ch of the natural stone. The tendency of the gneiss to assume
these concentric and almost circular forms has been taken advantage of
for this purpose by the Singhalese priests, and some of their most
venerated temples are to be found under the shadow of the overarching
strata, to the imperishable nature of which the priests point as
symbolical of the eternal duration of their faith.[1]

[Footnote 1: The concentric lamellar strata of the gneiss sometimes
extend with a radius so prolonged that slabs may be cut from them and
used in substitution for beams of timber, and as such they are
frequently employed in the construction of Buddhist temples. At
Piagalla, on the road between Galle and Colombo, within about four miles
of Caltura, there is a gneiss hill of this description on which a temple
has been so erected. In this particular rock the garnets usually found
in gneiss are replaced by rubies, and nothing can exceed the beauty of
the hand-specimens procurable from a quarry close to the high road on
the landward side; in which, however, the gems are in every case reduced
to splinters.]

_Laterite or "Cabook_."--A peculiarity, which is one of the first to
strike a stranger who lands at Galle or Colombo, is the bright red
colour of the streets and roads, contrasting vividly with the verdure of
the trees, and the ubiquity of the fine red dust which penetrates every
crevice and imparts its own tint to every neglected article. Natives
resident in these localities are easily recognisable elsewhere, by the
general hue of their dress. This is occasioned by the prevalence along
the western coast of _laterite_, or, as the Singhalese call it,
_cabook_, a product of disintegrated gneiss, which being subjected to
detrition communicates its hue to the soil.[1]

[Footnote 1: According to the _Mahawanso_ "Tamba-panni," one of those
names by which Ceylon was anciently called, originated in an incident
connected with the invasion of Wijayo, B.C. 543, whose followers,
"exhausted by sea-sickness and faint from weakness, sat down at the spot
where they had landed out of the vessels, supporting themselves on the
palms of their hands pressed to the ground, whence the name of
Tamba-pannyo, '_copper-palmed_,' from the colour of the soil. From this
circumstance that wilderness obtained the name of Tamba-panni; and from
the same cause also this renowned land became celebrated under that
name."--TURNOUR'S _Mahawanso_, ch. vi. p. 50. From Tamba-pan