Part 99 (1/2)
[Greek:
”Metera Taprobanen Asiegeneon elephanton.”]
DIONYSIUS PERIEGETES, v. 593.
Cosmas observes upon the smallness of their tusks compared with those of Africa, and mentions the strange fact, that ivory was then exported from Ethiopia to India, as well as to Persia and the countries of Europe. He makes other allusions to Ceylon, but the pa.s.sages extracted above, present the bulk of his information concerning the island.[1]
[Footnote 1: The above translation has been made from THEVENOT's version of Cosmas, which may differ slightly from that of MONTFAUCON, _Collect.
Nov. Patrum._ Paris, 1706, vol. ii. p.]
NOTE (A).
_Knowledge of Ceylon possessed by the Phoenicians._
In the previous chapter, p. 526, &c., allusion has been made to the possible resort of the Phoenicians to Ceylon in the course of their voyages to India, but I have not thought it expedient to embody in the text any notice of the description of the island which is given in the Phoenician History of SANCHONIATHON, published by Wagenfeld, at Bremen, in 1837, under the t.i.tle of ”_Sanchuniathonis Historiarum Phoeniciae Libri Novem Groece Versos a Philone Byblio_, edidit Latinaque Versione donavit F. WAGENFELD.”
Sanchoniathon is alleged to have lived before the Trojan war; and in Asiatic chronology he is said to have been a contemporary of Semiramis.
The Phoenician original perished; but its contents were preserved in the Greek translation of Philo, a native of Byblus, a frontier town of Phoenicia, who wrote in the first century after Christ, and till the alleged discovery of the MS. from which Wagenfeld professed to publish, the only portion of Philo's version known to exist consisted of fragments preserved by Eusebius and Porphyry. Wagenfeld's statement was, that the MS. in his possession had been obtained from the Portuguese monastery of St. Maria de Merinhao (the existence of which there is reason to doubt), and the portion which he first ventured to print appeared with a preface by Grotefend. Its genuineness was instantly impugned; a learned and protracted controversy arose; and though Wagenfeld eventually published the whole of the Greek MS., with a Latin version by himself, he was never prevailed upon to exhibit the original parchments, alleging that he had been compelled to restore them to the convent. The a.s.sailants of Wagenfeld accuse him of wilful deception; but the probability is that the doc.u.ment which he translated is one of those inventions of the Middle Ages, in which history and geography were strangely confounded with imagination and romance; and that it is an attempt to restore the lost books of Philo Byblius, as Philo himself is more than suspected to have invented the history which he professed to have translated from Sanchoniathon. (See ERSCH _and_ GRuBER'S _Encyclopaedia_, 1847; MoVER'S _Phoenician History_, vol. i. p. 117.)
[336. In point of time, the notice of Ceylon given by the Armenian Archbishop Moses of Ch.o.r.ene in his _Historia Armeniaca et Epitome Geographiae_, is ent.i.tled to precede that of Cosmos Indico-pleustes, inasmuch as Moses has translated into Armenian the Greek text of Pappus of Alexandria, who wrote about the end of the fourth century. Of Taprobane he says--it is one of the largest islands in the world, being 1100 miles in length by 1500 broad, and reckons 1370 adjacent islands amongst its dependencies. He alludes to its mountains and rivers, the variety of races which inhabit it, and its production of gold, silver, gems, spices, elephants, and tigers; and dwells on the fact, previously noticed by Agathemerus, that the men of this country dress their hair after the fas.h.i.+on of women, by braiding it in tresses on the top of their heads, ”viri regionis istius capillis muliebribus sua capita redimiunt.”--MOSES Ch.o.r.eNENSIS, &c., edit. Whiston, 1736, p. 367. The most remarkable circ.u.mstance is that he alludes thus early to the footprint on Adam's Peak, which is probably the meaning of his expression, ”_ibidem Satanae lapsum narrant_,” t. iv.]
In books vii. and viii, Sanchoniathon gives an account of an island in the Indian seas explored by Tyrian navigators, the description of which is evidently copied from the early Greek writers who had visited Taprobane, and the name which is a.s.signed to it, ”_the Island of Rachius_”, is borrowed from Pliny. The period of their visit is fixed by Sanchoniathon shortly after the conquest of Cittium, in Cyprus, by the Phoenicians; an event which occurred when Hiram reigned at Tyre, and Solomon at Jerusalem. The narrative is given as follows (book vii. ch.
v. p. 150): ”So Bartophas died the next day, having exercised imperial authority for six years.” (Ch. v.) ”And on his death they chose Joramus, the son of Bartophas, king, whom the Tyrians styled Hierbas, and who reigned fifty-seven years. He having collected seventy-nine long s.h.i.+ps, sent an expedition against Cittium.” ... (Ch. vi.) ”At this time, Obdalius, king of the island of Mylite, sent all his forces to a.s.sist the Tyrians at Cittium; and when it came to the knowledge of the barbarians who inhabited Tenga, that the island was denuded of men and s.h.i.+ps, they invaded it under the command of Plusiacon, the son-in-law of Obdalius, and having slain him and many of his people, they plundered the country, and gave the city to the flames.” (Ch. vii.) ”And Joramus directed all the eparchs in the cities and islands to make out and send to Tyre descriptions of the inhabitants, their s.h.i.+ps, their arms, their horses, their scythe-bearing chariots, and their property of all kinds; and he ordered them to send to distant countries persons competent to draw up narratives of the same kind, and to record them all in a book.
