Mediaeval Sinhalese Art c15.76

c15.76

which so much is often thought, are a modern and useless invention, suitable only for the imitation European drawing-room. It is interesting that ivory carving is said to have been learnt by practice on coconut shell, a material exceedingly hard and intractable. Other important pieces of kitchen furniture are the coconut scraper (*hiramanaya*), a shaped log (*kolombuva*) carrying a toothed disc for use as a rasp; and the vegetable slicer, a bill-hook set edge upwards in a wooden holder and called *vap-pihiya*. Both were arranged to sit upon conveniently while preparing the vegetables; the scraper is often of the book-rest form, called *yatura-hiramanaya*, the two linked parts of the folding seat being cut from a single piece of wood; and in many cases the scraper and knife were combined as illustrated in Fig. 88, from a painting at Degaldoruva.