of cloth. The offerings were placed on the impression, and almost immediately removed by a servant who stood by for the purpose; they are the perquisites of the chief priest of the Malwatte Wiharè.

Before the pilgrims descend they are blessed by the priest, and exhorted to return to their homes, and lead in future virtuous lives.

It was our intention over night to spend the day on the mountain, and descend the following morning; but we were overruled by our followers, who found the air too cold for them, and considered the spot too sacred. The excessive cold was the burthen of their complaint, concealing their superstitious dread, which I have no doubt influenced them most; it being a current opinion amongst the natives that none but a priest can pass a night on the Peak with impunity; sickness, they imagine, being the general consequence, and often death.

Obliged to yield to their entreaties, we began to descend at eight o'clock in the morning, and we reached Palabatula about four in the afternoon, weary and wet, having been overtaken by another thunder-storm. We returned to Colombo the same way

we came.

Whilst on the mountain, I did not neglect to observe a barometer and thermometer with which I was provided. I suspended the former instrument in a little temple on the top of the rock: at six in the evening, after sufficient exposure to acquire the temperature of the air, which under the roof was 52°, it stood at 23.70 inches; and at seven the next morning, when the air was 58°, at 23.75. Unfortunately, I had no long barometer to compare the short instrument with, and no one at Colombo was possessed of a barometer to make an observation at the same

time; consequently, the estimate of the height of the mountain made from the preceding observations, and which I have given in a former part of this work, can be considered only as an approximation to the truth. The extraordinary heights assigned by some old authors to Adam's Peak of twelve and fifteen thousand feet, are certainly erroneous. According to a rough trigonometrical measurement, made by a very able observer, (the late Lieut. Col. Willerman,) the perpendicular height of the Peak does not exceed 7000 feet; and thus confirming the barometrical estimate.

*

The observations which I made on the temperature of the air, are the following:

The Mahometans, there is good reason to believe, first assigned the name to this mountain, by which it is generally known amongst Europeans. The moormen of Ceylon still call it Adam

* The height assigned, p. 4., is merely the approximate height of the mountain: supposing the barometer, at the level of the sea, at 6h. P. M., to be 30.1, and the thermometer 80, the estimated height would be about 6680 feet.

Malay: they say, that Adam, when turned out of Paradise, lamented his offence on the summit of the Peak, standing on one foot (of which the impression remains) till he was pardoned by God. The superstitious belief of the natives has already been alluded to: conformably with this belief, they call it either Siripada, or in Pali, Sree-pada, in relation to the object of their worship, the imaginary impression; or Samennella or Hamennella, (the sound of S and H being indiscriminately used,) in relation to Samen, the guardian god of the mountain.

The learned Bryant, in his Analysis of Ancient Mythology, lays great weight on the latter name; he says, "The Pike of Adam is properly the summit sacred to Ad Ham, the king or deity Ham, the Amon of Egypt. This is plain, to a demonstration, from another name given to it by the native Singalese, who live near the mountain, and call it Ham-al-el: this, without any change, is Ham-eel-El, (Ham, the Sun,) and relates to the ancient religion of the island. In short, every thing in these countries savours of Chaldaic and Egyptian institution." *

Were this hypothesis (partly founded on a name) correct, traces of the ancient worship, one would suppose, might still be discovered. The result of particular enquiry on the subject is, that there is nothing peculiar in the mode of worship followed on the Peak, Samen being worshipped like the other gods, and the Sree-pada as Boodhoo. The name which afforded Bryant demonstration, when correctly written, seems to be rather a refutation of his hypothesis; Samennella (the rock of Samen) being supported by the similar Pali name, Somané-koota, and by the Sanscrit, Samanta-koota-parwatti.

I shall conclude with transcribing the exordium of a curious

* Analysis of Ancient Mythology, vol. iv. p. 266.

Sanus, written in the time of King Kirtisseré, relative to and descriptive of the Peak :-"Our Boodhoo, who acquired Niwané; who came into the world like other Boodhoos; from whom is derived the food of life (religion); who is celebrated for his thirty-two great manly beauties, and for the eighty-two signs connected with them, and for the light which shines a fathom round his body, and for the beams of light that dart from the top of his head; who is the preceptor of three worlds; who is acquainted with the past, present, and future; who, during four asankeas of kalpés, so conducted himself as to be an example of the thirty great qualities; who subdued Mareya and his attendants, and became Boodhoo: - in the eighth year from that event he rose into the air, spread beams of light, of six different colours, round his person, and stamped the impression of his foot, bearing the noble marks Chakkra-laksana, and the one hundred and eight auspicious tokens, on the rock Samanta-kootaparwate ;- which is celebrated for the cold and lovely waters of its rivers, for its mountain torrents, and for its flowery groves, spreading in the air their sweet-scented pollen; —which is the crown of the Virgin Island, rich in mines of all kinds of precious stones, like a maid decked with jewels."

DEPARTURE FROM COLOMBO FOR KANDY.-AVISAHAVELLE'..

COUNTRY BETWEEN MINERE AND KANDELLE'.-LAKE OF KANDELLE'. RETURN FROM TRINCOMALIE TO KANDY. BREAKING OUT OF REBELLION.

TRANQUILLITY RESTORED.

RETURN TO COLOMBO.

My y next visit to the Interior was in attendance, in a medical capacity, on His Excellency the Governor, who left Colombo in company with Lady Brownrigg, for Kandy, on the fifth of