610 



MEDIAEVAL IIISTOSY. 



[Part V. 



by the first created man, who, in then* mythology, bears 

 tlie name of Pawn-koo ; and the gems wliicli are fomid 

 upon tlie mountain they beheve to be his " crystallised 

 tears, wliicli accounts for their singular lustre and 

 marvellous tints." ^ The country they admired for its 

 fertihty and singular beauty ; the climate they compared 

 to that of Siam^, with slight alterations of seasons ; refresh- 

 ing showers in every period of the year, and the earth 

 consequently teeming with fertility.^ 



The names by which Ceylon was known to them 

 were either adapted from the Singhalese, as nearly as 

 the Chinese characters would supply equivalents for the 

 Sanskrit and Pali letters, or else they are translations 

 of the sense imphed by each designation. Thus, Sinhala 

 was either rendered " Seng-kia-lo,'" ^ or " Sze-tseu-kwo" 

 the latter name as well as the original, meamng " the 

 kingdom of hons." ^ The classical Lanka is preserved in 

 the Chinese " Lang-kea" and " Lang-ya-seu." In the 

 epithet " CMh-too,'" the Red Land ^, we have a simple 

 rendering of the Pah Tambapanni, the " Copper-palmed," 

 from the colour of the soil.'' Paou-choo ^ is a translation 

 of the Sanskrit Eatna-dwipa, the " Island of Gems," and 

 Tsih-e-lan, Seih-lan, and Se-hmg, are aU modern modifica- 

 tions of the European " Ceylon." 



does not dry up all tlie year round ; " 

 and that invalids recover by drinking 

 from tlie well at the foot of the 

 mountain, into which " the sea-water 

 enters free from salt." Taou-e che- 

 leo, quoted in the Hae-kwo-too-che, 

 or J'oreign Geogi'aphy, b. xxviii. 

 p. 15. 



^ Po-2vuh Yaou-Ian, b. xxxiii. p. 1. 

 Wang-Ke, Siih- Wan-Men tung-kaou, 

 b. ccxxxvi. p. 19. 



2 Tim(j-t'ecn, b. clxxxviii. p. 17. 

 Tae-pimj, b. dcclxxxvii. p. 5. 



2 Leo7iy-shoo, b. liv. p. 10. 



4 Iliouen-Tlisang, b. iv. p. 194. 

 Transl. M. S. Julien. 



^ This, M. Stanislas Julien says, 

 should be '' the kingdom of the lion^'' 

 in allusion to the mythical ancestiy 



of Wijayo. — Jonrn. Asiat., torn, 

 xxix. p. 37. And in a note to the 

 tenth book of IIioxjen-Thsang's 

 Voyages des Peleti'tis Bouddhistes, 

 vol. ii. p. 124, he says one name for 

 Ceylon in Chinese is" Tchi-sse-tseu" 

 '^ (le royaume de celui qui) a pris un 

 lion." 



^ Svy-shoo, b. Ixxx. p. 3. In the 

 Se-ylh-ke foo-choo, or " Descriptions 

 of Western Countries/' Ceylon is 

 called Woo-yeiv-kioo, " the sorrowless 

 kingdom." 



■^ Mahmvanso, ch. vii. p. 50. 



^ Se-ylh-ke foo-choo, quoted in the 

 Ilae-kwo-too che, or " Foreign Geo- 

 gTaphy," 1. xviii. p. 15 ; IIiotjen- 

 Thsang, Voyages des Peler. Boudd. 

 lib. xi. vol. ii. p. 125 ; 130 n. 



