( 35 ) 
The Hebrew place named Ophir has no mean- 
ing ; but Sonpcira [Ptolemy, vii, 1, 6] identi- 
fied by James Burgess, the eminent antiquary with 
the modern Supara, a few miles above Bassein in 
the Northern Konkan, means the auspicious- 
far-side, or opposite bank or coast, that is 
the fair trading coapt [compare Surat, i.e. Sa- 
rashtra, the Fair— raFichant— kingdom], to distingmsh 
it possiblv from the langerous trading coast, Ariake 
And on Peiraton of tl.e Southern Konkan. Sippara is 
said to have the same meaning, and both names may 
be compared with the Greek Paralia.* coaatland, 
applied to the broken maridme tract of Attica stretch- 
ing southward from Mount Hymettus to ape Sunium 
and the Saronio Sea, to the western coast of hal- 
cidice opposite the Pierian shores of JMacedonia, and 
by Ptolemy to the coa-.t of Travanoore. The people 
of Western India, particularly those about the Gulf 
of Cambay have from the remotest past actively 
tracked with ;he south coast ot Arabia, the Persian 
Gulf, the Eed Sea, and the east coast of Africa ; and 
it would be quite natural for them to have car- 
ried with them the name of their own famous 
port of Supara, and applied it to the chief em- 
poria of their trade in the Hadramaut, and the 
Zanzibar or Black Coast of Africa ; the Arabs in the 
latter country in seeking to give it a meaning 
in their own tongue twisting it, with but slight change 
of sound and significance into Sofala at full 
length, Sofalatu'l Dhahab, the Coast of Gold, an 
extension of form which indeed seem to emphasise 
its indication as a variant of Ophir. Finally to this 
day India is the Sofir, that is, Ophir of the Abyssi- 
nians and Egyptian opts. Whatever eastern l\,nds, 
therefore, may be included in the Biblical Ophir, 
India of the Hindus is the aboriginal, authentic, 
definite, and inexpugnable Opt*. ; while the word 
Ophir has nothing whatever to do with the word 
Africa, great as I trust may be the 'golden joys' 
the dark continent of that name has in sl.ore or 
those pioneers of modern civilisation among whom so 
high a distinction has been achieved by Dr. Carl Peters. 
March 12, 1900. GEORGE BIRDWOOD. 
— Journal of the Society of Arts. 
SHOOT NG NEAR TRINCOMALEE. 
A SMALL MIXED BAG AT FERIYAKULAM. 
I believe there are many tanks in Ceylon known 
by the name of Periyakulam, but the one I refer to 
is about seven and three-quarter miles from Trinco- 
malee. You go along the Nalavile road nearly to the 
sixth milestone ; then tura away to the left, and go 
for a mile and three-quarters by a sandy jungle road 
to 
THE TANK. 
It is a small sheet of water, perhaps, three-quarters of 
a mile long by seven or eight hundred yards broad. 
On the day I am going to tell you about, I went out 
by bullock cart, arriving at dawn. The first proceed- 
ing was to go to the littl ^ P. W. D bungalow on the 
shores of the tank and get some cocoa and biscuits. 
I had sec'ired the services of a cooly to carry my 
• Paradise — at one time thought to be derived ulti- 
mately from either (1) the Sanskrit para desa, a far, 
» foreign country, para- desi, corrupted to pnrdasee 
being the name given in the D iccan to natives o/; 
Hindustan, or (2; from the Sanskrit purva desa [of 
Pnrvaim above], Eastern country, familiar in the ad- 
jectival ioi:moi parviya, corrupted to purboe, originally 
the name given to Hindus living to the east of the 
Ganges, and then applied to native writers and clerks 
generally, — is now traced to the Zend Para-daeza 
enclosure, in Persian Jirlauz, a garden, a park, in 
Greek the loan word paradeisos, e,iiA so oar Paradise, 
the Garden of Eden, Heaven, &c., and parvise, the 
forch under a church tower, or the room above the 
tower porch, or the cloister close of Cathedrals, thak 
of Chichester being still called Paradise, and ot Ghea- 
tn Sprise Gardens. 
