No. 11.— 1858-9.] SINHALESE MYTHOLOGY. 



277 



edium of the Tamil ; viz,, the coral, pearl, cats's-eye, erne- 

 aid, diamond, sapphire, ruby, and topaz. The ninth is 

 eft undetermined. It is nila which probably means the 

 nU-amarti of the Tamils or the nil-keta of the Sinhalese, 

 which is commonly called k< the blue sapphire," and esteemed 

 of great value. And I may here advert to the fact that the 

 blue sapphire is sometimes formed of the Ceylon ruby, which 

 may be seen in various stages of formation, exhibiting the 

 shades which are produced by a mixture of the lake and 

 blue> 



4. The Deva who has not his parallel amongst the 

 Grecian and Roman gods, the most inimical to Buddhas, is 

 said to be MARA, the ruler of six heavens. No intelligible 

 eason is, however, given for his antagonism to Buddhism, 

 ut "the fear by his discourses many beings would obtain the 

 lessedness of the Brahma lokas, and the privilege of 

 irwdna* which would prevent the repeopling of the inferior 

 orld in which he reigned, when the Devos then inhabiting 

 t had fulfilled their period of existence,"* Though acknow- 

 ledged to be a being of mighty powers, he is nevertheless 

 epresented, owing to this opposition, as a Deva full of 

 S cunning." In the life of Buddha given by Osoma Korosi, he 

 s called " the devil,' 1 and is debcribed as being extremely 

 envious, and as reflecting thus : " Should he become Buddha 

 11 animal beings instructed by him, will grow judicious and 

 ise, and then they will not obey my com mands or order," 

 This hate of his towards Buddha, seems to resemble that 

 f Satan ; and his temptations the assaults of the Devil, 

 'or, when Siddharta left home to become Buddha, Mara, 

 he " agent of Sin," instantly appeared, saying, " let me 

 stop the great mortal," and rising aloft into the air, thus 

 addressed him: ' Mahaw-ero, depart riot: on the seventh 

 day from hence, the heavenly Ghakkaratanan will most 

 certainly come to pass. Then thou shalt exercise sovereign tyf 

 * Spence Hardy " Manual of Buddhism," p. 171. 



t " The de-vil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and 



