450 SCIENCES AND SOCIAL ARTS. [Part IV. 



CHAP. IV. 



MANUFACTURES. 



The silk alluded to in the last chapter must have 

 been brought from China for re-exportation to the 

 West. Silk is frequently mentioned in the Mahawanso ^ 

 but never with any suggestion of its being a native pro- 

 duct of Ceylon. 



Coir and Cordage. — Edrisi speaks of cordage made 

 from the fibre of the coco-nut, to prepare which, 

 the natives of Oman and Yemen resorted to Cey- 

 lon ^ ; so that the Singhalese would appear to have 

 been instructed by the Arabs in the treatment of coir, 

 and its formation into ropes ; an occupation which, at 

 the present day, afibrds extensive employment to the 

 inhabitants of the south and south-western coasts. 

 Ibn Batuta describes the use of coir, for sewing toge- 

 ther the planking of boats, as it was practised at Zafar 

 in the fourteenth century ^ ; and the word itself bespeaks 

 its Arabian origin, as Albyrouni, who divides the 

 Maldives and Laccadives into two classes, calls the 

 one group the Dyvah-kouzah, or islands that produce 

 cowries; and the other the Dyvah-kanhar, or islands 

 that produce coir.'^ 



Dress. — The dress of the people was of the simplest 



^ Silk is mentioned 20 b.c. Raja- 

 rcttnacari, p. 49. 3Iahawanso, ch. 

 xxiii. p. 139. 



2 Edeisi, t. i. p. 74. 



3 Voyages, 8)'c., vol. ii. p. 207. 

 Paris, 1854. 



* AlBYEOTJNI, inlvEYNAUD, J?W/?». 



Arahes, 8fc., pp. 93, 124. The Por- 

 tuguese adopted the word from the 

 Hindus, and Castaneda, in Hist, of 

 ihe Discovery of India, describes the 

 Moors of Sofalah sewing their boats 

 with " cayro," ch. v. 14, xxx. 75. 



