CUAP. I.] 



COSMAS INDICO-PLEUSTES. 



567 



Indian Sea, called Sielendib by the Indians, but Tapro- 

 bane by the Greeks. The stone, the hyacinth, is found 

 in it ; it lies beyond the pepper country. 1 Around it 

 there are a multitude of exceedingly small islets 2 , all 

 containing fresh water and coco-nut palms 3 ; these 

 (islands) he as close as possible together. The great 

 island itself, according to the accounts of its inha- 

 bitants, is 300 g audio, 4 , or 900 miles long, and as many 

 in breadth. There are two kings ruling at opposite 

 ends of the island 5 , one of whom possesses the hya- 

 cinth 6 , and the other the district, in which are the port 



1 Malabar or Xarghyl Arabia. 



2 The Maldive Islands. 



3 'ApyfXAta pro i'apys\\fr,from nari- 

 krla, the Sanskrit, and narghyl, Arab, 

 for the "coco-nut palm.'" GILDE- 

 MESTER, Script. Arab. p. 36. 



4 " Pavcln." It is very remarkable 

 that this singular word gaou, in which 

 Cosmas gives the dimensions of the 

 island, is in use to the present day in 

 Ceylon, and means the distance which 

 a man can walk in an hour. VINCENT, 

 in his Commerce and Navigation of 

 the Ancients, has noticed this passage 

 (vol. ii. p. 506), and says, somewhat 

 loosely, that the Singhalese gaou, 

 which he spells "ghadia" is the same 

 as the naligiae of the Tamils, and 

 equal to three-eighths of a French 

 league, or nearly one mile and a 

 quarter English. This is incorrect ; 

 a gaoii in Ceylon expresses a some- 

 what indeterminate length, according 

 to the nature of the ground to be 

 traversed, a gaou across a mountain- 

 ous country being less than one mea- 

 sured on level ground, and a gaou 

 for a loaded cooley is also permitted 

 to be shorter than for one unbur- 

 thened, but on the whole the average 

 may be taken under four miles. This 

 is worth remarking, because it brings 

 the statement made to Sopater by 

 the Singhalese in the sixth century 

 into consistency with the representa- 

 tions of the ambassadors to the Em- 

 peror Claudius in the first, although 

 both prove to be erroneous. It is 

 curious that FA HIAN, the Chinese 

 traveller, whose zeal for Buddhism 

 led him to visit India and Ceylon a 



century and a half before Cosmas, 

 gives an area to the island which ap- 

 proaches very nearly to correctness ; 

 although he reverses the direction in 

 which its length exceeds its breadth. 

 Foe-koue-ki, c. xxxvii. p. 328. 



5 "'Evai>Tioid\\i')\<ai: Thismayalso 

 mean "at war with one another." 



6 This has been translated so as to 

 mean the portion of the island pro- 

 ducing hyacinth stones ("la partie de 

 1'isle ou se trouvent les jacinthes." 

 THEVENOT). But besides that I 

 know of no Greek form of expression 

 that admits of such expansion ; this 

 construction, if accepted, would be 

 inconsistent with fact; for the 

 king alluded to held the north of the 

 island, whereas the region producing 

 gems is the south, and in it were also 

 the "emporium," and the harbour 

 frequented by shipping and mer- 

 chants. I am disposed therefore to 

 accept the term in its simple sense, 

 and to believe that it refers to one 

 particular jewel, for the possession 

 of which the king of Ceylon enjoyed 

 an enviable renown. Cosmas, in the 

 succeeding sentence, describes this 

 wonderful gem as being deposited in 

 a temple near the capital, and Hiouen 

 Thsang,the Chinese pilgrim, says that 

 in the seventh century, a ruby was 

 elevated on a spire surmounting a 

 temple at Anarajapoora " dont 1'eclat 

 magnitique illumine tout le ciel." 

 Vie dc Hiouen Thmny, lib. iv. p. 199 ; 

 Voyages dc* Felerins Bouddhistet, 

 lib. x'i. v. ii. p. 141. MARCO POLO, 

 in the thirteenth century, says, the 

 " king of Ceylon is reputed to have 



