ered, is the Arabian name of
Ceylon. One thing is quite certain, Asiatics of all creeds join each
other in a profound veneration for this bold and striking mountain.
Marco Polo, the famous Venetian traveler who wrote seven centuries
ago, spoke of the peak as containing the tomb, not the footmark, of
Adam. The Mohammedans, ever ready with a poetical legend, still
declare that when Adam and Eve were driven out of Paradise, they were
sent to Ceylon to console them for their banishment.

In order that a story or legend should touch the credulity of, and
become current among, oriental people, there are two grand essentials:
it must be sufficiently marvelous and ridiculously extravagant.

The author recommends the ascent of Adam's Peak to any member of the
Alpine Club who is ambitious to achieve a laborious climb heavenward.
There are few mountains only seven thousand four hundred feet in
height which present such difficulties as this, when approached from
Ratnapura.

The huge iron chains which aid the pilgrims to ascend the almost
vertical path are relics of so great antiquity that in the legends of
Mohammedans they are associated with the name of Alexander the Great.
The marvel is, how even iron could so have withstood the wear of ages,
thus exposed to atmospheric influences.

The mountains of Ceylon cover about one sixth of its area, rising in
the centre of the middle province, and extending nearly across the
island from coast to coast. The southern portion is in all respects
the most attractive, though a thousand years ago the northern part of
the island was the most populous and the most highly civilized. At the
north, there are still to be seen the ruins of cities whose size and
riches were once marvelous. Unknown agencies, together with civil wars
and foreign invasions, have destroyed these ancient capitals and
turned the neighboring highly cultivated lands into a wilderness.
To-day it is the region south of the ancient Kingdom of Kandy--a
kingdom no more--which most invites the stranger, rendered beautiful
by an endless succession of musical streams, waterfalls, mirror-like
lakes, palm groves, and flowery labyrinths,--the very realization of a
tropical dream. This region, dense with forests of palms, rich in
fruit trees, gorgeous in flowers, is the paradise of fireflies;
phosphorescent clouds of these little fairy-like torch-bearers
illumine the night at all seasons, reveling beneath the shadow of
feathery bamboo