Tissa—Dewananpia Tissa—the beloved of the saints—was at that time king; he quickly became converted and begged Mahindo to pray Asoka, the famous King of Maghada, to bestow upon him a cutting of the sacred Bō tree (ficus religiosa) under which Prince Siddartha sat in the Mrigadeva, the deer forest near Benares, where he preached his first sermon after he had attained perfect wisdom. Asoka was willing, but there was a difficulty—the sacred tree must not be cut with a knife; so a miracle was required and the miracle came. With a vermilion pencil the king painted a circle round the chosen branchlet. Immediately heavenly music was heard, the wind raged and the thunder roared, the beasts of the forest howled, birds screamed, demons yelled, men shouted; the little branch detached itself and planted itself in a golden vase prepared by Mahindo’s sister, the holy Sanghamitta, when it happily took root and was transported with great solemnity and pomp to Ceylon, where with more miracles and divine manifestations of the elements, it was planted in that sacred enclosure in which it stands to this day. It is undoubtedly the oldest tree in the world for the planting of which the date can be fixed. For upwards of two thousand years there it has stood, the object of worship by pilgrims from all those countries where the memory of Buddha is held sacred. For all those centuries the same litanies have been recited before it, the perfume of the champak and other flowers, the offering beloved of Buddha, laid in the same patterns, has risen from its four altars. Kings and High Priests, men mighty in many lands, have carried hither their sins and their penitence, praying for the mercy of a pure life and the attainment of that mysterious hereafter which men call Nirvana. And the sacred tree itself?—The wonderful tree before which throughout the ages millions upon millions of men have prostrated themselves in adoration? Not a majestic specimen as such trees go—indeed, it is undutifully dwarfed by its own descendants mounting guard over it in the various courtyards of the Temple. Yet there it stands in all its sanctity, just as it was described by the old Chinese pilgrim Fa Hsien, who saw it in the fourth century. The Temple, or, rather, perhaps I should say the enclosure, occupies about two or three acres. It is surrounded by an outer wall some twelve feet high. To the left and to the right of the entrance gate are two huge Bō trees, each with a palm-tree growing out of it, said to be emblems connected with primitive forms of nature worship. Some of the masonry is curious. The stones are laid upon their edges, lozenge-wise, and of these the alternate stones are omitted, leaving a series of lozenge-shaped niches blackened with the grease and smoke of ages, for on high days and holy days myriads of lamps are set a-burning in them.