In this manner he obtained accurate geographical descriptions of all the regions to the east and the west, both islands and inland parts. But the aethiopians[1] represented to the king that to the south there were great and renowned countries, densely populated, and rich in precious things, _gold_ and _silver_, pearls, gems, ebony, pepper, elephants, _monkeys_, parrots, _peac.o.c.ks_, and innumerable other things; and that there was a peninsula so far to the east that the inhabitants could see the sun rising out of the sea.” (Ch. viii.) ”Joramus then sent messengers to Natambalus, the king of the Babylonians, who were to say to him, 'I have heard that the countries of the aethiopians are numerous, and abounding in inhabitants; they are easy of access from Babylon, but very difficult from Tyre. If, therefore, I should determine to explore them, and you will let my subjects have suitable s.h.i.+ps, you shall have in return a hundred purple cloaks.' Natambalus was willing to do so; but the aethiopian merchants, who resorted to Babylon, vowed that they would take their departure if he should a.s.sist Joramus to sail to aethiopia.” (Chap.
ix.) ”Subsequently Joramus addressed himself to Irenius of Judea, and undertook that if he would let the Tyrians have a harbour on the sea towards aethiopia, he would a.s.sist him in the building of a palace, in which he was then engaged; and bind himself to supply him with materials of cedar and fir, and squared stones. Irenius a.s.senting, made over to Joramus the city and harbour of Ilotha. There were a great many date trees there, but as their timber was not suitable for constructing vessels, Joramus despatched eight thousand camels to Ilotha, loaded with materials for s.h.i.+p-building, and ordered the s.h.i.+pwrights to build ten s.h.i.+ps, and he appointed Cedarus and Jaminus and Cotilus, commanders....
They sailed from Ilotha; but furious tempests prevented them from pa.s.sing the straits.[2] And while they were wind-bound, they remained five months in a certain island, and having sowed wheat on the low ground, they reaped an abundant crop. After this they sailed towards the rising sun, and leaving the land of the Arabians they fell in with Babylonian s.h.i.+ps returning from aethiopia.[3] And on the following day they arrived at the country of the aethiopians, which they perceived sandy and devoid of water on the coast, but mountainous inland. They then sailed eastward along the sh.o.r.e for ten days. There an immense region extends to the south, and the aethiopians dwell in numerous populous and well-circ.u.mstanced cities, and navigate the sea. Their s.h.i.+ps are not suited for war, and have no sails. And having sailed thirty-six days to the southward, the Tyrians arrived at the island of Rachius ([Greek: Rhachiou neson]).”
[Footnote 1: The aethiopians alluded to were a company of Indian jugglers and snake-charmers, whose arrival from Babylon is mentioned lib. vii.
ch. i.]
[Footnote 2: Of Bab-el-mandeb.]
[Footnote 3: India.]
(Ch. 9.) ”The roadstead was in front of a level strand, bordered with lofty trees, and coming on to blow at night, they were in the utmost danger till sunrise: but running then to the south, they came in sight of a safe harbour[1]; and saw many populous towns inland. On landing, they were surrounded by the villagers, and the governor of the place entertained them hospitably for seven days; pending the return of a messenger whom he had despatched to the princ.i.p.al king, to ask his instructions relative to the Tyrians who had anch.o.r.ed in the harbour.
The messenger having returned on the seventh day, the governor sent for the Tyrians the following morning, and informed them that they must go with him to the king, who was then residing at Rochapatta, a large and prosperous city in the centre of the island. In front marched several spearmen, sent by the king as a guard of honour to the strangers; who with the clash of their spears scared away the elephants which were numerous and dangerous because it was their rutting time. The Tyrians marched in the centre, and Cedarus, Cotilus, and Jaminus were carried in palanquins. The villagers as they pa.s.sed along offered them presents, and the governor brought up the rear, where he rode on an elephant, surrounded by his body guard. In this order of march, they on the third day came to a ford; in the pa.s.sage over which, one of the travellers was devoured by crocodiles which swarm in the rivers. Having proceeded thus for several days, they at length descried the city of Rochapatta, environed by lofty mountains. And when it was known that they had arrived (for the rumour of their approach had preceded them) the inhabitants rushed from the city in a body to see the Tyrians; some riding on elephants, some on a.s.ses, some in palanquins, but the greater part on foot. And the commander having conducted them into a s.p.a.cious and splendid palace, caused the gates to be closed, that the crowd might not make their way in; and led the Tyrians to the King Rachius, who was seated on a beautiful couch. Presents were then interchanged.
”To the Tyrians, who brought horses and purple robes, and seats of cedar, the King gave in return, pearls, gold, 2000 elephants' teeth, and much unequalled cinnamon ([Greek: kinnamo pollo te kai diapheronti]); and he entertained them as guests for thirty days.” (Ch. xi.) ”Some of the Tyrians perished in the island, one indeed by sickness, but the others smitten by the G.o.ds. One man, picking up some pellets of sheep's dung, drew lines on the sand, and challenged another who happened to be looking on, to play a game with them. The challenger held the sheep's dung, but the other, who could not find any dung of camels (for there are no camels in that island), took cow-dung, of which there was a great quant.i.ty, and rolling up little b.a.l.l.s of it, placed them on the lines.