Gems found in Ccyhn. 389 



temples, as well as a donation to the dead, which, inspired 

 by a religious feeling, the survivors place in the grave along- 

 side of the corpse of their illustrious departed. 



The gems found on the island are distinguished, less for 

 their intrinsic value than for the great variety of precious 

 stones which are present. They are, with few exceptions, 

 found to have been disengaged from the primitive rocks, and 

 washed into the al hi vial soil, especially in the outskirts of 

 the mountainous districts, where they are rolled along the 

 beds of the streams together with other pebbles, or are 

 W' ashed out of the alluvial deposits. Hitherto, they have 

 only been searched for for ptirposes of trade, and then only in 

 the most desultory and thriftless way, no one having as yet 

 examined the rocks themselves, by the disintegration of 

 which the valuable stones are disengaged. There was, in- 

 deed, no detailed information as to the wealth in precious 

 stones of the island, until the researches of the English 

 mineralogist. Dr. Gygax, who has very lately published on 

 this subject maiiy interesting observations and remarks. The 

 locality in wliich precious stones are most abundant is, so 

 far as present experience goes, the district of SafFragam, the 

 capital of which in consequence takes the name of Ratna- 

 poora, or Anarhadnaporra, " the city of rubies." They are 

 also found at various other parts of the island ; in the plains 

 on the West coast, between Adams' Peak and the sea, at 



in one of the superior heavens of the demigods (similar to the conk-blowing Tritons 

 of Grecian mythology), in honour of Buddha, as often as the latter wanders abroad 

 on the earth. 



