[Footnote 1:  VALENTYN, Oud en Niew Oost-Indien, chap. iv. p. 267.]

The legend is given with more particularity in an historical notice of the Chalia caste, written by Adrian Rajapaxa, one of their chiefs, who describes these immigrants as Peskare Brahmans, who were at first employed in weaving gold tissues for the queen, but who afterwards abandoned that art for agriculture.  A fresh company were said to have been invited in the reign of Devenipiatissa, and were the progenitors of “Saleas, at present called Chalias,” who inhabit the country between Galle and Colombo, and who, along with their ostensible occupation as peelers of cinnamon, still employ themselves in the labours of the loom.[1] All handicrafts are conventionally regarded by the Singhalese as the occupations of an inferior class; and a man of high caste would submit to any privation rather than stoop to an occupation dependent on manual skill.

[Footnote 1:  A History of the Chalias, by ADRIAN RAJAPAXA. Asiatic Res. vol. vii. p. 440. Ib., vol. x. p. 82.]

Pottery.—­One of the most ancient arts, the making of earthenware vessels, exists at the present day in all its pristine simplicity, and the “potter’s wheel,” which is kept in motion by an attendant, whilst the hands of the master are engaged in shaping the clay as it revolves, is the primitive device which served a similar purpose amongst the Egyptians and Hebrews.[1]

[Footnote 1:  Pottery is mentioned in the Mahawanso, B.C. 161, ch. xxix. p. 173:  the allusion is to “new earthen vases,” and shows that the people at that time, like the Hindus of today, avoided where possible the repeated use of the same vessel.]

A “potter” is enumerated in the list of servants and tradesmen attached to the temple on the Rock of Mihintala, A.D. 262, along with a sandal-maker, blacksmiths, carpenters, stone-cutters, goldsmiths, and “makers of strainers” through which the water for the priests was filtered, to avoid taking away the life of animalculae.  The other artisans on the establishment were chiefly those in charge of the buildings, lime-burners, plasterers, white-washers, painters, and a chief builder.

Glass.—­Glass, the knowledge of which existed in Egypt and in India[1], was introduced into Ceylon at an early period; and in the Dipawanso, a work older than the Mahawanso by a century and a half, it is stated that Saidaitissa, the brother of Dutugaimunu, when completing the Ruanwelle dagoba, which his predecessor had commenced, surmounted it with a “glass pinnacle.”  This was towards the end of the second century before Christ.  Glass is frequently mentioned at later periods; and a “glass mirror” is spoken of[2] in the third century before Christ, but how made, whether by an amalgam of quicksilver or by colouring the under surface, is not recorded.

[Footnote 1:  Dr. ROYLE’S Lectures on the Arts and Manufactures of India, 1852, p. 221.  PLINY says the glass of India being made of pounded crystal, none other can compare with it. (Lib. xxxvi, c. 66.)]