inmates or as resting-places for travelers. It is to the Siamese what the inn is to the American or Englishman, and is often useful to our missionaries in their tours about the country. To build a sala is considered a meritorious act by the Buddhists.
BANYAN TREE (Ficus indica).
You pass the sala and enter an area, generally consisting of several acres of ground, laid out with trees and ornamental shrubbery. Here are shady walks, always hard and smooth, sometimes paved with marble; fruit- and flower-gardens; not seldom artificial grottoes; pools with fish and playing fountains; and miniature mountains. There is also one large tree, claimed to be a shoot of the veritable tree under which Shakyamuni sat when he attained to Buddha-ship—the sacred Bôdhi tree.
"You may remark," says Dr. Eitel, "that the
