J scent of Adams Peak. 409 



3 or 4 inches long. The priest also showed us a mag- 

 nificent manuscript of at least 1000 palm leaves, closely 

 and beautifully engraved on both sides with Cingalese 

 characters, which belonged to the temple, and was guarded 

 with great care. 



At a solitary house on the road, we left our guides and porters 

 to discuss their modest repast, which, in consequence of the 

 strict ordinances of the Buddhist faith, consists of vegetable 

 substances only. Rechning on a mat spread on the ground, 

 each took a piece of green plantain leaf, scattered upon it a 

 little rice which they had just brought with them, and some 

 cliili (red Spanish pepper), and thence conveyed their simple 

 food to their mouth with the hand. This frugal meal was 

 speedily concluded, and we once more pushed forward. From 

 this point we had the dense covert of the high forest trees, the 

 lofty foliage of which afforded a most agreeable shade, and kept 

 us comparatively cool. The path, which consists simply of 

 ravines, formed by the rush of torrents during the rainy season, 

 is so steep that it seems like one uninterrupted flight of stairs, 

 the steps of which seem partly constructed by Nature, partly 

 by the hand of man. Frequently they are artistically chiselled 

 in the solid rock ; at one stupendous precipice a Cingalese 

 monarch has had four flights, of 250 steps in all, hewn out 

 of the living rock. Here and there, also, ladders have been 

 contrived, the rounds of which are composed of pieces of bam- 

 boo bound together, by which one clambers up. The whole 

 route bears marks of being much used, and is considerably 



