WONDERFUL STATUE--DAGOBOS--TEMPLES AND OTHER RUINS--CONSIDER HOW TO FIND
MY WAY BACK TO THE CAMP--MEET A HERMIT--ATTACKED BY A BUFFALO--KILL IT
WITH ONE SHOT--THE UNEXPECTED MEETING WITH AN OLD ENGLISH GENTLEMAN--
ACCOMPANY HIM TO HIS CAMP--WHO HE PROVES TO BE--MEET LUMSDEN, MY
SCHOOLFELLOW--INQUIRIES ABOUT ALFRED--ANXIETY AS TO NOWELL'S FATE--WE
SET OUT IN SEARCH OF HIM AND DANGO--COLONY OF PAROQUETS--THE ANTHELIA--
FIND DANGO--THE FATE OF AN ELEPHANT-HUNTER.
I slept for an hour or more under the bo-tree, held sacred by the
worshippers of Buddah, in front of those strange, fantastic, and
gigantic remains of a bygone age and people. When I awoke, there was
Solon sitting exactly in the attitude in which I had seen him when I
went to sleep. The moment I opened my eyes, he began to lick my face
and hands, and to show every sign of satisfaction.
"It is your turn to sleep now, old Solon," said I, patting him on the
head, and pressing him down on the ground.
He seemed to understand me, and giving a couple of turns round, he
coiled himself up, and in a moment was fast asleep. I do not think that
he had been asleep ten minutes before he jumped up, wagged his tail, and
ran forward, as much as to say--
"I am all ready now, master, to begin our journey; and it is high time,
I am sure, to be off."
I thought so likewise, but in what direction to go I could not tell, nor
did Solon seem to know much more about it.
Anxious, however, as I was to rejoin Nowell, I scarcely liked to leave
the extraordinary place in which I found myself without exploring the
vast ruins by which I was surrounded. Daylight showed me that they
extended to an immense distance; the whole surface of the ground, as far
as my eye could reach, was covered with fragments of an ancient city;
the ground in many spots was literally coloured red by the masses of
brick crumbled into dust, while around I saw scattered in vast
quantities large and massive columns, which once must have formed a
support to innumerable temples, palaces, and public buildings of various
sorts. Many parts of the ruins were completely overgrown with jungle.
I was forcing my way through it, when I saw at a little distance, partly
concealed by the foliage, a large elephant. I thought that he appeared
to be standing listening to ascertain in what direction I was coming.
"An undoubted rogue," I said to myself, examining my rifle to ascertain
that the caps were on, and to be ready to fire should he attack me. I
signed to Solon to keep close at my heels, and approached the monster
cautiously. It was just the place where I might expect to meet with a
perfect rogue. I crept on slowly. I was surprised to find that Solon
took no notice of the elephant, though he kept, as I ordered him, close
behind me. The elephant did not move. I got nearer and nearer. There
he stood, ready, it seemed, to make a rush at me. I expected to see him
lift up his trunk and commence the assault; but he did not make the
slightest movement that I could perceive. To be sure he was
considerably hidden by the foliage. Perhaps he might be asleep.
Elephants do sleep standing. That I knew. He might have been stamping
with his feet, or cocking up his ears, for very frequently, as I
advanced, he was almost entirely concealed by the thick bushes. I had
got within twenty paces of the monster, when, obtaining a clearer view
than before, I was struck by the unusual colour of the hide. Still
nearer I got. Surely an ear was wanting, and the trunk was of a very
odd shape. In another minute I was indulging in a hearty fit of
laughter, as I found myself standing close under the elephant. No
wonder it did not move, nor had it for many hundred years, for it was
carved, though roughly, out of a mass of stone; there it stood--a beast
of great size and excellent workmanship; and further on were fragments
of other elephants and bulls, as also of pedestals and stone sarcophagi,
covered with the most grotesque human figures, and many other curious
designs.
