there were thorns, rocks, or other obstructions, they removed themselves spontaneously; if there was mud it dried up; if holes they disappeared; if elevations they melted away like butter that sees fire; and the air was filled with choice and delicate perfumes. If he passed any body in pain, the pain, however intense, ceased in an instant: and when his foot touched the ground, a lotus sprang up at every step! IIis foot came to the ground as lightly as cotton wool! He could walk in a space not larger than a mustard seed; and yet with as much ease as a man may cross his door-step, he on one occasion placed his foot on the earth, then on the rock Yugandhara, then on the top of Meru! Of the height of Meru an idea is to be gathered from the statement, that a pebble would take four months to drop from the top to the base!

The Kusa Jataka describes the way Buddha walked as follows:

"At once from off the couch he rose
And on the earth that did, well-pleased, his happy advent greet,
He sought in majesty to place his ever-sacred feet!

Ere he, the Lord Supreme, who is with every merit graced,
His shining feet upon the ground majestically placed,

To bear that ever-sacred twain ere they on earth had trod,
A seven-budded lotus burst all blooming from the sod! "†

* K. J., stanzas 56, 57.

†The Kusa Jataka was written A.D. 1610, by ALigiawana MohoTTALA, an author who occupies in Sinhalese literature the position held by Pope in that of England. It is a poem of 687 four-line stanzas, descriptive

Thinking over the strange incongruities of the scene before us, we ensconced ourselves in a sheltering angle at a corner of the terrace wall, not far from the small hut occupied by the resident priests, one side of which rests on the base of the terminal rock of the Samanala; and glad of our over-coats, and the thick rugs with which we were provided as a protection against the cold, we endeavoured to compose ourselves to rest, if not to sleep.*

of one of the existences of Buddha previous to his final birth and assumption of the Buddha-hood; and in the opinion of competent judges "the unity of its plan, the steady progress of the narrative, and a certain unaffected display of genuine feeling in its principal characters, entitle it to rank as a poem of the highest merit." A brief account of the author and his writings is given in pages ccvii.-cexi, of the Introduction to the Sidat Sangarawa, by JAMES D'ALWIS, Esq., Advocate of the Supreme Court, Ceylon, whose untiring researches and manifold writings on the language, literature, history and religion of the Sinhalese, have won for him a reputation among Occidental scholars that has never before been attained by any of his countrymen, and placed him in a foremost rank amongst the highly distinguished Orientalists of the present day. An elegant English metrical translation of the Kusa Jataka was published in the Ceylon Observer, in the year 1865. It is understood to have been from the pen of T. STEELE, Esq., of the Ceylon Civil Service; and it is hoped that ere long it may appear in a more permanent form, with the author's latest touches to add to its value. To the kindness of this gentleman I am indebted for the extract in the text.

* In the accompanying sketch of the ground plan of the Samanta-kúṭa, a, is the Raphili-gé, or temple; b, the bells; c, the shrine of Saman-dewiyó; d, the priests' house; e, the entrance from Ratnapura; and ƒ, the entrance from the Kandian Districts.

But our interpreter and servants were not so well screened from the cold as we were, and it was not long before they sought out and obtained permission for us to occupy a two-roomed house on the southeastern slope of the mountain, to which we descended by some rough steps, which terminate the road to the Peak from the Kandian Districts-a route so comparatively easy, that a man may almost ride to the door of the building we now took possession of.* Here we found a Police Constable, and a Priest; the latter attached to the temple, and the former placed on duty to represent the majesty of the law, and to protect the offerings made to the Srí-páda from the depredations of a litigant party, who claim them on behalf of a former chief priest. This priest it seems had been deposed from office, and another elected in his stead; but the deposed, although he had vacated the office and allowed his successor to take possession, had been persuaded to dispute the validity of his deposal; and in the

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*It was up this road that, in 1814, Molligoddé, the newly appointed1 first Adikar and Disáwa of Sabaragamuwa, entered the Province, when Eheylapola his predecessor, rebelled against the last king of KandyUpon receiving the order to suppress the rebellion, Dr. DAVY says Molligoddé obeyed with alacrity; he entered Saffragam over the loftiest point of the island, and the most difficult pass-the summit of Adam's Peak. The hearts of the natives failed them on his approach; and he met with but little opposition. Eheylapola, with some of his adherents, fled to Colombo, and Molligeddé returned to Kandy with a crowd of prisoners, forty-seven of whom were impaled."—Account of the Interior of Ceylon, p. 321.