No. 36. — 1888.] CAPTAIN JOAO kibeiko. 



283 



LeG. fails to record the fact that the portion near the sea at 

 the south of the fort of Colombo was called "Galvoca" 

 (Galle Buck). He also omits the statement of Ribeiro that 

 the fort of Jaffna was built of "pumice-stone" (" pedra 

 pomes "). To this chapter LeG. has a lengthy addition, to 

 only one point in which shall I refer. Speaking of 

 Galle, he says : — " .... the soil is everywhere stony, it is 

 this that has given it the name das Gravayas." What 

 he thought Gravayas meant I cannot imagine. Lee makes 

 the matter worse by, as usual, replacing " as Gravayas " by 

 " gravets." [Since the above was in type, I have discovered, 

 through the kindness of Mr. F. H. de Vos of Galle, the 

 origin of Le Grand's explanation of the word " Gravayas." 

 Baldseus, in his Ceylon, chapter XXII., says of Galle : — 

 " . . . . the mountains look very fine from there. One 

 travels along hewn out roads, called Gravettes, because they 

 are made and cut \_gegraveri] through the mountains." Of 

 course this explanation is utterly wrong, and Le Grand, by 

 copying only a portion of what Baldseus wrote, has left his 

 readers to flounder in a quagmire of hopeless doubt as to 

 what connection " stony ground " could have with the name 

 " Gravayas."^ 



Chapter XIII. — This chapter calls for no special remark, 

 except the last sentence, which, as the editors of L.A. have 

 shown, LeG. has mistranslated, having been misled by B., 

 which for " casava " reads " escuzava" 



Chapter XIV. — Ribeiro says that in Ceylon the image of 

 Buddha ("Bodu ") was " more than six cubits " high. LeG. 

 makes this " more than 32 feet." Ribeiro also states that the 

 Sinhalese call their year " Aurudd" which fact LeG. 

 passes over. The statement of Ribeiro that " all assert " 

 (" todos affirmao ") that " the Apostle St. Thomas. . . .was 

 in this Island," is modified by the copyist of B. into " they 

 say" ( " dizem " ), &c. Ribeiro says of the Sinhalese that 

 " they do not deny the immortality of the soul, but say that 

 when the wicked dies his soul goes into an animal suited to 

 his evil habits, and he who lives well into some domestic 



49—89 p 



