probably collapse. As it is, it stands in the quiet glade, a monument telling an imperfect story not yet fully deciphered. But it is at all events quite different from anything yet discovered at Anuradhapura. As I stood there, looking at it, my mind ran back to the account of King Dutugemunu in his palace : "While seated on the throne, which was covered with drapery of exquisite value and softness, in the state apartments, lighted up with aromatic oils, and perfumed with every variety of incense, and spread with the richest carpets, attended by musicians and choristers decked; this monarch was pondering over his exalted royal state, and calling to his recollection the sacrifice of countless lives he had occasioned; and peace of mind was denied him."

Near by me a spider, of a kind I had never seen before, had spun an enormous web of a curious shape. It glittered iridescent in the sun, which pierced through the foliage in a lightning shaft. The insect itself was not so large as a two-anna bit. He had a canoe-shaped excrescence at right angles across his back. This was striped black and white and the body beneath was speckled with yellow. Like the monarch, he sat in the midst of his gorgeous palace, though the lives that he had sacrificed did not trouble him! Today or to-morrow he would be no more, swept away with the result of his labour, and though the king had a rather longer lease, yet he too, musing in the midst of his embroideries, had been swept away, leaving only a problematical tree-grown pile to suggest the whereabouts of his palace.

On the subject of this palace Mr. Bell says:

"Everything points to its definite location within the area now lying between the Y Road and Outer Circular Road on the east, or, broadly, between Jetawanarama, Abhaygiri and Thuparama Groups . . . of the Palace itself, unless it be the massive brick structure once storied, still standing-no traces remain above ground and Tamil invaders have left not a stone standing." (1893 Report.)

Mr. Burrows, who had the best opportunity for judging, as he saw it before it became so dilapidated, thinks that the present building may have been erected by King Nissanka Malla on his visit to Anuradhapura at the end of the twelfth century; he judges thus because of its striking resemblance to the palace still standing at Polonnaruwa sometimes attributed to that monarch. It may have been so, and yet on this same site may have stood an earlier palace of the kings of the line of Wijaya. For it is probable that if once used as a royal site, such a tradition would be preserved through the ages and no meaner buildings allowed to encroach on the king's reservation. Major Forbes quotes from an "ancient native account," the name of which he does not give:

"The palace [at Anuradhapura] has immense ranges of building, some of two, others of three storeys in height; and its subterranean apartments are of great extent."

Beyond this to-day we cannot get, the mystery remains a mystery lightened only by vague shafts of conjecture.

The Green Path Road may be followed up to the neighbourhood of the Kuttam Pokuna, and beyond this point the way to Vijayarama lies along the ancient grass-grown road (mentioned on p. 108), which finally merges into a jungle track. Following this, for ever in deep shade, screened by the thickly growing scrub and trees, we came at last to a small plantation and mounted the bund of a tank (Palugas Wewa) covered with lotus flowers.

Once more in the jungle the way leads through a wood of scraggy trees resembling olives; these are called Vira, and in season (August) bear a small edible fruit like a raspberry. The undergrowth has been cleared out by the labour of the Archæological Survey, and, peering between the twisted stems, we soon see the gleam of granite stones, here and there, scattered widely. From the point where walking begins near the Kuttam Pokuna, the distance to these buildings is about one mile and a half.

Of Vijayarama itself nothing is known except what the stones and tokens have revealed; there is nothing by which we can recognise it in the country's annals; even the name has been given to it in modern times. Yet here once stood a large and spreading monastery which possessed, in addition to all the usual buildings, a dagaba, and a preaching-hall of an exceedingly beautiful design which has attracted men from far. This was connected with the main building by a raised passage walled in, and reached by a flight of steps on each side.

The most attractive feature of this fine piece of work are the carved stones decorating the exterior

wall of the platform. These are panels with figures differing from each other, some containing only a single male figure and others a male and female. They stand beneath a carved canopy of curious makara - pattern. These bloated dragon beasts face each other open-mouthed, each with a figure, sometimes human, sometimes animal, in their jaws. In the hollows of their backs are quaint dwarfs. The makaras, with their curved backs and fish-like tails, here much more resemble dolphins than crocodiles. Besides these there are striking gargoyles and bits of floral decoration falling vertically. The impression made by this careful and artistic work, here, far out in the jungle, visited by comparatively few, was heightened by the gleams of light which, falling through the trees, struck, as if of set purpose, on the carvings, bringing out the delicate chiselling against a background of shadows. The guard-stones of a small vihara, showing a bloated dwarf of unusual size, positively shone with a kind of malicious intensity. The enormously fat figure sways to one side with one hand on hip, and follows his type in all the usual details, which may be clearly studied here owing to his comparatively large size (see illustration, p. 176).

One of the small viharas contains a headless and armless figure of Buddha in the rare upright attitude. There were probably three other similar figures and four seated ones.

"It may not be unreasonable, perhaps, to assume that this pilimagé (image-house) was dedicated to the four Manushi Buddhas, three of whom

preceded Gautama in the present Kalpa." (1893 Report.)

Outside the monastery wall are the monks' cells and the refectory, and in the outermost precincts a very interesting discovery was made of what has been undoubtedly a hot-water bathroom. The arrangement of the room leaves no doubt as to its purpose, and a quantity of charcoal and ashes was dug up, while there was—

a low platform of brick-work, 5 feet square, doubtless the base of the lipa (hearth) used for heating the chatties of water intended for the ablution of the clay-bedaubed monks." (1893 Report.)

Judging by the sculpture and some votive tablets-copper plaques-unearthed at the dagaba here, the date of the monastery is placed at about the ninth century. Quaint bronze figures of men and animals very rudely shaped were dug up in the shrines. As two of these, a figure and an animal, lay in the direction of each of the cardinal points-i.e. north a lion, south a horse, east an elephant-Mr. Bell suggests that this series of animals, the same as that appearing on the moonstones (with the exception of the bullock, which may easily have been lost), points out some underlying connection between the two; the series may also have had some astronomical significance.

Further out even than Vijayarama extended the sacred buildings of Anuradhapura. For half a mile north-east is Kiribat dagaba, linked by name