[extra no-. 



little gold which we gave to our guide. It is customary for 

 pilgrims to pass three days in f the cave of Khidhr? and during 

 this lime to visit the Foot morning and evening : and so did we. 



When the three days had elapsed, we returned by way of 

 the Mother s path, and encamped hard by the grotto of Cheim, 

 who is the same as Clie'ith f Seth) son of Adam. We halted in 

 succession near c the bay of fish,' the straggling villages of 

 Gormolah, Djeber-cdoudn, Dildineoueh and Atkalendjeh* It was 

 in the last named place that the Shaikh Abou 'Abd Allah, son of 

 Khafif passed the winter. All these villages and stations are on 

 the mountain. Near the base, on the same path, is the derakht 

 (dirakht) reman 'the walking tree,' a tree of great age, not one 

 of whose leaves falls. It is called by the name of mdckiah 

 (walking) because a person looking at it from above the moun- 

 tain considers it fixed a long distance off, and near the foot of 

 the hill; while one who regards it from beneath, believes it to be 

 in quite the opposite direction. I have seen at this place a band 



* [The correspondent before quoted writes : — "I fear the route taken by 

 the traveller after leaving Kurun6gala must always be a matter of conjecture. 

 I have given it some attention and I think it most probable that he went from 

 Kurun^gala towards the mountains and ascended Adam's Peak from the 

 pilgrim's path in Maskeliya. My reasons are — 



(i.) The extreme limit of the inhabited region was evidently a long way 

 from the Peak — this would be true on the Maskeliya side, but not true in the 

 low country, as there were villages comparatively near the Peak. 



(ii.) From the traveller's description he evidently went into the mountains 

 soon after leaving Kurun^gala, 



(in.) The names of places described are found on this route, and on no 

 other. 



(iv.) The traveller describes two routes as practicable. The 'father's 

 path' as rough and difficult, the ' mother's path' as easy and the way of return. 

 He went by the former, which is evidently the way through the hills and the 

 forest of Maskeliya. 



The most convenient pass from Kurunegala to the mountains runs past 

 Oirihagama, and there is a cave in the mountain side near a little vale 

 (exactly as described) which still retains the name Galagedara (' cave abode'). 



