Chap. I.] 



COSMAS INDICO-PLEUSTES. 



S63 



account of the i.^land, to advert to wliat lias been re- 

 corded by the Singhalese chroniclers themselves, as 

 to its actual condition at the period when Cosmas 

 described it, and thus to verify his narrative by the 

 test of liistorical evidence. It has been shown in an- 

 other chapter that between the first and the sixth 

 centuries, Ceylon had undergone all the miseries of 

 frequent invasions : that in the \Ticissitudes of time 

 the great dynasty of Wijayo had expired, and the 

 throne had fallen into the hands of an effeminate and 

 powerless race, utterly unable to contend with the 

 energetic Malabars, who acquired an estabhshed foot- 

 ing in the northern parts of the island. The south. 



thousand otlier islands lie adjacent to 

 Ceylon, and in a gi'oup of these which 

 he calls Maniolfe (probahly the Attols 

 of the Maldives,) is found the load- 

 stone, -which attracts iron, so that a 

 vessel coming within its influence, 

 is seized and forcibly detained, and 

 for this reason the ships which na-\-i- 

 gate these seas are fastened with pegs 

 of wood instead of bolts of iron. 



Ceylon, according to this tra- 

 veller, has five large and navigable 

 riA'ers, it rejoices in one perennial 

 hai-vest, and the flowers and the ripe 

 fruit hang together on the same 

 branch. There are palm ti-ees; both 

 those that bear the gxeat Indian nut, 

 and the smaller aromatic one (the 

 areka). The natives subsist on milk, 

 rice, and fruit. The sheep produce 

 no wool, but have long and silky 

 hair, and linen being unknown, the 

 inhabitants clothe themselves in 

 skins, which are far from inelegantly 

 worked. 



Finding some Indian merchants 

 there who had come in a small vessel 

 to ti'ade, the Theban attempted to go 

 into the interior, and succeeded in 

 getting sight of a tribe whom he calls 

 Besadfe or Yesada;, his description of 

 whom is in singular confonnity with 

 the actual condition of the Yed- 

 dahs in Ceylon at the present day. 

 " They are," he says, '^ a feeble and 

 diminutive race, dwelling in caves 

 imder the rocks, and early accus- 



tomed to ascend precipices, with 

 which their coimtry aboimds,in order 

 to gather pepper fi'om the climbing 

 plants. They are of low statiu-e, ■wdtli 

 large heads and shaggy imcut hair." 



The Theban proceeds to relate 

 that being aiTCsted by one of the 

 chiefs, on the charge of having en- 

 tered his territory without permission, 

 he was forcibly detained there for 

 six years, subsisting on a measure of 

 food, issued to him daily by the royal 

 authority. This again presents a 

 ciuious coincidence with the deten- 

 tion and treatment of Knox and other 

 captives by the kings of Kandy in 

 modern times. He was at last re- 

 leased owing to the breaking out of 

 hostilities between the chief who held 

 him prisoner and another prince, who 

 accused the former before the supreme 

 sovereig-n of having imla-«-fully de- 

 tained a Roman citizen, after which 

 he was set at liberty, out of respect 

 to the Roman name and authority. 



This curious tract was first pub- 

 lished by Caaieeaeitjs, but in 1665 

 Sir Edward Bisse, Baronet, and 

 Clarenceux King-at-Ai-ms, repro- 

 duced the Greek original, supposing 

 it to be an unpublished manuscript, 

 M-ith a Latin translation. It is in- 

 coi-]3orated in one of the MSS. of the 

 Fsciido- Callistheiics recently edited 

 by MIJLLER, lib. iii. cli. A-ii. viii. ; 

 DiDOT, Script, Grcec. Bih.y vol. xxvi. 

 Paris, 1846. 