Wandering on for some distance, and passing all sorts of ruins, and
figures, and pillars, I came to what I took to be a lofty circular hill
covered with shrubs. On getting nearer, I found a terrace, or platform,
surrounding it, out of which protruded the heads of gigantic elephants,
as if their bodies were supporting the seeming hill, but which I soon
discovered to be no hill, but a vast edifice, shaped like half an
egg-shell, composed of bricks, like the pyramids of Egypt. I went up
the steps leading to the terrace, and entered beneath this wonderful
structure through a low archway. Passages appeared to run through it in
different directions, but the horrible odour of the bats, which had
taken up their abode in those dark recesses for ages, and the fear I
naturally felt of meeting serpents or bears, induced me to refrain from
going further. The wonderful building I have been describing, was, I
discovered, a dagoba--of which there are numbers in Ceylon--built much
with the same object as the pyramids of Egypt, and unsurpassed, except
by them, by any edifices in the world in point of size, and I may add,
in utter want of utility or beauty. They were constructed, likewise, in
all probability, with pain and suffering, amid the groans, and tears,
and sighs of some conquered or enslaved people like the Israelites of
old. Many of them were built from two to three hundred years before the
birth of our Lord.
Hurrying on, and feeling like one of the heroes in an Eastern tale who
suddenly finds himself in an enchanted city, as I gazed from side to
side at the wonderful ruins and remains I met, I reached another dagoba
of far vaster size than the one I had left. It was covered with trees,
and huge masses of brick had been driven out of it by their roots; but
still its stupendous outlines were, it seemed, but little altered from
what they had been originally. I afterwards heard particulars about it.
It had been originally 405 feet from the ground to the summit of the
spire. It was built before the Christian era, and it is even now--most
of the spire having been destroyed--250 feet in height. The radius of
its base is 180 feet, which is, I believe, the same measurement as the
height of the dome from the ground. I was struck by the way in which
these huge structures, commemorative of man's pride and folly, have been
triumphed over by nature. Tall trees grow on their very summits, and
their roots have wrenched and torn asunder the most gigantic and massive
masonry, and hurled it crumbling to the plains below. Sir Emmerson
Tennent, in his delightful work on Ceylon, describes one of these
dagobas, that of Jayta-wana-rama, erected by Mahasen, A.D. 330:--
"It still rises to the height of 249 feet, and is clothed to the summit
with trees of the largest size. The solid mass of masonry in this vast
mound is prodigious. Its diameter is 360 feet, and its present height
(including the pedestal and spire) 249 feet, so that the contents of the
semicircular dome of brickwork and the platform of stone, 720 feet
square, and 14 feet high, exceed 20,000,000 of cubical feet. Even with
the facilities which modern invention supplies for economising labour,
the building of such a mass would at present occupy five hundred
bricklayers from six to seven years, and would involve an expenditure of
at least a million sterling. The materials are sufficient to raise
eight thousand houses, each with 20 feet frontage, and these would form
thirty streets half a mile in length. They would construct a town the
size of Ipswich or Coventry; they would line an ordinary railway tunnel
20 miles long, or form a wall one foot in thickness and 10 feet in
height, reaching from London to Edinburgh. In the infancy of art, the
origin of these `high places' may possibly have been the ambition to
expand the earthen mound which covered the ashes of the dead into the
dimensions of the eternal hills--the earliest altars for adoration and
sacrifice. And in their present condition, alike defiant of decay and
triumphant over time, they are invested with singular interest as
monuments of an age before the people of the East had learned to hollow
caves in rocks, or elevate temples on the solid earth." Having somewhat
satisfied my curiosity, I felt that I should not delay a moment longer
in trying to find my way back to my friends. How this was to be
accomplished I could not tell. I tried to get Solon to lead the way,
but though he wagged his tail and looked very wise when I spoke to him,
running on ahead a short distance, he always came back again to my
heels, and evidently did not know more about the matter than I did. The
affair was now growing somewhat serious. Nowell would, I had no doubt,
be wandering about searching for me, and Mr Fordyce could not fail to
be excessively anxious at our not returning. To start off again through
the forest in the expectation of falling in with them seemed worse than
useless. We might be wandering about day after day, searching for each
other in vain, till all our ammunition was expended, and might easily
then fall victims to rogue elephants, or bears, or other wild beasts.
