Mr. E. L. Layard's Rambles in Ceylon. 235 



fallen trees, which had to be cut through, rounded, or jumped over ! 

 The drive had been delightful hitherto, but the country being flat, 

 we obtained no views. Now, a sudden rise in the ground would give 

 us glimpses of the hills, sometimes clothed with wood to their sum- 

 mits, at others bare and frowning with solid rock. Villages became 

 more frequent along the road-side ; and we skirted many lovely green 

 paddy fields, each with its scaffold, in which the owner sits at night 

 watching his crop, and hurling down lighted firebrands when herds 

 of elephants approach his fence. The cries of man and beast often 

 awoke us out of our sleep at nights. We arrived at Mehintally about 

 midday, and were soon joined by my old friend and fellow-labourer 

 in the Ceylon fauna, B. of Anarajahpoora. Not having met for 

 more than two years, we had much to say and talk over, and he took 

 us up to the Wihare on the top of the mountain, to induce the priests 

 to allow us to sleep there, as it threatened rain. I need not describe 

 to you this celebrated temple ; others have done that before me, and I 

 was too much taken up with the abundance of fine butterflies and birds 

 which I everywhere saw, to observe the place very closely. B. was 

 in his element, and pointed out in one place an inscription that he 

 had cleaned, in another a pillar or slab that he had erected again. 

 He descanted, very learnedly no doubt, on its antiquity, &c. ; but I 

 had found a pretty little Streptaxis, a genus I had not hitherto seen, 

 and I could see nothing else in the old stones but famous places for 

 those shells, of which I secured some half-dozen. An Achatina, 

 which I take to be orophila, lay dead in abundance ; so also Helix bistri- 

 alis and Cyclostoma cornu venatorium * . We had a magnificent view of 

 the surrounding countiy from the top of the hill, the effect heightened 

 by several thunderstorms, which we could see expending their fury 

 on the low country, causing grand changes of light and shade. From 

 one of them which came rushing up, we had to beat a hasty retreat, 

 and after drinking a glass of cherry brandy round to the health of 

 absent friends, B. galloped away to clear the river before it became 

 too swollen to pass ; for such is the effect of these storms in the hills, 

 that a friend of mine was detained on the banks of the Sittaar for 

 eighteen hours, during which time the river fell seventeen feet. The 

 priests in their yellow robes crouched around us, as we squatted on the 

 ground eating our dinner, and looked with amazement at one or two 

 little things we had with us. My compass, for instance, underwent a 

 most strict scrutiny, and mystified them by its resolute determination 

 to point northward : it was no use twisting and turning it — the little 

 gold bar would keep its head one way, and turned their heads every 

 way. 



All this while the hghtning flashed and the thunder roared around 

 us in awful grandeur. I more than once wished myself and my long 

 gun-barrel on the low ground, instead of perched up there almost on 

 the summit of the highest hill in the neighbourhood ; but wishing 

 could not mend weather, and habit is second nature ; the canary-bird 

 priests dropped off one by one ; the pilgrims in the sheds outside 

 ceased chatting ; my companion's heavy breathing proclaimed he was 

 off to the land of Nod ; so wrapping my blanket rotmd me, I lay down 

 * Vide Supplementary note. 



