60& 



MEDIEVAL HISTORY. 



[Part V. 



existence in Ceylon became known to the merchants re- 

 sorting to the island. So httle was its real history known 

 in Enroj^e, even at the latter period, that Phile, who 

 composed his metrical treatise, Tlsp) Zwwv 'Vnorriros, for 

 the information of the Emperor Michael XI. (Palgeologus), 

 about the year 1310, repeats the ancient fable of Hero- 

 dotus, that cinnamon grew in an unknown Indian country, 

 whence it was carried by birds, from whose nests it was 

 abstracted by the natives of Arabia.^ 



' "Opi'ig o Kivva}ib)f.iOQ uivofiaafiivoQ 

 To Kii'vafn>)p.ov iv^iiv dyvooiifiivov, 

 "V*' 01' fcaXidi' opyavoi toIq 0tXroroif 

 MoXXov ci roi£ /xiXatJiv 'li^colg, av- 



'ApwfiariKrjV t)^ovi]v fiaTrXsicfi. 



Phile, xx^•iii. 

 Vincent, in scrutinising- the wiit- 

 ings of the classical authors, anterior 

 to Cosuias, who treated of Tapro- 

 bane, was surprised to discover that 

 no mention of cinnamon as a produc- 

 tion of Ceylon was to be met with in 

 Pliny, Dioscorides, or Ptolemy, and 

 that even the author of the mercan- 

 tile Periplus was silent regarding it. 

 (Vol. ii. p. 512.) D'Herbelot has 

 likewise called attention to the same 

 fact. {Bihl. Orient, vol. iii. p. 308.) 

 This omission is not to be ex- 

 plained by ascribing it to mere in- 

 advertence. The interest of the 

 Greeks and Romans was naturally 

 excited to discover the coimtry 

 which produced a luxury so rare as 

 to be a suitable gift for a king ; and 

 so costly, that a crown of cinnamon 

 tipped with gold was a becoming 

 offering to the gods. But the Arabs 

 succeeded in preserving the secret of 

 its origin, and the curiosity of 

 Europe was baffled by tales of cin- 

 namon being found in the nest of the 

 Phoenix, or gathered in marshes 

 guarded by monsters and winged 

 serpents. Pliny appears to have 

 been the first to suspect that the most 

 precious of spices came not from 

 Arabia, but froin ^Ethiopia (lib. xii. c. 

 xlii.) ; and Cooley, in an argument 

 equally remarkable for ingenuity and 

 research, has succeeded in demon- 



strating the soundness of this con- 

 jectm-e, and establishing the fact that 

 the cinnamon brought to Europe by 

 the Ai-abs, and aftei-wards by the 

 Greeks, came chiefly from the east- 

 ern angle of Africa, the tract around 

 Cape Gardafui, which is marked on 

 the ancient maps as the Regio Cin- 

 namomifera. (Journ. Eov. Georg. 

 Society, 1849, vol. xix. " p. 1060 

 CooLEY has suggested in his learned 

 work on *' Ptolemy and the Nile" thfit 

 the name Gardafui is a compoimd 

 of the Somali word c/ard, " a port," 

 and the Arabic afliaoni, a generic 

 tenn for aromata and spices. It 

 admits of no doubt that the cinna- 

 mon of Ceylon was unknown to com- 

 merce in the sixth century of our 

 era ; although there is evidence of a 

 supply which, if not from China, was 

 probably carried in Chinese vessels 

 at a much earlier period, in the 

 Persian name dar chini, which means 

 " Chinese wood," and in the ordinary 



word 



cmn-amon, 



Chinese amo- 



mum," a generic name for aromatic 

 spices generally. (Nees Von Esek- 

 BACH, de Cinnamono Dispi/fafio, p. 

 12.) Ptolemy, equally with Pliny, 

 placed the " Cinnamon Region " at the 

 north-eastern extremity of Africa, 

 now the coimtry of the Somaulees ; 

 and the author of the Periplus, mind- 

 ful of his object, in wi'iting a guide- 

 book for merchant-seamen, particu- 

 larises cassia amongst the exports 

 of the same coast ; but although he 

 enumerates the productions of Cey- 

 lon, gems, pearls, ivory, and tortoise- 

 shell, he is silent as to cinnamon. 

 Dioscorides and Galen, in common 



