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JOURNAL, R.A.S. (CEYLON). [VOL. XVIIL. 
Proceeding along the old royal street now disused the Maligawatta 
is reached, the site of the three-storied Temple of the Sacred Tooth» 
Torn down by the fanaticism of Portugal and converted into a Romish 
Church, it was levelled to the ground, and if we are to credit Pridham, 
most of the materials removed to build the Dutch Church at Wolfen- 
dahl. At last the land came into the hands of the tribe of Grenerseric 
the Vandal. Not content with selling the pillars, carved capitals, 
pilasters, and dressed slabs lying about, the massive foundations of the 
palace werq attacked on one side and the firmly cemented granite 
rubble sold and carted away. In the course of these " excavations " 
the huge iron tripod or lamp on which the lights blazed at festivals was,. 
I understand, unearthed, and other sundries, but where they are at 
present, the deponent not knowing, cannot say. For a short period 
operations were suspended, the property being encumbered ; the land 
has, however, reverted and the work of destruction recommenced. It 
has entered on a new phase, and the digging has commenced on the 
hitherto untouched sites of the Natha, Vishnu^ and Saman Dewdlas 
which supported the Temple of the Tooth, and some beautifully carved 
granite capitals have been already thrown up. Their fate is not un- 
certain, as the Maligawatta is the common quarry of the village. To 
set out one more instance of the kind, at the village of Pita Kotte, 
which constituted the outer city, stood the dagaba and temple, where, 
according to tradition, before their coronation, the monarchs of Kotte 
used to ride on horseback for the ceremony of cutting the talipot 
tree, springing into life again like the golden bough of Virgil with the 
advent of each successive ruler ; and the same spot, adds the legend, 
will see the palm sprout again when a prince of the Siiiihalese should 
be born to wield the sceptre. The temple had vanished centuries ago 
with the other Buddhist buildings, and the dagaba which had remained 
intact, spared alike by conqueror and by time, has recently been taken 
in hand by an enterprising villager, and the bricks^inphe dome are 
being daily abstracted to build a house which isjrising in the neigh- 
bourhood. Now, only the basement is left of it. and that too is fast 
disappearing. The peasant passing the spot by night fancies he sees 
a white figure on a white steed holding his sword aloft, and imagines 
it the spirit of the unborn monarch, for the belief is^ general among the 
peasantry of the lowlands that a prince called Diyasena — as Arthur, 
or Barbarossa — will appear at the supreme moment of his country's 
fortune, who will alike be national king and Messiah, proof against 
shot and shell, and that he will revive the glory of the ancient capital, 
build its walls anew, and that once again a Siiiihalese prince will ride 
in State to strike the sacred talipot and be crowned king of a united 
La^ka. Such is the national dream that clings to the hoary ruin ! 
The steps leading down from the ancient moat, and many of the 
stones that paved it, have been removed, and the stone lintels, nay the 
very slabs with which the public buildings had been paved, have been 
