is about two inches in length, and the thickness and shape of a man's little finger, and if a tooth at all, is possibly the fossil one of some animal. Just such a shape, though a little smaller, is the precious "tooth-relic" in the Queen's Monastery, Mandalay, which I myself have seen. Whatever the original relic of Ceylon may have been, the truth about the present one cannot be doubtful. It is said by one account that the Portuguese destroyed the genuine relic in their raid on Kandy in 1560, and that the loss was concealed and denied by the monks, who substituted the present relic. It may be so, for there is no inherent impossibility in the fact of the genuine relic having been brought over to the island originally, though, in that case, it is at least strange that those clever monks did not model the new tooth on the old, and make it of some shape that might possibly once have been found in a human mouth.

The natural scepticism felt by the West toward all such relics must, however, be discounted, when just recently (1916) Sir John Marshall, DirectorGeneral of Archæology in India, whose testimony cannot be gainsaid, has found, at the ancient city of Taxila, twenty-five miles north-west of Rawal Pindi, the third set of the relics distributed after Buddha's death. The account of that event, usually accepted by Buddhists, tells that when the flesh had been consumed on the funeral pyre, but before the bones had been destroyed, a heavy shower of rain fell and put the fire out. Thereupon much discussion arose as to the custody of the remains. It was eventually agreed that they should be divided into eight lots and distributed

widely, so that cairns, or dagabas, might be raised over them. This was done. Two of such sets have already been unearthed, one at Piprava in the Terai in 1898, one at Kanishka near Peshawar in 1914, and now the third set has been unearthed with an inscription, proving, at any rate, what it was supposed to be. The curious feature of this find is that Sir John Marshall was led to the spot by following the account given by the Chinese pilgrim, Hiuen Tsiang, of his visit to Taxila in the seventh century.

There is comparatively little said in the Chronicles about the advent of the Tooth at Anuradhapura, as compared with the account of the advent of the Bo-tree, or the Collarbone, the two other of the city's most precious relics. Yet of the three the Tooth is now regarded more as the actual core and centre of the Buddhist community than even the Bo-tree itself.

The inner shrine of the Dalada Maligawa, in which this relic was probably bestowed, is the one in which appear the very curiously crowned columns already alluded to. The open "lanterns" of these are supposed to represent a tooth; if they represent anything, it is a hollow double tooth, which, in this case, is not appropriate. They cannot be said to be nearly as graceful as the usual style of capital found here, and "curious" is the only word that can fitly be applied to them. The entrance to the outer building shows a fine moonstone, and balustrades or wings of the most common type.

Close to the ruined temple is the white dome of Thuparama, held to be of great sacredness as the

original receptacle of the sacred "Collar-bone." The shell of the present building is, as a matter of fact, quite modern, and of an altogether different shape from the original one, but it encloses a core of great antiquity described by Mr. Fergusson as being "older, or at least as old, as anything now existing on the continent of India." A wood-cut in his widely known book, The History of Indian Architecture, gives a view of the dagaba as it appeared in 1870, when it was purely of the puddingbasin type like the larger dagabas, but on a very small scale. The original work is enclosed in the present graceful dome, which is the shape of a bell. This springs from a circular platform, reached from the ground by a fairly steep flight of steps. The bell at its base is 40 feet, 6 inches in diameter. It is capped by a circular spire tipped with two crystals. From pavement to crystals is 63 feet (J. G. Smither). The chief beauty of Thuparama, however, is found in its slender columns, some of a great height, which spring from the platform encircling it. There are four rows of these, varying from 14 feet to nearly 23 feet in height. Each of the carved capitals in the first three rows is made from a separate stone and fitted on to the shaft with a socket. They are finely decorated like those at Lankarama (see p. 90). The original number of pillars was 176 and of these 42 are missing. The use of these pillars has been often questioned. It is hardly possible to suppose they supported a roof, as any such roof would not be tall enough to enclose the dagaba itself. In the Mahawansa it is mentioned that great coloured pictures, representative of scenes in the

life of Buddha, were carried in festival processions. It may possibly be that these pictures were suspended from the posts like screens. However, the posts may have been merely used to support garlands of flowers strung from one to the other.

The dagaba was constructed in the reign of King Tissa (307-267 B.C.), and in it was installed the Collar-bone relic. A long account is given of the ceremony. The relic was placed on the back of the state elephant, whereupon "the delighted elephant roared." The dagaba itself consumed in the building "thousands of bricks," and among them a receptacle was excavated for the relic. Close by the king then built a vihara, or temple. The Mahawansa also tells us that before the building of the dagaba the site was "overrun with the thorns called Kadambo."

In the reign of many kings the decoration of Thuparama occupied a prominent place. Agghabodi VI (A.D. 741)1 made for it a "cover of gold ornamented with bands of silver set at distances." Udaya (A.D. 901) "covered Thuparama with a band of gold." Sena IV (A.D. 972)1 "made a door of pure gold for the relic house at Thuparama." It was treasure of this kind which repaid the Tamils for coming over to the island and raiding it.

At the foot of the long flight of steps leading up to the platform is a great cistern, hewn out of a block of stone, and about a hundred yards eastward across the road is a similar, but larger one. This, the natives say, with that in

1 These dates are taken from Mr. Wijesinha's version of the Mahawansa.

genuity in detail which characterises them, was the “drinking-trough of King Dutugemunu's state elephant." East-north-east of Thuparama at the corner of the Y Road going north is a small dagaba which is traditionally called " Sanghamitta's Tomb," after the princess-missionary who brought the Bo-tree branch to Ceylon.

We may return from Thuparama by the eastern section of the Inner Circular Road, which is mainly formed by the Sacred Road running north from the Bo-tree. The first object noticed is the modern hospital, successor to so many far back in the ages. If we could only have seen them and studied their methods, what quaint superstitions and customs we might have discovered. So many times are hospitals mentioned among the works of merit of the ancient kings that an elaboration of them would become tedious. Among them Kasyapa IV (A.D. 912) built hospitals both here and at Polonnaruwa "for the prevention of pestilential diseases," and not only so, but "dispensaries for medicine."

Passing on down the road till we come almost abreast of Ruanweli, we see the slab where King Dutugemunu is supposed to have lain dying. At the back of the little platform on which it stands is one of the curious stones, already re-· ferred to, where the representation of a house is carved. This house stands on open columns with three storeys in the centre and two at each side. Mr. Still says:

"By this stone of humble purpose we are given a clue to the form of the buildings before