TJie Sacred Bo-Tree. 2 SI 



a protection and shelter for Buddha.* Ninety Cingalese 

 monarchs are interred around it, all of whom, by the temples 

 and statues they erected to Buddha, are deemed worthy of this 

 pre-eminent mark of distinction. 



The grey-headed high-priest permitted the library of the 

 temple to be shown to us, which consists of a large number of 

 Pali manuscripts, inscribed on Talipot leaves, each of which 

 was enclosed between two elegant boards made of calamander 

 wood {JDiopyrus hirsuta), fastened with strings, and enveloped 

 in numerous folds of cloth, the whole guarded with singular 

 reverence, in lofty, broad, wooden cupboards, richly carved. 

 When we returned, the chief priest requested us to give him 

 our names, and that of the country we came from, upon which 

 a young priest carefully wrote down with a goose quill on a 

 sheet of paper, in Cingalese language, apparently with the 

 view of showing us civility, some superficial remarks respect- 

 ing the Novara Expedition. 



Besides the pure Cingalese, the island is also inhabited by 

 Hindoos from the Malabar coast, Moors (the descendants of 

 wandering Arabs and Mahometans from northern India, who 



* The sacred Bo-tree (Ficus religiosa) of the Buddliists is frequently confounded 

 with the Banyan Tree {Ficiis Indica), held in such honour by the Brahmins, from 

 which latter it differs in this, that it does not tlu'ow out from its branches numberless 

 twigs which take root again in the earth. The incessant waving and rustling of the 

 leaves and branches, which is common to both species of Ficus, is regarded by the 

 faithful Buddhists as tlie effect of a fear-instilling scene of which the sage was once 

 mtness under the Bo-tree; just as the Syrian Christians deduce, from the fact that 

 the Holy Cross was manufactured out of aspen-wood, that tliis tree is trembUng, 

 even in our days, with anguish and teiTor. Singular, what an hnportant part the 

 fig-tree seems to play in all religions, including the Christian and the Mahometan ! 



