CHAP. IV.] CEYLON AS KNOWN TO VENETIANS. 



637 



and the multitude of wild animals, lions (leopards?), 

 bears, and elephants. " In it he saw the mountain on 

 which Adam for the space of 500 years mourned the 

 death of Abel, and on which his tears and those of Eve 

 formed, as men believed, a fountain ; " but this Odoric 

 discovered to be a delusion, as he saw the spring gush- 

 ing from the earth, and its waters " flowing over jewels, 

 but abounding with leeches and blood-suckers." The 

 natives were permitted by the king to collect the gems ; 

 and in doing so they smeared their bodies with the juice 

 of lemons to protect them from the leeches. The wild 

 creatures, they said, however dangerous to the inhabi- 

 tants of the island, were harmless to strangers. In 

 that island Odoric saw " birds with two heads," which 

 possibly implies that he saw the hornbill *, whose huge 

 and double casque may explain the expression. 



In the succeeding century 2 the most authentic ac- 

 count of Ceylon is given by NICOLO DI CONTI, another 

 Venetian, who, though of noble family, had settle^ as a 



1 Buceros Pica. See ante, Part n. 

 ch. ii. p. 167. 



2 Among the writers on India in 

 the 14th century, A.D. 1323, was the 

 Dominican missionary JOTTKDAIK 

 CATALANI, or " Jordan de Severac," 

 regarding whose title of Bishop of 

 Colombo, " Episcopus Columbensis," 

 it is somewhat uncertain whether his 

 see was in Ceylon, or at Coulaui 

 (Quilon), on the Malabar coast. The 

 probability in favour of the latter is 

 sustained by the fact of the very 

 limited accounts of the island con- 

 tained in his Mirabilia, a work in 

 which he has recorded his observa- 

 tions on the Dekkan. Cinnamon he 

 describes as a production of Malabar, 

 and Ceylon he extols only for its 

 gems, pre-eminent among which 

 were two rubies, one worn by the 

 king, suspended round his neck, and 

 the other which, when grasped in the 

 hand, could not be covered by the 

 finffers, " Non credo mundum habere 

 universum tales duo lapides, nee tanti 



pretii." The MS. of Fra. JORDA- 

 NTIS'S Mirabilia has been printed in 

 the Recuett des Voyages of the So- 

 cie"te" Ge"ogr. of Paris, vol. i.p. 49. 

 GIOVANNI DE MARJGNOLA, a Floren- 

 tine and Legate of Clement VI., 

 lauded in Ceylon in 1349 A.D., at 

 which time the legitimate king was 

 driven away and the supreme power 

 left in the hands of a eunuch whom 

 he calls Co/a- Joan, " pessimus Sara- 

 cenus." The legate's attention was 

 chiefly directed to "the mountain 

 opposite Paradise." DOBNER, Mo- 

 num. Jlistor. Boemice. Pragre, 1764- 

 85. 



JOHN OP HESSE, in his " Itinerary" 



Taprobar 



et moribus asperi : permagnas habent 

 aures, et illas plurimis gemmis ornare 

 dicuntur. Hi cames humanas pro 

 8it>nii* ddidis comedunt." JOHAN- 

 NIS DE HESSE, Presbyter! Itinerarium, 

 etc. 



T T 3 



