138 



SOUTHERN AXD CEXTRAL PROVIXCES. [Part VIT. 



temples in solitary spots invite the devotion of pilgrims. 

 In one of these, at Palabaddiila, a model is preserved, 

 exliibiting in brass a fac-simile of the golden cover 

 which once protected the sacred footstep, and which 

 Valentyx says was shown to some subjects of Holland 

 wlio ascended the Peak in 1654 \ but it has long since 

 disappeared. 



The country rises so rapidly, that between Gillemale 

 and the Peak, the entire ascent, upwards of 7000 feet, is 

 made in less than nine miles. As the path ascends it 

 skirts round scarped acclivities, so steep that a stone 

 allowed to drop is heard bounding from rock to rock 

 long after it has been hidden from sight by the trees that 

 clothe the face of the precipice below.'-^ 



During the greater part of this upward journey, the 

 summit of the mountain, the object of so much sohci- 

 tude and toil, is seldom visible, being hidden by the 

 overhanging chiTs ; but, at last, on reaching a httle 

 patch of table-land at Diebetne, with its ruinous rest- 

 house, the majestic cone is discerned towering in un- 

 surpassed sublimity, but "vvith an intervening space of 

 three miles of such acchvity that the Singhalese have 

 conferred on it the appropriate name of aukanagaou^ 

 hterally, " the sky league." Here descending into one 

 of the many ravines, and crossing an enormous mass 

 of rounded rock overflowed by perpetual streams, the 

 ascent recommences by passages so steep as to be ac- 

 cessible only by means of steps hewn in the smooth 

 stone. On approaching the highest altitude, vegetation 

 suddenly ceases ; and, at last, on reaching the base of 

 the stupendous cone which forms the pinnacle of the 



^ Oud en Kieino Oost-Indien, cli. 

 xvi. p. 370. 



- 1)e Couto, in confirmation of the 

 pious conjecture that tlie footstep on 

 the summit was that of St. Thomas, 

 asserts that all the trees on the Peak, 

 and for half a leafjue on all sides 



aroimd it, hotel their crou'ns in the di- 

 rection of the relic ; a homage which 

 could only be offered to the footstep 

 of an Apostle : " todas por todas as 

 partes fazem com suas copas hum 

 inclinacao pera a sen-a," &c. — Asia, 

 ^•c, dec. V. lib. vi. ch. ii. 



