66 JOURNAL, R A. S. (CEYLON). [Vol. VIL, Vt. J. 



hamlets in a rude way, these refuge places would naturally 

 be adopted with the first uprising of any primitive form of 

 natural religion as places pre-eminently fitted for the performance 

 of worship. It has struck the writer when, in travelling in the 

 Northern forests for miles under overarching trees, he has come 

 upon some bald black rock, and, ascending its summit, has 

 found a scooped-out water tank, a ruined dagoba, and a lovely 

 view of nature, that the tank which has outlived the flimsy dry 

 brick dagoba was in existence centuries before the religion was 

 revealed to which the dagoba was dedicated, — that the hill is 

 the holy place of some primitive worship , probably of fire, and 

 has been adopted by a later faith in a manner common through- 

 out the world. 



