ce and
oriental luxury, the other is the sweet and simple emblem of Nature
undefiled. Thus she covers up the wrinkles of age with blooming
vegetation, screening the mouldering architecture of a forgotten race
beneath fresh arboreal and floral beauties. There still remain, though
partially buried beneath the earth, the suggestive memorials of a
prosperous and energetic people, who were once the possessors of this
beautiful Indian isle. These decaying monuments are at the same time
indisputable evidence of the high civilization which once existed
here, and also, sad to realize, of the deterioration of the Singhalese
as a people. However gradual may have been the decadence of the race
from the proud condition of their ancestors who built the "buried
cities," the contrast is so strong to-day as to seem singularly
abrupt, notwithstanding the intervening centuries.

Fifty years ago, it was only at the risk of one's life that these
famous ruins of Ceylon could be reached. Such expeditions were not
even attempted without a strong escort and governmental aid. Hostile
native tribes and equally fatal malarial influences, together with
almost impassable forests and unbridged rivers, were all arrayed
against the curious visitor. This is now changed so that enterprising
travelers can with but little trouble enjoy a view of some of the most
extraordinary monuments to be found in the East, and which are of much
more than ordinary archaeologic and artistic interest.

In this neighborhood, at Vigitapora, are the ruins of a city, once a
royal residence, which is more ancient than Anuradhapura. This place
was a populous centre five hundred years before the Christian era, of
which there seems to be little if any record preserved, even in the
comprehensive pages of that national text-book, the Mahawanso.

The native tribes of Ceylon cannot be said to form a progressive race,
even under the advantages which modern civilization affords them.
Their present condition is one of dormancy. Those who form the rising
generation, after enjoying school advantages to a certain degree, on
arriving at the age of responsibility lapse, with some exceptions,
into the condition of their parents. Thus many of our Western Indians,
who in youth have been educated in schools presided over by the
whites, return finally to their native surroundings, promptly adopting
from choice the barbaric methods and rude life of their roaming
tribes. There is a certain wild