pura (Anarajapura), was built, and you must remember Rameses II.
was by no means one of the earliest kings of Egypt, he came quite late
on in his country's history. His date was about thirteen hundred years
before Christ, and it must have been about eight hundred years after
that, though still you notice, 500 B.C., that this city was founded by
some Cingalese who are supposed to have come over from India. That makes
it between two thousand and three thousand years old, which we should
think ancient enough if we hadn't visited Egypt first. Anuradhapura
flourished for centuries as the capital of the Cingalese kings, who
often carried on savage battles with the Tamils when they came over from
India also.

Turn round now and examine that hill you wanted to climb a little while
ago and tell me if you can see anything peculiar about it. No, I don't
mean that large grey monkey who has just peeped at us in an impudent way
and then swung himself into hiding, though I admit he is very
interesting. I mean something odd about the hill itself. It is covered
with trees and jungle scrub certainly, as any ordinary hill might be,
but it is oddly steep and the sides rise very sharply from the ground.
It is an even shape too, more like an inverted bowl than a hill; or,
better still, just try to imagine some giant cutting off the dome of St.
Paul's and setting it down here in the jungle, wouldn't it look
something like that?

You don't quite agree, for you say that this has trees and bushes
growing on it and St. Paul's dome would be bare. That is so, but if St.
Paul's dome had been left for many hundreds of years in a country where
vegetation grows as fast as it does here, wouldn't it probably be grown
over too?

Yes, I _do_ mean it. That isn't a hill at all, but a huge brick
building called a dagoba, made by the same race of men who dug out this
tank, and whose descendants to-day, with tortoise-shell combs in their
hair, wait on us in the Colombo hotels.

[Illustration: LARGE GREY MONKEY.]

We will go back now to the place where we left that native cart and
driver and we'll find a dagoba which has been stripped of its trees, so
that we can see what it really looks like.

Hush! Do you hear that curious singing like a chant? Wait; there is a
procession of pilgrims. They come swinging round the corner of the road
in their picturesque flowing garments, and just at the turn they stop
and kneel with their hands held palms together before