410 KECOLLECTIONS OT A JOlJRNEf 
found, however, that his arguments were not Hkely to avail 
much, he disappeared. In a short time he returned, bring- 
ing with him a number of plants, a portion of which he 
gave to each of us. He took great pains to impress us 
with a behef in the potency of their virtues, and informed 
us, that, by wearing a part of one of them as an amulet, 
we should be protected from the injurious attacks of bears. 
In like manner, some were calculated to protect us from 
elephants ; and others from devils, sickness, &c. One herb 
he asserted would prevent misfortune, sickness, and evils 
of every kind *, 
• It is not improbable that the priest did really entertain fears that we 
should become sick, by remaining all night in the vicinity of a place which 
is held remarkable for holiness, and that he considered the amulets, with 
which he provided us, necessary for our protection. The Buddhists them- 
selves approach celebrated temples and depositaries of the relics of Buddhoo 
with a veneration mixed with terror, and seem always apprehensive that 
some evil may happen to them. Europeans are not considered to be 
favourites of the oriental divinities ; and it is the universal opinion of the 
Kandyans, that misfortune and disease owe their origin to the vengeance of 
good or bad spirits. Before the Captivity, the Jews hdd opinions, in this 
respect, not very different from the Kandyans. With the view of averting 
disease, and any national calamity, the Jews made expiatory sacrifices, 
which consisted of both animal and vegetable substances ; and for a similar 
purpose, the Kandyans devote a portion of their ordinary food (rice) as a 
means of assuaging the wrath of a malignant spirit. Sometimes, however, 
during disease, they promise to present some article of value to a particular 
Vihary (temple), in the event of recovery. I have known the figure of art 
eye, in silver, placed under the keeping of the priests of a temple, upon 
recovery from an attack of ophthalmia. The means of propitiation adopted 
by the Philistines, as recorded in 1 Samuel, chap, vi., resembles that of the 
inhabitants of Ceylon. In ancierit times, a similar practice obtained in the 
Greek temples. Sprengel, in his History of Medicine, informs us, that it 
was customary for individuals labouring under disesse, to resort to certairt 
places that were deemed sacred, in the hope of recovery; and adds^ 
