tan Pokuna, or "pair of kettle-drums," but before reaching these we pass an angle of the "Elephant Pokuna " which almost touches the Y Road. It is so called, not because it had anything to do with elephants, but because it was of exceptional size. It is melancholy enough now, with the huge blocks that once lined its sides falling away, and the bare branches of dead trees stretching over it, to the delight of many brilliant-hued kingfishers. From this point we can drive on, and turning right, in the Outer Circular Road, soon pass on the left a small and dilapidated dagaba called, without any apparent cause, Dutugemunu's Tomb.

This road was designed simply to show the ruins, and so twists around all the most interesting points. On the left, on raised ground, is the so-called Queen's Palace, to which the ascent is easy. It exhibits the usual characteristics, and was undoubtedly a monastery and no "palace." Then the road passes a seated Buddha much mutilated, and loops right round in a horse-shoe. At the furthest point of the bend are two stone canoes, one large and one smaller, at right angles to each other. As already noted, this is the relative position in which they are usually found, and it has been facetiously suggested, that if the larger one was for rice, then the smaller one was for curry, jaggery, honey, or whatever was used to flavour it.

Quite near is "Burrows' Canopy," so called because restored by Mr. Burrows, C.C.S., in 1885. It consists of a roof with a beautifully moulded ceiling, standing on columns. The stones composing it were found detached and buried, and

were put together in position with considerable difficulty.

Dipping up again, the road comes to the socalled "Elephant Stables," a name as remote from actuality as the Elephant Pokuna. On an immense platform stand some columns of a most unusual height and size, only matched in Anuradhapura by those near Mirisaveti Dagaba (see p. 117).

Beside the steps stands the most wonderful dwarpal, or guard-stone, yet unearthed. This magnificent bit of sculpture stands 5 feet high, and is capped by a carved torana, or canopy, a most unusual feature in such stones, but, as we have just seen, not unique. On the outer side is a small elephant, and the central figure is most perfectly designed, and finished with a profusion of detail. The "guard" is the same in general outlines for all this type of stones, but the exact meaning of the symbolism is not known. He has one, or sometimes two, small ganas in attendance, and is always represented under a serpenthood" of a many-hooded naga, or cobra. In this case, the flesh is depicted with a reality unseen elsewhere. The stone owes its unusually excellent preservation to the fact that it was found lying face downward in the earth. Occasionally a dwarf takes the place of this singularly graceful figure, and in one or two instances the stones are plain or sculped with a floral ornament.

The most interesting fact in connection with this area is that from inscriptions discovered near the stone canoes, and at the "Elephant Stables," it has been rendered almost certain that the two great dagabas Abhayagiri and Jetawanarama bear

each other's names, though when and how this curious transposition occurred is not known. It would be of course impossible to change them back again now, owing to the confusion that would result in identifying literary references, but any one really interested in these matters must remember that historical references to the one in the chronicles, in reality belong to the other. The mistake was for long suspected by Mr. H. C. P. Bell, Archæological Commissioner for five-and-twenty years. In his 1910-11 Report he says in a note:

To the late Mr. H. Nevill, Ceylon Civil Service, belongs the real credit for first urging, more than twenty years ago, that the names of the Abhayagiri and Jetawanarama dagabas had been wrongly transposed in the course of centuries."

The two slabs near the stone canoes are of the date of Mahinda IV and refer to gifts and regulations made to the Abhayagiri vihara lying west of Abhayagiri dagaba. The great edifice known as Ratana-maha-pasada (Pali) was built here by King Kanittha Tissa (A.D. 229-247) and later rebuilt with great magnificence by Mahinda II at a cost of 300,000 pieces of gold. This building, for various reasons which need not be gone into here, has been practically identified with that known now as the " Elephant Stables." The evidence already available on the subject of the identity of the dagabas was reinforced by the discovery by Mr. Bell of an inscription on a stone slab now forming one of the flag-stones of the 1 Date given by Mr. Wickremasinghe.