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.

[Footnote 1:  Mahawanso, ch. xiv. p. 80; ch. xv. p. 84; Rajaratnacari p. 134.]

[Footnote 2:  Ibid., ch. xiii. p. 82.]

[Footnote 3:  Ibid., xxvii. p. 164.]

[Footnote 4:  Mahawanso, ch. xxx. p. 182; ch. xxxii. p. 192.]

[Footnote 5:  Asiatic Researches, vol. vi. p. 437.  Chairs are shown on the sculptures of Persepolis; and it is probably a remnant of Grecian civilisation in Bactria that chairs are still used by the mountaineers of Balkh and Bokhara.]

[Footnote 6:  B.C. 307, King Devenipiatissa caused a chair to be so prepared for Mahindo.]

[Footnote 7:  Mahawanso, ch. xv. p. 84; ch. xxiii. p. 129.  A four-post bed is mentioned B.C. 180. Mahawanso. ch. xxiv. p. 148.]

[Footnote 8:  Ibid., ch. xiv. p. 82.]

[Footnote 9:  Mahawanso, ch. xxvii. p. 163.]

[Footnote 10:  Ibid., ch. xxvii. p. 104.]

[Footnote 11:  Ibid., ch. xv. p. 85.]

[Footnote 12:  Rajaratnacari, p. 134.]

[Footnote 13:  Ibid., p. 103.  This implement is identical with the “yoke” so often mentioned in the Old and New Testament as an emblem of bondage and labour; and figured, with the same significance; on Grecian sculpture gems.  See ante.  Vol.  I. Pt. i ch iii. p. 114]

[Footnote 14:  ARISTOTLE, Rhet. i 7.]

[Illustration:  EGYPTIAN YOKE.]

[Illustration:  SINGHALESE PINGO.]