108 



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



[Vol. XX. 



Dec. V., Bk. vx, Chap. i. 



sfc 4> * * * sfc * 



But above all they [the Burmese] worship and 



venerate that idol called Budao, of which we have already 

 many times spoken above, in the ninth chapter of the fifth 

 book 1 , who they say landed in that kingdom 2 , coming from the 

 the island of Ceilao 3 , and that he was sent by God to give 

 them light. And so they all have so great a veneration towards 

 that island of Ceilao, as towards a sacred object, and the 

 chief pilgrimage is that to the Peak, which they call that of " 

 Adam, where the Budao, their writings say, stayed many 

 years 4 . And because regarding this Peak there have been 

 very various opinions among the writers of Europe 5 , we shall 

 presently relate the truth as to what the natives hold concern- 

 ing it, according to their writings, and what appears to us in 

 regard to it. 



Dec. V., Bk. vi., Chap. ii. 



Of the Peak, which they call that of Adam, in the island of Ceilao : 

 and of the various opinions that there have been regarding 

 it : and of that which the natives hold*. 



In the preceding chapter we promised to give an account 

 of that footprint that is on that mountain which is called 

 Adam's Peak in the island of Ceilao, by reason of the great 



1 As a matter of fact, in the chapter referred to, the Buddha is men- 

 tioned only once. 



2 Pegu. 



3 Buddha visited neither Ceylon nor Pegu. 

 i Gf. Barros III. n. i., supra, p. 36. 



5 See infra, V. vi. ii., and Skeen's Adam's Peak, chap. ii. 



6 Valentyn, in his Ceylon (379-82), has translated this chapter, but 

 has made some ridiculous blunders, and has also interpolated remarks 

 of his own, fathering them upon Couto. These I shall point out in the 

 notes below. (He also gives an absurd, purely imaginary picture of the 

 Peak.) Philalethes {Hist, of Gey. 212 ff.) has translated a portion of 

 Valentyn' s translation, errors and interpolations included ; and Skeen 

 (73-9) has given a fresh (but faulty) translation of this Couto-Valentyn 

 hash, correcting some of the Dutch writer's mistakes in footnotes, but 

 crediting the Portuguese historian with them. Sa e Menezes, in his 

 Reh. de Gey. cap. i., quotes from Couto's account (see C. A. S. Jl. xi. 

 456-8). 



