clean.'"--H.C.]

[Illustration: Adam's Peak.

"Or est voir qe en ceste ysle a une montagne mont haut et si degrot de les
rocches qe nul hi puent monter sus se ne en ceste mainere qe je voz
dirai"....]

"The veneration with which this majestic mountain has been regarded for
ages, took its rise in all probability amongst the aborigines of
Ceylon.... In a later age, ... the hollow in the lofty rock that crowns
the summit was said by the Brahmans to be the footstep of Siva, by the
Buddhists of Buddha, ... by the Gnostics of Ieu, by the Mahometans of
Adam, whilst the Portuguese authorities were divided between the
conflicting claims of St. Thomas and the eunuch of Candace, Queen of
Ethiopia." (_Tennent_, II. 133.)

["Near to the King's residence there is a lofty mountain reaching to the
skies. On the top of this mountain there is the impress of a man's foot,
which is sunk two feet deep in the rock, and is some eight or more feet
long. This is said to be the impress of the foot of the ancestor of
mankind, a Holy man called _A-tan_, otherwise P'an-Ku." (_Ma-Huan_, p.
213.)--H.C.]

Polo, however, says nothing of the _foot_; he speaks only of the
_sepulchre_ of Adam, or of Sakya-muni. I have been unable to find any
modern indication of the monument that was shown by the Mahomedans as the
tomb, and sometimes as the house, of Adam; but such a structure there
certainly was, perhaps an ancient _Kist-vaen_, or the like. John
Marignolli, who was there about 1349, has an interesting passage on the
subject: "That exceeding high mountain hath a pinnacle of surpassing
height, which on account of the clouds can rarely be seen. [The summit is
lost in the clouds. (_Ibn Khordadhbeh_, p. 43.)--H.C.] But God, pitying
our tears, lighted it up one morning just before the sun rose, so that we
beheld it glowing with the brightest flame. [They say that a flame bursts
constantly, like a lightning, from the Summit of the mountain.--(_Ibn
Khordadhbeh_, p. 44.)--H.C.] In the way down from this mountain there is
a fine level spot, still at a great height, and there you find in order:
first, the mark of Adam's foot; secondly, a certain statue of a sitting
figure, with the left hand resting on the knee, and the right hand raised
and extended towards the west; lastly, there is the house (of Adam), which
he made with his own hands. It is of an oblong quadrangular shape like a
sepulchre, with a door in the middle, and is formed of great tabular slabs
of