Mediaeval Sinhalese Art c9.9

c9.9

Thus, in spite of the fact that the artificers were already paid for their services more or *Payment of* less adequately by the lands they held, they were liberally rewarded for ecclesiastical *craftsmen* work, and not infrequently also for special excellence or skill in craftsmanship otherwise applied. But they were never paid a daily wage, nor required to work a given number of hours a day. I have had craftsmen working at my house in Kandy for weeks together; just as they once worked in the royal workshop. They had no idea of 'making money' or 'bettering themselves'; they wanted only money sufficient to buy food for themselves and their families; they had no wish to save money. When a large piece of work was completed they would expect some special gift, such as a good cloth. They rarely worked a week without having to go home for a few days to find some strayed buffalo, or to take part in the cultivation of their fields. Yet they were always most conscientious in money matters, such as expenditure on materials; and though they would have hated fixed hours of work, often worked far into the night by lamp-light, purely by their own wish, and because they so much loved the work itself. Their pride in real capacity was most naïve and unaffected. Their greatest possible ambition was that I should buy them some small piece of land and reward them with it, as did the kings of old.