148 EVERYDAY LIFE ON A 



merry-go-round. It looked wonderfully queer 

 to see the wooden steeds ridden by natives in 

 their very un English dress. A man clothed in a 

 garment like a long narrow petticoat does not 

 look elegant astride of a horse. 



Of course the great event of the day, or 

 rather night, is the procession. About 6 p.m, 

 which means dusk in this latitude, we went to 

 the Temple compound to see the preliminary 

 ceremony — the dressing of the elephants in all 

 their finery. No sooner had I entered the 

 enclosure than, much to my embarrassment, an 

 elephant was brought up to make a " salaam " 

 to the " Nona " (Sinhalese for lady.) This it did 

 by going down on its fore knees. This was, 

 of course, the signal for me to give a small 

 donation, and I have no doubt a good deal of 

 money is collected in this way. Having walked 

 round and inspected the other elephants, the 

 various shrines, and the sacred Bo tree, we 

 went home to have an early dinner before the 

 great event of the evening. 



About eight o'clock a gun was fired from the 

 temple as a signal for the procession to start. 

 First came men bearing flags, then the great 

 temple elephant carrying a silver gilt shrine 

 supposed to contain Buddha's tooth, (but it 

 doesn't,) the tooth is kept safely under lock 

 and key inside the temple. This huge beast 

 has a gorgeous face-cloth embroidered with 



