The Buddhist temples stand in the most beautiful situations. Waving cocoanut palms, broad-leaved bread-fruit trees, flowering shrubs, with sweet-scented blossoms, surround the temple court, and astonish the visitor by their loveliness. But enter the court and what a contrast! What do we see? A long narrow room, with no light but what struggles in through the door, or sometimes arises from a few dim oil-lamps; a shelf running from end to end of it; a huge image of painted clay, more than forty feet long, lying stretched upon the shelf, with fixed staring eyes, as if quite unconcerned with all things round about; and a heavy, oppressive smell of smoking lamps and dead flowers, that have been offered to the image, reminding one strongly of the spiritual death and darkness of the blind worshipers. Such are the places of worship of the one and a half millions of Buddhists in Ceylon. Surrounded by the most luxuriant beauties of the natural world, religiously they are in darkness. WORSHIP OF BUDDHA’S TOOTH. [Illustration: BUDDHIST TEMPLE IN THE ISLAND OF CEYLON.] There is a festival which takes place every year in Kandy, the chief city of the central province of Ceylon and the ancient residence of its native kings. In a Buddhist temple at Kandy there is a large tooth, which from its shape and appearance, seems to be the tooth of a baboon, but which is called Buddha’s tooth, and is believed to have been such by a large number of the people of Ceylon. This is exhibited with great pomp and a gorgeous procession once a year before vast crowds, who come to worship it. Religious embassies come from Siam, and even from Thibet to be present at this great festival of Buddhism. THE SACRED CEYLONESE BOOKS. There are three books regarded as sacred by the Buddhists of Ceylon. The first, called the Mahavanso, is the most highly venerated. It has been very carefully handed down and the ancient and modern copies vary but a very little. It contains “The Doctrine, Race and Lineage of Buddha,” and the authentic annals of Ceylonese Buddhism. The second, called the Rajaratnacari, was written by a priest. It contains a history of Buddha, extracts from the most ancient books, records of the erection of temples, and the history of the kings from 540 B.C. down to modern times. The third, called the Rajavali, is the work of different hands, and completes the other books. It narrates the history of Ceylon from the coming of the Dutch to Ceylon down to the time when they expelled the Portuguese and gained possession of Colombo. [Illustration: WORSHIP OF BUDDHA’S TOOTH AT KANDY, CEYLON.] CHAPTER XXX. BURMAH.