No. 60. — 1908.] barros : history of ceylon. 



31 



called, although common usage and time have now taken so 

 firm a hold, thftt it is generally called Ceilam : and the event 

 by which it got this name, according to what its learned men 

 recount, who have some record of ancient things, was this. 

 At the time that the Chijs 1 had conquered those parts by 

 reason of the spicery 2 , in the passage between this island 

 and the mainland, through a tempest that they call vara 3 , 

 which is what causes the marvels of their Scylla and Charbydis, 

 in one day they lost eighty sail 4 , whence that place is called 

 Chilao, and by us the shoals of Chilao, which, in reference to 

 them, means "the perils, or loss, of the Chijs" 5 . And as in 

 newly discovered countries the first thing noticed by the seamen 

 that discover them is the perils of the sea where they may 

 receive hurt, for the warning of after-comers, rather than the 

 proper name of the country, when the Arabs and Parsees, 

 who after the Chijs for the sake of commerce entered on the 

 navigation of those parts, from Cape Comorij onwards, as a 

 thing to which they ought to pay heed in their navigating, 

 had these shoals of Chilao much in their mouths, and through 

 not knowing the proper name of the island, which was Ilanare, 

 they gave it this one of its shoals. And because this syllable 

 chij has not much currency in the mouth of the Arabs and 

 Parsees, and there is frequently on their tongue this other one 

 ci, they having two letters in their alphabet which attempt to 

 imitate it in pronunciation, the which are cim and xim, 

 changing chi into ci they called the island Ceilam, or (to speak 

 more conformably to them) Cilan, and we call it Ceilam 6 . This 

 is the name according to the common people, but the learned 

 Arabs and Parsees in their geographies call it by the ancient 

 name Serandib , of which we have several volumes in their own 



1 Chinese. 



2 On the intercourse between China and Ceylon, see Ten. i., pt. v., 

 chap. iii. 



3 The Portuguese writers usually refer to this as the vara de Choro- 

 mandel, and describe it as a tempestuous wind (c/. infra, p. 359). 

 The word vara represents Tamil vada^ " north." 



4 There may be some foundation for this story, though the number of 

 junks said to have been lost is probably an exaggeration. Barbosa 

 (171) does not mention this tradition, but says that in 1502 twelve 

 thousand Indians were drowned there. 



5 Evidently Barros derived Chilao from Tarn. Chini-ilavu ! I need 

 scarcely say that his derivation is entirely wrong. There seems little 

 doubt that Chilaw — Tam. saldpam, " diving." 



6 This etymology is as erroneous as the other : Port. Ceilam is from 

 the Arab. Sailan, Sildn, which go back to Pali Sthalam (see Hob. -Job. 

 s.v. " Ceylon "). 



