“We believe this is the first time that a complete work has been devoted to this subject. The narrative portion of the work is supplemented by copious notes and appendices referring to the early history of the religions the members of which regard the Peak as a hallowed spot. These are of immense value to the historian and antiquarian, and prove that the author is no idle member of the Royal Asiatic Society.”—London and China Express.
“Mr. Skeen, in his monogram entitled “Adam’s Peak,” has shewn that the subject was by no means exhausted by his predecessors, and has given us an interesting volume of Eastern lore and travel. Commencing with history, he fortifies his narrative by extracts from the antient Mahawanso, and various other native and foreign writers down to the present day. Having amply treated of its history, he proceeds to describe his own three visits to it, giving very full particulars of his route, and of places of interest in the vicinity. The volume does credit to both author and printer.”—Trübner’s American and Oriental Literary Record.
“A very valuable monograph on Adam’s Peak, embodying a vast amount of interesting information. Mr. Skeen has, in connection with this work, cleared up a mystery which had baffled all previous writers on Ceylon.”—Ceylon Observer.
“It has long been a wonder, and the wonder is a growing one, that so small an Island as Ceylon should attract so many writers. All the Books on Ceylon, about Ceylon, and touching Ceylon, if collected into one group, we are certain, would make a goodly library of itself, but the subject appears to be inexhaustible. The most recent contribution to this accretion of works on Ceylon, or rather touching Ceylon, is Mr. Skeen’s Book on Adam’s Peak, which, without laying ourselves open to the charge of indiscriminate or extravagant praise, we feel justified in pronouncing worthy the subject, and worthy the writer. Mr. Skeen has at last got into his natural groove, the exploration and elucidation of the romantic traditions, legends, and folk-lore which cluster round the sacred places of Ceylon. Adam’s Peak is pre-eminently a land-mark in the history of the Island, and while it serves to bridge twenty centuries of the past with the present, it has never lost its own peculiar distinctive character, which as the central object of a nation’s faith it has for so long occupied. As it is the most conspicuous and remarkable object in the physical geography of the Island, so has it stood the everlasting monument of a tradition, pointing to the mission of that great philosopher who, more than twenty centuries ago, succeeded in revolutionizing the faith of a whole continent. It is somewhat remarkable that a religion which aspires after annihilation and extinction of all corporeal existence, should yet recognize the imperishable, rock-crowned mountain, as one of the symbols of its faith. Mr. Skeen does not enter into the metaphysics of this question. His business has been to trace out the old traditions and legends, and while refraining from expressing an opinion himself, he has supplied the reader with abundant material from which to draw his own conclusions. He carries us throughout the whole range of ancient Eastern lore; and from the great Hindu epic, the Ramayana, down to the most recent works on the Island, he has ransacked the dark recesses of oriental literature, to illustrate his subject. Mr. Skeen has entered on his task in a spirit of research, and influenced by the strong poetic vein for which he has hitherto been so well known, he has embellished his subject—a subject which in the hands of a mere antiquarian threatened to become dull and prosy—with the life and spirit of romance.
Mr. Skeen, as we have already observed, has ransacked all the authorities, ancient and modern, that could throw light on his subject, and it is no small praise to state, that he has added to a great power of research an admirable talent for condensation, while his own narrative of personal investigation and exploration, written in flowing easy language, often rising to the height of poetry, presents the gorgeous scenes which he describes in an animated tableau that brings within one focus, the cloud-capped mountains, the roaring torrents and the arid plains, through which lies the course of the pilgrims. It is hardly possible to imagine, looking at the heads of chapters in the table of contents, how Mr. Skeen could manage to reduce the heterogeneous mass of subjects indicated into one harmonious whole, but the reader has only to take up the narrative, and he scarcely perceives the transition from one to another.
We have great pleasure in recommending the Book to the Public. It is even worthy to stand by the best that has been written of Ceylon, and its value as a very readable book is enhanced by the use to which it may be put as a work of reference, not only with regard to the Peak itself, but also, to the History of the Island generally. The book is illustrated with a map of the Peak range, and ten well-executed woodcuts illustrative of the Peak and its accessories; and, with a copious and well-arranged Index, it is admirably calculated to serve as a guide to those whom Mr. Skeen’s Book may inspire with the desire of exploring the mountain region which has continued to attract to its sacred pinnacle the Traveller, the Historian, and the Pilgrim, from the days when Sindbad the Sailor “made a pilgrimage to the place where Adam was confined after his banishment from Paradise.”—Colombo Examiner.