1844.] Notice of the Ajaibal- Mukhlnkat. 633 



That Ceylon produces rubies is a well known fact, but I am not 

 aware that the diamond has ever been found there, or that there is 

 any geological formation on the island equivalant to the diamond 

 conglomerate of India, or the Cascalhao of Brazil. If obtained from 

 Ceylon in the time of Cazvini, it was probably imported from India by 

 the Singhalese from gem merchants. 



Among other productions of India are enumerated the bezoar stone, 

 (padzahr, y? j«iL> or expeller of poison,) from the stomachs of sheep. 

 Eagle stones, (haja-al-akab Uj-M*}^—^ found in eagle's nests. The 

 author states them to be like tamarinds, and to give a sound when 

 shaken ; but when broken, are found empty. The eagles bring them 

 from India. 



The astronomical part of the work is evidently compiled from the 

 Arabian authors, whose systems were founded on those of Hipparchus 

 and Ptolemy ; and the compiler has fallen into the error of the latter in 

 stating the precession of the equinoxes to be as 1° per century, instead of 

 following the Arab prince Allategnius, who brought it as near the truth 

 as 1° per 66 years. 



His natural history is chiefly derived from the works of Aristotle, Dios- 

 corides, Sheikh ur Reio ; and his geography from Ptolemy and Abur 

 Rihan. 



In these departments more especially, the author has gravely enu- 

 merated many travellers' tales and incredible absurdities ; but we should be 

 sorry to reject the whole on account of defects, from which even the 

 works of the great father of history, Herodotus himself, are by no 

 means free. 



The experience of after-times often demonstrates the truth of state- 

 ments entirely disbelieved, and ridiculed on their first promulgation. 

 Witness those of the slandered and magnanimous Bruce. Even in the 

 most marvellous traditions of the various races of the earth, we frequent- 

 ly find clues to valuable truths. 



The wonderful tales of griffins, hippogriffs, dragons, and other 

 monsters of old, probably originated in ancient traditions of strange 

 animals now extinct, the fossilized dishonored skeletons of which, in the 

 present day, convince us of the fact, which we should have other- 

 wise ridiculed ; namely, that the world once swarmed with such 

 monsters. 



