1882.] IBN BATUTA IN THE MALDITES AND CEYLON. 8® 



stuffs and such things. Between Coromandel and the island of 

 Ceylon there is a distance of a day and a night. There is also 

 found in this island plenty of brazil-wood,* as well as Indian 

 aloes, called alcalakhy (perhaps from the Greek ayaKKoKov] ) 3 but 

 which does not resemble the kamdry or the kakouly.% We 

 shall speak of them hereafter. 



Of the Sultan of Ceylon. 

 He is called Airy Chacarouaty 9 and he is a powerful King 

 upon the sea. I saw in one day, while I was on the Coromandel 



Arrowsmith's map, adopted by Tennent. This place is represented as upon the 

 Calpentyn [Kalpitiya] peninsular, due west of Puttalam, and I could never account 

 for the traveller taking it on his route to the Peak. I am now informed that no such 

 place exists. There is, however, on the present road, about half way between 

 Puttalam and Chilaw, a village called Muntal or Mwndal, four miles north of the 

 Battul-oya, which seems to me to suit the description of the traveller in every 

 way. Menar Mendely was the frontier town of the Butthdlah Prince, as 

 Bender Seldoudt (Chilaw) must (from the term Bmder) have been to the 

 Sinhalese King of the South: and the low jungles of the neighbourhood have 

 always been a favourite haunt of wild buffaloes. By the Census of 1871, 1 find 

 Mundal and Tandivila together had a population of 128, and Paniya Muntal, 

 a neighbouring village, of 80. In conclusion, I have to state that the correspon- 

 dent who has indicated the places on the Peak route, is of opinion that 

 Batthaldh is J affna and Menar Mendely, Mannar. I have been unable, after 

 due consideration, to adopt his views, nor could I state them here at sufficient 

 length. I trust, however, that if he has no objection he will formulate them in 

 a separate paper for the use of the Society. 



* Brazil-wood: — i.e., " sapan." " ' They have brazil-wood, much the best 

 in the world,' Kazwini names it, and Ribeyro (Lee's edn., p. 16) does the like.'* 

 —Yule, Marco Polo, Vol. II., pp. 254, 256. 



\ Alcalakhy : — Mr. L.Nell considers the surmise of the French editors 

 correct. " Ibn Batuta evidently uses the Greek term agallohon corresponding 

 to the Latin Excaecaria agallocha. The Socotrine variety of aloes is the 

 usual medicinal species. Two indigenous species are known in India, the 

 A he Indica and the Aloe Utoralis. One of these grows freely in Puttalam, 

 and is known by the Tamil name, takJcali." — B. 



% Kamdry; Jcdhouly, — Dr. S. Lee (Travels of Ibn Batuta, p. 184) identifies the 

 latter of these plants on the authority of Ibn Husain's Medical Dictionary. — B. 



