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palm. These are placed under a tree near the dewāla, and, I was informed, are not offered to Pattini.

The game consists in dancing and in playing the double kettle-drum which is used at Buddhist temples. I do not possess any detailed information regarding it. In some places the ceremony of Cutting the Waters' is performed after the Mal Keliya; but these customs and the order of the games appear to differ in various districts.

Commonly, all these games or ceremonies are concluded by a village feast, for which both the opposing parties provide the materials, and of which both partake. At the end of it all shout "Hōyiyā," and disperse to their homes.

If the Uḍa-pila party be victorious in these games it is looked upon as a prognostic of misfortune and sickness in the district, according to my information. Ludovisi reversed the omen. They are all believed to be efficacious in driving away sickness, and even in causing rain to fall when needed.

XV

THE ORIGIN AND SIGNIFICATION OF THE CROSS AND THE SWASTIKA

IN

'N the last chapter reference was made to a series of diagrams cut upon the roofing slabs of the Kūrna temple in Egypt, which was completed by Seti I (1366-1333 B.C.). I now give illustrations of the different types of these designs, including those which were partly cut away by the masons when they came to fit the slabs together on the spot (Fig. No. 273).

Among these engravings it is interesting to observe the forms of Guarded Crosses, of which several examples occur, with the lines at the ends of the arms straight in some instances and forked in others. It will be recognised that some of them resemble certain designs on the terra-cotta whorls found by Dr. Schliemann in the ruins of the early cities at Hissarlik or Troy. In addition, there are some Swastikas and designs allied to them, and outlines of sandals and hands, which are well-known guards against the Evil Eye; and especially there is to be seen the nearest approach, so far as I am aware, to the raised Swastika symbol of early Ceylon.

Several of the designs are employed in Ceylon at the present day, as magical diagrams for protection against the unlucky influences of planets and demons, whether the evil be in the form of sickness, or misfortune, or merely evil dreams (which are always evil omens); and the star with papyrus buds at the ends of the arms occurs, with circles instead of buds, among the magical signs on an Egyptian amulet of the fourth or fifth century A.D., which is illustrated by Dr. Budge in his work on Egyptian Magic, p. 179. The guarded crosses probably can be explained in no other way than as magical diagrams; and the general connection of nearly all the designs

1 There were many examples of the outline of the right foot, and duplicates of some of the other simpler designs.

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FIG. 273. Masons' Diagrams on Roof at Kūrna Temple

644

is so self-evident that it is safe to assert that the whole have a mystical signification which is based on their protective functions, as I have already explained in the chapter on the ancient coins of Ceylon.

We learn from Egyptian records that immediately before and immediately after the period when the Kūrna temple was being constructed, much attention was paid in Thebes to the action of magic. It is stated of Amenhetep, the minister of King Amenhetep III (1450-1430 B.C.), Profound knowledge of the mysteries of magic were (sic) attributed to him. On this subject he wrote certain works which maintained their reputation for more than a thousand years after his death.' Copies of two of them are preserved in European libraries. He himself claimed in the inscription on his statue that he knew all the deep mysteries of literature, and that every secret thing was known to him.2

3

Professor Maspero says of Prince Khamoisit (Khā-em-Uast), the grandson of Seti I, 'He had a great reputation for his knowledge of abstruse theological questions and of the science of magic-a later age attributing to him the composition of several books on magic giving directions for the invocation of spirits belonging to this world and the world beyond.' 3 In the story of Setna, the manuscript of which is attributed by Professor Maspero to the third century B.C., it is recorded of this prince, 'Satni Khamoïs was well acquainted with all matters he could read books in the sacred text and the books of the Double House of Life [explained by the learned professor as the magical books of the priestly library'], and the works which are engraved on steles and on the walls of the temples, and he knew the virtues of amulets and talismans, and he understood how to compose them and to draw up writings of power, for he was a magician who was unequalled in the land of Egypt.' 4

Decorations composed of various highly developed forms

1 Maspero. The Struggle of the Nations, English Translation, p. 448. 2 Dr. Budge. History of Egypt, Vol. iv, p. 106.

Maspero. Loc. cit. p. 425.

4 Maspero. Contes Egyptiens, 1882, p. 47.

of Swastika were painted on the ceilings of tombs of the eighteenth dynasty, which held the throne at this time, and the upright cross is also found on Egyptian glazed pottery of about the thirteenth century B.C.1

It is therefore not surprising that the intelligent stonecutters and masons who executed the admirable works of this period should possess some knowledge of magical diagrams and, possibly in the quarries, should have chiselled many of them on the upper side of the slabs of the Kūrna temple, and perhaps at other sites where they have not been searched for. The fact that three diagrams were partly cut away in fitting the stones together is itself an absolute proof that some, at least, were incised while the construction of the temple was in progress, and before the roof stones were finally laid in position. The whole probabilities therefore lead me to believe that all were cut by the workmen at the same date, which must be about 1360 to 1370 B.C.

I have already stated that probably the earliest known Swastika to which a definite age can be assigned occurs on pottery of the lowest remains of the first city on the site of Troy, which was in existence before 2500 B.C. As it is not a simple design, but forms part of a diagram in which it is surrounded by three rectangles, one outside the other, it must have been invented at an earlier time the date of which is unknown, but may possibly belong to the fourth millennium B.C. But some of the Kūrna figures, and other diagrams that are unmistakably closely allied to them, can be traced back to an even earlier period.

Of these designs, the upright cross enclosed in a square was much used in ancient times. It is found throughout Europe, Asia, and Central America. It is a character in Accadian and Assyrian writing, and forms the side of the throne of the deity on some Chaldean cylinders, and is on a mould from Kouyunjik. It is on Egyptian pottery of the

1 Hall. The Earliest Civilisation of Greece, p. 185.

2 Maspero. The Dawn of Civilization, p. 681. Perrot and Chipiez. A History of Art in Chaldea and Assyria, Vol. ii, p. 266.

3 Layard. Discoveries in the Ruins of Nineveh and Babylon, p. 597.

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