[118] The cinnamon must have been the wild cinnamon or cassia. There is an article in Indian commerce called “cassia buds,” bearing some resemblance to cloves, and having the flavour of cinnamon. It is said by some to be the unexpanded flower of the Laurus cassia, but, strange to say, this seems still undetermined. (See Penny Cyc.)
[119] Polo says the islands of India are estimated at 12,700 inhabited and uninhabited (iii, 37), and those of the China Sea at 7,448 (iii, 5). The Lakkadives are supposed to derive their name from Laksha or Lakh = 100,000.
[120] Ceylon, called by Polo Seilan, and the same by Ibn Batuta.
[121] The gorgeous lories of the Archipelago must have been imported to Quilon, and have been here in the Bishop’s remembrance.
[122] No doubt the large flying squirrel, which is found in Malabar and Ceylon as well as in Eastern India.
[123] The bandicoot; Mus Malabaricus, or Mus giganticus. The name is said by Sir E. Tennent (Nat. Hist. of Ceylon, p. 44) to be from the Teloogoo Pandi-koku, “Pig-rat.” “This rat is found in many places on the coast of Coromandel, in Mysore, and in several parts of Bengal between Calcutta and Hurdwar. It is a most mischievous animal, burrows to a great depth, and will pass under the foundations of granaries and store-houses if not carefully laid.” (General Hardwicke in Linnæan Trans., vii., quoted in Pen. Cyc., article Muridæ.) The animal figured by Hardwicke was a female; its total length was 26¼ inches, of which the tail was 13 inches; and the weight was 2 pounds 11½ ounces. This is not quite so big as a fox, though the foxes in India are very small. As an exaggeration, it is far from a parallel to that of Herodotus, who speaks (bk. iii.) of ants in India as big as foxes. A story which reminds one of the question of a young Scotch lady just arrived in the Hoogly, when she saw an elephant for the first time, “Wull yon be what’s called a musqueetae?”
[124] The Talipat (Corypha umbraculifera), or great fan-palm, abundant in Ceylon, and found in the southern part of the peninsula, in Burma, and in the Malay islands, but scarcely known in Bengal. The leaves, according to Sir J. E. Tennent, have sometimes an area of two hundred square feet.
[125] “The King [of Ceylon] has the most beautiful ruby that ever was or can be in the whole world. It is the most splendid object on earth, and seems to glow like fire; it is of such value as money could scarcely purchase.” (Polo, iii. 17).
“I also saw in the possession of the King [of Ceylon] a saucer made of ruby, as large as the palm of the hand, in which he kept oil of aloes. I was much surprised at it, when the king said to me, ‘We have much larger than this.’” (Ibn Batuta, p. 187).
[126] “De pannis quos emunt faciunt ad modum cortinarum parietes.”