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what this was is evident from references to 'coats of mail of buffalo hides' (p. 207), and 'coats wrought of iron and skins of deer to keep the sharp-pointed arrows from piercing them (p. 231). Other kinds of protective covering were also employed, and some of the enemy were 'clad in ten kinds of armour' (p. 165). Showers of arrows' are mentioned; and 'stones without number hurled from engines flew about on every side' (p. 186). In one fight 'burning javelins bound with chains are referred to. In the account of the Sinhalese invasion of Southern India during this king's reign only swords and arrows are mentioned.

When Ceylon was invaded by Malays in 1251 A.D., it is stated that poisoned arrows were used by the invaders; they were 'shot quickly from engines' (p. 282), which must have been cross-bows. But the Sinhalese, who were skilful marksmen, broke them in pieces with their sharp broad arrows'— like Rāma in his wonderful battles with the Rakshasas. There is no indication of the use of poisoned arrows by the Sinhalese, nor are crossbows ever mentioned in the histories as employed by them, although they were used in Captain Robert Knox's time (seventeenth century). They were known in India in early times, and are mentioned in The Questions of King Milinda, p. 159. They do not appear in early Indian carvings. It is possible that the engines' by means of which stones were thrown were merely enlarged stone-bows with two strings, of the type now made by children. The desultory fighting of the Sinhalese would not permit them to carry about with them such elaborate stone-throwing appliances as those figured by Sir R. Payne-Gallwey in his work on The ProjectileThrowing Engines of the Ancients.

The above-quoted notices comprise practically all that is to be learnt in the histories regarding the weapons of the ancient Sinhalese.

Among the insignia carried by the deities of the Dewālas, -the temples devoted to some Indian gods, and the godlings (Dēvatās), demons, and deified chiefs of the Sinhalesean additional list of the ancient weapons can be compiled, and in them doubtless the traditional forms of some of them

have been preserved. They include the Sword, both straight and curved, the Trident, the Billhook, the Kris, the Iron Club, and a weapon called Itiya, a variety of Assegai.

The list is still incomplete, as there can be no doubt that Battle-axes were used in war, in addition to the common Kandian Knife, and a Dagger.

The Sword, Kaḍuwa, is almost the sole weapon represented in ancient carvings in Ceylon, and even that is only occasionally met with. The earliest representation of one was discovered by me in the excavations at Tissa, engraved on a fragment of pottery which probably dated from pre-Christian times. The illustration (Fig. 161) shows that it had a long handle with a substantial cross-hilt, but no other guard; and a broad and slightly curved blade, wider at a short distance from the end than near the hilt. It would be a formidable cutting weapon.

Others illustrated on a very small scale in reliefs on a pillar at the Jētavana Dāgaba at Anuradhapura (Fig. 87), and in some places in the hands of armed men who were represented as springing out of the open mouths of nondescript monsters called Makaras, are all straight-edged, somewhat short, pointed weapons, apparently without cross-hilts or guards. The men who hold them in the latter examples carry a small circular buckler in their left hands.

Some interesting panels are carved in the sides of the stone pillars that support the elongated porch (Dig-ge) of the Warakā Wihāra, the oldest cave temple, according to tradition, at the Ridi Wihāra, the Silver Monastery, in the Kurunāēgala district. In the panels, which are at the base of each pillar, a dance of soldiers is represented, one figure being in each panel. Some of them carry swords and shields, the only type of the former being the straight pointed sword with and without a straight cross-hilt, but in either case having no guard (Fig. 170).

The temple itself was founded in pre-Christian times, and the name Paramaka Abayaha lene, the cave of the Chief Abhaya,' in the earliest characters of the second or third century B.C., with the bent and the cup-shaped m, is inscribed

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have been preserved. They include the Sword, both straight and curved, the Trident, the Billhook, the Kris, the Iron Club, and a weapon called Itiya, a variety of Assegai.

The list is still incomplete, as there can be no doubt that Battle-axes were used in war, in addition to the common Kandian Knife, and a Dagger.

The Sword, Kaduwa, is almost the sole weapon represented in ancient carvings in Ceylon, and even that is only occasionally met with. The earliest representation of one was discovered by me in the excavations at Tissa, engraved on a fragment of pottery which probably dated from pre-Christian times. The illustration (Fig. 161) shows that it had a long handle with a substantial cross-hilt, but no other guard; and a broad and slightly curved blade, wider at a short distance from the end than near the hilt. It would be a formidable cutting weapon.

Others illustrated on a very small scale in reliefs on a pillar at the Jētavana Dāgaba at Anuradhapura (Fig. 87), and in some places in the hands of armed men who were represented as springing out of the open mouths of nondescript monsters called Makaras, are all straight-edged, somewhat short, pointed weapons, apparently without cross-hilts or guards. The men who hold them in the latter examples carry a small circular buckler in their left hands.

Some interesting panels are carved in the sides of the stone pillars that support the elongated porch (Dig-ge) of the Warakā Wihara, the oldest cave temple, according to tradition, at the Ridi Wihāra, the Silver Monastery, in the Kurunāēgala district. In the panels, which are at the base of each pillar, a dance of soldiers is represented, one figure being in each panel. Some of them carry swords and shields, the only type of the former being the straight pointed sword with and without a straight cross-hilt, but in either case having no guard (Fig. 170).

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The temple itself was founded in pre-Christian times, and the name Paramaka Abayaha lene, the cave of the Chief Abhaya,' in the earliest characters of the second or third century B.C., with the bent and the cup-shaped m, is inscribed

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