10. The Malays have a name widely diffused in the archipelago—kalâpa. klâpa, klôpo. At Sumatra and Nicobar we find the name njîor, nicor; in the Philippines, niog; at Bali, niuh, njo; at Tahiti, niuh; and in other islands, nu, nidju, ni; even at Madagascar, wua-niu.[2174] The Chinese have ye, or ye-tsu (the tree is ye). With the principal Sanskrit name this constitutes four different roots, which show an ancient existence in Asia. However, the uniformity of nomenclature in the archipelago as far as Tahiti and Madagascar indicates a transport by human agency since the existence of known languages.
The Chinese name means head of the king of Yuë, referring to an absurd legend of which Dr. Bretschneider speaks.[2175] This savant tells us that the first mention of the cocoa-nut occurs in a poem of the second century before Christ, but the most unmistakable descriptions are in works later than the ninth century of our era. It is true that the ancient writers scarcely knew the south of China, the only part of the empire where the cocoa-nut palm can live.
In spite of the Sanskrit names, the existence of the cocoa-nut in Ceylon, where it is well established on the coast, dates from an almost historical epoch. Near Point de Galle, Seemann tells us may be seen carved upon a rock the figure of a native prince, Kotah Raya, to whom is attributed the discovery of the uses of the cocoa-nut, unknown before him; and the earliest chronicle of Ceylon, the Marawansa, does not mention this tree, although it carefully reports the fruits imported by different princes. It is also noteworthy that the ancient Greeks and Egyptians only knew the cocoa-nut at a late epoch as an Indian curiosity. Apollonius of Tyana saw this palm in Hindustan, at the beginning of the Christian era.[2176]
From these facts the most ancient habitation in Asia would be in the archipelago, rather than on the continent or in Ceylon; and in America in the islands west of Panama. What are we to think of this varied and contradictory evidence? I formerly thought that the arguments in favour of Western America were the strongest. Now, with more information and greater experience in similar questions, I incline to the idea of an origin in the Indian Archipelago. The extension towards China, Ceylon, and India dates from not more than three thousand or four thousand years ago, but the transport by sea to the coasts of America and Africa took place perhaps in a more remote epoch, although posterior to those epochs when the geographical and physical conditions were different to those of our day.
PART III.
Summary and Conclusion.
CHAPTER I.
GENERAL TABLE OF SPECIES, WITH THEIR ORIGIN AND THE EPOCH OF THEIR EARLIEST CULTIVATION.