DAN-KAPALLA, - SHRINE OF SAMAN DEWIYO'. — THE SRIPA'DA. THE RANHILI-GE'.

- THE KUDAMITA. SCENERY

OF THE SKIES.-SUNRISE.-THE SHADOW.-THE VIEW.

THE moon was still high in the heavens when we woke on the night of our first visit, and shining with unusual brilliancy (or so it seemed to us in the pure atmosphere of

* "The Peak Mountains." By JAMES MONTGOMERY.

so unusual a height); and bright was the sheen of the many stars of magnitude whose rays the larger orb paled not in stellar space. Scarcely a cloud was visible; and feeling invigorated by our short rest, we resolved forthwith to resume our journey.

"With strengthened confidence, the march began.
A vista path, that through the forest .ed,
The pilgrims track'd, till on the mountain's height
They met the sun, new-risen, in glorious light;
Empurpled mists along the landscape roll'd,

And all the orient flamed with clouds of gold." *

Heramitipána which signifies "the rock of staves," or "the lamp of walking sticks," was, we were also told, "the place for the lighting of the torches ;" and we, who had been wondering what the narrow eighteen-inch or two-foot rolls were, which we had noticed most of the pilgrims carried with them, now saw that they were torches,-tubes filled

A friend who made the ascent some five and twenty years ago, informs me, that iron rods, to be used as walking sticks, used to be sold to the pilgrims at this station, at the rate of a rix-dollar, or 18. 6d., each: and that on the arrival of the pilgrims at the foot print, they made offerings of these sticks to the Sri-páda. When as many as fifty were thus collected, they were sent back to Heramițipána, by an agent of the priest, to be re-sold; and this would happen three or four times a day, or even more frequently, according to circumstances. The revenue from such a source must have been pretty profitable, as long as it lasted.

with a resinous substance,- here first brought into use, and giving out a strong flaring blaze when lighted. Speedily providing ourselves with a supply of these, and leaving our heavy baggage in charge of a kangani,* we set out accompanied by our interpreter, and a few servants to carry up our overcoats and rugs, which, for this part of the journey, they rolled up and slung upon their backs.

A small valley with a steep dip, but not more than fifty feet below Heramitipána, separates the Samanala from the mountain of the False Peak, or that ridge of it from which we were descending. The first portion of the opposite ascent is through several gullies seven or eight feet in depth, and extremely narrow, cut through the soil at the base of the mountain by the torrents which pour down in the rainy season; these alternate with steep rocks on whose faces broad iron ladders are clamped, or with angular boulders, up and over which the traveller must scramble the best way The ascent, nearly the whole of which lies through a densely wooded forest, may be divided into four parts, -1, the face of the mountain, as steep as anything we had yet surmounted;-2, the shoulder, somewhat easier travelling ;-3, the cone, the Akasagauwa, or "sky league," an awful steep climb;-and 4, the Peak, an all but absolute precipice.

he can.

As we wended on our way, taking great heed to our steps, especially when a descending party seemed to block

* A responsible head coolie.

the path, we were much struck by a peculiar and incessant clacking sound which came from the woods on either side; and we arrived at the conclusion that it was produced by swarms of some insect or other, just as the "knife" or "scissorgrinder"- the Cicada-fills the air in the lowlands with its shrill ear-piercing notes. Very weird-like was our procession, as the torches flashed down their light into the gullies, or glinted on the cliffs which frowned above and about us; and nervous was the clutch with which we held on to the chains that helped us up some ugsome rock, with steps cut here and there in its adamantine face; or gripped the ladder whose sloping irons gave but a slippery hold to the soles of our boots, admirably adapted although those irons were to the naked feet of the natives, whose toes are trained to all the uses of fingers, as far as mere holding is concerned. Thus on and on we went, until we arrived at a mound which we were told by our guide was the grave of the first man who made a pilgrimage to the Srí-páda, and who became a Saint in consequence; but he was not able to inform us whether the party canonized was a Buddhist, a Hindu, or a Mohammadan.* It is more than probable that the mound is the

Capt. PRIDHAM writes, (p. 614 of his work on Ceylon), "On the summit of the continued ridge, called Aandiyamalle-tenne, is the grave of an Aandiya or mendicant priest, now a Mahommedan saint, who closed his pilgrimage, doubtless to his great content, so near the place at which the father of mankind and the first of Mahommedan prophets, had, in his belief, been compelled, stans pede in uno, to perform so long and uncomfortable a penance. After his body had lain for three months on this

place of interment of one of the last named religionists, who are somewhat apt to revere as saints such notabilities of their faith as happen to die whilst on their journey, when led to undertake a pilgrimage. Immediately after, we entered Aandiya-mala-tenne, "the plain where the Aandiya died," a small plateau where once stood a two-roomed bungalow, now only a ruinous mound. This place no doubt obtained. its name from the fakeers whom Rája Sinha the Apostate made custodians of the Peak. Here we made a short halt,-adding one more group to the many already there, the whole forming a picture such as Salvator Rosa would have been delighted to transfer to canvass,—all pausing at its immediate foot

"to view that towering Peak

That eastwards rears his regal brow
And shadows half the vale below:

One moment basking in the blaze
His majesty of form displays

Then with a robe of splendid clouds

His giant bulk again enshrouls.
With filial awe the Indians still

View that mysterious holy hill.

spot, resisting the most inveterate causes of decomposition, it was discovered by a hermit from the wilds below, who had undertaken, as an additional penance, the task of reaching the Peak, through trackless deserts, thorns, rocks, under caverns, and over barriers of every kind, where man had never trod before; and he it was who came upon the dead body, and performed the last office of humanity over the sainted dead."