etait nouveau pour lui.  De plus, ceux qui avaient fait route avec lui, s’en etaient separes, les uns s’etant arretes, et les autres etant morts.  En reflechissant au passe, son coeur etait toujours rempli de pensees et de tristesse.  Tout a coup, a cote de cette figure de jaspe, il vit un marchand qui faisait hommage a la statue d’un eventail de taffetas blanc du pays de Tsin.  Sans qu’en s’en apercut cela lui causa une emotion telle que ses larmes coulerent et remplirent ses yeux.” (FA HIAN, Fo[)e] Kou[)e] Ki, ch. xxxviii. p. 333.) “Tsin” means the province of Chensi, which was the birthplace of Fa Hian.]

[Footnote 2:  FA HIAN, Fo[)e] Kou[)e] Ki, ch. xxxviii. p. 334-5.]

[Footnote 3:  Mahawanso, ch. xxxvii. p. 241, 249.  After the funeral rites of Gotama Buddha had been performed at Kusinara, B.C. 543, his “left canine tooth” was carried to Dantapura, the capital of Kalinga, where it was preserved for 800 years.  The King of Calinga, in the reign of Maha-Sen, being on the point of engaging in a doubtful conflict, directed, in the event of defeat, that the sacred relic should be conveyed to Ceylon, whither it was accordingly taken as described. (Rajavali, p. 240.) Between A.D. 1303 and 1315 the tooth was carried back to Southern India by the leader of an army, who invaded Ceylon and sacked Yapahoo, which was then the capital.  The succeeding monarch, Prakrama III., went in person to Madura to negotiate its surrender, and brought it back to Pollanarrua.  Its subsequent adventures and its final destruction by the Portuguese, as recorded by DE COUTO and others, will be found in a subsequent passage, see Vol.  II.  P. VII. ch. v.  The Singhalese maintain that the Dalada, still treasured in its strong tower at Kandy, is the genuine relic, which was preserved from the Portuguese spoilers by secreting it at Delgamoa in Saffragam.

TURNOUR’S Account of the Tooth Relic of Ceylon; Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, 1837, vol. vi. p. 2, p. 856.]

[Sidenote:  A.D. 459.]

One of the most striking events in this period of Singhalese history was the murder of the king, Dhatu Sena, A.D. 459, by his son, who seized the throne under the title of Kasyapa I. The story of this outrage, which is highly illustrative of the superstition and cruelty of the age, is told with much feeling in the Mahawanso; the author of which, Mahanamo, was the uncle of the outraged king, Dhatu Sena was a descendant of the royal line, whose family were living in retirement during the usurpation of the Malabars, A.D. 434 to 459.  As a youth he had embraced the priesthood, and his future eminence was foretold by an omen.  “On a certain day, when chaunting at the foot of a tree, when a shower of rain fell, a cobra de capello encircled him with its folds and covered his book with its hood."[1] He was educated by his uncle, Mahanamo, and in process of time, surrounding himself