He was the son of a king of the island,* who devoted himself to an ascetic life, refusing to accept of kingdoms or any other worldly possessions, although his father endeavoured, by the allurements of women, and every other imaginable gratification, to divert him from the resolution he had adopted. Every attempt to dissuade him was in vain, and the young man fled privately to this lofty mountain, where, in the observance of celibacy and strict abstinence, he at length terminated his mortal career. By the idolaters he is regarded as a saint. The father, distracted with the most poignant grief, caused an image to be formed of gold and precious stones, bearing the resemblance of his son, and required that all the inhabitants of the island should honour and worship it as a deity.† Such was the origin of the worship of idols in that country; but Sogomon-barchan is still *Marco Polo is here in error. Gautama Buddha was the Prince Siddartha, son of king Suddhódana, who reigned at Kapilawastu, a city on the borders of Nepal; he was born in a garden near that city in the year B. c. 624.-HARDY'S Eastern Monachism, p. 1. † PHILALETHES, in his History of Ceylon, ch. xxiii., gives a similar account; they both originated in traditions concerning Buddha current amongst the Sinhalese. The translation and publication of the Mahawansó and other ancient native histories, and the learned researches of Turnour, Gogerly, Hardy, Max Müller, D'Alwis and others, regarding the life of Buddha, and the origin of Buddhism, have cleared up much that was obscure in the matter of these traditions, and shew, that while they teem with fanciful fiction and imaginary legend, they also contain a fair proportion of historic truth. regarded as superior to every other. In consequence of this belief, people flock from various distant parts in pilgrimage to the mountain on which he was buried. Some of his hair, his teeth, and the basin he made use of, are still preserved, and shown with much ceremony. The Saracens, on the other hand, maintain that these belonged to the prophet Adam, and are in like manner led by devotion to visit the mountain. "It happened that, in the year 1281,* the Grand Khan heard from certain Saracens who had been upon the spot, the fame of these relics belonging to our first parent, and felt so strong a desire to possess them, that he was induced to send an embassy to demand them of the king of Zeilan. After a long and tedious journey, his ambassadors at length reached the place of their destination, and obtained from the *This was in the reign of Pandita Prákramabahu III., [A. D. 1267— 1301], but there is no mention made of such an embassy in either the Mahawansó, the Rája Ratnákari, or the Rájawaliya. Perhaps, as the object of the embassy was merely to obtain relics of Adam, the Buddhist annalists considered it a matter unworthy of their notice. Marco Polo's statement is however confirmed by Chinese authorities (quoted by Sir J. E. Tennent, vol. i. p. 598), who thus describe the "alms-dish of Buddha," which was at length yielded to Kublaï Khan as a gift from the king of Ceylon. "In front of the image of Buddha there is a sacred bowl which is neither made of jade, nor copper, nor iron, it is of a purple colour and glossy, and when struck, it sounds like glass. At the commencement of the Yuen Dynasty, three separate envoys obtain it." were sent to H king two large back-teeth, together with some of the hair, and a handsome vessel of porphyry. When the Grand Khan received intelligence of the approach of the messengers, on their return with such valuable curiosities, he ordered all the people of Kanbalu (Pekin) to march out of the city to meet them, and they were conducted to his presence with great pomp and solemnity." The first of the writers on Ceylon in the fourteenth century was the Minorite Friar Odoric of Postenau in Fruili.* "In it he saw the mountain on which Adam for the space of 500 years mourned the death of Abel, and on which his tears and those of Eve formed, as men believe, a fountain;" but this Odoric discovered to be a delusion, as he saw the spring gushing from the earth, and its waters "flowing over jewels, but abounding with lecches and bloodsuckers." In 1349 Giovanni de Marignola, a Florentine and Legate of Clement VI., landed in Ceylon, at a time when the legitimate king was driven away; his attention was chiefly directed to "the mountain opposite Paradise." Sir John Maundeville, a native of St. Albans, who died at Liege in the year 1371, in his Voyages and Travels,† says of Ceylon," And there ben also many wylde Bestes, and namelyche of Olifauntes. In that yle is a gret Mountayne; *He set out on his travels from the Black Sea, in 1318, traversed the Asian Continent to China, and returned to Italy after a journey of twelve years.-Sir J. E. TENNENT'S Ceylon, vol. i. p. 612. † Chapter xviii. p. 238. Edit. 1727. and in mydd place of the Mount, is a gret lake in a full fair Pleyne, and there is gret plentee of Watre. And thei of the Contree seyn, that Adam and Eve wepten upon that Mount an 100 Zeer, whan thei weren dryven out of Paradys, And that Watre, thei seyn, is of here Teres: for so much Watre thei wepten, that made the forsey de Lake. And in the botme of that Lake, men fynden many precious Stones and grete Perles. In that Lake growen many Reedes and grete Cannes: and there with inne ben many Cocodrilles and Serpentes and grete watre Leches." Nicolo di Conti, a Venetian of noble family, and merchant at Damascus, visited Ceylon in the early portion of the fifteenth century. His adventures were related to Poggio Bracciolini, apostolic Secretary to Pope Eugenius IV., by whom they have been preserved in a dissertation on “The Vicissitudes of Fortune."* The notices of this work by Sir Emerson Tennent make no mention of either the Peak or the Foot-print; but Diego de Couto, † a painstaking Portuguese writer, referring to Di Conti, says his description of both are full of errors. De Couto rejects the idea that the print of the foot was made by Adam, but insists very * DI CONTI's account was printed at Basil, in 1538. The work was translated into English for, and published by the Hakluyt Society, in 1857. DE COUTO was the continuator of a work written by ODOARDO BARBOSA, a Portuguese captain who sailed in the Indian seas in the early part of the sixteenth century. This work was a summary of all that was then known concerning the countries of the East. strongly on the claim made on behalf of St. Thomas, who also, he says, deeply impressed the marks of his knees upon. a stone in a quarry at Colombo. In 1506, Ludovico Barthema, or Varthema, a Bolognese, found it difficult to land in Ceylon "owing to the four kings of the island being busily engaged in civil war," but he learned that "permission to search for jewels at the foot of Adam's Peak might be obtained by the payment of five ducats, and restoring as a royalty all gems over ten carats.” The pearls of Manár and the gems of Adam's Peak were considered, in the early part of the 16th century, the principal riches of Ceylon.* * Captain Ribeyro, who gallantly fought on the losing side, and who records the downfall in Ceylon of the power of the race,† which more than two centuries ago had for the previous hundred and forty years "Neath flag of Portugal found place Till from each stronghold both were hurl'd and the whole of the maritime provinces of the island passed * Sir J. E. TENNENT'S Ceylon, vol. i. p. 135. † History of Ceylon, presented by Captain JOHN RIBEYEO to the King of Portugal in 1685. Translated from the Portuguese by the Abbe LE GRAND. Re-translated from the French, by GEORGE LEE, Postmaster General of Ceylon, 1847. |