572 



THE RUINED CITIES. 



[Part X. 



which these are spread rise to the aUitude of 5000 

 feet, wooded to their summits, and exhibiting noble 

 specimens of some of the most remarkable trees in 

 Ceylon, particularly tahpat palms of towering height, 

 and iron-wood trees, with crimson tipped fohage and 

 mounds of dehcate flowers. Nestled in a valley en- 

 closed by these magnificent liihs hes the picturesque 

 town of Matelle, commanded by the now abandoned 

 earthwork of Fort Mac Dowell. 



Although no architectural antiquities remain to 

 attest its former importance, Matelle, the Malia-talawa 

 of the Singhalese chronicles, has been the scene of 

 memorable events in the history of Ceylon.^ Ninety 

 years before the Christian era, it was one of the resi- 

 dences of the King Walagam-bahu, when driven from his 

 capital by the Malabar invaders, and in the seventeenth 

 century, a. d. 1630, it was formed into a principahty, and 

 conferred by King Senerat on the son of liis predeces- 

 sor, Wimala Dharma.^ Some of the wealthiest of the 

 Kandyan chiefs have their residences in its vicinity^, 

 and to the present day traces of the former luxury of 

 the district are to be discovered in the occupations 

 of the people. They excel in carving ivory, and in 

 chasing the elaborately ornamented knives and swords 

 of ceremony, which were formerly Avorn at the Kandyan 

 court ; they weave dehcate matting for covering couches, 

 and they paint, with a lacquer prepared by themselves, 

 the shafts of the spears and wands which were formerly 

 carried on occasions of ceremony.^ 



About two miles north of Matelle the road passes 

 within sight of the Alu Wihara, the temple in which, a 



^ JRaJaratnacari, p. 4.3, 3Iahawanso 

 (Upham's Version), vol. i. cli. xxxiii. 

 p. 210, Turnotik's^;m/o?;(<',cSc.,p. 19. 



2 See mifc, Vol. II. Pt. vi. cli. ii. p. 

 41. The fullest account ol'tliis inter- 

 esting district, will be found in iNlajor 

 FoRBEs's Eleven Years in. Cei/lo/i, the 

 author having held for some years an 

 official appointment at Matelle. 



' Among others, the patrimonial 

 mansion and estates of the tmhappy 

 Elieylapola, tlie tragedy in whose 

 familv has been filreadv related, 

 Vol. II. I't. VI. ch. iii. p. 87. 



■* For the preparation of this lac- 

 quer see ante, Vol. I. Pt. iv. ch. vii. 

 p. 401, n. 



