NOTES ON Adam's peak. 83 



Peak I have never seen this, nor heard of it, so it has probably been 

 discontinued. 



Just in front of the shrine a large iron bar, bent at an angle, 

 is fixed in the rock. This is said to have supported the royal 

 umbrella. 



GlLEVIALE-PAKA AND VARIOUS PaTHS, VaLLEYS, &C., 

 CONNECTED WITH IT. 



The first objects of interest met with in the descent of the 

 Gilimale-para are the chains, which are of all shapes and sizes ; 

 in places there are eight or nine sets hung one above the other 

 in bunches. I only noticed two inscriptions on the chains, but there 

 may be more. The two I saw were both on iron plates let m between 

 the links ; one plate measured 1 ft. long by 3 in. broad, the other 

 measured 9J in. by 2^ m.. and had besides its inscription, the figure 

 of three birds engraved upon it, two at one end and one at the other. 

 A short distance from the summit, and just below the main set of 

 chains, there is a rock-cut inscription measuring 4 ft. by 2| ft. ; it 

 contains twenty-three lines, and is modern. 



A few hundred feet below this there is a dilapidated hut and a 

 small flat space. Until last year this was the Menili-lena ambalam, 

 so called from the cave of that name ; but the monsoon of 1901 so 

 loosened the rock which formed the cave that it slipped and fell 

 into the valley half a mile below. A Suihalese man, who knew the 

 place well, told me that there used to be an inscription on the rock, 

 but that now it is buried, being on the underside of the rock as it 

 now lies. Neither Skeen nor Forbes mentions this inscription, so 

 perhaps it did not exist. 



Between this and x4ndiyamalatenna there is nothing of interest. 



From Andiyamalatenna a path runs round the neck of the 

 Peak, under the northern precipices, to the third ambalam on the 

 Maskeliya-para. 



I. folio wed the path, which is very rugged and overgrown, but 

 found nothing except masses of beautiful flowers and innumerable 

 traces of elephants. 



From Andiyamalatenna to Heramiti-pana ambalam the path, 

 though steep, is in no way dangerous. 



Even above Menik-lena, where the chains are, no part of the 

 path is in the least difficult or dangerous in ordinary weather ; but 

 most people who have written accounts of the ascent of the Peak 

 from this side describe it as little better than the Matterhorn. The 

 fact that women frequently climb it with children astride their hips 

 is sufficient to disprove this ; I have seen a man with one leg swollen 

 to an enormous size, two blind men, and numerous very old men 

 and women make this climb at night, and a cooly with a 60 lb. 

 weight on his head by day fight. 



