Semi-weekly south Kentuckian. [volume] (Hopkinsville, Ky.) 1883-1889, 1886-04-09
ADAMS PEAK.
Ceylon's Holy Mountain, to Which Bud
dhists Make Pllgrlmages,

Ceylops Holy Mountain, to Which Bud
dhists Make Pligrimages,
Far away in the mystic East there
rises, high to the sun, great natural
altar, at which, since the dawn of ages,
man has, without ceasing, worshiped
until now. Over the dark-eyed, i'm.
passive people of that strange, unalter'
able East ages flow and leave no mark;
hundreds of generations are born and
pass away and no change is wrought
among them. There is an awfulness
in their steady immobility. Dynasties
may rise and fall, governments may
come and go, the name of their belief
may be changed and little differences
in ritual and service may spring up,
but from aeon unto aeon the people are
unchanged. 1t is the same life that
they lead and the same things that they
worship. Back, far back into the night
Of time, so far back that the very men,
ory of those then living Is irrevocably
lost in the void of the forgotten past,
the dark-skinned people, wandering
naked in the forest depths Of the Island
of Ceylon, looked with wide eyes, in
which the freshness and the wonder Of
the youth time Of mankind still shone
with the brightness of the dawn, upon
Adams peak, the great, solitary mount
ain, rising lonely in its grandeur and
height from the low hills around it and
the sea of forest at its feet. Clouds
capped its hoary summit, storms
played around its heights, the very
lightnings themselves, which they so
dreaded and revered, seemed born
among its great rocks and deep
ravines; and gazing upon its sublimity
in storm and upon its majesty in peace
they innoccntly wondered until
wonder grew to worship. So slight
have been the changes wrought upon
its rocks by the wear and tear of four
thousand years of storm that the very
paths to its sacred summit, that were
followed centuries before the beginning
Of the present era are worn by the feet
ofthe weary pilgrims of to-day. There
is legend that the iron chains fast
ened to the walls of rock to give the
pilgrims safety along the precipices Of
that last "sky league" were placed
there in the time and by the order Of
Alexander. The links, though worn,
are sound even yet. About a mount
ain such as this, beautiful in itself, long
considered to be the loftiest in all Cey-
lon, and holy if only from the steady
voice of four thousand years of prayer,
legends are sure to gather, cloudlike
and thick. Adams peak is clothed
from base to summit with one great
robe of myth and tabled story. Not
rock but has its history, not brook
without its legends of worshiper or
worshiped.. Beneath this overhanging
cliff Gautama Buddha slept, upon that
dizzy height Duddha, in his second in-
carnation prayed. Although specially
sacred to Buddha, it is not only Bud
dhists who regard this mountain as a
holy spot; Hindoos and Mohammedans
respect and reverence it, as, too, did
our own Christian people, in earlier
and simpler times than these. But al
though the whole mountain is regarded
as holy by all Oriental people, It is
only the sacred footprint on the bold
crag at the very summit that is actual
ly worshiped. To perform a pilgrim
age to this and to lay an offering upon
it is to Buddhist what visit to Mec-
ca is to Mohsmmedan. The time for
the greatest number of pilgrims to visit
the mountain is April and May, but all
the year round steady stream of dey-
otees flow to this shrine of the most
holy of all the relics of their great teach
er.-CorflhiU Magazine.