218 KANDT AND PEKiDENIA. [Part VII. 



" When the time arrived for the young lady to take her de- 

 partm-e, it was so cunningly arranged, that neither the captain 

 of Colombo, Diego de Mello, nor the priesthood, suspected any- 

 thing. Andrea Bayam Moodliar accompanied her as ambas- 

 sador from the sovereign of Ceylon, and after a prosperous 

 voyage, they landed at a port to the south of Cosmi', and 

 announced their success and the arrival of the queen to the 

 delight of the king and his nobles. * * * rpj^g 



son and heir of the king received her as she disembarked 

 * * * the king met her at the gates of the palace 

 which w^as assigned to her as a residence, gorgeously furnished 

 in chamber, ante-chamber, and ward-=-room with all that became 

 the consort of so rich and powerful a monarch, who conferred 

 upon her immense revenues to defray the charges of her house- 

 hold. For days he devoted himself to her society, conducted 

 her to the royal residence, and with great solemnity required 

 the people to swear allegiance to her as their queen. The 

 eunuchs who waited on her, imparted these particulars to 

 Antonio Toscano, vdth whom they were intimate, and who 

 communicated them to me. 



" But as in these countries no secret is long preserved which 

 is in any one's keeping, king Brama came at length to discover 

 that his wife was the daughter, not of the king, but of his 

 chamberlain ; for it seems that Andrea Bayam, the Singhalese 

 ambassador, who, as the proverb says, could not keep his tongue 

 within his teeth, divulged it to some Chinese at Pegu, who 

 acquainted the king. He, however, was little moved by the 

 discovery, especially as the talapoens and ambassadors gave 

 him an account of the ape's tooth, and of the veneration with 

 which it was preserved, and of the arrangement which they had 

 concerted with the person in charge of it. This excited the 

 desire of Brama, who regarded it as the tooth of his idol '^, and 

 reverenced it above everything in life ; even as we esteem the 

 tooth of St. Apollonia (though I shall not say much of the 

 tooth of that sainted lady) ; more highly than the nail which 

 fastened our Saviour to the cross ; the thorns which encircled 

 his most sacred head ; or the spear which pierced his blessed side, 

 which remained so long in the hands of the Turks, without such 



^ Probably Casmin, on a branch of tlie Irawaddi, 

 2 ''Dente do sen idolo Qxiiai/," 



