CUAP. IV.] 



AN ELEPHANT CORRAL. 



345 



is strewn with fragments of columns and carved stones, 

 the remnants of the royal buildings. The modern town 

 consists of the bungalows of the European officials, each 

 surrounded with its own garden ; two or three streets 

 inhabited by Dutch descendants and Moors ; and a 

 native bazaar, with the ordinary array of rice and curry 

 stuffs and cooking chattees of brass or burnt clay. 



But the charm of the village is the unusual beauty of 

 its position. It rests witliin the shade of an enormous 

 rock of gneiss upwards of 600 feet in height, nearly 

 denuded of verdure, and so rounded and worn by time 

 that it has acquired the form of a couchant elephant, 

 from which it derives its name of Aetagalla, the Eock 

 of the Tusker.^ But Aetagalla is only the last emi- 

 nence in a range of similarly-formed rocky mountains, 

 Avhich here terminate abruptly ; and, from the fantastic 

 shapes into which theu^ gigantic outhnes have been 

 wrought by the action of the atmosphere, are called by 

 the names of the Tortoise Eock, the Eel Eock, and the 

 Eock of the Tusked Elephant. So • impressed are the 

 Singhalese by the aspect of these stupendous masses that 

 in the ancient grants their lands are conveyed in perpe- 

 tuity, or '■''SO long as the sun and the moon, so long as 

 Aetasjalla and Anda2;alla shall endure."^ 



Kornegalle is the resort of Buddhists from the re- 

 motest parts of the island, who come to visit an ancient 

 temple on the summit of tlie great rock, to which access 

 is had from the valley below by means of steep paths 

 and steps hewn out of the soHd stone. Here the chief 

 object of veneration is a copy of the sacred footstep 



* Another enomious mass of gneiss 

 is called the Kununinia-galle, or the 

 Beetle-rock, from its resemblance in 

 shape to the back of that insect, and 

 hence is said to have been derived 

 the name of the town, Kuruna-yallc 

 or Korne-galle, 



2 FoRUES quotes a Tamil convey- 

 ance of land the pm-chascr of -wliich 

 is to "possess and enjoy it as long as 



the sun and the moon, tlie earth and 

 its vegetables, the mountains and the 

 lliver Cauveiy exist." — Orietitdl Me- 

 moirs, vol. ii. chap. ii. It will not fail 

 to be observed, tluit the .«tanie figure 

 was employed in Hebrew literature as 

 a type of duration — " They sliall fear 

 thee, so Imuj as the sun and moon en- 

 dure ; througliout all generations." 

 I'salm Ixxii. 5, 17. 



