No. 29.— 1884.] 



BELIGALA. 



351 



analogy of nomenclature of rocks in the District, such as 

 Alagala, Batalagala, Urakanda, &c, make this probable ; 

 but tradition has a story that a Brahmin, travelling with a 

 shoot of the bo tree, rested beside a bell tree in this village, and 

 placed the sacred shoot on a branch of the belt tree, and went 

 to eat his rice ; when he came to remove the bowl it was 

 found that the shoot had grown down through the bowl and 

 beside the tree to the ground, and was firmly rooted there. 



'There is now neither bell nor bo tree on the rock. 



The path to the summit leads out of the courtyard of the 

 dwelling of the old Kerala who lives at the foot of the 

 rock, and who purchased the arable land on the summit 

 from the Grown in 1862. Steps are cut in the bare rock 

 somewhat after the fashion of those on the path to the Peak. 



Half-way up, and beside the path, there is a cave, about 

 eighteen yards deep by five yards wide, which tradition calls a 

 murage, or " guard-house." Higher up are the remains of a 

 stone rampart placed after the fashion of those at Si'giri, 

 and a heap of broken pillars and steps, which appear to have 

 been a gateway. Beyond this there is a flat space about 

 fifty yards by twenty, and by this the path went round 

 the summit to the south side, where the King's Palace 

 was situated. 



With some difficulty I ascended directly the north platform 

 of the Dalada Maligawa, and I annex a rough sketch showing 

 the positions of the places mentioned. The summit, I think, 

 is about eight or ten acres in extent, but it may be more. 



On this site there still remains a quantity of pillars, and 

 stones which appear to have been cornices with a plain 

 moulding, thus :— 



A number of pillars have been taken down by the Kerala, 

 along a " shoot " made of kitul tree trunks, to form base- 

 ment of granaries, thresholds, and steps. But as the pillars 



