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These tokens belong to a period a thousand years prior to the founding of the "buried cities" which we have described. On leaving Jaffna, the coasting steamer steers southward through the Gulf of Manaar, following the Paumben Channel, past Adam's Bridge. A call is made at the "holy" island of Ramisseram, where a visit may be made to the great Hindu temple situated on the east end of the island.
Circumnavigating the Island. Batticaloa, Capital of the Eastern Province. Rice Culture. Fish Shooting. Point Pedro. Jaffna. Northern Province. Oriental Bazaars. Milk ignored. The Clear Sea and White, Sandy Bottom. American Missionaries. A Medical Bureau. Self-Respect a Lost Virtue. Snake Temples. Ramisseram. Adam's Bridge. A Huge Hindu Temple. Island of Manaar. Aripo. The Port of Negombo.
We should advise a few days' delay also at Ramisseram, a part of the time being divided between this place and the large island of Manaar, which is quite accessible. The pleasantest way to accomplish this circuit is to take the boat at Point de Galle, the first place at which it is desirable to land being Batticaloa, the capital of the eastern province.
The ceiling of the great temple consists of vast masses of granite slabs supported by carved stone pillars twelve feet high, each of which is a monolith. This Hindu temple of Ramisseram is unique; as to its age, it is between four and five hundred years old.
Ramisseram is fourteen miles long by about five in width. The dimensions of the temple upon the ground are eight hundred and sixty-eight feet by six hundred and seventy-two in width, far exceeding any other shrine or building in the island of Ceylon.
The coast is blockaded on the northwest by numberless rocks, shoals, and sandbanks, impeding navigation, though the island can be circumnavigated, as already indicated, by means of the Paumben Pass, between Ramisseram and the continent.
There is, or was very lately, a cobra-temple upon what is known as the Twin Isle, twenty miles further south, and eastward of Ramisseram. It is therefore plain enough that there were once plenty of serpent-worshiping tribes in various parts of Ceylon. We know that the worship of the snake is a very ancient creed.
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