105 



we have already shewn that so late as the year 302 a.d. a belief in 

 its existence was not entertained in Ceylon ; this tradition therefore 

 must take its place with the Buddhistic legends, invented as after- 

 thoughts to stamp with the seal of a hoar antiquity tales and places 

 of bat recent origin. It is also to be borne in mind, that as 

 Walagambahu (who the tradition asserts was in hiding at Bhaga- 

 walena,* when the revelation was made to him) did not fail, after 

 his recovery of the throne, to found rock temples in the caves and 

 mountains in which he abode while a fugitive — places where 

 inscriptions, cut at the time, still bear witness to the fact — it can 

 scarcely be an allowable supposition, that if he had really abode at 

 Baghawalena, and discovered the Foot-print while there, he would 

 not have founded similar viharas, and located companies of priests 

 at spots so memorable, with suitable endowments for their sup- 

 port, — a course of proceeding which was not adopted until many 

 centuries subsequent to his death. 



Tradition does not however leave us altogether in the dark 

 upon this subject." A ray of light is imparted to it from a quarter 

 where it is much to be desired that further investigations should 

 be carried on. 



In the inquiries made by Sir J. Emerson Tennent, respecting the 

 early intercourse of the Chinese with Ceylon, it came to his know- 

 ledge, that in the records of travels and pilgrimages made by 

 adventurous Chinamen at the commencement of the fourth century, 

 the writers speak reverentially of the sacred foot-mark impressed 

 by the first created man, who in their mythology bears the name 

 of Pawn-koo. j This appeared to me so very remarkable, that in 

 a note at p. 24 of my work upon Adam's Peak, I said, one is 



* The cave on the eastern side of the mountain, where, according to the legend, 

 Buddha rested after making the Foot -print. 



f Sir J. Emerson Tennent's Ceylon, vol. i. p. 586-7, 



