-e 
monarchy, just wheu it was welcoming the 
Hollanders as protectors from the P.jrtuguese— 
a case very much of " out of the frying-pan 
into the fire," as they soiii proveil. The incident 
as to the grant of land within the circuit of 
the bangle had its parallel in Ihe case of the 
founder of the Hay (Erroll) family in Scottish 
history, and no doubt in other c«>untrie<. He 
was interested in what was mentioned in regard 
to the origin of certain nio^quLS, aiid would sug- 
gest that an interesting paper might be compiled 
out of the history of the leading Mahomedan 
mosques in the island. 
Mr D B Jayatilaka— said that, leaving aside 
the question as to whether the documents placed 
before them were genuine or not, they were vory 
interestingandtlieauthordeserved their be^t thanks. 
The notes were full of interesting facts. They 
brought before them a very interesting fact with 
regard to the medical history of Ceylon. They 
saw that these grants had been made for past 
services rendered by two medical men. He 
believed the descendants of these men were still 
living in a district in Ceylon. These men were 
known by tlie name of Mnh-indirams of tlie Koyal 
Medical Service and if he wa-' not mistaken their 
descendants still passed by that name. It was 
difficult for anyone to pass an opinion on the 
genuineness of documents except these who had 
studied their chronology. 
The Chairman— thought that it might be well 
tliat the remarks of Mudaliyar Goonawardana be 
indicated to the author who was noc present. 
This view was accepted by those present. 
The Chairman— said it seemed they were 
agreed that the paper in itself was an interesting 
one and the notes especially appeared to be very 
interesting. With a safeguarding note on its 
genuineness by Mr Bell and with Mr Goonawar- 
dana's remarks which, nodoulit, would be recorded 
they would accept the paper for what it was worth 
and give the thanks of the meeting to the author. 
KING KIRTI SlU'S EMBASSY TO SI AM. 
»sMr. Paul E Peiris, m.a. Barrister-at-Law, 
QQSj thenrea<l his paper entitled "An account of 
King' Kirti Sri's Embassy to Siam in 1672 
Saka (1750 ad.)' The paper was translated 
from the SmhrJese by Mr Pieri-( and is 
a very interesting ncpount of the Embassy's ex- , 
periences. It is full of incident, and wealthy 
description and gives a splendid account of the 
Sinhalese and Siamese customs of the period with 
which the paper deals. 
Mr. F C Roles— on discussion being invited, 
said he should like to ask Mr Peiris whether the 
phrase on page 13 "a considerable portion. ..has 
been omitted to avoid the riak of appearing to 
relate the incredible" was a phrase commonly 
used at that time. Now-a-days they were not 
confined and there was no hesitation iu giving 
them the incredible whether it was from Savage 
Landor or the goiya in the witness box. He 
should like to know if it was a mere formal 
phrase, or whether it indicated that they had lost, 
perhaps, the most interesting part of the 
description ? 
Mr. Paul Peiris— said he could only say he 
translated what the writer said. 
The President :— I do not think it is unusual 
for writers in boons of travel to say that words 
fail to express what they saw. 
Mr. Harward — said they must remember it 
was characteristic of Oriental literatare to give 
catalogues of splendid fittings. Such catalogues 
formed a part of the poetical and prose descriptions 
in oriental literature, and although, no doubt, the 
paper gave an interesting description of Siam as 
it was in the 18th century — there was no doubt a 
great deal of prosperity and splendour there — he 
did not think they were bound to accept quite 
the full picture presented to them in that paper; 
because he thought it would come quite natural 
to a Sinhalese narrator at the time to give 
numerical syinmetery to the various details he 
was describing. 
Mr. Paul Feiris— said that the writer from 
whom he had translated was a very careful writer, 
and he saw no reason whatever for disbelieving 
him. When lie talked about emeralds the size 
of oranges he might be nnstaken, but 
possibly he referred to the green stone. As 
further proof of the enormous expenditure of the 
Siamese Kings on their religion, he had the good 
fortune to have given him a note which he did 
not think was yet published; and there was re- 
ference there to a certain temple, where there 
was an image of the Buddha larger than lite-size 
of solid gold. He mentioned also that while in 
England he saw a bell that was captured at the 
sacking of a town in that quarter. It weighed 
3 cwt., and 2 cwt. was solid silver. 
Mr. D B Jayatilaka— said he did not think 
there was any difficulty in believing these 
accounts tor the simple reason there were accounts 
by the other envoys to Siam. He might mention 
the interesting fact that that Embassy was the 
fourth one. There had been three before it to Siam 
and it was interesting to note that the first Am- 
bassador to Siam sent by tlie Sinhalese King 
to enquire into religion there was a Dutch Officer. 
He had seen a letter from him to the Kandyan 
King describing the Siamese Court which was 
siuiilar in description to the paper now read. 
He did not believe that the Dutch people ex- 
aggerated and if they could believe the 
Dutchman's description, he did not think, they 
need cast any doubt on the paper now before them. 
Dr. W A DE SiLVA— said he had recently been 
to Siam and had seen most of the things 
referred to in the paper. He had seen the green 
stones a little larger tlian an orange. He had 
also seen the gold image of Buddha life-size. As 
regards the processions, and elephants' houses 
and trappings &c., it seemed to him most of 
these things still remained. If nny of them 
were to go to Siam and watch some of the 
religions festivals, most of the descriptions given in 
that paper would be seem to be quite correct. So 
far as he had observed, they were. 
