foot, similar to the one which is on the top of Adam's Peak, and to which such vast crowds of worshippers are drawn every year. It appears that a priest in this neighbourhood, some years ago, went to the Peak, and took the measure of the 'foot,' and on his return got a stonemason to cut one out similar to it. This was erected on the top of a hill in this neighbourhood, and enclosed within a small building. Great numbers of people come at certain seasons of the year to make offerings to it. I measured the length of it, and found it to be seventy-two inches; the breadth is thirty-six inches. The length of each of the toes, which are all alike, is fifteen inches, and the breadth of each seven inches and a half. When I asked the priest, who resides at a pansala near the place, what sort of a body the person must have had who had so enormous a foot, he said, with much gravity, 'Don't you know that our Buddha is eighteen cubits high? By the cubit is here meant two feet three inches." There is also another impression of a so-called foot-print at Sítakanda in the Magam pattu; but this is alleged to be not from the foot of a Buddha, but of some other giant. Of this I have not been able to obtain any definite information. In the neighbourhood of the place where the impression is asserted to exist, there are, close together, a hot and a cold * It has been computed that during the season about 100,000 Buddhists and others make the annual pilgrimage to the Srí-páda on the summit of Adam's Peak. spring, respecting which I am indebted to the Assistant Government Agent at Hambantota for the following information." The Mahápélessa hot spring is found in a deserted hamlet, four miles from Ridiyágama, and about eighteen from Hambantota. The water gushes forth in great plenty in a small tract of open ground in the heart of the jungle. It appeared to me to have a temperature as high as that of the Hot Wells at Bath, considerably, if a conjecture may be hazarded, above 100°. I had no thermometer with me at the time of my visit. As it issues from the ground it is perfectly clear and limpid; but in the pool, a few feet below where it accumulates, it acquires a dark blue tinge. When rice is boiled in it the grains are said to be dyed blue. The pool is much frequented by elephants, elk, and wild buffaloes. At the time of my visit three wild peacocks, which abound in Magam Pattu, were hopping about briskly, or, as the Sinhalese say, dancing, in front of the spring. The water tastes as if it had some mineral salts in solution, which is no doubt the case. In the spring itself is a quantity of decayed leaves and twigs, although no large trees are near at hand. It is possible the leaves may have been conveyed by the action of the water from some point higher up. People acquainted with both places say, that the water of the Mahapelessa spring much resembles in taste and appearance, that of the Kannea hot-wells near Trincomalie. For persons troubled with rheumatic, and skin, and such like ailments, all of which are but too common in Ceylon, bathing in the Mahapelessa spring would, no doubt, be beneficial. In any case, the spring is a natural phenomenon of a kind rare in Ceylon (where traces of volcanic agency are very scanty) and is well worth the attention of the curious. It is much to be wished that a careful analysis of the water could be made; but, so far as I am aware, this has not yet been done. "About 400 yards from the hot spring, is another spring, of deliciously cool water. Springs of any sort are rare in Magam Pattu, which suffers much from drought at all times. I do not doubt there was at one period a populous village near these springs. The place is now however deserted; and what was once a scene of thriving industry and plenty, is a dense jungle abandoned to the elephants, the cheetah, and other wild tenants of the forest." |