The Singhalese
Chronicle Represents Prakrama To Have Recovered It From Them, But They Are
So Soon Again Found In Full Force That The Completeness Of This Recovery
May Be Doubted.
There were also two invasions of Malays (Javaku) during
this reign, under the lead of a chief called Chandra Banu.
On the second
occasion this invader was joined by a large Tamul reinforcement. Sir E.
Tennent suggests that this Chandra Banu may be Polo's Sende-main or
Sendernaz, as Ramusio has it. Or he may have been the Tamul chief in the
north; the first part of the name may have been either Chandra or
Sundara.
NOTE 4. - Kazwini names the brazil, or sapan-wood of Ceylon. Ibn Batuta
speaks of its abundance (IV. 166); and Ribeyro does the like (ed. of
Columbo, 1847, p. 16); see also Ritter, VI. 39, 122; and Trans. R.A.S.
I. 539.
Sir E. Tennent has observed that Ibn Batuta is the first to speak of the
Ceylon cinnamon. It is, however, mentioned by Kazwini (circa A.D. 1275),
and in a letter written from Mabar by John of Montecorvino about the very
time that Marco was in these seas. (See Ethe's Kazwini, 229, and
Cathay, 213.)
[Mr. G. Phillips, in the Jour. China B.R.A.Soc., XX. 1885, pp. 209-226;
XXI. 1886, pp. 30-42, has given, under the title of The Seaports of India
and Ceylon, a translation of some parts of the Ying-yai-sheng-lan, a
work of a Chinese Mahomedan, Ma-Huan, who was attached to the suite of
Ch'eng-Ho, an envoy of the Emperor Yong-Lo (A.D. 1403-1425) to foreign
countries. Mr. Phillips's translation is a continuation of the Notes of
Mr. W.P. Groeneveldt, who leaves us at Lambri, on the coast of Sumatra.
Ma-Huan takes us to the Ts'ui-lan Islands (Nicobars) and to Hsi-lan-kuo
(Ceylon), whose "people," he says (p. 214), "are abundantly supplied with
all the necessaries of life. They go about naked, except that they wear a
green handkerchief round their loins, fastened with a waist-band. Their
bodies are clean-shaven, and only the hair of their heads is left.... They
take no meal without butter and milk, if they have none and wish to eat,
they do so unobserved and in private. The betel-nut is never out of their
mouths. They have no wheat, but have rice, sesamum, and peas. The
cocoa-nut, which they have in abundance, supplies them with oil, wine,
sugar, and food." Ma-Huan arrived at Ceylon at Pieh-lo-li, on the 6th of
the 11th moon (seventh year, Suean Teh, end of 1432). Cf. Sylvain Levi,
Ceylan et la Chine, J. As., Mai-juin, 1900, p. 411 seqq.
Odoric and the Adjaib do not mention cinnamon among the products of
Ceylon; this omission was one of the arguments of Dr. Schumann (Ergaenz.
No. 73 zu Petermann's Mitt., 1883, p. 46) against the authenticity of
the Adjaib.
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