SACRED TOOTH OF BUDDHA. 175 



presents some good sculptures and other mural orna- 

 mentations. On entering the temple, priests in their 

 yellow robes and shaven heads, with much ceremony, 

 admitted us to an inner compartment, where there was 

 a handsome shrine containing the sacred tooth of 

 Buddha in a silver-gilt casket of the ordinary bell 

 shape — a piece of ivory about two inches long, for the 

 possession of which the late king of Siam had offered a 

 sum of money equal to forty thousand pounds sterling, 

 but the priests declined, finding it to their advantage 

 to keep the relic, and to exhibit it from time to time 

 to the faithful, which brings considerable sums into 

 their coffer. The original tooth was destroyed by the 

 Portuguese 300 years ago, which is conveniently 

 overlooked by the priesthood. There are also a great 

 many silver-gilt images of Buddha grouped within the 

 temple, and one of crystal, the most beautiful thing of 

 the kind ; it is enclosed in a casket of elegant work- 

 manship about eighteen inches high. 



With some difficulty, and after a donation, gratefully 

 -accepted by the priests, although poverty, as well as 

 celibacy, are strictly enjoined upon them by Buddha, 

 we managed to get through the throng which was just 

 on the point of filing off in ]:)rocession around the 

 temple. Near it there is one of those peculiar large 

 bell-shaped tombs of a Kandian king. 



