Chap. IV.] 



THE MALDIVE AMBASSADOE. 



175 



Tliis custom lias continued from time immemorial ; at 

 least from the remote period when the Chinese, in right 

 of their supremacy over Ceylon \ claimed the sovereignty 

 of the Maldives.^ The Portuguese asserted a similar right, 

 and erected a fort in an island on one of the atolls.^ Un- 

 faltering in their adherence to their ancestral pursuits, the 

 commodities which the islanders produce at the present 

 day consist of precisely the same articles which they ex- 

 ported a thousand years ago, when, according to the 

 Persian author of the Modjmel'alte-varyke (a History of 

 the kings of India, written in the year of the Hejira 417), 

 one group of the Maldives was called Diva-Kouzah, 

 from the abundance of cowries ; and another Diva-Kan- 

 bar, from the coco-nut coir, wdiich the islanders spun 

 into cordage.* 



The boats, in addition to these, are laden wdth dried 

 fish and tortoise-shell. The white cowries {Cyprcea mo- 

 7ieta\ which they bring, are sent to Afiica, where they 

 still take the place of coin, and along with them the 

 Maldives supply quantities of the great shell, the Cassis 

 riifa, which is exported to Italy for the manufacture of 

 cameos. 



The Maldive ambassador is received by the Governor 

 with every mark of respect ; he is preceded by a guard 



' See ante, Vol. I. Pt. v. cli. iii. p. 

 601. 



^ De Baekos, Asia, S,-c., dec. iii. 

 torn. iii. pt. ii. ch. i. p. 3. 



^ Ih., torn. i. pt. ii. p. 42.3 ; torn. iii. 

 pt. i. p. 306. — Pyrard de Laval, 

 Voyage, Sec, p. 170. — Yalenttx, 

 Otul en Nieuw Oost-Indien, ch. xii. 

 p. 161. 



* The 3foclJmeI is a Persian version 

 of an Arabic ti-anshition from San- 

 skrit, written in the year 1026 a.d. 

 by Abul-IIassan, of Djordjan, near 

 the Caspian. The only portion of it 

 which has been rendered into a Eu- 

 ropean lanfruaoe is tlie chapter from 

 wliicli the following extract is taken, 

 contained in the Frai/mens Arahca et 

 Persons of Keinaud : — " Ces iles se 



di-visent en denx classes, snivant la 

 nature de leur principal prodnit. Les 

 unes sont nommees JJica-Kouzah, 

 c'est-{\-dire iles des cauris, a cause 

 des caiiris qu'on r.ama.'sse siir les 

 branches des cocotiers plantes dans 

 la mer. Les autres portent le nom de 

 JJi'ra-Kanbar, du mot kanhar (coir), 

 qui designe le fil que Ton tresse avec 

 les fibres du cocotier et avec lequel 

 on coud les navires." — Frarpn. Arab, 

 et Pers. pp. 0.3 — 124. See also Du- 

 latjeier", Journ. Asiat. vol. xlix. p. 

 171. De B.uiROS describes the mode 

 of fishing for cowries at tlie Maldives 

 in the time of the Portuguese as 

 identical with that narrated in the 

 Modjniel. — Asia, ii)'-c., torn. iii. pt. i. p. 

 312." 



