Adam's Peak: Legendary, Traditional, and Historic Notices of the Samanala and Srî-páda, with a Descriptive Account of the Pilgrim's Route from Colombo, to the Sacred Foot-print

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W.L.H. Skeen, 1870 - History - 408 pages

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Page 248 - Laughing the clouds away with playful scorn And living as if earth contained no tomb, And glowing into day: we may resume The march of our existence. And thus I, Still on thy shores, fair Leman, may find room 920 And food for meditation, nor pass by Much that may give us pause, if pondered fittingly.
Page 118 - How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth!
Page 243 - And vacant shepherds piping in the dale ; And, now and then, sweet Philomel would wail, Or stockdoves plain amid the forest deep, That drowsy rustled to...
Page 179 - Fenced a lone region of forbidden ground ; Meeting at once, where high athwart their bed Repulsive rocks a curving barrier spread, The embattled floods, by mutual whirlpools crost, In hoary foam and surging mist were lost ; Thence, like an Alpine cataract of snow, White down the precipice they dash'd below ; There, in tumultuous billows broken wide, They spent their rage, and yoked their fourfold tide ; Through one majestic channel, calm and free, The sister-rivers sought the parent-sea.
Page 47 - There is also a pearl-fishing in the mouth of its principal river; and in some of its valleys are found diamonds. I made, by way of devotion, a pilgrimage to the place where Adam was confined after his banishment from Paradise, and had the curiosity- to go to the top of the mountain.
Page 68 - It is sharp like a sugar-loaf, and on the top a flat stone with the print of a foot like a man's on it, but far bigger, being about two feet long. The people of this land count it meritorious to go and worship this impression; and generally about their New Year, which is in March, they, men, women and children, go up this vast and high mountain to worship.
Page 252 - Gay lights and shadows twinkled on the ground ; Up the tall stems luxuriant creepers run, To hang their silver blossoms in the sun ; Deep velvet verdure clad the turf beneath, Where trodden flowers their richest...
Page 350 - Spirits, might any ways prove prejudicial or noisom to the aforesaid Gods in their Progress abroad. During the Celebration of this great Festival, there are no Drums allowed to be beaten to any particular Gods at any private Sacrifice.
Page 252 - O'er all the bees, with murmuring music, flew From bell to bell, to sip the treasured dew ; While insect myriads, in the solar gleams, Glanced to and fro, like intermingling beams ; So fresh, so pure, the woods, the sky, the air, It seemed a place where angels might repair, And tune their harps beneath those tranquil shades, To morning songs, or moonlight serenades.
Page 173 - Dehigame, one of the Kandyan chiefs, assured me it was the universal belief of his countrymen, that the elephants, when about to die, resorted to a valley in Saffragam, among the mountains to the east of Adam's Peak, which was reached by a narrow pass with walls of rock on either side, and that there, by the side of a lake of clear water, they took their last repose.1 It was not without interest that I afterwards recognised this tradition in the story of Sinbad of the Sea...

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