THE SIGIRI ROCK FORTRESS AS IT STANDS TO-DAY.
Half way up the rock, or 160 feet from the ground, was another extraordinary feature. There can be seen, by means of a telescope, in two caves or pockets some vividly painted frescoes. How they were painted in such a position no one knows; but, despite their clearness of outline and freshness of colour, it is certain that they were painted by artists 1,400 years ago.
But though we do not know how these frescoes were painted so long ago, thrilling stories can be told of how two artists made copies of them not long since.
Mr. Alick Murray, of the Ceylon Civil Service, was requested by the Governor of the Island to make an attempt to reach these frescoes, and he succeeded in an amazing manner. The first part of the way lay through the forest, which was cleared with billhooks by the natives. At the outset the resident chiefs and local population would have nothing to do with the disturbance of a rock chamber which they believed to be inhabited and protected by demons, so Tamils had to be brought from India.
Three Tamil stone-cutters bored holes in the rock face, one above the other, and therein placed iron "jumpers," which were secured with cement. To these wooden staging was lashed. "The man of lightest weight," says Mr. Murray, "was selected to make the necessary holes, but after a while even he declared that it was impossible for him to ascend any higher. But he said that if he were allowed to devote three days to fasting and prayer to his gods, he thought he might succeed, and so he did.
"But when the pocket was at last reached it was found that the floor was at too steep an angle to admit of anyone standing or even sitting on it. Iron stanchions were therefore let into the floor, and a strong trestle or framework made secure to them. On this framework was placed a platform, and from the platform the work of tracing thirteen of the frescoes in the biggest cave was carried out."
PART OF THE WONDERFUL GALLERY WHICH LED TO THE TOP OF THE FORTRESS.
Mr. Murray's task was surely unique. From sunrise to sunset for a week he did his copying lying on his back.
"Below me," he says, "was a sheer drop of 160 feet. The wind at times was terrific, and I literally held my breath as some blast swept into and around the chamber, and ruthlessly tore and carried off the work of hours. On one occasion a blast fiercer than the rest shook the platform to its very base, and the lashings, slackened by the dryness of the atmosphere, allowed the platform to sink suddenly a few inches, when its downward progress was happily arrested by the bracing underneath. The only inmates of the chamber were swallows, who occasionally pecked at me resentfully."