178 COLOaiBO TO KAXDY. [Part VII. 



is detaclied and placed to one side, and the internal 

 organs exposed in fidl action. Each customer, as he 

 apphes, is served with any part selected, which is cut 

 off as ordered, and sold by weight. Each of the fins 

 is thus successively removed, with portions of the fat 

 and flesh, the turtle sho^\'ing, by its contortions, that 

 each act of severance is productive of agony. In this 

 state it Hes for hours, writliing in the sun, the heart ^ 

 and head being usually the last pieces selected, and till 

 the latter is cut off the snappmg of the mouth, and the 

 openuig and closing of the eyes, show that hfe is still 

 inlierent, even when the shell has been nearly divested 

 of its contents. 



The woods on the right bank of tlie river, in passing 

 the picturesque Bridge of Boats, conceal the remains of 

 Kalany and its temple, a place so ancient that it confers 

 its own name on the river which flows by its ruins. 

 The Mahaicanso refers to it as contemporary with 

 Buddlia^, and connects its history ^vith the partial sub- 

 mersion of the western shore of Ceylon, in the reign of 

 Devenipiatissa, a.d. 164. The original dagoba was 

 built five hundi'ed years before the Cluistian era, and 

 enlaro;ed three centuries later. But the one wliicli is 

 now stanchng was constructed between the years 1240 

 and 12G7, and rebuilt about a.d. 1301.^ 



Kalany is remarkable as the only Buddhist tem- 

 ple of importance in the \'icinity of Colombo. So 

 inveterate was the religious intolerance of the Dutcli, 

 that they abohslied every idolatrous estabhshment within 

 the range of their guns, and not content Avith this, 

 they proliibited, in 1602, the celebration of the Buddliist 

 Avorship at Kalany, and ordered the priests to withdraw 

 from the temple.'^ At tlie present day, so sacred is 

 the spot, that it is the resort of pilgrims from distant 



I Aristotle -was aware of the fact i p. 96; ch. xxii. p. 1-30 ; eh. Ixxx. p. 

 that the tiu-tle will live after the I 20. Upham. 

 removal of the heai-t. — Do Vita et i ^ Rajnvnli, pp. 2o7 — 2-59. 

 M'irfe, ch. ii. 1 * Sir J. Emerson Teitn'ent's Hi^. 



' Mahaivaiiso, oh. ii. p. !• : oh. xv. of Christ iaiiif;/ in Cti/hn, ch. ii. p. 55. 