The contemplation of such a catastrophe was not pleasant; but still,
what was to be done? I asked the question of myself over and over
again, I examined my ammunition, and found that I had eight bullets and
a dozen or more charges of small shot, with an ample supply of powder;
so that, if I did not throw my shots away, I might hope to supply myself
with food for several days. To stand still would never do. I believed
my friends were to the south of me, so I was pushing on in that
direction, when suddenly I came upon an open space free from jungle,
with a beautiful expanse of water, blue and glittering in the sunshine,
spread out before me. Tall trees fringed the greater part of its banks;
but here and there columns, and domes, and carved arches, and huge
statues appeared among them, their strange and fantastic images
reflected in the mirror-like surface. Beyond them, towering up into the
clear sky, rose at different distances several of those prodigious
structures, the dagobas, which I have described. The whole scene, as I
beheld it in the light of that clear atmosphere, under the blaze of the
noonday sun, was most enchanting, while I sat down to shekel myself from
the heat beneath the shade of a mass of ruins, with wide-spreading
branches extending from their walls, which formed a complete roof over
my head. The site of the ruined city into which I had wandered must
thus, I discovered, be of many miles in extent, and gave me an idea of
the power and magnificence of the monarchs who once possessed the
territory. While England was scantily inhabited by tribes of painted
barbarians, here existed a people who had attained a high state of
civilisation, living in richly adorned palaces, having magnificent
temples, carving statues of gigantic proportions, erecting tombs and
monuments equal in height to mountains, and forming reservoirs of
lake-like extent. And now, how great the contrast! Those people were
then, and have ever since remained, sunk in the grossest superstition;
while the British, blessed with the light of gospel truth, have risen to
that height of civilisation which has given us the complete mastership
over the now fallen race which inhabit the country. I do not know that
I said this in exactly these terms, but such was the tenor of the
thoughts which passed through my mind.
While I was resting and trying to determine some definite plan to pursue
in order to find either Nowell or Mr Fordyce, I saw a figure emerge
from some ruins on my right, and approach the late. It was that of an
old man. His skin was of a dark brown, and he wore a long white heard,
with a loose robe cast over his shoulder and round his loins. His whole
appearance was in thorough keeping with the scene. He filled a gourd he
carried with water, and was returning to the place he came from, when
his eye fell on me. He started on seeing me, and then, putting down his
water-pitcher, advanced towards where I was sitting. I rose to receive
him, as I should have done had he been the poorest peasant; but from the
dignity of his air and the gravity of his countenance, he seemed to be
much above that rank. He salaamed, and so did I, imitating his action;
but it appeared that here our power of intercourse must cease, for I
soon discovered that he did not understand a word of my language more
than I did of his.
"Though I cannot speak to him, I will try, however, what effect signs
may have," I said to myself.
I set to work at once. I took my stick and drew an outline of the shape
of the island on the sand. Then I made a mark in the position of Kandy,
and another on the east side to show the position of Trincomalee,
clearly pronouncing the names of those two places. Then I mounted my
stick, to show that I was riding along from one to the other, and I put
my arm out in the shape of a trunk, to show him that there were
elephants, and I changed my stick from hand to hand, by which I wished
him to understand that there were a number of people with us. Having
marked a line somewhere between Kandy and Trincomalee, I drew some tents
on the sand, and seizing my gun, and putting it next to the stick twice,
to show that two people accompanied me, I ran on as if in chase of
animals. Then I left my stick and ran up to the ruins, and putting my
head down to the ground, showed that I had slept there. Then I got up
and ran about in different directions, to show that I could not decide
which way to go. The old man seemed fully to comprehend me, and I
understood by the signs he made that if I would accompany him to his
abode, he would show me the way I was to take. I accordingly followed
him, when, taking up his gourd of water, he led me to a small hut in
front of a large and aged pippul-tree, a species of banyan or Indian
fig. The tree was surrounded by a wall covered with a variety of carved
work. There were steps leading up to it, and a number of statues and
monuments within the enclosure. I remarked the leaves, which were
constantly moving, like our own aspen. Its leaves were heart-shaped,
with long attenuated points, and were attached to the stems by the most
slender stalks. I had no difficulty in recognising it as one of the
sacred bo-trees of the Buddhists. The great bo-tree of Ceylon was
planted B.C. 288 years. It is, consequently, at the present time,
upwards of 2150 years old. I also at once guessed that the old man was
a Buddhist priest, the guardian of the tree, and of a little temple
close at hand, built apparently out of the ruins which lay scattered
around.
To show that he was hospitably inclined, he placed before me a dish of
rice mixed with sugar and honey, which I thought very nice; as also some
mangoes, and several other fruits, of which I was not sorry to partake,
as the not over-well cooked repasts of tough birds and buffalo flesh, on
which I had subsisted for the last two days, had made me wish for
vegetable diet.
