5. Three gurus, as in pictores, constitute a Molossus, which

"The (ten) meritorious gifts (alms) are rice, water, garments, beds, flowers, scents, ointments, oil for the lamp, habitation, (lodging) and conveyance.”—Kaviasekare.

6. When two gurus are followed by a lagu, the foot i an Antibachic, a bad one.

t

කෙනෙක් රජසොර සතුරු බිසයෙන

"Some persons die from (diseases of) da the constitutional parts of the body; or dos, the functions of life; or mala, the excretions of the body;-others die from folly, (excessive) lust, or evil passions;-others from unrighteous acts;—and others again from causes (immediately) proceeding from Kings, thieves, and enemies.”—ib.

* ,, and, according to the doctrines of the Singhalese books on medicine, are the three constituent parts of the human frame, and whence all distempers result. comprehends 1. taste, 2. blood, 3. flesh, 4. fat, 5. bone, 6. marrow, and 7 semen; Gees comprehends bile, phlegm, and wind and are the seven excretions of the seven,

i. e. 1. phlegm. 2. choler, 3. ear-wax, serum, &c., 4. sweat, 5. nails and hair, 6. excrement; and 7. rheum, sediment.

7. When two lagus are preceded by a guru the foot

is a Dactyl—a good one.

DXAMPLE.

Dactyl.

ඇල්නලවිඳ එ න වැද සමනිද් දේ
කල්බිඟුරැදි මල් තුර මැද් දේ

තුල් ඇතුගෙන් බැස නිරිඳුපසිද් දේ
ලෞල්කර නරඹා උයන ඇ විද් දෙ

"The far-famed monarch having descended from his stout elephant, walked with alacrity, inspecting the park, amidst flower trees echoing the buzz of bees, and enjoying the cool air impregnated with (the sweets of) Jasmine (Jasminum grandiflorum) and Idde (Oleander) flowers."—ib.

8. The last and the most objectionable foot is a Cretic, consisting of a lagu preceded and followed by a guru. EXAMPLE.

Cretic.

බා

සේ අත්ලෙල දිදී විදුලියප ລ
සේ වෙනනාදනුපාතබත
දෙස බල බලා නෙතගින්ස බා
වර සුර ලඳු දුරඟසු බා

සේ

සේ අඳිනා ලෙ රර සේ එක්වනලෙ කම්රසේ දෙන සැර ලෙසේ ම් කෙසේ පවසම් ළ Besides the avoidance of evil feet, a serious clog in the way of elegant versification, one other difficulty is chiefly attributable to the necessity of avoiding the use of certain letters, which are deemed objectionable by writers of great authority. The Sidath' Sangarawa has laid down the following: (see p. 77.)

66

" Of the alphabets,ක, ප, ම,ර,ජ,අ, න, ණ, ල and 。 are evil characters; උ, ප, බ, ග, and s are human characters; and the rest ඉ, ඔ,ට,ව,ත,ද, බ, ස, උ, are dive charac

* Vide translation, supra. p. cxix.

ti. e. 5 vowels and 20 consonants, without reference to the long vowels, since they are produced from the short.

ters; any one of which last should be preferred to the human characters, both in the beginning of a stanza as well as before and after the name of any person named therein. The evil letters, as being destructive of all prosperity, are to be avoided at those places."

The following, which also occurs in the Sidath' Sangarawa, (see p. 77) may be illustrated by a diagram. අඔතල ඈ ව ගවනසිටිපිලිවෙලි යොදාන කුල්බියුමහවත්වග ස පු තුරඟ බිලිපුටුසර ඟන්ද නකෙවෙ

පෙර පසුයොන්බඳුනමයෝ නචසොබ නා

"By dividing the alphabet into four, so as to produce the letters &,, ~, and e respectively, in the beginning of each division, the following diagram, consisting of 8 classes of letters, is produced.

"The 1st class letters called Weasel, are inimical or opposed to the 5th, called serpent; the 2nd buffalo to the 6th, horse; the 3rd owl, to the 7th called raven; and the 4th tiger, to the 8th, called deer. All the characters opposed to the first letter of a person's name must be avoided, both before and after that person's name.

The Sidath' Sangarawa confines the Elu alphabet to 10 vowels and 20 consonants; vide supra.

We have been blamed by some Pandits for illustrating this rule by the above, instead of the following diagram.

Not only is it necessary to avoid the evil characters at the places mentioned above, but it is also desirable to use at those places well-meant words such as the following; 'well,' 8 'prosperity,' 'happy,' 'delight,' Ɛr 'worldly prosperity,'

'merit,' 'good,' ♣✪3 ambrosial,' e 'strength,'

'accumulation of wealth,'

සොම්නස් ' delight,’ පිවිතුරු ' pure,' වෙසෙස් ' beautiful,’ යා 'benevolent,' oço 'live,' o 'live,' 'preserve,' 880 'assist,' 5 'illustrious,' 'good conduct,' ළු වා ' illumine,' සඳා ' adorn,' සොඳ 'good,’ පැහැදේ ‘ clear,’ Do'attend,' 'may it be steadfast,' 5 'may it be firm,' 'be,' 'last,' 'fortunate,' &c. &c.; and to avoid ill-meant words such as the following

ill,' o

'unfortunate,' 'demerit,' 'sin,' 8 'bad conduct,' 'deprivation,' .

displeasing,'

‘sorrow,' &&ɩ@ʻill,' 8 'suffering,' 'death,'ga' sorrow,' 'be not,' o 'unsteadfast,'

'unassisted,' one-eye-blind,' o 'dumb,' 85 sa 'deaf,' 8 'dwarf,' Ed loathsome,' 'sin,' gd 'weakness,' 3 'faded,' waving,' o 'sorrow,' ටංහැසුම් ' weariness,' හැඬුම් ' cry,’ ගිගුරුම් ‘roar,' බැඳුම් 'bind,' 'break,' & 'destroy,' 'waste,' no,' &c. &c.

The Lakunusera, to which we are indebted for the above list of words, also gives us another list of names or matters which illustrate the kinds of words which should be mentioned and avoided at those places in a verse to which we have already referred. Among others the following occur as those that must be mentioned, viz. D, 'Brahama,' 'Krishna,' wydɩ ‘Siva,'oçêg 'Indra,'

Budha,' 'Brahaspati,' 'wish-conferring tree,' &c. &c; and the following as those that must be avoided, viz. 'fire,' o 'thunder,' 'vacuum,' 'demon,' &c.

'hell,' ó mo 'Rahaksha,'

'spirit,'

It is also laid down as a rule of versification in several books of authority, that it is objectionable to rhyme a stanza with any of the following letters, a,,, and a, unless the penultimate letters, or the letters immediately preceding any one of the above characters, be also the same in all the four lines, as in the subjoined examples. We must not omit to remark that this is a rule strictly attended to by all who have the slightest claim to scholarship. Indeed, we have not found a departure from it by any of the standard writers amongst us. It is, however, a question of doubt and uncertainty whether the same rule applies when these final letters (,, 6, and d) are inflected with. different vowels; and in this case the rule appears occasionally to have been disregarded. Yet, it is observable that even here great labour seems to have been bestowed (though frequently without success) to rhyme the penultimate letters in accordance with the rule.