he ruins is a Buddhist
rock-temple, which, having been hewn out of the native stone, is still
intact, though supposed to date back three hundred years before our
era. It is only a small chamber about twenty feet square, containing
an altar and three stone figures of Buddha in different positions,
sitting, reclining, and standing. The entrance to the chamber is an
archway; on either side, inscriptions are engraven in the Pali
language, but these, we were informed, had never been translated. The
native rock, from which the small temple is cut, rises abruptly from
the level plain.

Anuradhapura, as wonderful in its way as Pompeii or Herculaneum, is
known as the ancient capital of Ceylon, and Pollonarua as the
mediaeval, but even the former is antedated by other half-buried cities
in the island, that of Bintenne, for instance, which exhibits ruins of
great interest and of admitted antiquity. There is a dagoba here which
is spoken of by the former Dutch occupants of the island, in A. D.
1602, as being still in good preservation, surmounted by a gilded
dome, while its smooth, white exterior was quite unblemished. The wear
and tear of the centuries has not yet obliterated this monument.

These dagobas, shaped like half an eggshell, are very similar to the
topes of India proper. The interior consists of earth and sun-dried
clay, built about and rendered substantial with burned bricks and
tiles, the whole being coated on the exterior with a stone-like mortar
or chunam. The burned bricks which are found in the debris of the
"buried cities" have their form quite perfect, and were so well fired
when made that they still retain their sharpness and consistency. The
best examples of brick-work are to be found among the ruins of
Pollonarua, where the mortar that was originally used shows the
remains of the burned pearl-oyster shells from which it was made. The
principle of the true arch secured by its keystone does not seem to
have been understood by the people of that period in this island,
though what is called the false arch, produced by projecting one layer
of bricks beyond another, is clearly shown. The carving in stone was
carried to a high degree of excellence, and is still in good
preservation, as shown upon slabs, risers to steps, and on octangular
columns of graceful proportions. The entrance to some of the
cave-temples also exhibits ability in the carving of stone which is of
no mean quality, depicting innumerable single f