( 17 ) 
Th« following interesting articles bearing on Ceylon 
have been extracted from the Journals of ihe Koyal 
Asiatic Society of Great Britain and have been 
bound and placed on the shelves : — 
Description of the various classes of Vessels con- 
structed and employed by the Natives of the Coasts 
of Coromandel, Malabar, and the Island of Ceylon, 
for their Coasting Navigation, By John Edye, Esq., 
late Master Shipwright of His Majesty's Naval Yard 
at Trinoomalee, now in the Department of the 
Surveyor of the Navy. Communicated by the late 
Major-General Sir John Malcolm, g c b., k l s, m R A s 
(Journal, E A S, Vol. I, No. 1. London, 1834). 
Notice of the Tabernacle or Car employed by the 
Hindus on the Island of Ceylon to carry the image of 
the god in their religious precessions, with some 
remarks on the Analogies which may be traced in the 
worship of the Assyrians and other ancient Nations 
of the Bast, as compared with that of the Hindus. 
By the Rev. Joseph Roberts, C M R A S (Journal, RAS, 
Vol. I, No. 1. London. 1S33). 
References to Cejlon (Transact'ons, RAS, Vol. III. 
London, 1835). 
A Letter from Lieutenant-Colonel William Macbean 
George Coiebrooke, of the Royal Artillery, FRS., 
MRAS, transmitting three feosimiles of iuscriptions 
discovered on the Island of Ceylon (Transactions, 
RAS, Vol.111. London, 1835). 
Some Remaiks upon the Ancient City of Anurajapura 
or Anuradhapura and the Hill Temple of Mihintale, 
in the Island of Ceylon, by Cp^ptain I J Chapman, of 
the Royal Aitillery (Transactions, RAS, Vol. III. 
London, 1835). 
Account of Pearl Fisheries of the North-Vest Coast 
of the Island of Ceylon. By Captain James Steuart, 
Master Attendant at Colombo." Communicated by 
Lieutenant-Colonel William 1\1 G Coiebrooke, of the 
Royal Artillery, FRS, MRAS (Transactions, RAS, 
Vol. III. Loniion, 1835). 
A Sketch of the Constitution of the Kandyan King- 
dom. By the late bir John D'Oyiv. Communicated 
by Sir A Tohnston, Vice-President, RAS, FRS. 
Account of a Flag represent ir.:^ the iatrotUiction of 
"the Caste of Chalias or Cinnamon-peelers into Ceylon. 
Bv Sir Alexander Johnston, Vice-President, RAS, 
FRS (Transactions, RAS, Vol. III. London, 1885). 
Ola Manuscripts. — 194 manuscripts were consulted 
in the Librr^ry. The " Janavansaya " was trans- 
cribed from the copy in the Library. Buddhist priests 
have made good use of the Library during the year. 
Owing to the large number of additions made to 
the Oriental Library of Manuscripts (since the issue 
of the last catalogue in March, 1892:', I had a fresh 
catalogue compiled by Mr. H M Gunasekera, the 
Asisstnnt to the Librarian. This catalogue gives 
all additions received up to date, and also 
gives descriptions of the contents of the 
maiiuscriptp. The previous catalogue was very 
inij .;rfect, nnd was more in the nature of a mere list 
of works. The ntw catalogue has been sent to the 
printer, and will I hope be issued soon. In connection 
with the compiling of this catalogue, the t;o!lection of 
manuscripts was thoroughly verifi. d and the condi- 
tion of the manuscripts reported upon by the Assistant 
to the Lib iirian, 
Kottagodi S iranapalatissa presented the " Kach- 
chayaun, ' iilso known as " Sandhikappa." The work, 
though a common one, is useful. li is a grammar of 
Magadhi (or Pali; language. It is believed to be the 
oldest Pali grammar extant. 
Maha Mudaliyar de- Zoysa, in his " Catalogue of 
Pali, Sinhalese and Sanscrit Manuscripts in th« 
Temple Libraries of Ceylon," says of this work : — 
Tradition ascribe.^i its arthorship to Maha Kach- 
chadana Thera, au eminent contymporary disciple of 
Buddha, but this is not now g::uera!Iy believed and 
the authorship of the work i.-i still a "moot point in 
the grammatical literature of tlie Pali language. It 
has several Tikas, Aimtikas, glossaries, paraphrases, 
<fcc. written by various authors in Ceylon, Burmah, 
and Siom, which will be noticed in their proper 
places. Some cowmontators state that the Sutras, 
or aphorisms, wore composed by Maha Kachchayana, 
the Vritti Sanganfi.nda, and the examples by Brah- 
madatta. But little or no'hing is known of these 
authors. The late Hon. Mr. J xm; s Alwis published the 
'' Akhyata Kappa,'' or chapter on verbs, with an En- 
glish translation, introduction, and notes. An edition 
of it was published in Germany by Dr. Kuhn, and a 
complete edition with a free translation by M. E. 
Senart, 
catalogud;g. 
The second supplement to the catalogue was com- 
pleted and laid before the Committee in manuscript 
and forwarded to the printer. The supplement con- 
tains au entry of all books received into the Cidombo 
II usenm Library since December 31, 1 895, up to July, 
1898. The method of construction is after the style 
adopted by me in previous cutalogues, i.e., in the form 
of a dictionary catalogue (entries being made under 
author, subject, and title, with necessary cross 
references). 
READERS. 
The number of readers l<st year (i.e. of registered 
visits to the Library) was 7t)4, as against 730 in 1897 
and 570 in 1896. 82 tickets were issued to readers, 
including 35 renev^als of old tickets and 47 new 
tickets. A party of young ladies has been visiting 
the Library for the purpose of studying zoology. 
The class is a private one, and is held under the 
superintendence of Mrs. Copleston. Several zoological 
works have been consulted and some studied. 
CONCLUSION. 
In the Museum Library every endeavour has been 
mado to make the contents of the Library as acces- 
sible as possible to readv.rs by the compilation of 
catalogues on approved and scientific principles. 
With the subject-catalogue of Part II (now being 
compiled) the entire collection of books and their 
contents wiil h we been thornugbly in^'exed and 
catalogued. It now remains for readers to show 
interest and sympnthy in the work of the Library 
by making use of it. 
Libraries of all public institutions flourished and 
serve the purposes for which they are createil in 
proportion to the active sympathy and intelligent 
interest of those who support and n=e them. In 
this lies much of the secret of their potencv for 
good. GERARD A. JOSEPH, 
Secretary and Librarian 
MR. R.AMANATHAN AS A RELIGIOUS 
INSTRUCTOR. 
[The following is copied verbatim from 
the Madras Standard. As to the versatility of 
our Solicitor-General there would seem 
to be no limit : but what this last phase of 
his teaching exactly indicates, we are at a 
loss to imderstand. — Ed. CO.] 
The "Gospel of Jesus according to St. 
Matthew as interpreted to R. L. Harrison by 
the light of the godly experience of ' Sri 
Parananda' " is the title of a recent book 
published by Messrs. Kegan Paiil, Ti-ench, 
Trubner & Co., of London. There is nothing 
attractive in the title of the book and many 
of our readers who are not Chi-istians may 
not be tempted to read a book of this na- 
tm'e. But the book is of absorbing interest 
to us and deserves to be well-known in 
Southern India and Ceylon. The public do 
not know who ' K. L. Harrison ' is nor who 
' Sri Parananda ' is. The former name 
may be that of a man or woman and the 
hitter is not known except that it illustrates 
the modem rage for names similar to that 
of Vivekananda. But the "Gospel of Jesus 
is interesting to us ius a book which embo- 
dies the truths of Christianity as exjilained 
