— IS — 



ferent account of its situation , in which its vicinity to the continent of India is men- 

 tioned also. 



Other Chinese geographers , amongst whom those are who have best studied 

 their subject , agree in placing this country on the north coast of Java , but in the 

 western part of the island , and we have many reasons to accept this view : the de- 

 scription suits Java very well , there is no other account of it in the history of this 

 dynasty , though Sumatra has found a place there , and in the course of these pages 

 we shall see that the country Lang-ga-su is sometimes used to determine the position 

 of other islands and that , in these cases , it is taken for Java also. Langka , Lang- 

 kapura and Ngalengka, though names of Ceylon, have been transplanted to Java in 

 the mythology of the country , might it not be possible that the Hindoo colonists had 

 given this famous name to one of- their first settlements ? 



No conclusion must be drawn from the fervent Buddhist spirit in which the 

 letter is written. It cannot reasonably be doubted that such a letter was presented 

 to the Emperor by a man being or professing to be an envoy from the country in 

 question , but we cannot vouchsafe the accuracy with which his credentials were trans- 

 lated and it is quite possible that the envoy himself, or the people who prepared the 

 Chinese version , put in a good deal of their own, in order to propitiate the Chinese 

 court , where Buddhism was in high favour at the time. We shall soon see more of 

 such letters and the above remarks may apply to all of them. 



Old history of the T'ang dynasty (618—906). Book 197. 



Ka-ling (*) is situated on an island in the sonthern ocean , it lies on 

 the eastern side of Sumatra ( 2 ) , on the western side of Bali ( 3 ) , towards the 

 north it has Cambodja and on its south the sea. 



The walls of the city are made of palisadoes; there is also a large 

 building of two stories , covered with the bark of the gomuti palm ( 4 ) , in 

 this the king lives and he sits on a couch of ivory. 



When they eat , they use no spoons or chopsticks , but put the food 

 into their mouth with their fingers. 



They have letters and know a little of astronomy. 



C) §g %\\^ Pa-U or Po-li. 



O \$Ê ^ ^ Dva-pa-tan; this country will bc trealcd separalely, wlicnitwill bc shown 

 why it has been identiüed with Bali. 



(") ML jj&{ Coir, the libres found on the borassus gomuti, is still now much used tbr 

 thatching purposes. 



