“Have a bite?” I invited, pushing the fruit toward him.
A child’s voice squeaked within him. Gravely he rose to his feet and began bowing, expressing his thankfulness in every motion possible except that of standing on his head. This over, he fell to eating with both hands so willingly that, with never a pause or a choke, he made away with twenty-eight bananas. Small wonder he slept awhile in the edge of the shade before going on.
I rose to plod on, and he would not be left behind—far behind, that is. I could not induce him to walk beside me; he pattered always two paces in the rear. From the motions and signs he made in answer to my questions, I learned that he was journeying to some place of worship in the mountains. Two hours beyond our meeting-place, he halted at a branch road, knelt in the highway, and, before I knew what he was going to do, pressed a loud kiss on the top of one of my Nazarene slippers. Only a quick movement on my part saved the other from the same fate. He stood up slowly, almost sadly, as if he were grieved to part from good company,—or bananas,—shook the dust of the road out of his beard, and, turning into the forest-choked path, was gone.
Night falling over the mountains overtook me just as I came near a thatched roof at the roadside. The owner took no pay for my lodging, and the far-off howling of dogs lulled me to sleep.
With dawn I was off once more. Sunrise waved greetings over the leafy trees as I entered the ancient city of Kandy.
Hundreds of years ago this mountain city was the seat of the native king. To-day the ruler of Ceylon is a bluff Englishman who lives in a stone mansion within sight of the harbor of Colombo. Nevertheless, a descendant of the native king still lives in the capital of his forefathers. But his duties have narrowed down to that of keeping alive the religion of Gautama, the Buddha, or the wandering prince.
This prince lived more than twenty-four hundred years ago. He taught that if men are not very good indeed while living, after death they will have to live again and again in the shape of some animal, and later of some human being, until they at last learn to be pure. For thousands of years the natives of Ceylon and India have followed his teaching. That explains why they worship animals, and why there are so many classes or castes of people in India.
Although Buddha did not consider himself holy, his followers have built temples in his honor and worshiped him since his death. Hundreds of years ago, it is said, there was found in Burma one of the teeth of this prince. This was sent a long distance to the egg-shaped island of Ceylon, and over it was built the famous “Temple of the Tooth.” It was this temple that I had come to visit, although I was not sure that I should be allowed to enter.
The thatch roof at the roadside, under which I slept on the second night of my tramp to Kandy.