52 



JOURNAL, R.A.S. (CEYLON). 



[Vol. XIX. 



same Mahommedan traders do not seem to care to mention 

 the coconut or arrack, and for good reasons. The celebrated 

 traveller Marco Polo, about 1300 A.D., speaks of the people 

 in some parts of Ceylon as having for " their drink coconut 

 toddy " or wine drawn from trees."* This use of the 

 palm is sufficient to explain why so little is made of it by 

 the pious Buddhist writers of the MaJidwansa, as also by 

 Mahommedans, equally zealous in abstention from intoxi- 

 cants. 



To return now to the Mahdwansa, we find that in 

 chapter LXXIV. (page 214) the following passage occurs, 

 giving the coconut a special position among the fruit-bearing 

 trees planted by order of one of the greatest of Sinhalese 

 kings : — 



" He (Prakrama Bahu, 1164-1197 A.D.) also adorned both 

 sides of the road with fruit-bearing trees, as the king-coconut, 

 plantain, areca, coconut, and such like, and with water jars 

 filled with bunches of beautiful flowers, and with many 

 kinds of banners and flags, and with lamps, censers, and 

 such like." 



Then of another great king, much given to travel and to 

 make his ministers travel too in order to keep such roads 



China and the Persian G-ulf." Again : " The Sinhalese mode of trading 

 with the Chinese, Arabs, or Moormen long continued precisely the same as 

 that adopted by the Veddas of the present day, namely by barter, the parties 

 being concealed from each other, the one depositing the articles to be 

 exchanged in a given place, and the others, if they agreed to the terms, 

 receiving them unseen, and leaving behind what they give in return." 



* Edrisi, the most renowned of the writers on Eastern Geography who 

 wrote in the 12th century, in his account of Ceylon, mentions that the 

 islanders cultivate rice, coconuts, and sugarcane ; although the only 

 exports he gives are precious stones, crystals, diamonds, and perfumes. A 

 Chinese author so late as 1211 A.D., in speaking of the trade and products 

 of Ceylon, only specifies " Cardamoms ; cinnamon, coarse and fine ; and 

 mangrove." And even in 1611 the trading report is of cowries, cinnamon, 

 pepper, gems, and elephants as obtainable in the Island. But may this 

 indifference not be explained by the bulky nature of the nut, even when 

 unhusked, and ignorance at the time as to any special value of the oil 

 beyond its local use 1 . . . 



