Part 2 of Richard Boyle's series on 'The Quest for the Hyacinth'

Part 1

Revelation at Sri Pada

In his book Ancient Jaffna (1926), Mudaliyar C. Rasanayagam reflects on the fate of the Great Ruby of Ceylon: "This ruby related by Marco Polo, Friar Odoric, and Ibn Batuta to have been in the hands of the king of Jaffna was perhaps the very one referred to by Hiuen Tsang and Cosmas as the gem which glowed like fire on the top of the dagoba at Anuradhapura when the sun shone on it.

It might have found its way to Jaffna as one of the spoils after the sack of Yapahuwa and ultimately fell into the hands of the Portuguese when Jaffna was plundered by Braganza in 1560, but the Portuguese historians do not make any mention of it."

The apparent loss of the Great Ruby in the mists of time has allowed free rein to those like Q (Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch), who have wished to speculate on the ultimate fate of the gem. In his novel Dead Man's Rock: A Romance(1887), Quiller-Couch supposed that the gem had remained under the guardianship of the Sangha throughout the vicissitudes of history.

Dead Man's Rock opens in Cornwall in the late 1840s with the narrator of the story, Jasper Trenoweth, recounting how his grandfather had earlier disappeared to the East for twenty years. In his will he had exhorted that if his heirs should suffer financial misfortune, the head of the family should proceed to Bombay and present the will to one Elihu Sanderson. In addition, the will stipulated that a certain key hanging in the family house should not be touched until these instructions had been carried out.

Needless to say, the family does fall on hard times, so Jasper's father, Ezekiel, sails for Bombay and meets Sanderson, who gives him a sealed letter which reads in part:

"You may lay your Hand to much Treasure in Gold, Silver, and Precious Stones, but chiefly the GREAT RUBY OF CEYLON, whose beauty excels all the jewels of the Earth, I myself having looked upon it, and knowing it to be, as an Ancient Writer saith, "a Spectacle Glorious and without Compare." Of this Ruby the Traveller Marco Polo speaks saying, "The King of Seilan hath a Ruby the Greatest and most Beautiful that ever was or can be in the World. In Splendour it exceedeth the things of Earth, and gloweth like unto Fire. Money cannot purchase it."

Likewise Maundeville tells of it, and how the Great Khan would have it, but was refused; and so Odoric, the two giving various Sizes, and both placing it falsely in the Island of Nacumera or Nicoveran. But this I know, that in the Island of Ceylon it was found, being lost for many Centuries, and though less in size than these writers would have it, yet far exceeding all imagination for beauty and colour.

"Now this Ruby, Together with much Treasure beside, you may gain with the Grace of Heaven and by following my plain words. You will go from this place unto the Island of Ceylon, and there proceed to Samanala or Adam's Peak, the same being the most notable mountain of the Island. -From the Resting House at the foot of the Peak you will then ascend, following the track of the Pilgrims, until you have passed the first set of Chains. Between these and the second there lies a stretch of Forest, in which, still following the track, you will come to a tree, the trunk of which branches into seven parts and again unites.

From its base you must proceed at a right an- gle to the left-hand edge of the track for thirty-two paces, and you will come to a stone shaped like a man's head, of great size, but easily moved. Beneath this stone lies the secret of the Great Ruby; and yet not all, for the rest is graven on the Key, of which mention shall already have been made to you.

"These precautions I have taken that none may surprise this secret but its right possessor; and also that none may without due reflection undertake this task, inasmuch as it is prophesied that "Even as the Heart of the Ruby is Blood and its Eyes a Flaming Fire, so shall it be for them that would possess it: Fire shall be their portion and Blood their inheritance for ever.

"This prophecy I had from an aged priest, whose bones lie beneath the stone, and upon whose sacred clasp is the secret written. This and all else may God pardon. Amen.

"Ezekiel decides to ignore the prophecy, but soon after reading his father's letter he is attacked while walking in Bombay and it is several months before he is fit enough to travel to Ceylon. When he catches the first glimpse of the island from his ship he records in his journal: "Dec. 6th. 1848 -Never shall I forget the dawn out of which Ceylon, the land of my promise, arose into view. Very slowly, as I stood gazing into the east, the pitch-black darkness turned to a pale grey. Then, as it seemed to me, in a moment, the sun was up, and I could see a coast fringed with palms and swelling upwards in green and gradual slopes to a chain of mighty hills. So clear was the air that I could distinguish the red sand of the beaches and the white trunks of the palms that crowded to the shore; and then before us arose Colombo, its white houses gleaming out one by one."

Ezekiel stays with Sanderson's friend at Colpetty, from where he could see Sri Pada:"Truly this is a most marvellous mountain, and its effect upon me I find hard to put into words. Today I watched it standing solitary and royal from the low hills that surround it. At its feet waved a very sea of green forest, around its summit were gathered black clouds charged with lightning. Even as I write, its unmoved face is mocking the fire of heaven.

"Dec.10th. - What an entrancing country is this Ceylon!...I am drinking in the marvels of Colombo. The quaint names over the shops, the bright dresses of white and red, the priests with their robes of flaming yellow - all these are diverting enough, but words cannot tell of the beauty of the country here. The roads are all of some strange red soil, and run for miles beneath the most beautiful trees imaginable - bamboos, palms, and others unknown to me, but covered with crimson and yellow blossom. Then the long stretches of rice fields, and again more avenues of palms, with here and there a lovely pool by the wayside."

