2 EARLY NAMES. 



to refer to it under the name of Menuthias ; "'' and Pliny writes 

 about an island which, in the opinion of many authors, could 

 hardly he any other than Madagascar, under the name of 

 Gerne.'\ And it has been supposed to be obscurely indicated 

 in the book De Mando ascribed to Aiistotle, under the name 

 of Phanhalon. Some other names are also given in early 

 "WTiters; thus, in a quaint old book published in 1609 by 

 Hieronymus Megiserus, entitled Beschreibung der Mecldvjen 

 und Weitbcrkibnbten Insul Madagascar (Altenbourg in ]\Ieis- 

 sen), it is stated that Arrian calls it Menutheseas, Stephanus 

 Byzantinus Menuthis, and Diodorus Siculus lamholi. Tharetus 

 is also quoted as saying that it was called Pacras on account 

 of the many tortoises found there ; afterwards Alhargra, 

 then Manutia-Alphil, and then Magadascar, a corruption of 

 the name of Magadoxo, on the mainland of Africa, whose 

 king is said to have invaded the island. Finally, this word 

 was changed to Madagascar. So runs the account, some of the 

 particulars of which are probably not very reliable, although 

 they may possess a basis of fact.j 



Madagascar is mentioned by several of the Arabian writers, 

 being known to them also by various names, as Serandah and 

 Chebona ; and by the geographers Edrisi and Abulfeda (twelfth 

 and thirteenth centuries), under the strangely different titles of 

 Phdon (or Phenbalon), Quaiiibalon (or Chambalon),^aZe(^2r (also 

 variously spelt), and Gezirat al-Komr or " Island of the Moon." 



* "Huic de processo promontorio hodie Mozambique adjacet ab sestivo ortu 

 insula nomine Menuthias ; cujus positio 85 Austral 12.0" (lib. 4, cap. 9). 



+ " Contra Sinum Persicum Cerne, nominetur insula ad versa yEthiopije, cujus 

 neque magnitude, neque intervallum a continente constat, jEthiopias tantum 

 populos habere traditur " (lib. vL cap. 31). The bishop appointed to Mada- 

 gascar four years ago has adopted this name Cerne as that of his see on his 

 official seal. 



X Since -writing the above, I have referred to the original texts of some of the 

 classical authors mentioned by the old German •wi-iter, as well as to his own 

 book ; and also to a learned French author, Gossellin, who, in his work entitled 

 Itecherches sur la Geographic 8ystematique et Positive des Anciens (4 vols. Paris, 

 1813), disputes the opinion of earlier writers that Madagascar was mentioned by 

 classical authors under the names of Cern^ and Menuthias (see tom. i. pp. 80, 

 191-193). With regard to the former of these names, I think his opinion is 

 coiTcct, but I am not so sure about the second. Gossellin maintains that Menu- 

 thias was the name of a very small island in the estuary of one of the great 

 rivers on the East African coast. 



