NO. 41.-1890.] REBELION DE CEYLAN. 457 



beforehand, for this place is held in great superstition and 

 veneration by every race in the East, who all contribute to 

 its worship, and make numbers of pilgrimages. After their 

 ablutions they dress themselves with great care in new 

 clothes and then go on ascending, hauling themselves up in 

 many places with cords, iron chains, and ropes ; so difficult 

 and dangerous is this part that it usually staggers the 

 boldest ; and after their bodies are parched by the sun 

 they esteem and look upon them with the same veneration 

 as if they had been relics. Midway up there is a bell which 

 the travellers strike, then make an examination of their 

 conscience ; if it sounds, they are pure and worthy to kiss 

 the footprint. The infidels think variously on it, for the 

 Gentiles say that it is a prophet, whom they call Budon, 

 which means "Wisdom," whom they say being the son 

 of a great monarch of the whole East, retired to this spot, 

 where he underwent great penance, afterwards becoming 

 to be worshipped as god ; with a great following of disciples 

 he passed over to Pegu. Inspired by prayer and fasting 

 he left that impression which was miraculously stamped 

 on the ground as a pledge and token of so great a 

 master. And the tooth, which is usually considered to 

 have belonged to a monkey, the Viceroy Don Constantino de 

 Braganza found in Jafanapatan, of which we shall speak 

 about in due time. With the lie is mixed up many other 

 lies, celebrating the life and miracles of their prophet, 

 which in many things conform with what is written about 

 St. Joseph, as Diego de Couto notices, making him to be the 

 Buddha (el Budon), and it is very probable that the 

 devil, to confound and throw disbelief on the life of this 

 holy being, surrounds him with fable. 



The Moors believe that in this place is Adam's tomb, 

 and that the footprint is his, because he was a giant. 



It was an error of some Hebrews to say that our first 

 parents were giants, and so tall that they passed over the sea 

 on foot from the primaeval earth about Paradise to Syria, 

 for we gather from Holy Scripture that the giants began 



