MEDIAEVAL HISTORY. 



[PART V. 



ages to the close of the thirteenth century, is there the 

 remotest allusion to Cinnamon as an indigenous produc- 

 tion, or" even as an article of commerce in Ceylon. I may 

 add, that I have been equally unsuccessful in finding any 

 allusion to the tree in any Chinese work of ancient date. 1 

 This unexpected result has served to cast a suspicion 

 on the title of Ceylon to be designated par excellence the 

 " Cinnamon Isle," and even with the knowledge that 

 the cinnamon laurel is indigenous there, it admits of 

 but little doubt that the spice which in the earlier ages 

 was imported into Europe through Arabia, was obtained, 

 first from Africa, and afterwards from India ; and that it 

 was not till after the twelfth or thirteenth century that its 

 existence in Ceylon became known to the merchants re- 

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

 in Europe, even at the latter period, that Phile, who 

 composed his metrical treatise, TIsp] Zwwv 'ISiOTTjros, for 

 the information of the Emperor Michael XT. (Pal^eologus), 

 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. 2 



1 In the Chinese Materia Medica, 



(C Pun-tsao-kang-nmh" cinnamon or 



cassia is described under the name of 



" kiuei," but always as a production 



of Southern China and of Cochin 



China. In the Ming History, a pro- 



duction of Ceylon is mentioned under 



the name of " Shoo-heant/" or "tree- 



perfume ; " but my informant, Mr. 



Wylie, of Shanghae, is unable to 



identify it with cinnamon oil. 



2 "OpvtQ it Kivvaputpos aivofiaafjiivog 



To Kivvafj.(afiov tvptv ayvoovfitvov, 



*Y0' ov KaXidv opyavoi rotg 0iXrdroi 



MoXAoi/ Si rolg ni\atnv 'Ivdolg, av- 



PniLE, xxviii. 



VINCENT, in scrutinising the writ- 

 ings of the classical authors, anterior 

 to Cosmas, 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 mercantile author of 

 the Periplus was silent regarding it. 

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

 likewise called attention to the same 

 fact. (Bibl. Orient, vol. iii. p. 308.) 

 This omission is not to oe ex- 

 plained by ascribing it to mere in- 

 advertence. The interest of the 

 Greeks and Romans was naturally 

 excited to discover the country 

 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 

 Orating 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 



