1882.] 1BN BATUTA IN THE MALDIVES AND CEYLON. 7 



are prayers. One day in this country, I ordered the right hand of a 

 robber to be cut off ; upon which many of the natives in the hall 

 of audience fainted away. The Indian pirates do not attack 

 them, and cause them no alarm, for they have found that whoever 

 takes anything of theirs is struck with a sudden calamity. When a 

 hostile fleet comes to their shores, they seize what strangers they 

 find, but do no harm to the natives. If an idolater appropriates 

 anything, if it be but a lime, the chief of the idolaters punishes 

 him and beats him severely, so much does he fear the results of 

 such an action. Were it otherwise, certainly these people would 

 be a most contemptible foe in the eyes of their enemies, because 

 of the weakness of their bodies. In each of their islands there 

 are tine mosques, and most of their buildings are of wood. 



The islanders are good people : they abstain from what is 

 foul, and most of them bathe twice a day, and properly too, on 

 account of the extreme heat of the climate and the abundance 

 of perspiration. They use a large quantity of scented oils, such 

 as sandal-wood oil, &c, and they anoint themselves with musk 

 from Makdachaou.* It is one of their customs, when they have 

 said the morning prayer, for every woman to go to meet her 

 husband or son with the collyrium box, rose-water and musk oil. 

 He smears his eye-lashes with collyrium, and rubs himself with 

 rose-water and musk oil, and so polishes the skin and removes 

 from his face all trace of fatigue. 



The clothing of these people consists of cloths. They wrap 

 one round their loins in place of drawers, while on their backs 

 they wear the stuffs called alouilydn f which resemble the ihr&m 



* Makdachaou : — ? Madagascar. [Rather Magadoxo on the Zanzibar coast, 

 which Ibn Batiita had visited (Tome II., 181.) " After leaving Zaila we sailed 

 on the sea for fifteen days, and arrived at Makdachaou an extremely large 

 town."- See Yule's Marco Polo. Vol. II., p. 347—5.] 



f Alomlym — ouilydn (p. 120) : — A probable corruption of M. feUya, 

 (cf : S. valu, pili, ' clothes 1 ) the term for the kambaya (S) or waist cloth worn bv 

 Maldivian women commonly and by soldiers on special occasions. The Mai- 

 dive equivalent for the ihrdm is known as digu libds — B. 



