THE RUINED CITY OF THE JUNGLE.

Otago Witness, Issue 2086, 15 February 1894, Page 41

THE RUINED CITY OF THE JUNGLE.

The noonday heat descends almost in visible and palpable form upon Anaradhupura [in Ceylon], the ruined city of the jungle. The quivering atmosphere waves and dances like a floating veil between heaven and earth, while an unearthly hush fateala over the forest, where foliage droops and flowers close their petals under the intolerable glare. Only the snakes which abound in feverBtricken Anaradhupura can brave the white heat of the tropical furnace, and sun themselves during the noontide hours with undisturbed security, while the patient oxen lie panting in their stalls, and the most enthusiastic explorers are compelled to take a siesta until tbe heat declines. Soon after 3 p.m. the leaves begin to whisper in their dreams, and a faint, indefinable sense of waking life just stirs the drowsy silence of the elumberiDg woods. The afternoon expedition round the outer circle is an ideal sylvan diive. The rough cart-track penetrates the green depths of the shadowy forestf, where perpetual twilight broods beneath the sombre foliage of the stately ebony, and golden sunbeams gleam through the pale-green branches of slender satin-wood trees, which relieve the gloom of the woodland verdure with the smooth whiteness of their glistening stems. Thickets of maidenhair spring from an emerald carpet or velvet moss and choke the murmuring brooks which glide between flowery bankß and vanish amid the myriad trees, where the intense hush is emphasised rather than broken by rippling stream and fluttering leaf. The white bullockß drawing the red cart beneath interlacing boughs harmonise with the rural loveliness of the forest landscape, and in each green dell and woodland glade ruined temples, kneeliDg statues, and

Overthrown columns hallow the wilderness of tropical vegetation with countless memorials of the mysterious pas c . At the roadside a colossal Buddha, black with age and impressive as the Sphinx, smiles, across the endless leagues of forest in the unbroken calm of more than 2000 years. A wreath of faded flowers and some ashes of burnt camphor at the base of the statue show that a native peasant has recently laid his simple offering before the hoary monument, which bears eternal witness to the faith of bygone generations, countless as the leaves whirled away on the breath of the storm. The old religion, though not extinct, has degenerated from the comparative purity of the Btream at its source, and at the present time a Buddhist monk, forbidden by the rule of his order to Blay even the gnat which stings him, is being tried by the provincial judge for the murder of one of his brethren. These impenetrable forests often aid the culprit to defeat the ends of justice, and the native assassin who can thread the labyrinths of the jungle generally contrives to baffle pursuit, and to support himself on the wild fruits and berries of the woods until beyond the reach of his ccusers. In the coolness of the sunset hour we ascend the Thuparama daghoba by the rough steps and narrow paths which wind up to the summit of the gigantic cone through tangled brushwood and feathery fern. A flight of granite stairs gives access to the stone galleries above the dome, which command a full view of Mahintole, a forestclad hill to which Mahindo was traditionally transported through the air. A Via Sacra extended hither from the Anaradbupura, a distance of eight miles, the road being lined with temples, thrines, and monasteries. The daghoba of Mahintole contains a single hair plucked from the eyebrow of Bnddha, and enclosed in a mass of brickwork 100 ft high. A perilous ledge on the mountain-top is reverenced as Mahindo's bed ; and a large seven-headed cobra carved in the rock, and known as the Snake Bath, marks the site of a sacred fountain. Rock chambers and monastic ruinß cover the hill, and the picturesque stairs, which ascend through a grove of ironwood and tamarind trees, bear numerous inscriptions in Pali and Sanscrit, commemorating supernatural favours experienced by pilgrimß to this famous sanctuary. — Cornhill Magazine.