at bravery, and in the end the issue of the day was decided by a
single combat between him and Elala, both mounted on huge elephants.
That must have been a fight indeed! Dutugemunu killed Elala and regained
the throne of his fathers, but he must have been a singularly
enlightened prince for his age, for he not only buried his fallen foe
with great honour but he gave orders that henceforth all music should
cease when bands were marching past his tomb, and that royalties were to
alight from their horses or palanquins and walk past on foot to do
honour to the mighty dead. Even in the nineteenth century one of the
princes from Kandy, who was flying from capture, obeyed the order and
would not allow himself to be carried past the spot! So the memory of
Elala and the great fight he made were kept alive as Dutugemunu had
intended they should be.

On this very slab where we are now sitting it is said that Dutugemunu
died. If not the actual stone, it is probably the spot. It was about 140
B.C., and when he knew he was dying he gave orders that he should be
carried out here, that his fast failing eyes might look their last on
the greatest monument of his reign. In the midst of his great city, with
its fine buildings and the great tanks he had caused to be made to give
the people water, he thought most of all of Ruanveli, partly because of
the sacred relic enclosed, but partly also because he had done a
wonderful thing in paying for all the labour that was used in its
building, instead of forcing his subjects to work for nothing, as was
the custom in his time.

There is much to examine in Ruanveli; we can see the casing of granite
running up the sides, we can examine a statue of the king himself and
many wonderful carvings; around the dagoba runs a magnificent granite
platform wide enough for six elephants to walk abreast, as no doubt they
did many times in the gay processions on festival days.

Behind the dagoba, not far off, is an immense lake, or tank, much larger
than that we saw this morning. It was considered a peculiar work of
merit for kings to make these tanks so that water could be stored up for
the use of the people, and they are found all over Ceylon; there is one
twenty miles in length!

The sun has fallen low by the time we pass on to the Brazen Palace. At
first, when we near it, we see merely a forest of columns with nothing
brazen about them; they are not very high, about twice the height of a
man perhaps, and