To wander through these woods in the early morning, hearing the deep throaty song of birds and the soft coo of the wood pigeon is pleasant enough. The undergrowth is so cleared as to make walking easy, and the ground is softened by the thick leaves of a little plant resembling wood anemone. The curious rock hummocks add mystery to the scene, suggesting witches and gnomes and dwarfs; the innumerable ruins and bits of carving gleaming in the sunlight or flecked by shadow carry the mind back into the romance of history. Troops of monkeys disturbed in feeding glide up tree-trunks like wraiths. You turn, thinking they are all gone, but there are always a few more vanishing into space! Away to the west are two great tanks, of the pattern generally found in the vicinity of any large monastery. Many outlying ruins claim attention, and in the midst is the straight street," or alley, a characteristic feature of many of the monasteries, with the entrance porch still standing, facing the Outer Circular Road. Parallel with this alley lies the chief rock hummock, like the back of a stranded whale. It is called Gal-gé, "stone-house," for beneath its shadow, uncountable years ago, a solitary monk lived. Just outside the doorway of the hermit's cave in the west side, when I saw it, great bushes of the cassia alata were in flower. The picture lacked no touch to perfect it. The royal orange-red blossoms crowned the feathery fronds, rearing themselves against the black rock. The door-posts and lintel stand square beneath the curve of the overhanging rock, and an immense tree with its roots tightly

clamped to the bare surface of the granite, throws down a deep shade. A cursory glance shows that the little apartment was once provided with a facing wall on each side of the door and was divided into three cells. Clear of the plants, a rock-cut bath or cistern, not twenty yards away, shows whence the necessary supply of water was drawn.

It is impossible to imagine anything more peaceful and remote than this little cell nestling in the shadow of the rocks. These rock dwellings seem to have exercised a great fascination on the monkish mind; all over they are found, the best specimens in this neighbourhood being here, and at Vessagiriya three miles southward, where there is an almost exactly similar lintel (see p. 126). Gal-gé" is the longest and most northerly of these rock hummocks, very similar in shape, and of little width, which all rise sharply and stretch out as part of that ridge outcrop, the line of which (continued intermittently north and for miles southward) may be followed through Basawakkulam Tank and the Mirisaveti rocks." (1911-12 Report.)

Passing round the end of Gal-gé, and continuing beside a small portico to the road, we see that its outer wall is decorated by a frieze of elephants in relief, somewhat in the same style as that encompassing the platform at Ruanweli. Just behind it is a small vihara, of which the chief point to notice is that the guard-stones have a carved canopy like that at the Elephant Stables, and Nakha vehera (pp. 96, 110).

At the junction of the Y Road and Outer Circular Road are twin ponds, called the Tammet

tan Pokuna, or pair of kettle-drums," but before reaching these we pass an angle of the "Elephant Pokuna " which almost touches the Y Road. It is so called, not because it had anything to do with elephants, but because it was of exceptional size. It is melancholy enough now, with the huge blocks that once lined its sides falling away, and the bare branches of dead trees stretching over it, to the delight of many brilliant-hued kingfishers. From this point we can drive on, and turning right, in the Outer Circular Road, soon pass on the left a small and dilapidated dagaba called, without any apparent cause, Dutugemunu's Tomb.

This road was designed simply to show the ruins, and so twists around all the most interesting points. On the left, on raised ground, is the so-called Queen's Palace, to which the ascent is easy. It exhibits the usual characteristics, and was undoubtedly a monastery and no palace." Then the road passes a seated Buddha much mutilated, and loops right round in a horse-shoe. At the furthest point of the bend are two stone canoes, one large and one smaller, at right angles to each other. As already noted, this is the relative position in which they are usually found, and it has been facetiously suggested, that if the larger one was for rice, then the smaller one was for curry, jaggery, honey, or whatever was used to flavour it.

Quite near is "Burrows' Canopy," so called because restored by Mr. Burrows, C.C.S., in 1885. It consists of a roof with a beautifully moulded ceiling, standing on columns. The stones composing it were found detached and buried, and

were put together in position with considerable difficulty.

Dipping up again, the road comes to the socalled " Elephant Stables," a name as remote from actuality as the Elephant Pokuna. On an immense platform stand some columns of a most unusual height and size, only matched in Anuradhapura by those near Mirisaveti Dagaba (see p. 117).

Beside the steps stands the most wonderful dwarpal, or guard-stone, yet unearthed. This magnificent bit of sculpture stands 5 feet high, and is capped by a carved torana, or canopy, a most unusual feature in such stones, but, as we have just seen, not unique. On the outer side is a small elephant, and the central figure is most perfectly designed, and finished with a profusion of detail. The "guard" is the same in general outlines for all this type of stones, but the exact meaning of the symbolism is not known. He has one, or sometimes two, small ganas in attendance, and is always represented under a serpenthood" of a many-hooded naga, or cobra. In this case, the flesh is depicted with a reality unseen elsewhere. The stone owes its unusually excellent preservation to the fact that it was found lying face downward in the earth. Occasionally a dwarf takes the place of this singularly graceful figure, and in one or two instances the stones are plain or sculped with a floral ornament.

The most interesting fact in connection with this area is that from inscriptions discovered near the stone canoes, and at the " Elephant Stables," it has been rendered almost certain that the two great dagabas Abhayagiri and Jetawanarama bear