Chap. II.] THE GOOECENDA TREE. 603 



of escaping by tlie intended overfall, burst the enor- 

 mous enbankment, and the tank was destroyed. This 

 took place at a period so remote, that the area of the 

 original lake now forms part of the forest, and venerable 

 trees, whose dimensions attest their age, cover the long 

 ridge of the embankment. 



Vigita-poora having been the residence of a king five 

 hundred years before the Christian era, was a fortress 

 and a city when Anarajapoora was still a village.^ One 

 of the episodes in the Mahaivanso describes its siege by 

 Dutugaimunu, B.C. 204, when it was surrounded by a 

 "triple battlement, and entered by a gate of n-on."^ So 

 late as the twelfth century, the city was rebuilt and its 

 monuments restored by Pi-akrama Bahu I. ; but such 

 has been the rapid decay, incident to the chmate, and 

 consequent on the desertion of the place, through fear 

 of the malaria diffused by the bursting of the great tank, 

 that hardly a vestige now remains except the founda- 

 tions of the fort, a dagoba evidently built of bricks taken 

 from the city wall, a few stone troughs and cliiseled 

 pillars, and the mounds of earth that serve to mark the 

 site of the ancient buildings. 



Whilst riding near the fort, oiu- attention was sud- 

 denly attracted by an intolerable stench proceeding 

 from the timber of a tree which was being felled by a 

 party of natives. These, equally with ourselves, seemed 

 overcome by the abominable smell emitted by the 

 tree, wliich is known by the Singhalese as the goorcenda 

 — a name expressive of this offensive quahty of its 

 wood. A gentleman long engaged in the department 

 of the Sm'veyor-general, assm-es me, that such is the 

 loathing and sickness produced by its fcetid odoiu-, that 

 when woodmen are engaged in feUing a boundary, the 

 simple word goorcenda ! passed along the line to indicate 

 that one of these odious trees requires to be removed, 



* It was the capital of Panduwaasa, B.C. 504. — Mahawunso, di. viii. p. 55. 



* Mahmvanso, cli. xxv. p. 152. 



