hen it is equinoctial, which
gives no shadow on any side.' Ingenious, if not convincing!

The Greek Church still regard Jerusalem as the middle of the world, and
Mr. Curzon tells that in their portion of the Holy Sepulchre they have a
magnificently decorated interior, in the centre of which is a globe of
black marble on a pedestal, under which, they say, the head of Adam was
found, and which they declare to be the exact centre of the globe.

The Mohammedans generally, however, regard the Kaabah at Mecca as--for
the present, at any rate--the true centre. This stone is supposed to
have been lowered directly from heaven, and all mosques are built to
look towards it. Even in the modern schools of Cairo, according to Mr.
Loftie, the children are taught that Mecca is the centre of the earth.

The Samaritans, however, look upon Gerizim as the holy mountain and
centre of the religious and geographical world. And the Babylonians
regarded the great Temple of Bel, according to Professor Sayce, as the
house of the Foundation Stone of Heaven and Earth.

Gaya, again, is the Mecca of the Buddhists, where Buddha sat under the
tree when he received enlightenment. This tree is the Bodhi tree
described by Buddhist writers as surrounded by an enclosure rather of an
oblong than of a square shape, but with four gates opening to the four
cardinal points. In the middle of the enclosure is the diamond throne
which a voice told Buddha he would find under a Pipal tree, which
diamond throne is believed to be of the same age as the earth. 'It is
the middle of the great Chiliocosm; it goes down to the limits of the
golden wheel and upwards it is flush with the ground. It is composed of
diamonds; in circuit it is a hundred paces or so. It is the place where
the Buddhas attain the sacred path of Buddhahood. When the great earth
is shaken this spot alone is unmoved. When the true law decays and dies
it will be no longer visible.'

According to Sir Monier Williams, a stone marked with nine concentric
circles is shown at Gaya as the diamond throne, and the Chiliocosm is
not the centre of the world alone but of the Universe.

But in China, also a land of Buddhists, we find another centre, and in
India there is an iron pillar at Delhi, dating from the fourth century,
supposed by the Brahmans to mark the centre from their point of view.
And in Southern India the Tamils have the Temple of Mandura, in the
innermost sanctuary of which a rock comes through