CHAP. II.] IXDIAN, ARABIAN, PERSIAX AUTHORITIES. 



COS 



twenty-eight years to a pilgrimage, the record of which 

 lias entitled him to rank amongst the most remarkable 

 travellers of any age or country. 



island. We ourselves were led, till 

 very recently, to imagine that Ceylon 

 enjoyed a "natural monopoly" of 

 cinnamon. 



Mr. TinvAiTES, of the Royal Botanic 

 Gardens at Kandy, is of opinion from 

 his own observation, that cinnamon is 

 indigenous to Ceylon, as it is found, 

 but of inferior quality, in the central 

 mountain range, as high as 3000 feet 

 above the level of the sea and 

 again in the sandy soil near Batti- 

 caloa on the east coast, he saw it in 

 such quantity as to suggest the idea 

 that it must be the remains of for- 

 mer cultivation. This statement of 

 Mr. Thwaites is quite in consistency 

 with the narrative of VALENTYN (ch. 

 vii.), that the Dutch, on their first 

 arrival in Ceylon, A.D. 1601-2, took 

 on board cinnamon at Batticaloa, 

 and that the surrounding district 

 continued to produce it in great abun- 

 dance in A.D. 1 726. (Ib., ch. xv. p. 223, 

 224.) Still it must be-observed that 

 its appearance in these situations is 

 not altogether inconsistent with the 

 popular belief that the seeds may 

 have been earned there by birds. 



Finding that the Singhalese works 

 accessible to me, the Jfahawanso, the 

 Rajavah, the Rajaratnacan, &c., al- 

 though frequently particularising the 

 aromatic shrubs and flowers planted 

 by the pious care of the native 

 sovereigns, made no mention of 

 cinnamon, I am indebted to the 

 good offices of the Maha-Moodliar DE 

 SAREM, of Mr. DE ALWIS, the trans- 

 lator of the Sidath-Sangara, and of 

 Mr. SPEXCE HARDY, the learned his- 

 torian of Buddhism, for a thorough 

 examination of such native books as 

 were likely to throw light on the 

 question. Mr. Hardy writes to me 

 that he has not met with the word 

 cinnamon (kunmdii) in any early 

 Singhalese books ; but there is men- 

 tion of a substance called " paspala- 

 wata" of which cinnamon forms one 

 of the ingredients. Mr. de Alwis 



has been equally unsuccessful, al- 

 though in the Saraswate Niyardu, an 

 ancient Sanskrit Catalogue of Plants, 

 the true cinnamon is spoken of as 

 Sinhalam, a word which signifies 

 " belonging to Ceylon," to distinguish 

 it from cassia, which is found in 

 Hindustan. The Maha-Moodliar, as 

 the result of an investigation made 

 by him in communication with some 

 of the most erudite of the Buddhist 

 priesthood familiar with Pali and 

 Singhalese literature, informs me 

 that whilst cinnamon is alluded to in 

 several Sanskrit works on Medicine, 

 such as that of Susrata, and thence 

 copied into Pali translations, its name 

 has been found only in Singhalese 

 works of comparatively modern date, 

 although it occurs in the treatise on 

 Medicine and Surgery popularly 

 attributed to King Bujas Kaja, A.D. 

 339. LANKAGODDE, a learned priest 

 of Galle, says that the word lawanga 

 in an ancient Pali vocabulary means 

 cinnamon, but I rather think this is 

 a mistake, for lawaiu/a or lavanga is 

 the Pali name for " cloves," that for 

 cinnamon being lamayo. 



The question therefore remains in 

 considerable obscurity. It is diffi- 

 cult to understand how an article so 

 precious coidd exist in the highest 

 perfection in Ceylon, at the period 

 when the island was the very focus 

 and centre of Eastern commerce, and 

 yet not become an object of interest 

 and an item of export. And although 

 it is sparingly used in the Singhalese 

 cuisine, still looking at its many 

 religious uses for decoration and 

 incense, the silence of the ecclesias- 

 tical writers as to its existence is 

 not easily accounted for. 



The explanation may possibly be, 

 that cinnamon, like coffee, was origi- 

 nally a native of the east angle of 

 Africa; and that the same Arabian 

 adventurers who carried coffee to Ye- 

 men, where it flourishes to the present 

 day, may have been equally instru- 



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