although the moon-lit night seems to be the favourite time. for making the ascent, few or none care to sleep till daybreak on the Peak, the belief being that only priests and Europeans can do so with impunity.

It was pointed out to an attendant priest by a visitor some years ago, that as there is a hollow under the instep of a man's foot, so there should be a corresponding height in any impression made by that member of the body upon any yielding non-elastic substance; and that in a foot sixty-seven inches long, there should be a proportionate rise in the centre of the foot-mark, which is not the case in the Srí-páda. The priest admitted that ordinarily it should be so; but that the ascent to the top of the Samanala was in places over soft and sticky soil, and that the hollow of Buddha's foot had been clogged with mud or clay as he came up, so that such a rise could not be shewn when the yielding rock was moulded by the pedal pressure of the All-supreme. The answer was by no means bad, as an off-hand reply to the objection of an unbeliever. But the priest either forgot the declarations in sacred olas about Buddha's power of passing through the air whenever he pleased, or of his mode of progression when moving ordinarily from place to place; or he may have presumed upon the ignorance in regard to such subjects of the individual he was speaking to. Now, according to Buddhistic legends, the manner in which the Great Teacher walked, excited universal admiration.*

* HARDY'S Manual of Buddhism, p. 366.

If

there were thorns, rocks, or other obstructions, they removed themselves spontaneously; if there was mud it dried up; if holes they disappeared; if elevations they melted away like butter that sees fire; and the air was filled with choice and delicate perfumes. If he passed any body in pain, the pain, however intense, ceased in an instant: and when his foot touched the ground, a lotus sprang up at every step! His foot came to the ground as lightly as cotton wool! He could walk in a space not larger than a mustard seed; and yet with as much ease as a man may cross his door-step, he on one occasion placed his foot on the earth, then on the rock Yugandhara, then on the top of Meru! Of the height of Meru an idea is to be gathered from the statement, that a pebble would take four months to drop from the top to the base!

The Kusa Jataka* describes the way Buddha walked as follows:

"At once from off the couch he rose

And on the earth that did, well-pleased, his happy advent greet,
He sought in majesty to place his ever-sacred feet!

Ere he, the Lord Supreme, who is with every merit graced,
His shining feet upon the ground majestically placed,

To bear that ever-sacred twain ere they on earth had trod,
A seven-budded lotus burst all blooming from the sod! "†

*K. J., stanzas 56, 57.

The Kusa Jataka was written A.D. 1610, by ALIGIAWANA MOHOTTALA, an author who occupies in Sinhalese literature the position held by Pope in that of England. It is a poem of 687 four-line stanzas, descriptive

Thinking over the strange incongruities of the scene before us, we ensconced ourselves in a sheltering angle at a corner of the terrace wall, not far from the small hut occupied by the resident priests, one side of which rests on the base of the terminal rock of the Samanala; and glad of our over-coats, and the thick rugs with which we were provided as a protection against the cold, we endeavoured to compose ourselves to rest, if not to sleep.*

of one of the existences of Buddha previous to his final birth and assumption of the Buddha-hood; and in the opinion of competent judges "the unity of its plan, the steady progress of the narrative, and a certain unaffected display of genuine feeling in its principal characters, entitle it. to rank as a poem of the highest merit." A brief account of the author and his writings is given in pages ccvii.-cexi. of the Introduction to the Sidat Sangaráwa, by JAMES D'ALWIS, Esq., Advocate of the Supreme Court, Ceylon, whose untiring researches and manifold writings on the language, literature, history and religion of the Sinhalese, have won for him a reputation among Occidental scholars that has never before been attained by any of his countrymen, and placed him in a foremost rank amongst the highly distinguished Orientalists of the present day. An elegant English metrical translation of the Kusa Jataka was published in the Ceylon Observer, in the year 1865. It is understood to have been from the pen of T. STEELE, Esq., of the Ceylon Civil Service; and it is hoped that ere long it may appear in a more permanent form, with the author's latest touches to add to its value. To the kindness of this gentleman I am indebted for the extract in the text.

* In the accompanying sketch of the ground plan of the Samanta-kúta, a, is the Raphili-gé, or temple; b, the bells; c, the shrine of Saman-dewiyó; d, the priests' house; e, the entrance from Ratnapura; and f, the entrance from the Kandian Districts.