. I.] CEYLON AS KNOWN TO THE PIKENICIANS. 



571 



NOTE (A). 

 Knowledge of Ceylon possessed by the Phoenicians. 



IN the previous chapter, p. 550, &c., allusion 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 SANCHONIATHON, 

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

 of " Sanchuniathonis Historiarum Ph&nicice Libri Novem 

 Greece Versos a Philone Byblio, edidit Latinaque Versione do- 

 navit F. WAGENFELD." 



Sanchoniathon is alleged to have lived before the Trojan war ; 

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

 of Semiramis. The Phoenician original perished ; but its contents 

 were preserved in the Greek 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 known 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 wich 

 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 eventually pub- 



336. In point of time, the notice of 

 Ceylon given by the Armenian Arch- 

 bishop Moses of Chorene in his His- 

 toria Armcniaca et Epitome Geogra- 

 phic, is entitled to precede that of 

 Cosmos Indico-pleustes, inasmuch as 

 Moses has translated into Armenian 

 the Greek text of Pappus of Alex- 

 andria, who wrote about 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 1370 adjacent islands 

 amongst its dependencies. He 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 redimiunt." 

 MOSES CHORENENSIS, &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 m< Miiing 

 of his expression, (( ibidem Sutuntc 

 lapsum narrant," t. iv. 



p p 2 



