[Footnote 1:  Expressions in the Mahawanso, ch. xxvii. p. 104, show that as early as the 2nd century, B.C., the Singhalese were acquainted with this beautiful cement, which is susceptible of a polish almost equal to marble.]

Of the details of external and internal decoration applied to these buildings, descriptions are given which attest a perception of taste, however distorted by the exaggerations of oriental design.  “Gilded tiles"[1] in their bright and sunny atmosphere, must have had a striking effect, especially when surmounting walls decorated with beaded mouldings, and festooned with “carvings in imitation of creeping plants and flowers."[2]

[Footnote 1:  Rajavali, p. 73.]

[Footnote 2:  Mahawanso, ch. lxxii. p. 274.]

Carving in stone.—­Carving appears to have been practised at a very early period with singular success; but in later times it became so deteriorated, that there is little difficulty at the present day, in pronouncing on the superiority of the specimens remaining at Anarajapoora, over those which are to be found amongst the ruins of the later capitals, Pollanarrua, Yapahu, or Komegalle.  The author of the Mahawanso dwells with obvious satisfaction on his descriptions of the “stones covered with flowers and creeping plants."[1] Animals are constantly introduced in the designs executed on stone, and a mythical creature, called technically makara-torana, is conspicuous, especially on doorways and balustrades, with the head of an elephant, the teeth of a crocodile, the feet of a lion, and the tail of a fish.

[Footnote 1:  Mahawanso, ch. lxxii. p. 274, UPHAM’S version.]

At the entrance to the great wihara, at Anarajapoora, there is now lying on the ground a semi-circular slab of granite, the ornaments of which are designed in excellent taste, and executed with singular skill; elephants, lions, horses, and oxen, forming the outer border; that within consisting of a row of the “hanza,” or sacred goose; a bird that is equally conspicuous on the vast tablet, one of the wonders of Pollanarrua, before alluded to.[1]

[Footnote 1:  A sketch of this stone will be seen in the engraving of the Sat-mal-prasada, in the account of Pollanarrua.  Part I. ch. i. vol. ii.]

Taken in connection with the proverbial contempt for the supposed stolidity of the goose, there is something still unexplained in the extraordinary honours paid to it by the ancients, and the veneration in which it is held to the present day by some of the eastern nations.  The figure that occurs so frequently on Buddhist monuments, is the Brahmanee goose (casarka rutila), which is not a native of Ceylon; but from time immemorial has been an object of veneration there and in all parts of India.  Amongst the Buddhists especially, impressed as they are with the solemn obligation of solitary retirement for meditation, the hanza has attracted attention