2: Rock inscriptions at Mihintala and at Dambool.]

[Footnote 3: _Mahawanso_ ch, xlii. TURNOUR, MS. translation.]

[Footnote 4: TURNOUR'S _Epitome, Appendix,_ p. 88.]

[Footnote 5: _Ibid_ pp. 86, 87.]

_Farm-stock._--The only farm-stock which appears to have been kept for
tillage purposes, were buffaloes, which, then as now, were used in
treading the soft mud of the irrigated rice-fields, preparatory to
casting in the seed. Cows are alluded to in the _Mahawanso_, but never
in connection with labour; and although butter is spoken of, it is only
that of the buffalo.[1]

[Footnote 1: _Mahawanso_, ch. xxvii p. 163.]

_Gardens_.--Probably the earliest enclosures attempted in a state of
incipient civilisation, were gardens for the exclusion of wild animals
from fruit trees and vegetables, when these were first cultivated for
the use of man; and to the present day, the frequent occurrence of the
termination "_watte_" in the names of places on the map of Ceylon, is in
itself an indication of the importance attached to them by the
villagers. The term "garden," however, conveys to an European but an
imperfect idea of the character and style of these places; which in
Ceylon are so similar to the native gardens in the south of India, as to
suggest a community of origin. Their leading features are lines of the
graceful areca palms, groves of oranges, limes, jak-trees, and bread
fruit; and irregular clumps of palmyras and coconuts. Beneath these,
there is a minor growth, sometimes of cinnamon or coffee bushes; and
always a wilderness of plaintains, guavas and papaws; a few of the
commoner flowers; plots of brinjals (egg plants) and other esculents;
and the stems of the standard trees are festooned with climbers, pepper
vines, tomatas, and betel.

_The Coco-nut Palm_.--It is curious and suggestive as regards the
coco-nut, which now enters so largely into the domestic economy of the
Singhalese, that although it is sometimes spoken of in the _Mahawanso_
(but by no means so often as the palmyra), no allusion is ever made to
it as an article of diet, or an element in the preparation of food, nor
is it mentioned, before the reign of Prakrama I., A.D. 1153[1], in the
list of those fruit-trees, the planting of which throughout the island
is repeatedly recorded, as amongst the munificent acts of the Singhalese
kings.

[Footnote 1: _Mahawanso_, ch. lxxii.]

As the other species of the same genus of palms are confined to the New
Wor