M. Des Etangs had the whole history of the tooth at his fingers' end,
and Sir Hugh Clifford, who as Colonial Secretary was the official
protector of the tooth, very kindly offered to have it uncovered for
us in two days' time. He added that the priests were by no means
averse to receiving such an official order, for they would telegraph
the news all over the island, and thousands of pilgrims would arrive
to view the exposed tooth, each one, of course, leaving an offering,
to the great benefit of the temple.

Sir Hugh invited M. Des Etangs, the late General Oliphant and myself
to be present at the uncovering, which had to take place at seven in
the morning, in order to afford a sufficiently long day for the
exposition. He implored us all, in view of the immense veneration with
which the Buddhists regarded the ceremony of the uncovering, to keep
perfectly serious, and to adopt a becoming attitude of respect, and he
begged us all to give a slight bow when the Buddhists made their
prostrations.

Accordingly, two days later at 7 a.m., M. Des Etangs, General Oliphant
and I found ourselves in a lower room of the temple, the actual
sanctuary of the tooth itself, into which Christians are not generally
admitted. We were, of course, the only Europeans present.

Never have I felt anything like the heat of that sanctuary. We dripped
and poured with perspiration. The room was entirely lined with copper,
walls and roof alike, and the closed shutters were also
copper-sheathed. Every scrap of light and air was excluded; there must
have been at least two hundred candles alight, the place was thick
with incense and heavy with the overpowering scent of the frangipani,
or "temple-flower" as it is called in Ceylon, which lay in piled white