den of Eden had come again.

But I could not long be deceived, for at the very foot of this hill was
the most famous Buddhist temple of Ceylon. If this is Paradise, it is
Paradise Lost. Here Buddha's tooth is worshiped, and here a newly
discovered bone of his body is to add sanctity to the temple. We
attended the evening worship, which consisted of a torchlight
procession of priests, with beating of tom-toms and frenzied dancing
of musicians, which would have done credit to the savagery of the Fiji
Islands. The temple here has no lofty pagoda. It shows what the
original pagoda really was, for this temple has a number of
bell-shaped structures resting on the ground. Next, historically, came
the elevation of the bell upon a stone platform; and, finally, the
lifting of it into the air, resplendent with gilding. Kandy
illustrates the humble beginnings of Buddhistic worship, but with
later accessories begotten by irrational devotion.

I should mention, however, the only sign of intelligence which I found
in this Buddhist temple. It was the library of Pali manuscripts
containing the sacred books and stories of Buddha's life and doctrine.
Many of these manuscripts were written on palm-leaves and were wrapped
in silken coverings. Some had been presented by Siamese and by Burmese
kings. Some were ancient. I saw no priest who could read them, and I
fancy that the sacred books are really studied only by pundits, whose
vocation is that of teaching, and whose personal beliefs may be very
different from those of orthodox Buddhism. It was pleasant to find, not
far from the Temple of the Tooth, a little church of the English
Baptists, which sends out light into all the surrounding darkness. Its
pastor is a native Christian, who preaches every Sunday morning in
Cingalese and every Sunday evening in English, while his week-days are
devoted to the work of conducting an English boys' school.

Kandy is celebrated also for its botanical gardens. Only those of Java
compare with them in completeness. The long avenues of palms of
different varieties--palmyra, talipot, sago, royal, sealing-wax--and the
specimens of bamboo, India rubber, and rain-tree, are unique and
wonderful. The rain-tree is so called because the vast spread of its
branches and the density of its foliage collect the dew to such an
extent as actually to water the ground upon which it drops. Think of
viewing in one morning of two hours' length, a score of trees we had
hithert