Having partaken of all that the old man set before me, I signified that
I was anxious to commence my journey, the hottest time of the day having
now passed away. He understood me, and, taking a long staff in his
hand, he led the way, Solon and I following close behind him. He had
gone on some distance, when he stopped before a vast number of granite
columns fully twelve feet high, standing thickly together like the trees
of a forest. I do not exaggerate when I say that there were hundreds of
them, covering an immense extent of ground. The old man pointed at
them, then, sighing deeply, on he went. I afterwards learned that these
pillars are the remains of a vast monastery for Buddhist priests, built
by King Dutugaimunu one hundred and sixty years before Christ. It
obtained the name of the Brazen Palace, on account of it having been
roofed with plates of brass. It was raised on sixteen hundred columns
of granite twelve feet high, which were arranged in lines of forty in
each, so that it covered an area of upwards of two hundred and twenty
square feet. The structure which rested on these columns was nine
stories in height. It contained a thousand dormitories for priests, as
well as halls and other apartments for their exercise and accommodation.
"All these apartments were ornamented with beads which glittered like
gems. The roof of the chief hall was supported by pillars of gold,
resting on lions and other animals. The walls were adorned with pearls
and flowers formed of jewels. In the centre was a superb throne of
ivory, with a golden sun on one side and a silver moon on the other,
while a canopy studded with diamonds glittered above all. The rooms
were provided with rich carpets and couches, while even the ladle of the
rice-boiler was of gold."
This account gives us a tolerable notion of the luxury of the priestly
order of Buddhists in those days. Indeed, they seem to have taught
their followers that the most virtuous acts they could perform would be
to bestow their wealth upon them.
I certainly had no idea that such vast and magnificent edifices had
existed in that part of the world in those days. Leaving this region of
pillars, and passing several broken statues of different animals, we
were pursuing our way along the shores of another of those wonderful
tanks of which I have spoken, when suddenly I heard a shot in the
forest, then there was loud shouting and harking of dogs, and a huge
buffalo, mad with rage and fear, burst through the jungle, and catching
sight of the priest and me, with his head on the ground dashed towards
us. There was a tree at a little distance, but it was too far off for
the old man to reach before the buffalo would be up to us. I signed to
him to fly to it, intimating that I would defend him with my rifle. He
took my advice, and hastened towards it. Solon meantime ran off,
barking loudly, towards the buffalo. This distracted somewhat the
animal's attention, and he stopped to consider, apparently, which he
should attack first, I might have hit him where he stood, but I
preferred waiting till he came nearer, that I might have less chance of
missing him. He first made a charge at Solon, but the brave dog was too
quick for him, and nimbly leaped out of the way of his terrific horns.
Several times he stopped to butt at Solon, but without being able to
touch him. Then he turned towards me. Then my faithful dog saw that,
he attacked him still more pertinaciously. I was afraid, however, when
I fired, that I might hit the dog should I miss the buffalo, and I
therefore kept shouting, "Solon, Solon," to call him off. I never felt
more cool and composed. I really believe that I could have taken a
pinch of snuff if I had had one. It was very necessary that I should be
cool. The buffalo had got within ten paces of me, and in another
instant he would have been over me, when, aiming at his forehead, I
fired, and down he dropped in midway career, stone dead.
"Bravo, my lad, bravo!" I heard a voice exclaim from among the trees,
it seemed. "Capitally done, capital!"
I looked round and saw riding out of the wood on my left a somewhat
thin, but active, wiry-looking old man, but evidently from the tone of
his voice and his appearance a gentleman. Meantime the old priest came
back, and threw his arms round my neck to express to me the gratitude he
felt for the service I had done him. I thought that I even saw tears
trickling down his eyes. While this ceremony was going on, the old
gentleman rode up to the dead buffalo, and leaping from his horse
examined its head.
"A first-rate shot steadily planted. You are a young sportsman. How
came you here?" exclaimed the old gentleman.
I told him briefly how I was travelling through the country, and
following a deer had lost my companions.
"Not an uncommon occurrence. However, I can help you out of your
difficulties, I hope, and enable you to find your friends," he answered,
in a brisk, kind tone. "Come to my camp. We shall find it pitched not
more than two or three miles from this, towards the other end of this
wilderness of ruins."
While we were speaking, a couple of Moors, hunters by profession they
seemed, and other attendants, brown and scantily clothed, came up with a
number of dogs. They expressed great satisfaction at seeing the buffalo
dead, and cut out its tongue to carry away. The stranger directed them,
as I understood, to return to the camp, saying that he would follow
leisurely in a short time. He then turned to me.
"Thank the old Santon, and tell him you will not trouble him to come
further," said he.