n for it, as the saying is. I cannot describe my sensations.
They may be far more easily supposed. To go forward seemed the best
course I could pursue. So on I went. I tried not to jump, or shrink,
or cry aloud when every now and then a serpent darted out his long
forked tongue at me and hissed; but it was difficult to command my
nerves. I knew that a large number of the snakes in Ceylon are not
venomous, and all I could do was to try and persuade myself that these
were among the harmless ones. Those that came near me I struck at with
my stick, and quickly sent them to the right-about, for, happily, most
serpents are cowardly creatures, and only seize their prey when they can
do so unawares or at a great advantage. Even the deadly cobra di
capello, one of the most venomous of all, is speedily put to flight, and
only bites when trod on or carelessly handled. The knowledge of this
gave me a courage I should not otherwise have possessed, and so I
continued my course undaunted across the ruins.

On reaching the perpendicular face of the cliff, I found, as I had
supposed, that the arches I had seen formed the entrance to chambers of
some size, and on inspecting one of them, as far as the waning light
would let me, I resolved to take up my abode in it for the night. As,
however, I could not eat the game I had killed raw, I had first to
collect materials for a fire. They were not wanting in the forest,
where I had observed an abundance of fallen branches and leaves. I had
remarked also a welang-tree, from which the Veddahs form their arrows,
and also torches are made from it. I now discovered a much shorter path
across the fallen ruins than the one I had come. I hurried on, for I
had only a few more minutes of daylight to expect. Picking up two or
three fallen branches of the welang tree, and as large a bundle of other
wood as I could carry, I retraced my steps to the excavation in the
rock, where I threw it down, and went back for more. I was not long in
this way in collecting a supply to last me for some hours, I hoped, for
so hot was the atmosphere that I could only have borne to sit by a small
fire. I had picked up some rotten wood to serve as tinder, and, as I
had a match-box in my pocket, I had no difficulty in creating a flame.
Some steps led up to the archway I had selected for my quarters. I
carried my sticks up them, and made up my pile of wood in the mouth of
it. I had an idea that it extended a con