NOTES ON ADAM's PEAK. 85 



Dharmaraja-gala has been described by various writers, some of 

 whom say that the inscription on the side of the path is modern. It 

 looks old, and a Sinhalese who was with me could not read it, though 

 he could read ordinary Sinhalese. The inscription contains sixteen 

 ruled lines, each 4 J ft. in length. The figure of a man which is 

 traced in the rock just below the inscription is 5 ft. 5 in. in height ; 

 from the waist to the ankles a cloth is depicted, and the hands hold 

 a rosary up before the face. The figure is neither sunk nor in 

 relief, but merely outlined. From here down to Gatanetula the 

 path passes two abandoned ambalams, both of which, with their 

 legends, are described by Skeen. At Gatanetula there are the 

 remains of an ambalam, and on a stone there, just by the side of the 

 path, there is a curious design traced. It consists of a pointing 

 hand with five fingers and a thumb, a circle, and something that 

 might have been meant for an elephant ; the length of the hand is 

 4J in., that of the "elephant " 6^- in., and the diameter of the circle 

 4 in. 



Shortly below this is Nilihela ambalam, perched on a high narrow 

 tongue of the hills, where they run into the low-country. To the 

 south-west the pilgrims' path follows along the ridge down to Pala- 

 badalla. To the north the hill slopes steeply down to a river ; 

 while to the south is a great cliff opposed by another greater cliff, 

 with a deep valley between them. It is from a legend concerning 

 these cliffs that the place takes its name, viz., Niliakka was a young 

 mother of the dhoby caste, and she lived on the verge of the cliff. 

 One day, having put some clothes to dry on a bush that grew near 

 the precipice, she senther little son to bring them in. He could not 

 reach the clothes, and in stretching up the bush he fell over the 

 cliff into the valley more than 1,000 feet below. The distracted 

 mother rushed to the edge and plunged after her child. The 

 Sinhalese say that to this day that if one shouts across the canon, 

 Niliakka will answer. Certainly there is a wonderful echo. 



Just below the ambalam, on the south side, there is a small cave, 

 which has not been improved by art in any way. A path in the 

 same direction leads to a spring; to the north, in the jungle, there 

 is another spring, but neither of them seems to have been built in, 

 though doubtless they are old. I explored a good deal of the jungle 

 to the north, but found nothing. 



The tremendously deep valley below Nilihela on the south con- 

 tains a great number of boulders, under some of which are caves. 

 Two have been occupied recently, but none shows signs of ancient 

 workmanship. The "fierce leech" here flourishes. 



I followed the pilgrims' path down as far as the outskirts of Pala- 

 badalla, but found nothing of interest. 



There still remains to be described the valley between Adam's 

 Peak and Bena Samanala-gala and the stream on the hills above 

 the first ambalam. The valley is full of caves, especially under 



N 7(2)08 



