NO. 59. — 1907.] PORTUGUESE IN CEYLON. 



331 



feet are seen to this day, and that they are about two spans long. 

 Rice does not grow in this country, 11 but it comes from the 

 mainland. The kings of this island are tributaries of the king of 

 Narsinga, 12 on account of the rice which comes there from the 

 mainland. The air in this island is extremely good, and the 

 people are of a dark tawny colour. And here it is neither too hot 

 nor too cold. Their dress is alia apostolica 13 ; they wear certain 

 stuffs of cotton or silk, and go bare-footed. This island is 

 placed under the equinoctial line, 14 and the inhabitants of it 

 are not very warlike. Artillery is not used here 15 ; but they 

 have some lances and swords, which lances are of cane, and with 

 these they fight amongst each other ; but they do not kill each 

 other overmuch, because they are cowardly fellows. Here there 

 are roses and flowers of every kind, and the people live longer 

 than we do. Being in our ship one evening, a man came on the 

 part of the king to my companion, and told him that he should 

 carry to him his ©orals and saffron ; for he had a great quantity 

 of both. A merchant of the said island, who was a Moor, hearing 

 these words, said to him secretly : " Do not go to the king, for he 

 will pay you for your goods after his own fashion." And this he 

 said out of cunning, in order that my companion might go away, 

 because he himself had the same kind of merchandize. However, 

 answer was given to the message 16 of the king, that on the 

 following day he would go to his lord. And when morning came, 

 he took a vessel and rowed over to the mainland. 



******* 

 This district [Paleachet] is one of immense traffic in merchan- 

 dize, and especially in jewels, for they come here from Zeilon and 

 from Pego 



1 The original Italian of this work was first published in 1510 r 

 there being many subsequent editions and translations into various 

 languages. I have taken these extracts from the translation by Mr. 

 Winter Jones issued by the Hakluyt Society in 1863 (only making a few 

 emendations in spelling to correspond with the original). Varthema's 

 narrative is a mixture of fact and fiction ; and it is extremely doubtful 

 if his travels extended further eastward than the Malabar coast, though 

 he professes to have gone as far as the Banda and Moluccas islands, 

 and describes the various places which, he says, he visited. His de- 

 scription of Ceylon, it will be seen, is very meagre, and the information 

 might well have been picked up from native merchants at Calicut. 



2 The " city of Choromandel " was probably Negapatam (c/. B 2,. 

 and see Hobson-J obson s.v. " Coromandel "). 



3 If Varthema had actually visited Ceylon, he would hardly have 

 failed to name the port at which he called. 



4 Cf. Correa's statement (B 10, infra). These would be four of the 

 six sons of Vira Parakrama Bahu (see Bell's Report on the Kegalla 

 District 5; Rdjuvaliya 71). 



5 This statement is not borne out by the R&javaliya. 



6 The " mountain " is evidently the Adam's Peak range, which is a 

 good deal more than " two miles from the sea shore." 



7 The editor of the Hakluyt Society's edition of Varthema in a footnote 

 hazards the suggestion that this may mean an amunam. The meaning 

 is simple enough: molan represents Tamil or Malay alam mulam, cubit. 



E 36-07 