cold tea and cartridges, and as soon as I had disposed 
of my little breakfast we started ofi along the 
bund towards the sluice, whence a jungle path leads 
round to the far side of the tank. Periyakulam, like all 
Ceylon tanks, is purely artifl m il ; it has a bund 
which forms one end, and another longer bund going 
all along one side. There are two shiices, and two 
sets of paddy fields which are irrigated from the 
lake. One lot of paddy fields are below thn side bund, 
and the other below the one at the ouil. Evfrywhere 
else the jungle is thick, except for nome Krassy 
marshy land beloved of builaloes, which lies on the 
opposite side to that along which ttie bund runs. The 
sluice at the side is quite at the en ! corner, close to 
the jungle, and as this is a qui jt deep part of the 
tank, the crocodiles often come out and lie on the 
bund just there. Below the sluice ami between it 
and the paddy is a large pool surrounded by jangle 
trees; this is also beloved of ciocodiles, and they often 
lie out on a little raised path which goes from the bund 
across this pool to the paddy-fields. On that nioraing, 
however, no crocodiles were lying out near the sluice, 
80 we walked across it and took tlie little jungle path, 
which goes through the woods ao tho cud rouud to the 
open marsh land on the far side. 
The tank was high, and most of the open part far 
too wet for snipe ; but further ud near a native hut, 
I knew of a tiny strip of suitable ground, a Utile patch 
of old cultivation in fact, where I 
EXPECTED A SNIPE OR TWO 
to be lying. The fertility of my little patch, by the 
bye, was entirely dependent on the buff does ; if the 
fancy took them to remain rjuud ab ut tlie hut 
there would be no snipe, but if they went fur her into 
the marsh and left mv preseive quiet, I was always 
certain to find a few bnu . To my pleasure, we 
found the herd of buffaloes ihat moruitig disporting 
themselves near the lake with only their heads and 
the tops of their backs shewing above the grass and 
water. The little naked heid-boy was sitting on an 
old ant-heap which rose from the swauip like an 
island, watching his charge. Near the native hut 
are one or two palm trees and a tamarind which serve 
as a landmark to steer a right conrao from afar. 
While keeping to the comp natively dry ground 
near the jungle we laid as straight a course as 
possible for the hut and arrived to find everything 
undisturbed, and a couple of red-wattle i lapwings 
(or " did-he-do-its ") in pmssesaion of the tiny pool 
near the palms. There were, however, on'y two snips 
in the patch, but they rose easy shots in spite 
of the gun being barely up, and after sundry ex- 
planations on my part to the coolj' of the object 
ot a snipe stick, they were at last neatly hung, 
so as to balance each other at eii.her end of that 
machine. 
A shore time after leaving nut, and while 
skirting a belt of trees, I hf^ar l a juutjie co kcrow; 
as the call sounded quite close I went to an open- 
ing in the undergrowth oppositu whfiri it appeared to 
come from, and crouched down so as to see under 
the jangle. I then clapped my hand against my leg^ 
30 as to imitate the noiie made hy tne wii-igs of 
a rival cock; and waited ;slnir>: l • - a-i liately the bird 
stalked into my field of vis! in, and a charge of 
No. 6 laid him low. To bring jungle fowl right up to 
one the clapping requires to be wry skilfully done, 
but when they are close by it is eu.ay to excite their 
curiosity by amatear attempts, and no get them to 
moTe and show themselves. 
Not far from where I -.hr t this cock there is an 
old rained tank with the embaukmiuts bre"iohed; 
there is still, however, deep water io one or two 
places. The jangle has enoroach'^d right up the old 
bund, bat here and there w. among the trees 
and bashes throagh which crocodiles i.wue for their 
nightly prowls. Near one o£ tu«.-ro gaps I found 
A OBOCODILI SITTINa ON T^IB BUND 
with his back toward* m;. Ovvin^ to the thickness 
of the jungle it was impossible to woik round to 
the side of him without making a u dae, so I sent 
