and concluding with the striking of an ancient bell, and a draught from the sacred well which springs up a little below the summit.  These ceremonies point to a very primitive mode of worship; and it is probable that, as Adam’s Peak was venerated from a remote antiquity by the aborigines of Ceylon, being connected by them with the worship of the sun, the sacred footprint may belong to this prehistoric cult.  Models of the footprint are shown in various temples in Ceylon.

Besides these five great Phrabats, there are others of inferior celebrity in the East.  In the P’hra Pathom of the Siamese, Buddha is said to have left impressions of his feet at Lauca and Chakravan.  At Ava there is a Phrabat near Prome which is supposed to be a type of the creation.  Another is seen in the same country on a large rock lying amidst the hills a day’s journey west of Meinbu.  Dr. Leyden says that it is in the country of the Lan that all the celebrated founders of the religion of Buddha are reported to have left their most remarkable vestiges.  The traces of the sacred foot are sparingly scattered over Pegu, Ava, and Arracan.  But among the Lan they are concentrated; and thither devotees repair to worship at the sacred steps of Pra Kukuson, Pra Konnakan, Pra Puttakatsop, and Pra Samutacadam.

The footsteps of Vishnu are also frequent in India.  Sir William Jones tells us that in the Puranas mention is made of a white mountain on which King Sravana sat meditating on the divine foot of Vishnu at the station Trevirana.  When the Hindoos entered into possession of Gaya—­one of the four most sacred places of Buddhism—­they found the popular feeling in favour of the sacred footprint there so strong that they were obliged to incorporate the relic into their own religious system, and to attribute it to Vishnu.  Thousands of Hindoo pilgrims from all parts of India now visit the shrine every year.  Indeed to the worshippers of Vishnu the Temple of Vishnupad at Gaya is one of the most holy in all India; and as we are informed in the great work of Dr. Mitra, the later religious books earnestly enjoin that no one should fail, at least once in his lifetime, to visit the spot.  They commend the wish for numerous offspring on the ground that, out of the many, one son might visit Gaya, and by performing the rites prescribed in connection with the holy footstep, rescue his father from eternal destruction.  The stone is a large hemispherical block of granite, with an uneven top, bearing the carvings of two human feet.  The frequent washings which it daily undergoes have worn out the peculiar sectorial marks which the feet contain, and even the outlines of the feet themselves are but dimly perceptible.  English architects are now engaged in preserving the ruins of the splendid temple associated with this footprint, where the ministry of India’s great teacher—­the “Light of Asia”—­began.  In the Indian Museum at Calcutta there is a large slab of white marble bearing the figure of a human foot surrounded by two dragons.  It was brought from a temple in Burmah, where it used to be worshipped as a representation of Buddha’s foot.  It is seven inches long and three inches broad, and is divided into a hundred and eight compartments, each of which contains a different mystical mark.