G10 



MEDLEVAL HISTORY. 



[PART V. 



by the first created man, who, in their mythology, bears 

 the name of Pawn-too ; and the gems which are found 

 upon the mountain they believe to be his " crystallised 

 tears, thus accounting for their singular lustre and 

 marvellous tints." l The country they admired for its 

 fertility and singular beauty ; the climate they compared 

 to that of Siam 2 , with slight alterations of seasons ; refresh- 

 ing showers in every period of the year, and the earth 

 consequently teeming with fertility. 3 



The names by which Ceylon was known to them 

 are either adapted from the Singhalese, as nearly as 

 the Chinese characters would supply equivalents for the 

 Sanskrit and Pali letters, or else they are translations 

 of the sense implied by each designation. Thus, Sinhala 

 was either rendered " Seng-kia-lo" 4 or " Sze-tseu-kwo" 

 the latter name, as well as the original, meaning " the 

 kingdom of lions." 5 The classical Lanka is preserved in 

 the Chinese " Lang-keci" and " Lang-ya-seu." In the 

 epithet " Chih-too" the Red Land 6 , we have a simple 

 rendering of the Pali Tambapanni, the "Copper-palmed," 

 from the colour of the soil. 7 Paou-choo 8 is a translation 

 of the Sanskrit Eatna-dwipa, the " Island of Gems," and 

 Tsih-e-lan, Seih-lan, and Se-lung, are all modern modifica- 

 tions of the European " Ceylon." 



does not dry up all the year round ; " 

 and that invalids recover by drinking 

 from the well at the foot of the 

 mountain, into which " the sea- water 

 enters free from salt." Taou-e che- 

 leo, quoted in the Hae-kwo-too-che, 

 or Foreign Geography, b. xxviii. 

 p. 15. 



1 Po-wuh Yaou-lan, b. xxxiii. p. 1. 

 WANG-KE, Suh- Wan-heen tung-kaou, 

 b. ccxxxvi. p. 19. 



2 Tung-teen, b. clxxxviii. p. 17. 

 Tac-ping, b. dcclxxxvii. p. 5. 



3 Leang-shoo, b. liv. p. 10. 



* Hioutn-Thsang, b. iv. p. 194 

 Transl. M. S. Julien. 



5 This, M. Stanislas Julien says, 

 should be " the kingdom of the lion" 

 in allusion to the mythical ancestry 



of Wijayo. Joum. Asiat., torn, 

 xxix. p. 37. And in a note to the 

 tenth book of HIOTJEN-THSANG'S 

 Voyages des Pelerins Bouddhistes, 

 vol. ii. p. 124, he says one name for 

 Ceylon in Chinese is" Tchi-sse-tseu" 

 " (le royaume de celui qui) a pris un 

 lion." 



6 Suy-shoo, b. Ixxx. p. 3. In the 

 Se-ylh-ke foo-choo, or " Descriptions 

 of Warten Countries," Ceylon is 

 called Woo-yeic-kico, " the sorrowless 

 kingdom." 



7 Mahftwanso, ch. viL p. 50. 



8 Se-ylh-ke foo-choo, quoted in the 

 Hae-ku-o-too che, or^Ioreijrn (iro- 

 graphy," 1. xviii. p. 15; Hiori-x- 

 THSAJTG, Voyages dcs Peler. Boiidd., 

 lib. xi. vol. ii. p. 125 ; 130 n. 



