Chap. IX.] 



LIGHTJS^ING CONDUCTORS. 



507 



and the kuowledge of conduction is implied by an ex- 

 pression of LucAN, who makes Aruns, the Etrmian flamen, 

 concentrate the flashes of Hghtuing and dii'ect them 

 bcneatli tlie sm^face of the earth : — 



" disperses fulminus ipiies 

 Colligit; et teiTse mjesto cum miu'mure cendit." 



PJmrs. lib. i. v. 606. 



Tere is scarcely an indication in any work that has 

 come down to us fi*om the first to the fifteenth cen- 

 tury, that the knowledge of such phenomena survived 

 in the western world ; but the books of the Singhalese 

 contain allusions which demonstrate that in the third 

 and in tlie fftJi century it was the practice in Ceylon 

 to apply mechanical devices with the hope of securing 

 edifices from lightning. 



The most remarkable of these passages occurs in 

 connection -with the following subject. It will be 

 remembered that Dutugaimunu, by whom the great 

 dagoba, known as the Euanwelle, was built at Anara- 

 japoora, died during the progress of the work, B. c. 137, 

 the completion of which he entrusted to his brother and 

 successor Saidaitissa.^ The latest act of the dying 

 king was to form "the square capital on which the 

 spire was afterwards to be placed ^, and on each side of 

 this there was a representation of the sun." ^ The Ma- 

 hawanso states briefly, that m obedience to his brother's 

 mshes, Saidaitissa " completed the pinnacle," ^ for which 

 the square capital before alluded to served as a base ; 

 but the Diimivanso, a chronicle older than the Maha- 

 ivanso by a century and a half, gives a minute account 

 of this stage of the work, and says that this pinnacle, 

 which he erected between the years 137 and 119 before 

 Cluist, was formed of glass.^ 



^ 3Iahaivanso, ch. xxxii. p. 198. 

 See ante, Vol. I. Pt, lu. cli. v. p. 358. 

 2 Ihixl, ch. xxxi. p. 192. 

 ' Ibid., ch. xxxii, p. 19-3. 

 4 Ibid., ch. xxxiii. p. 200. 



^ "Karapesi khai'a-pindan maha 

 thupe Taruttame." For this refer- 

 ence to the Dipaivanso I am indebted 

 to Mr. De Alwis of Colombo. 



