About fifteen or twenty miles from Dondra, there is an ancient and
famous rock-temple after the style of that at Dambula, already
described. It is called the temple of Mulgirigalla, the place being
still a sacred shrine kept up for the benefit of the faithful. The
rock of which it is a portion rises over three hundred feet above the
level of the surrounding plain, the summit crowned by a large dagoba
containing relics of some Buddhist saint. On the face of the crag
below, there is a series of buildings still occupied by the
priesthood. The temple consists of several chambers or artificial
caves, decorated, after the usual manner of these shrines, with crude
paintings and stone statues. After twenty centuries of consecutive
occupancy, the place is still devoted to its original purpose. A
Buddhist monastery exists upon the crag, conducted by white-haired
priests like those of Kandy. Close at hand are the tombs containing
the ashes of the cremated high priests who have lived and died upon
the spot, during so many ages, in the service of the temple. Had the
old crag a ready tongue, what curious stories it might reveal of its
past history, depicting strange events which no pen has ever recorded.

At Caltura, situated on the coast between Galle and Colombo, about
thirty miles from the latter, in the midst of a district crowded with
cocoanut-trees, the distillation of arrack is carried on quite
extensively. Caltura is, and has long been considered as, a sanitarium
in the south part of the island. It is swept at all times by sea
breezes from the southwest, and is surrounded by delightful scenery.
The temperature averages from ten to fifteen degrees cooler than
Colombo. This point was considered of such special importance by the
Dutch that they erected elaborate fortifications here, the ruins of
which still form a prominent feature of the place. There are several
caves hereabouts where a species of the swallow--known as the
"swift"--constructs the edible nests so much valued as a table luxury
in China. Neither the native Singhalese nor the other inhabitants of
the island make use of these nests as food; in fact, they require to
be manipulated by expert cooks, in order to bring out their peculiar
properties. We are told that centuries ago the people of this
nationality came to Caltura to obtain these nests, so much valued as a
table luxury by the Mongolians, carefully transporting them to Pekin
and Hongkong, where great prices