In the New Year Ezekiel starts his journey to Sri Pada accompanied by two Sinhalese guides: "It was after we left Ratnapoora that I first realised the true wonders of this land. Our road rose almost continuously by narrow tracks, which in some places, owing to the late heavy rains, were almost impassable. We had not left Ratnapoora far behind when we plunged into a tangled forest, so dense as almost to blot out the light of day. On either hand deep ravines plunged precipitately down, or giant trees enclosed us in black shadow. Where the sun's rays penetrated, myriads of brilliant insects flashed like jewels; yellow butterflies, beetles with wings of ruby-red or gold, and dragonflies that picked out the undergrowth with fire.

"The bridle-track now skirted a torrent, now wound dizzily round the edge of a stupendous cliff, and again plunged into obscurity. Here and there the ruins of some ancient and abandoned shrine confronted us, its graceful columns entwined and matted with vegetation. Even I, who knew nothing of the past glories of Ceylon, could not help being possessed with melancholy thoughts as I passed now a mass of deserted masonry, now a broken column, the sole witnesses of generations gone for ever."

At the time in which this part of the story is set -1849 - the journey to Sri Pada must have been an arduous affair, and its ascent by Europeans still relatively uncommon. In fact the first European to climb Sri Pada was a Lieutenant Malcolm of the 1st Ceylon Regiment, who reached the summit on 27 April 1827.

After spending the night in the ambalama at the foot of the mountain, Ezekiel begins the ascent and arrives at the famous chains mentioned in his father's letter. Sir James Emerson Tennent states that they "are relics of so great antiquity that in the legends of the Mahometans they are associated with the name of Alexander the Great."

Tennent goes on to quote Ibn Batuta, who wrote describing his ascent of the Peak in the 14th century: "At the foot of the mountain there was a minaret named after Alexander, and a fountain of water. The ancients have cut something like steps, upon which one may ascend, and have fixed in iron pins, to which chains are appended, and upon these those who ascend take hold. Of these chains there are ten in number, the last of which is termed the chain of witness."

Ashref, a Persian writer of the 15th century, composed a poem celebrating the exploits of Alexander the Great. In it there is an episode in which the conqueror and his companion Bolinus devise a means to ascend Sri Pada, "fixing thereto chains with rings and rivets made of iron and brass, the remains of which exist even at this day."

During the climb Ezekiel spots the tree with seven distinctive branches but decides not to attempt to reach it until he descends the mountain. On the summit of Sri Pada he watches as pilgrims greet the dawn, and then beholds the famous Shadow of the Peak:

"I looked, and all the wonders I had yet viewed became as nothing. For there, disregarded by the crowd, but plain and manifest, rose another Peak, graven in shadow upon the western sky. Bold and confronting, it soared into heaven and, whilst I gazed in silent awe, came striding nearer through the void air, until it seemed to sweep down upon me - and was gone! For many a day had the shadow of this mighty cone lain upon my soul; here, on the very summit, that shadow took visible form and shape, then paled into the clear blue."

During the descent, Ezekiel sends his guides on ahead and disappears into the forest towards the peculiar tree. Reaching it, he finds, after some confusion, the "stone shaped like a man's head.": "But the face it was that froze my heated blood in horror. Never until I die shall I forget that hellish expression.

It was the smoothly- shaven face of a man of about fifty years of age, roughly carved after the fashion of many of the ruins on this mountain. But whoever fashioned it, the artist must have been a fiend. If ever malignant hate was expressed in form, it stood before me. Even the blank pupils made the malevolence seem but the more undying. It was simply Evil petrified." On toppling the statue he discovers beneath it a hole filled with two human skeletons. While taking out the bones he comes across a gold buckle - "the Sacred clasp" mentioned in his father's letter -which is engraved with specific directions for finding the ruby. Yet it provides no indication of the precise location. Then he remembers the phrase in the letter, "the rest is graven on the Key," and realises that the ruby is not buried on Sri Pada.

In order to continue the search he must return to Cornwall for the key hanging in his house.

Ezekiel looks up from his examination of the buckle to find that he is being watched by a man called Colliver, a fellow-passenger on the ship to Bombay. Amazingly, Colliver's face resembles that of the stone head. He goes over to the tomb, reverentially replaces the bones, and covers them with turf, explaining to Ezekiel that one of the skeletons might be of an ancestor. As further evidence, Colliver draws attention to the similarity between his face and that of the stone head, suggesting the sculpture might have been a portrait of one of the persons buried there. He then disappears.

Ezekiel returns to Colombo and sails for England aboard an East Indiaman, the Belle Fortune, laden with a precious cargo of coffee and sugar. The only other passengers are an English doctor and his wife, the Concanens, who are accompanied by a Sinhalese maid.

"The Concanens stood on deck with me watching Ceylon grow dim on the horizon. As the proud cone of Adam's Peak faded softly and slowly into the evening mist, and so vanished, as I hope for ever out of my life, I could not forbear returning thanks to Providence, which has thus far watched over me so wonderfully."

But Ezekiel had disregarded the terrible prophecy attached to the Great Ruby of Ceylon. After a few days at sea he discovers to his horror that Colliver is among the crew, two of whom are later killed in accidents, while others fall mysteriously ill and die. Then Ezekiel drops part of the gold buckle, which is found by Colliver. One night, while Ezekiel visits the Concanens in their cabin, a mutiny breaks out led by Colliver.

The captain is shot dead, as are Dr Concanen and the Sinhalese maid when they go to investigate. Mrs. Concanen and Ezekiel barricade themselves inside the cabin. The following night Ezekiel ventures out and steals several guns. He manages to pick off some of the mutineers, but the woman is killed when she defends him from attack. Back in the cabin, with food running out and a storm raging, Ezekiel prepares to meet his end.

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