CHAP. I.]. CEYLON AS KNOWN TO THE PHCENICIANS. 577 



of the barbarians, and the forces of them all, and their ships of 

 war and of burthen, and their scythe-armed chariots. For 

 when our ships of war, sailing to the island of Eachius, 

 reached the remotest parts eastward that we knew, the ex- 

 tremities of all lands, and the nations that inhabited them, we 

 discovered things unknown to our ancestors. For our an- 

 cestors, sailing only to the islands and the region extending to 

 the west, knew nothing of the countries which we have ex- 

 plored to the east : you will therefore write all these things for 

 the information of posterity.' When having prostrated myself 

 before the king, on his saying these things, and having re- 

 turned to my own house, I wrote as follows : 



(Ch. xvi.) . ..." To the eastward dwell the Babylonians 

 and Medians and ^Ethiopians. The city of the Babylonians is 

 flourishing and populous ; Media produces white horses ; 

 Ethiopia is barren and arid near the sea, and mountainous in 

 the interior. And further to the east is the peninsula of 

 Rachius, whither the ships of Hierbas sailed." 



On this narrative of Sanchoniathon it is only necessary to 

 remark that the allusion in ch. ix. to the assistance rendered 

 by the Tyrians to Irenius of Judea, when building his palace, 

 in supplying him with timber and squared stones, is almost 

 literally copied from the passage in the Old Testament (1 Kings, 

 ix. 11), where Hiram is stated to have furnished to Solomon 

 " cedar trees and fir trees," for the building of the Temple. 



The cession by Irenius of the city and harbour of Ilotha 

 refers to the resort of the Tyrians to Ezion Greber, or Eloth, 

 in the JElanitic Gulf of the Eed Sea, Ib., v. 26, whence they 

 piloted the ships of Solomon, which once in every three years 

 returned with cargoes of gold from Ophir. (Ib., v. 28.) 



As to the incidents and observations recorded by the Phceni- 

 cian travellers during their journey to the interior of Ceylon, 

 the kings by which it was governed, the natural productions of 

 the various regions, the footprint on Adam's Peak, the incur- 

 sions of the Malabars, the ascendency of their religion, the 

 absence of camels, the abundance of elephants, and the culti- 

 vation of cinnamon, all these are so palpably imitated from the 

 accounts of Cosmas Indico-pleustes, and the voyages of Arabian 

 mariners, that it is almost unnecessary to point to the parallel 

 passages from which they are taken. 



