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. These arguments have been refuted in the Livre des Merveilles
de l'Inde, p. 265 seqq.
Nicolo Conti, speaking of the "very noble island called Zeilan," says (p.
7): "Here also cinnamon grows in great abundance. It is a tree which very
much resembles our thick willows, excepting that the branches do not grow
upwards, but are spread out horizontally: the leaves are very like those
of the laurel, but are somewhat larger. The bark of the branches is the
thinnest and best, that of the trunk of the tree is thicker and inferior
in flavour.
