1: Malabar or Narghyl Arabia.
2: The Maldive Islands.
3: [Greek: Argellia] pro [Greek: nargellia], from narikela, the Sanskrit, and narghyl, Arab, for the "coco-nut palm." GILDEMESTER, Script. Arab. p. 36.
4: "[Greek: Gaudia.">[ It is very remarkable that this singular word gaou, in which Cosmas gives the dimensions of the island, is in use to the present day in Ceylon, and means the distance which a man can walk in an hour. VINCENT, in his Commerce and Navigation of the Ancients, has noticed this passage (vol. ii, p. 506), and sayt, somewhat loosely, that the Singhalese gaou, which he spells "ghadia" is the same as the naligiae of the Tamils, and equal to three-eighths of a French league, or nearly one mile and a quarter English. This is incorrect; a gaou in Ceylon expresses a somewhat indeterminate length, according to the nature of the ground to be traversed, a gaou across a mountainous country being less than one measured on level ground, and a gaou for a loaded cooley is also permitted to be shorter than for one unburthened, but on the whole the average may be taken under four miles. This is worth remarking, because it brings the statement made to Sopater by the Singhalese in the sixth century into consistency with the representations of the ambassadors to the Emperor Claudius in the first, although both prove to be erroneous. It is curious that FA HIAN, the Chinese traveller, whose zeal for Buddhism led him to visit India and Ceylon a century and a half before Cosmas, gives an area to the island which approaches very nearly to correctness; although he reverses the direction in which its length exceeds its breadth. Foĕ-kouĕ-ki, c. xxxvii. p. 328.
5: [Greek: "Enantioiallêlôn">[. This may also mean "at war with one another."
6: This has been translated so as to mean the portion of the island producing hyacinth stones ("la partie de l'isle où se trouvent les jacinthes." THEVENOT). But besides that I know of no Greek form of expression that admits of such expansion; this construction, if accepted, would be inconsistent with fact—for the king alluded to held the north of the island, whereas the region producing gems is the south, and in it were also the "emporium," and the harbour frequented by shipping and merchants. I am disposed therefore to accept the term in its simple sense, and to believe that it refers to one particular jewel, for the possession of which the king of Ceylon enjoyed an enviable renown. Cosmas, in the succeeding sentence, describes this wonderful gem as being deposited in a temple near the capital; and Hiouen Thsang, the Chinese pilgrim, says that in the seventh century, a ruby was elevated on a spire surmounting a temple at Anarajapoora "dont l'éclat magnifique illumine tout le ciel."—Vie de Hiouen Thsang, lib. iv. p. 199; Voyages des Pélerins Bouddhistes, lib. xi. v. ii. p. 141. MARCO POLO, in the thirteenth, century, says the "king of Ceylon is reputed to have the grandest ruby that was ever seen, a span in length, the thickness of a man's arm; brilliant beyond description, and without a single flaw. It has the appearance of a glowing fire, and its worth cannot be estimated in money. The Grand Khan Kublai sent ambassadors to this monarch to offer for it the value of a city, but he would not part with it for all the treasures of the world, as it was a jewel handed down by his ancestors on the throne."—Trans. MARSDEN, 4to. 1818. It is most probable that the stone described by Marco Polo was not a ruby, but an amethyst, which is found in large crystals in Ceylon, and which modern mineralogists believe to be the "hyacinth" of the ancients. (DANA'S Mineralogy, vol. ii. p. 196.) CORSALI says it was a carbuncle (Ramusio, vol. i. p. 180); and JORDAN DE SEVERAC, about the year 1323, repeats the story of its being a ruby so large that it could not be grasped in the closed hand. (Recueil de Voy., Soc. Geog. Paris. vol. iv. p. 50.) If this resplendent object really exhibited the dimensions assigned to it, the probability is that it was not a gem at all, but one of those counterfeits of glass, in producing which STRABO relates that the artists of Alexandria attained the highest possible perfection (1. xvi. c. 2. sec. 25). Its luminosity by night is of course a fiction, unless, indeed, like the emerald pillar in the temple of Hercules at Tyre, which HERODOTUS describes as "shining brightly by night," it was a hollow cylinder into which a lamp could be introduced. Herod, ii. 44.
Of the ultimate history of this renowned jewel we have no authentic narrative; but it is stated in the Chinese accounts of Ceylon that early in the fourteenth century an officer was sent by the emperor to purchase a "carbuncle" of unusual lustre. "This served as the ball on the emperor's cap, and was transmitted to succeeding emperors on their accession as a precious heirloom, and worn on the birthday and at the grand courts held on the first day of the year. It was upwards of an ounce in weight, and cost 100,000 strings of cash. Every time a grand levee was held during the darkness of the night, the red lustre filled the palace, and it was for this reason designated 'The Red Palace-Illuminator.'"—Tsih-ke, or Miscellaneous Record, quoted in the Kih che-king-yuen, Mirror of Science, b. xxxiii. p. 1, 2.
7: The port and harbour of Point de Galle.
"The island has also a community of Christians[1], chiefly resident Persians, with a presbyter ordained in Persia, a deacon, and a complete ecclesiastical ritual.[2]
1: Nestorians, whose "Catholicos" resided first at Ctesiphon, and afterwards at Mosul. VINCENT, Periplus, &c., vol. ii, p. 507. For an examination of the hypotheses based on this statement of Cosmas, see Sir J. EMERSON TENNENT'S History of Christianity in Ceylon, ch. i.