s next to the great Shwe Dagon pagoda in Rangoon. A temple
in Java is founded upon a single hair of Buddha's head. All this
superstition and imposture dates back to a couple of centuries before
Christ, and there is great reason to believe that the Roman Catholic
worship of relics is only an appropriation of this form of heathenism.

Christian schools and churches are doing much to undermine Buddhism in
Ceylon. Colombo is especially fortunate in possessing a noble college of
the Wesleyan Methodists and a strong institution of all grades with
eight hundred students. The English Baptists also have a very creditable
mission work under the charge of Messrs. Ewing and Charter; while Mr.
Woods is the able pastor of an English-speaking Baptist church. The
students of these various schools usually adopt the English dress. The
barefooted pupils first put on shoes, then the coat, finally the
trousers. In the end you can hardly distinguish them from Europeans.
These changes are more rapid in Colombo than in Madras. Indeed, British
rule is fast transforming what was first a Portuguese, and then a Dutch,
settlement into a city where English is universally known and spoken.

It was gratifying to find that the Government College, where the English
language alone is used, is opened every day with the reading of
Scripture and with prayer. But it was unpleasing to learn that, side by
side with these Christian influences, the Ananda College, a
theosophical institution, allied to Mrs. Besant of Madras, was exerting
an influence unfavorable to Christianity, not only by setting Buddha
side by side with Christ, but by urging the claim of Buddha to be the
supreme ethical teacher of the world.

Before I tell you of our visit to Buddhist temples, I must speak of the
refuge from them which we found at Nurwara Eliya, sixty-two hundred feet
above the sea. Colombo is only six degrees north of the equator. Here in
January the sun casts hardly any shadow at noon, and the middle of the
day is hot. Later in the year the heat is intense, day and night. So
British officials combine with the rich of every tongue, and even with
the missionaries, to make their summer quarters high up among the hills.
We were transported thither on a narrow-gage railway, cut into the sides
of precipices, running through tunnels, and so tortuous as to form a
hundred horseshoe loops. The road seemed almost a miracle of
engineering. But the views were beautiful beyond descriptio