3: B.C. 161, "a merchant of Anarajapoora proceeded with carts to the Malaya division near Adam's Peak to buy ginger and saffon" (Mahawanso, ch. xxviii. p. 167); and in the 3rd century after Christ a wheel chariot was driven from the capital to the Kalaweva tank twenty miles N.W. of Dambool.—Mahawanso, ch. xxxviii. p. 260. See ante [Vol. II. p. 445.]
4: FORBES suggests that on such journeys the carriages must have been pushed by men, as horses could not possibly have drawn them in the hill country (vol. ii. p. 86).
5: Sigham, swift; dhawa, to run; Mahawanso, ch, xxiii. p. 142,186.
6: Mahawanso, ch. xxii. p. 132; ch. xxiii. 142.
7: The Prince Dutugaimunu, when securing the mare which afterwards carried him in the war against Elala, "seized her by the throat and boring her nostril with the point of his sword, secured her with his rope."—Mahawanso, ch. x. p. 60.
8: Marco Polo, ch. xx, s. ii,: ch. xl.
Domestic Furniture.—Of the furniture of the private dwellings of the Singhalese, such notices as have come down to us serve to show that their intercourse with other Buddhist nations was not without its influence on their domestic habits. Chairs[1], raised seats[2], footstools[3], and metal lamps[4], were articles comparatively unknown to the Hindus, and were obviously imitated by the Singhalese from the East, from China, Siam, or Pegu.[5] The custom which prevails to the present day of covering a chair with a white cloth, as an act of courtesy in honour of a visitor, was observed with the same formalities two thousand years ago[6]. Rich beds[7] and woollen carpets[8] were in use at the same early period, and ivory was largely employed in inlaying the more sumptuous articles.[9] Coco-nut shells were used for cups and ladles[10]; earthenware for jugs and drinking cups[11]; copper for water-pots, oil-cans, and other utensils; and iron for razors, needles, and nail-cutters.[12] The pingo, formed of a lath cut from the stem of the areca, or the young coco-nut palm, and still used as a yoke in carrying burdens, existed at an early period[13], in the same form in which it is borne at the present day. It is identical with the asilla an instrument for the same purpose depicted on works of Grecian art[14] and on the monuments of Egypt.
1: Mahawanso, ch. xiv. p. 80; ch. xv. p. 84; Rajaratnacari p. 134.
2: Ibid., ch. xiii. p. 82.
3: Ibid., xxvii. p. 164.