CUAP. IX.] 



LIGHTNING CONDUCTOES. 



507 



and the knowledge of conduction is implied by an ex- 

 pression of LUCAN, who makes Aruns, the Etrurian flamen, 

 concentrate the flashes of lightning and direct them 

 beneath the surface of the earth : 



" disperses fulminis ignes 

 Colligit. et terrae moesto cum murmure cendit." 



Phars. lib. i. v. 606. 



There is scarcely an indication in any work that has 

 come down to us from 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 the fifth century it was the practice in Ceylon 

 to apply mechanical devices with the hope of protecting 

 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 Kuanwelle, 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 Saidatissa. r The latest act of the dying 

 king was to form "the square capital on which the 

 spire was afterwards to be placed 2 , and on each side of 

 this there was a representation of the sun." 3 The Ma- 

 hawanso states briefly, that in obedience to his deceased 

 brother's wishes, Saidatissa, his successor, " completed 

 the pinnacle," 4 for which the square capital before alluded 

 to served as a base; but the Dipawanso, a chronicle 

 older than the Mahawanso by a century and a half, 

 gives a minuter account of this stage of the work, and says 

 that this pinnacle, which Saidatissa erected between the 

 years 137 and 119 before Christ, was formed of glass. 5 



1 Mahaicanso, ch. xxxii. p. 198. 

 See ante, Vol. I. Pt. m. ch. v. p. 358. 



2 Ibid., ch. xxxi. p. 192. 



3 Ibid., ch. xxxii. p. 193. 



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



5 "Karapesi khara-pindan malm 

 thupe varuttame." For this refer- 

 ence to the Dipaicanso I am indebted 

 to Mr. DE ALWIS of Colombo. 



