stopping at the rest-house (second-class), where the keeper should be notified beforehand if meals or accommodation are required.

Next to the rest-house is the P.W.D. Bungalow, and just beyond its compound a path leaves the main road and strikes across to the top end of the small bazaar. Another path from here leads on across the road. This is exceedingly pretty, running through cleared out (1910) woodland. It passes on the right a hospital or dispensary with a stone "medicine-boat" (this is one of the only three of such receptacles hitherto discovered in Ceylon), being a slab hollowed out like the human figure. From an inscription on one of the guardstones the conjecture as to this being a hospital is confirmed, the inscription (translation) begins, "For the benefit of the hospital," and ends, "anyone who takes by force what has been provided for this (hospital) will become a goat-slaying Rakkhasa "-a terrible curse! a terrible curse! A little farther on, on the left, are the ruins of a vihara.

The first flight of stone steps bursts on one with the beauty of a dream fulfilled, a stairway leading to Heaven! Just such a vision must that have been seen by Jacob. Overhanging trees throw green shadows on the worn stone, and the shifting golden lights between may well be taken for the angel visitants. For twenty centuries or more the uncovered feet of innumerable dark multitudes have ascended and descended, their owners filled with reverent awe, and seeing visions as surely as did Jacob-visions of the mighty Buddha overshadowing the island with his presence and of Mahinda, his apostle, alighting on the topmost

crag which towers up into the azure sky far overhead.

It is difficult to see more than a short way in front, but the top of the flight reveals a precipitous crag on the right heavily draped in foliage, crowned by a tottering dagaba of ruined brick, called Giribandha, which can be reached by a worn and steep path. In the cave below there is an important inscription signifying: "Cave dedicated to the community by the noble Asili, son of the righteous King Gamini."

Not many visitors ascend this eyrie. They usually pass on to the second flight of steps and thence to another, above which, on a flattish terrace, are several ruins. On the left the first seen is of fair size and contains two specimens of stone canoes. This is known as the " Alms Hall," and was doubtless the refectory for the monks living around.

"On the north side of the quadrangle is an elongated room, 45 feet in length, brick walled and shut off from the kitchens. This was probably the actual salle à manger where meals were served." (1910-11 Report.)

Just a little above it is a small vihara with mighty inscribed slabs, "tables of stone," of the time of Mahinda IV (A.D. 975), bearing a detailed record of temple privileges and regulations.

Right across the track is a third building, very small, known as the Halfway House, once a Mandapaya, or entrance-hall or porch. Turning right from this a little path leads downwards beside a dressed terrace wall, to one of the wonders of Mihintale, an open-air bath, much carved, where

a most robust and pugnacious lion, ramping on his hind legs, holds up the stonework. Alas, he faces north-east, and is so hemmed in by trees it is impossible to get a good photograph. Three attempts proved failures, and his majesty must remain unrepresented in this book. The stone bath itself has been carefully restored, and has a fringe of interesting carvings round it. Mr. Bell says of it:

"There is probably no more handsome specimen of bold artistic work of its kind in granite to be found in Ceylon than this finely conceived piece of sculpture."

Notice in the panels the dwarfs fighting and boxing and wrestling, the lion figures, the dancing girl and others.

The lion is 7 feet 4 inches in height, and was pieced together with great ingenuity, having fallen altogether from his high estate. He stands out "in the round," and it is difficult to do justice to his extreme virility and audacity. Perhaps of all that we know of the habits of ancient Ceylon, the variety of architectural design bestowed on open-air bathing-places is the most attractive. The large pokunas, with their massive hewn blocks and carved steps and their charming little pillared dressing-chambers; the deep-cut, rock-hewn pools; and the most original single baths such as this and the famous lotus-bath at Polonnaruwa, all show care and design in this type of work which no people have ever surpassed.

From the Lion-Bath a jungle track leads onward, coming out on the road on the way to Kaludiya Pokuna (p. 156). However, the rest of the wonders of Mihintale have to be seen first.

Returning to the "Halfway House," which lies across the original track, we see the remains of numerous viharas in and around it, and can explore as much as time allows. Then we pass on, up a flight of steps at right angles to those already traversed. This is even more entrancing than what has gone before. It is narrower and longer. The steps are shallow, but with great variations in the tread, here being suitable for a baby's foot, and there sufficient for a giant's. The way is fringed by huge maidenhair fronds hanging gracefully from every crevice, and the green sweetness of their growth is like the freshness of a spring morning. The steps were formed by King Bhatikabhaya, who reigned from 19 B.C. to A.D. 9.

From the top of this flight a terrace walk leads away on the right, along the side of a hill to the Naga Pokuna. This is a most beautiful walk, disclosing at every turn rolling views for miles over the jungle, which are enhanced by being seen between the drooping fronds of fairy-like boughs. The path ends abruptly in sun-blackened rock, and after a scramble the Naga Pokuna comes suddenly into sight. It faces due west, and on this evening it was lit up by the radiant glory of the setting sun in a cloudless sky, which showed up the black veins and streaks on the precipitous cliff face. Gradually some of these lines and streaks resolved themselves into a figure, and as the

eye traced them they outlined a gigantic fiveheaded cobra, cut in low relief, but with a sure touch, from the rock face; his body is said to continue beneath the water. Aggabodhi I (A.D. 564) built a " Nagasondi," and this may possibly be it. If so, this giant-hooded beast, rearing himself sheer out of the water, has so stood facing the sunrise for between thirteen and fourteen hundred years!

Passing the Naga Pokuna, it is possible, after rather a scramble, to come out on the highest part of the hill, Et Vehera Kanda. Here a dagaba was erected about the first year of the Christian Era to "cover a hair which grew on the forehead of Buddha over the left eyebrow."

But few visitors get so far as this. Returning again by the terrace walk to the head of the last narrow flight of steps, a short distance over the face of embedded rock brings us out on the plateau where stands the Ambastale dagaba in a small grove of palms almost surrounded by the monks' dwellings. We are now on one of the most sacred spots in the whole of Ceylon, and if, to European eyes, the white painted dagaba, surrounded by pillars, is not nearly so interesting as what has already been seen, yet the atmosphere of history and legend woven around this spot adds something to it that even the most casual must feel. This with Lankarama and Thuparama are the only three of this particular class of dagaba found at Anuradhapura. Here, however, there are only two circles of pillars, which are monolithic and about twelve feet high. The dagaba stands on a circular platform mounted by a flight of plain steps.