The Scriptures; in enumerating the descendants of Shem, state that “unto Eber were born two sons, and the name of one was Peleg, for in his days the earth was divided.” (Genesis, ch. x. ver. 25.) In this passage according to CYRIL C. GRAHAM, the term Peleg has a profounder meaning, and the sentence should have been translated—­“for in his days the earth was cut into canals” (Cambridge Essay,1858.)

But historical testimony exists which removes all obscurity from the inquiry as to who were the instructors of the Singhalese.  The most ancient books of the Hindus show that the practice of canal-making was understood in India at as early a period as in Egypt.  Canals are mentioned in the Rayamana, the story of which belongs to the dimmest antiquity; and when Baratha, the half-brother of Rama, was about to search for him in the Dekkan, his train is described as including “labourers, with carts, bridge-builders, carpenters, and diggers of canals.” (Ramayana, CARY’S Trans., vol. iii. p. 228.) The Mahawanso, removes all doubt as to the person by whom the Singhalese were instructed in forming works for irrigation, by naming the Brahman engineer contemporary with the construction of the earliest tanks in the fourth century before the Christian era. (Mahawanso, ch. x.) Somewhat later, B.C. 262, the inscription on the rock at Mihintala ascribes to the Malabars the system of managing the water for the rice lands, and directs that “according to the supply of water in the lake, the same shall be distributed to the lands of the wihara in the manner formerly regulated by the Tamils.” (Notes to TURNOUR’S Epitome, p. 90.) To be convinced of the Tamil origin of the tank system which subsists to the present day in Ceylon, it is only necessary to see the tanks of the Southern Dekkan.  The innumerable excavated reservoirs or colams of Ceylon will be found to correspond with the culams of Mysore; and the vast erays formed by drawing a bund to intercept the water flowing between two elevated ridges, exhibit the model which has been followed at Pathavie, Kandelai, Menery, and all the huge constructions of Ceylon, But whoever may have been the original instructors of the Singhalese in the formation of tanks, there seems every reason to believe that from their own subsequent experience, and the prodigious extent to which they occupied themselves in the formation of works of this kind, they attained a facility unsurpassed by the people of any other country.  It is a curious circumstance in connection with this inquiry, that in the eighth century after Christ, the King of Kashmir despatched messengers to Ceylon to bring back workmen, whom he employed in constructing an artificial lake. (Raja-Tarangini, Book iv. sl. 505.) If it were necessary to search beyond India for the origin of cultivation in Ceylon, the Singhalese, instead of borrowing a system from Egypt, might more