revelation. According to the accepted account the branch of the bo-tree, being encircled with a vermilion pencil, had immediately severed itself from the parent tree and planted itself in the golden vase prepared for it. For seven days the princess, with her eleven attendant priestesses, journeyed to the port of embarkation, and seven days were occupied by their voyage across the ocean. When the great train of people arrived at Ceylon, King Tissa met them with all state and rushed into the waves up to his neck, chanting forth in his zeal and fervour, "This is the bo from the bo-tree" (at which Buddha attained Buddhahood). When they finally reached the capital, the roads were sprinkled with white sand, decorated with every variety of flowers, and lined with banners and garlands. "At the hour when the shadows are most extended he [the king] entered the superbly decorated capital by the northern gate, and passing in procession out of the southern gate, and entering the Mahamego garden, came to the spot destined for the tree." And when the ceremony of the miraculous planting had been accomplished, "A heavy deluge of rain fell around and dense cold clouds completely enveloped the great Bo in its snowy womb for seven days." Which shows the climate must have been as moist then as now. This was nineteen years after the king's conversion, which had happened in the first year of his reign.

Princess Sanghamitta and her followers were installed in a delightful building called the Hatthalako. The king The king lived to 267 B.C., Mahinda survived him eight years, and the princess lived

one year more. The tree is constantly referred to throughout the Mahawansa; any such terrible catastrophe as its death or decay could not have been concealed. It is as certain as anything of the kind can be that this tree has stood here over 2,200 years, and whether it came originally from the sacred tree of Buddha or not, it has attained sanctity on its own account. A temple was built over it, and in its honour was instituted a water festival, which was held every twelfth year and kept up for generations. Miracles were recorded of the tree and firmly believed in; pilgrims came, and still continue to come, from far and wide, to prostrate themselves before it, and it is one of the Eight Sacred Sites of the Buddhist community called in their own tongue the Atamasthana.

Sir E. Tennent tersely sums up the case thus:

Compared with it the oak of Ellerslie is but a sapling, and the Conqueror's oak in Windsor Forest barely numbers half its years. The yewtrees of Fountains Abbey are believed to have flourished there twelve hundred years ago; the olives in the Garden of Gethsemane were fullgrown when the Saracens were expelled from Jerusalem; and the cypress of Soma, in Lombardy, is said to have been a tree in the time of Julius Cæsar; yet, the Bo-tree is older than the oldest of these by a century, and would almost seem to verify the prophecy pronounced when it was planted, that it would flourish and be green for ever.'" i

Such a tree must inspire the most careless with a passing feeling of reverence.

1 Ceylon. (Longmans. 1860.)

Close by the bo-tree is the bazaar with its long straggling street. These "bazaars are getting more and more given up to the display of cheap European goods, and increasingly difficult is it to pick up home-made wares, but some good baskets, admirably plaited, and of convenient shapes, can be bought in Anuradhapura.

The "cab-stand," where bullock hackries congregate, is in the middle of the bazaar. It is not often, however, that a good trotting bullock is available unless by special arrangement, and with any other sort progress is very slow. But the bullocks are usually kindly treated and fairly well-fed; there is not a great deal of tail-twisting, and sores are rare. The Indian variety, with long curved horns, is seen as plentifully as the little stumpy-horned bullocks of Ceylon. The animal has the yoke fixed to bear against the hump, and a few strands of rope secure it under his neck. The result is that if any weight is thrown suddenly at the back of the cart he is in danger of being strangled, and much dexterity has to be exercised in adjusting the weight for mounting and descending from the carts, which are twowheeled only. The charge for these hackries is half a rupee an hour, and the longer you keep him waiting anywhere on the way the better pleased is the sleepy-headed native driver.

The well-being of the people is carefully considered by the authorities. Between the bazaar and the hotel are three large ponds kept strictly "by order" for drinking, bathing, and washing purposes respectively. The unregenerate native, like his Burmese brother, much prefers to bathe,

wash his clothes, and drink-in that order-all in the same water, but he is learning better things.

The bathing-pond is greatly appreciated; at every hour of the day men and women, at their respective sets of steps, dip and pour water over their black shining locks, and they are always clad with perfect decency. Small boys meantime catch miniature fish, and are as eager and proud of the results as their little white brothers. At the washing-pond energetic dhobies smack the white clothes on the stones with reports like pistol-shots, and the tortoises sit pensively with outstretched necks in the little hollows under the bank watching them. The green grass behind is perpetually spread with drying clothes.

Not far from these ponds, between them and the bazaar, is the English Church, and a road running parallel with that through the bazaar, on the north, passes between two small beautifully built bathing-tanks, disused now, though one has been excellently repaired. Tanks such as these, formed with hewn stone for bathing purposes, are called pokuna, and are a very noticeable feature of ancient Ceylon. There are other larger specimens also at Anuradhapura.

At the bazaar end, near the bo-tree, there are some ruins of antiquity actually among the houses, the so-called Peacock Palace, a collection of leaning columns and carved capitals, enclosed in barbed wire to keep them from desecration, being one. Nothing is known as to the origin of its decorative name, and it was obviously a vihara, or temple, and never a "palace." This is a little way down the Kurunegala Road, almost opposite