444 



SCIENCES AND SOCIAL ARTS. 



[Part IV. 



Another peculiarity of the native craft on the west 

 coast of Ceylon is their construction with a prow at 

 each extremity, a characteristic which belongs also to 

 the Massoula boats of Madras, as well as to others on 

 the south of India. It is a curious illustration of the 

 abiding nature of local usages when originating in neces- 

 sities and utihty, that Strabo, in describing the boats in 

 which the traffic was carried on between Taprobane and 

 the continent, says they were " built with prows at each 

 end, but without holds or keels." ^ 



In connection with foreign trade the Mahawanso con- 

 tains repeated allusions to ships wrecked upon the coast 

 of Ceylon^, and amongst the remarkable events which 

 signahsed the season, already rendered memorable by the 

 birth of Dutugaimunu, B.C. 204, was the " arrival on the 

 same day of seven ships laden with golden utensils and 

 other goods ; "^ and as these were brought by order of the 

 king to Mahagam, then the capital of Eohuna, the inci- 

 dent is probably referable to the foreign trade which was 

 then carried on in the south of the island^ by the Chinese 



older than either the Arabian sailors 

 or the Greeks of the lower empire. 

 Aristotle speaks of a magnetic 

 mountain on the coast of India, and 

 Pliny repeats the story, adding that 

 "■ si sint clavi in calciamentis, ves- 

 tigia avelli in altero non posse in 

 altero sisti." — Lib. ii. c. 98, lib. xxxvi. 

 c. 25. Ptolemy recounts a similar 

 fable in his geography. Klaproth, in 

 his Lettre sur la Boussole, says that 

 this romantic belief was first com- 

 municated to the West from China. 

 *' Les anciens auteurs Chinois par- 

 lent aussi de montagnes magnetiques 

 de la mer meridionale sur les cotes 

 de Tonquin et de la Cochin Chine ; 

 et disent que si les vaisseaux 

 etrangers qui sout garnis de plaques 

 de fer s'en approchent ils y sont 

 an-etes et aucun d'eux ue pent passer 

 par ces endroits." — IvLAPROin, Lett. 

 V. p. 117, quoted by Santakem, Es- 



sni sur V Hist, de Cosmo(jr., vol. i. 

 p. 182. 



tyKoiXUuv fir}TpiZi' \iofiir." — Lib. XV. C. 



i. s. 14. Pliny, who makes the same 

 statement,saysthe Singhalese adopted 

 this model to avoid the necessity of 

 tacking in the narrow and shallow 

 channels, between Ceylon and the 

 mainland of India (lib. vi. c. 24). 



^ B. c. 54.3. 3Iahawanso, ch. vii. p. 

 49 : n.c. 306. Ibkl. ch. xi. p. 68, &c. 



3 lluhciwcinso, ch. xxii. p. 135. 



* The first direct intimation of 

 trading carried on by native Sin- 

 ghalese, along the coast of Ceylon, 

 occurs in the MajavaH, but not till 

 the year a. d. 1410, — the king, who 

 had made Cotta his capital, being 

 represented as " loading a vessel 

 with goods and sending it to Jaffna, 

 to carry on commerce with his son." 

 — Rajuvali, p. 289. 



