Chap. I.] CEYLOX AS KXOWN TO THE PIIffiNICIAXS. 



571 



NOTE (A). 



Knoiuledge of Ceylon possessed hjj the Pkveniclans. 



In the previous chapter, p. 526, &c., alhision has been made to 

 the possible resort of the Phoenicians to Ceylon in the course of 

 their voyages to India, but I have not thought it expedient to 

 embody in the text any notice of the description of the island 

 which is given in the Phoenician History of Sanchoniatiion, 

 published by Wagenfeld, at Bremen, in 1837, under the title 

 of " Sanchiiniathonls Historiarum Phoenicicv Lihri Kovem 

 Greece Versos a Philone Byhlio, edidit Latinaque Versione do- 

 navit F. Wagenfeld/' 



Sanchoniathou is alleged to have lived before the Trojan war ; 

 and in Asiatic chronology he is said to have been a contemporary 

 of Semiramis. The Phosnician original perished ; but its contents 

 were preserved in the Grreek translation of Philo, a native of By- 

 blus, a frontier town of Phoenicia, who wrote in the first cen- 

 tury after Christ, and till the alleged discovery of the MS. from 

 which Wagenfeld professed to publish, the only portion of Philo's 

 version kno\vn to exist consisted of fragments preserved by 

 Eusebius and Porphyry. Wagenfeld's statement was, that the 

 MS. in his possession had been obtained from the Portuguese 

 monastery of St. Maria de Merinhao (the existence of which 

 there is reason to doubt), and the portion which he first ven- 

 tured to print appeared with a preface by Grotefend. Its ge- 

 nuineness was instantly impugned ; a learned and protracted 

 controversy arose ; and though Wagenfeld eventuallj^ pub- 



336. In point of time, the notice of 

 Ceylon given by the Armenian Arch- 

 bishop Moses of Chorene in his His- 

 toria Armeniaca ct JSpitotne Geor/ra- 

 pJiicp, is entitled to precede that of 

 Cosnias Indico-pleustes, inasmuch as 

 Moses has transhited into Armenian 

 the Greek text of Pappus of Alex- 

 andria, who wrote abaut the end 

 of the fourth century. Of Ta- 

 probane he says — it is one of the 

 largest islands in the world, being 

 1100 miles in length by 1500 broad, 

 and reckons V-MQ adjacent islands 

 amongst its dependencies. lie al- 

 ludes to its mountains and rivers, 

 the variety of races which inhabit it, 



and its production of gold, silver, 

 gems, spices, elephants, and tigers ; 

 and dwells on the fact, previously 

 noticed by Agathemerus, that the 

 men of this country dress their hair 

 after the fashion of women, by braid- 

 ing it in tresses on the top of their 

 heads, " viri regionis istius capillis 

 muliebribus sua capita redimimit." — 

 Moses Cdoeeneksis, &c., edit. Whis- 

 ton, 1736, p. 367. The most remark- 

 able circumstance is that he alludes 

 thus early to the footprint on Adam's 

 Peak, which is probably the meaning 

 of his expression, *' ibidem iSatance 

 lapsum narmnt" t. iv. 



r p 2 



