22. Some think this is not our jacinth, but rather the sapphire; others take it to be the amethyst.
23. The Laccadives. The name means, islands by the hundred thousand.
24. Gr. 'Assobaqai\ de\ w(j e)pi\ to_ plei=ston pa~sai/ ei0sin . Montfaucon renders alia aliam proxime sitae, thus taking no account of baqai\ , the predominant partner in the compound. 'Assobaqo\j is a barbarous form of a)gxibaqh&j .
25. "The Hindus" says Tennent in his Ceylon, Chap. I., "propounded the most extravagant ideas, both as to the position and extent of the island; expanding it to the proportions of a continent, and, at the same time, placing it a considerable distance south-east of India." The Classical and Arab writers were no less extravagant in their estimates than the Hindus. Even Ptolemy, who determined correctly the general form and outline of the island, as well as its actual position with reference to the adjoining continent, represented it as some fourteen times larger than it is. Its extreme length from north and south is 271 1/2 miles, its greatest width 137 1/2 miles, its circuit somewhat under 700 miles, and its area one-sixth smaller than that of Ireland. With regard to the word gaudia, Tennent says ( Ceylon, vol. ii., p. 543, note ): "It is very remarkable that this singular word, gaon, 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.....A gaon in Ceylon expresses a somewhat indeterminate length, according to the nature of the ground to be traversed."
26. Gr. e0nanti/oi a)llh&lwn . Tennent ( ibid .) prefers to render this expression by "ruling at opposite ends of the island."
27. Tennent ( ibid. ) rejects Thevenot's notion that by hyacinth Cosmas meant here "the part of the island where jacinths are found;" on the ground that the region which produces gems, namely, the south part of the island, is that which also has the port and the emporium. The King who possessed the wonderful gem (called by Gibbon the luminous carbuncle ) ruled the northern part of the island. The emporium, according to Gibbon, was Trinquemale, but Tennent takes it to be Point de Galle.
28. Gr. kai\ pa~san th_n e)kklhsiastikh_n leitourgi/an .
29. Gr. a)llo&fuloi . Tennent renders the sentence thus: "The natives and their kings are of different races." Cosmas, however, here uses the term in the sense in which the kindred compounds a)llofule/w and a)llofulismo&j are used in the Septuagint. The latter word in II Maccab. iv, 13, means the adoption of gentle manners and customs. Montfaucon rightly renders: alieni cultus.
30. The Chinese pilgrim Hiouen Thsiang, who was a century later than Cosmas, relates that at Anarajapura, on a spire surmounting one of its temples, a ruby was elevated which with its transcendent lustre illuminated the whole heaven. Marco Polo again relates that the King of Ceylon was reputed to have the grandest ruby that ever was seen----one that was flawless and brilliant beyond description. "It is most probable" says Tennent (quoting the authority of Dana's Mineralogy, vol. ii, p. 196), "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." There is no authentic record of the ultimate history of this renowned jewel, unless it be the "carbuncle" of unusual lustre which was purchased early in the 14th century for the Emperor of China. See Tennent's Ceylon, vol. i, pp. 543-4, note.
31. Gr. tw~n e)ndote/rwn . The countries inside of Cape Comorin, that is, to the east of it.
32. Gr. me/tacin-me/taca and not me/tacij is the usual form of this word. Metaxa is a Latin as well as a Greek word, and means properly "yarn." It was used, however, by the mediaeval Greeks to signify silk in general. Procopius, who was contemporary with Cosmas, says that clothing was made from it, and that of old Greeks called this clothing mêdikê, but in his time, sêrikê. See Note 2, p. 47.
33. Gr. tzanda&nan .
34. The Malabar littoral.
35. Calliana, now Kalyâna, near Bombay, is named in the Kanhêri Bauddha Cave inscription. Mention is also made of it in the Periplûs of the Erythraean Sea, which states that it was raised to the rank of a regular mart in the times of the elder Saragones, who was probably one of the great Sâtakarni or Andrabhritya dynasty.
36. Probably Diul-Sind at the mouth of the Indus. See Yule's Hobson-Jobson, p. 247.
37. Gr. a)ndrosta&xhn . This word, so far as I know, is not met with elsewhere. I take it to be an error in transcription for na&rdou sta&xun or nardo&staxun, Latin spica nardi, whence our spikenard.
38. The Persian empire when overthrown by Alexander the Great extended to the Indus, and even embraced some territory in Sindh lying along the eastern bank of that river.
39. Pliny, in his list of the Indian races, mentions a people called the Horatae, whose country adjoined the Gulf of Khambay. Their name is an incorrect transcription of Sorath, the popular form of Saurâsh-tra ----or, as it is called by the author of the Periplûs and by Ptolemy, Surastrênê, i.e., Gujarat. Some have therefore identified Orrhotha with Surat, but as Surat was not a place of any importance till the arrival of the Portuguese in India, this view cannot be accepted. Yule took it to be some place on the western coast of the peninsula of Gujarat.
40. Yule identifies Sibor with Chaul or Chênwal, a seaport situated 23 miles to the south of Bombay. It is the Simylla of Ptolemy, and the Saimûr or Jaimûr of the Arabian geographers.
41. Mangarouth is now Mangalôr.
42. These three ports appear to have been situated on the coast of Cottonarikê, the pepper country, somewhere between Mangalôr and Calicut. The termination patana means " town". Poudopatana means "New town", and the place so called may be identified with Ptolemy's Podoperoura.
43. Gr. koxli/ouj .
44. Caber is the emporium called by Ptolemy Chavêris, which Dr. Burnell identified with Kâvêrîpattam----a place situated a little to the north of Tranquebar, at the mouth of the Podu-Kâvêrî (New Kâverî). Kâvera is the Sanskrit word for saffron. What its export, alabandenum was, is unknown.
45. Gr. h( tzini/sta th_n me/tacin ba&llousa . Anciently Seres was the name of the Chinese nation as known by land, and Sinae as known by sea. In the Periplûs the country is called Thîna. Cosmas was the first who laid down its correct boundary on the east by the Ocean.
46. "Cosmas", says Tennent in his Ceylon (vol. i, p. 542, note 2), "wrote between A.D. 545 and A.D. 550; and the voyage of Sopatrus to Ceylon had been made thirty years before. Kumaara Daas reigned from A.D. 515 to A.D. 524." He further states ( ibid., p. 393) that of the eight kings who reigned between A.D. 515 and A.D. 586, two died by suicide, three by murder, and one from grief occasioned by the treason of his son. The Malabars, taking advantage of the anarchy prevailing, made frequent descents on the island then and afterwards. This author, following the French version of Thevenot, has been misled into saying that Sopatrus sailed from Adulé in the same ship with the Persian bound for Ceylon. Cosmas describes the Persian as a presbu&thj , i.e., an old man, and not an orator ( i.e., an ambassador), as Montfaucon renders the Greek word.