lVo. 12. — 1860-1.] CINNAMON. 377 



enumerated in Wilford's "Essay on Egypt" and other adjacent 

 countries (see Sir W. Jones's Works, ii. p. 493, et seq)., 

 we find that a " part of Africa was called India by the 

 Greeks, that Theophylact thought that the Nile flowed 

 through Lybia, Ethiopia and India'" (p. 511; ; that Strabo 

 considered that the people of Mauritiana were Indians or 

 Hindus ; that middle India was called Abyssinia in the times 

 of Marco Polo ; and that Pliny placed Madagascar on the 

 east of Ceylon. 



As for the silence of the Ceylonese, it is not at all amazing 

 to me, that. a people little accustomed to traffic, and setting- 

 no value upon the bark which they did nor use either for 

 religious or culinary purposes, omitted to mention the spice 

 in question in any of their books, except their Lexicons or 

 Botanical works, few of which have been spared to us from 

 the ravages of ancient times. :;: 



And this leads me to notice briefly the second part of 

 your inquiry, as to " the uses to which the ancient Sinhalese 

 applied this spice." Sacrificial offerings, for which in ancient 

 times Cinnamon was used by other nations, were not known 

 to the Sinhalese. Indeed, they seem to have regarded it 

 as fit only for medicine. Thus, we preceive the plant spoken 

 of, not only in Indian medical books of high antiquity, such 

 as the Shusruta, but also in Sanskrit and Pali medical 

 writers of Ceylon. The Sdrathasangraltii of Buddha Dasa 

 (A.D. 350,) and the Manjusa (A.D. 1261, ) t both mention 

 Cinnamon as an ingredient Ubed as medicine in cases of 

 "snake poison," "elephantiasis,'' "rheumatism," &c. Ex- 

 cept in modern times, I am not aware that this spice was 

 applied by the Sinhalese to any other use,| and I am 



* "Although in the few native works at our present disposal there 

 is no particular mention made of spices, yet we cannot possibly doubt 

 of their consumption in the country itself. This silence, however, is 

 merely the effect of accidental causes; for neither Maim or the 

 Ramayana had any special occasion of alluding to the subject." — Heeren's 

 Historical Researches, ii. p. 27b". 



f Also in the Sinhalese Ydgaratudkaraya, A.D. 1472. 



+ 1 must not, however, omit to state that frequent mention is made 

 in the Mahdivansa of " scented oils," " spices, " and "aromatic oils," (see 



C 



