ly and skillful workers in
brass, iron, and glass, articles unearthed among these ruins
abundantly testify. Further explorations and excavations will
doubtless result in valuable information. Five or six feet of earth,
upon an average, must be removed before the process of uncovering can
be said to have fairly commenced, so that the prospective labor of
exhumation is simply immense. Still, almost every year brings some new
enthusiast to the front, whose time and money are freely devoted to
this object until his ardor is appeased, and he leaves the field to
some one else. A steadily sustained effort, aided and directed by the
government, might accomplish something worth recording, but such
desultory and spasmodic attempts are of very little account. At
Pompeii, where, by persistent effort, a whole city has been unearthed,
we see what such exhumation signifies, though the circumstances are
not precisely similar, the one having been suddenly covered by an
eruption of the neighboring volcano, while the other yielded to the
wear of time and the effect of foreign invasions. A score of cities,
however, like Pompeii would not cover the area once occupied by this
vanished metropolis.

The ancient capital was named in honor of a certain prince, Anuradha,
by whom it was founded twenty-five centuries ago. A thousand years
since, this city was still populous, gay, and beautiful, with fragrant
gardens, thriving shops, proud dwellings, gilded palaces, lofty
temples, religious processions, and frequent displays of royal
pageants. The Singhalese chronicles are full of references to
agricultural prosperity, to ample herds, the breeding of cattle, and
the extensive culture of grain. They speak of women who were treated
with great deference, and of priestesses and queens who held high
places with honor. Rich furniture was used in the dwellings, and
costly textures for dress, these of course imported from other
countries. Though the inhabitants of Anuradhapura were not themselves
a maritime people, they were constantly visited by others from afar,
who brought with them rich goods to exchange for pearls and precious
stones. We know that Ceylon was rich in these at that period, even as
she is at the present time, and exported peacocks, apes, and ivory. In
the ancient Hebrew records, the names of these were the same as those
known at present to the natives in this island. To-day, mutability is
written upon its scattered and neglected ruins in