It is remarkable that the same word appears to designate the goose in the most remote quarters of the globe.  The Pali term “hanza” by which it was known to the Buddhists of Ceylon, is still the “henza” of the Burmese and the “gangsa” of the Malays, and is to be traced in the [Greek:  “chen”] of the Greeks, the “anser” of the Romans, the “ganso” of the Portuguese, the “ansar” of the Spaniards, the “gans” of the Germans (who, PLINY says, called the white geese ganza), the “gas” of the Swedes, and the “gander” of the English.[1]

[Footnote 1:  HARDY observes that the ibis of the Nile is called “Abou-Hansa” by the Arabs, (Buddhism, ch. i. p. 17); but BRUCE (Trav. vol. v. p. 172) says the name is Abou Hannes or Father John, and that the bird always appears on St. John’s day:  he implies, however, that this is probably a corruption of an ancient name now lost.]

In the principal apartment of the royal palace at Kandy, now the official residence of the chief civil officer in charge of the province, the sacred bird occurs amongst the decorations, but in such shape as to resemble the dodo rather than the Brahmanee goose.

[Illustration:  IN THE PALACE AT KANDY]

In the generality of the examples of ancient Singhalese carvings that have come down to us, the characteristic which most strongly recommends them, is their careful preservation of the outline and form of the article decorated, notwithstanding the richness and profusion of the ornaments applied.  The subjects engraved are selected with so much judgment, that whilst elaborately covering the surface, they in no degree mar the configuration.  Even in later times this principle has been preserved, and the chasings in silver and tortoise shell on the scabbards of the swords of state, worn by the Kandyan kings and their attendants, are not surpassed by any specimens of similar workmanship in India.

Temples.—­The temples of Buddha were at first as unpretending as the residences of the priesthood.  No mention is made of them during the infancy of Buddhism in Ceylon; at which period caves and natural grottoes were the only places of devotion.  In the sacred books these are spoken of as “stone houses"[1] to distinguish them from the “houses of earth"[2] and other materials used in the construction of the first buildings for the worship of Buddha; such temples having been originally confined to a single chamber of the humblest dimensions, within which it became the custom at a later period to place a statue of the divine teacher reclining in dim seclusion, the gloom being increased to heighten the scenic effect of the ever-burning lamps by which the chambers are imperfectly lighted.

[Footnote 1:  The King, Walagambahu, who in his exile had been living amongst the rocks in the wilderness, ascended the throne after defeating the Malabars (B.C. 104), and “caused the of stone or caves of the rocks in which he had taken refuge to be made more commodious.”—­Rajavali, p. 224.]