253 
Dorahimm of Cmuhj . 
and liis memcry also perpetuated by a lamp kept eontinually 
bui'Ding. They vrere revered as deities, and were all buried in 
one large temple near their aiitient city of Anurodgburro. This 
temple, or rather tomb, most have been a piece of uncom- 
monly excellent architecture for the age in which it was erected, 
if we may judge from the vestiges which actually remain to 
this da}x The characters engraved on the pillars and other 
parts of the building, which time has not yet effaced, could 
never be explained by any of the persons sent by the Portu- 
guese or Dutch for that purpose ; nor have any of the natives 
been found v/ho could throw any light on tlie subject. Owing 
to the distance of Anurodgburro from Candy, and the terrors 
of a barbarous court, it is much frequented by priests and 
other Cinglese, v/lio come here to pay devotion to their saints. 
It was here that the stately temples and pagodas of the Cey- 
lonese worship formerly stood, as appears by the massy pillars 
and hewn stones which still remain. The Portuguese, how- 
ever, made themselves masters of the town, and found in it 
more objects for their ravages than they had hitherto met 
with in the other parts of the island. They pulled down with- 
out remorse the religious edifices with which it was adorned, 
and transported the choicest of the materials to fortify Co- 
Iiiinbo and the other towns which they erected on the sea- 
coasts. This act of sacrilege tended more than any thing else 
to alienate the minds of the natives ; and the Ceylonese still 
record it with horror. 
The whole of the King’s country, with the exception of the 
plains around Anurodgburro, present a constant interchange of 
steep mountains and low vallies. The excessive thickness of 
the woods, v/hicli cover by far the greatest portion of the comi- 
