tions built on exposed sun-smitten rock, rather than accept shelter at better found, cool, and shady monasteries, of gregarious, if less austere, brethren of the robe?

"The Mahawansa furnishes the answer :

"It was for the Pansukulika brethren, the rag-robed fraternity, that Sena I (A.D. 846-866) built, as it were by a miracle, a great vihara at Arittha Pabbata (Řitigala) and endowed it with great possessions, giving to it royal privileges and honours.

"In the twentieth year of his successor, Sena II (A.D. 866-901), the 'Pansukulika Brethren,' who had apparently lived hitherto with the Abhayagiri sect in peace, are recorded to have left the Abhayagiri and departed thence."

Mr. Bell goes on to associate these monks with the Mirisaveti dagaba, and thence, guided by architectural connecting-links, with these strange buildings, and concludes:

The Buddhist monks, who occupied the inclement rock-stretches, apart from other fraternities, may well have been a Pansukulika schism which had cut itself adrift from its Buddhist brethren, and shunned the haunts of men."

Of this theory Mr. Ayrton remarks:

"It is supported by a poor array of facts, but as it is the only satisfactory one yet put forward, it is worth serious consideration.'

To this we may add that there is little likely to be any one whose knowledge in these matters surpasses that of Mr. Bell, and his theory must

therefore be given precedence unless further evidence contradicts or confirms it, and this is improbable, as all the excavation possible has already been accomplished in this district. The pavilions," therefore, are merely another kind of monastery, but so long as human nature remains unaltered, so long will visitors prefer to be told that these mysterious ruins are the "palaces of King Tissa, King Dutugemunu, and King Parakrama, the only three kings whose names they can remember.

CHAPTER VIII

VIJAYARAMA-A JUNGLE SOLITUDE

THERE are an increasing number of people who, in reaction from the intense "drive" of modern life and inventions, prefer to strike out, even if ever so little, toward the solitudes. One such solitude, in a small way, may be attained by an excursion to the outlying monastery of Vijayarama. A guide must be taken, as the way is not altogether easy to find, and involves a fair amount of walking.

Choice of routes is abundant, but it is well to start by the Sacred Road and go on by its continuation, the Green Path Road, so as to pick up one or two objects, not yet visited, by the

way.

About half a mile up this road a vista has been cut through the trees to the right, to enable any one to see the ruined mass called Burrows' Brick Building, which has evoked interest altogether disproportionate to its size, because it is built on the same lines as the Royal Palace at Polonnaruwa, though it is much smaller. It is difficult, indeed, for an amateur to make anything of the shapeless pile, overgrown, distorted, and clamped together by the sinuous roots of the trees which have fastened themselves upon it. If they were cut away now the whole of the brick-work would