Ceylon; an Account of the Island Physical, Historical, and: Topographical with Notices of Its Natural History, Antiquities and; Productions, Volume 1Tennent, James Emerson, Sir
History
Ceylon; an Account of the Island Physical, Historical, and: Topographical with Notices of Its Natural History, Antiquities and; Productions, Volume 1
Tennent, James Emerson, Sir
Natural history -- Sri Lanka; Sri Lanka
[Footnote 5: [Greek: Kai odontôn elephantinôn kai pithêkôn kai lithôn].
[Greek: BASIA TRITÊ]. x. 22. It is to be observed, that Josephus appears
to have been equally embarrassed by the unfamiliar term _tukeyim_ for
peacocks. He alludes to the voyages of Solomon's merchantmen to
Tarshish, and says that they brought hack from thence gold and silver,
_much_ ivory, apes, _and Æthiopians_--thus substituting "slaves" for
pea-fowl--"[Greek: kai polus elephas, Aithiopes te kai pithêkoi]."
Josephus also renders the word Tarshish by "[Greek: en tê Tarsikê
legomenê thalattê]," an expression which shows that he thought not of
the Indian but the western Tarshish, situated in what Avienus calls the
_Fretum Tartessium_, whence African slaves might have been expected to
come.--_Antiquit. Judaicæ_, l. viii. c. vii sec. 2.]
The Rev. Mr. CURETON, of the British Museum, who, at my request,
collated the passage in the Chaldee and Syriac versions, assures me that
in both, the terms in question bear the closest resemblance to the Tamil
words found in the Hebrew; and that in each and all of them these are of
foreign importation.
J. EMERSON TENNENT.
LONDON: November 28th, 1859.
NOTICE TO THE SECOND EDITION.
The rapidity with which the first impression has been absorbed by the
public, has so shortened the interval between its appearance and that of
the present edition, that no sufficient time has been allowed for the
discovery of errors or defects; and the work is re-issued almost as a
corrected reprint.
In the interim, however, I have ascertained, that Ribeyro's "Historical
Account of Ceylon," which it was heretofore supposed had never appeared
in any other than the French version of the Abbe Le Grand, and in the
English translation of the latter by Mr. Lee[1], was some years since
printed for the first time in the original Portuguese, from the
identical MS. presented by the author to Pedro II. in 1685. It was
published in 1836 by the Academia Real das Sciencias of Lisbon, under
the title of "_Fatalidade Historica da Ilka de Ceilão_;" and forms the
Vth volume of the a "_Colleção de Noticias para a Historia e Geograjia
das Nações Ultramarinas_" A fac-simile from a curious map of the island
as it was then known to the Portuguese, has been included in the present
edition.[2]
[Footnote 1: See Vol. II. Part vi. ch. i. p.5, note.]
[Footnote 2: Ibid. p. 6.]
Some difficulty having been expressed to me, in identifying the ancient
names of places in India adverted to in the following pages; and
mediæval charts of that country being rare, a map has been inserted in
the present edition[1], to supply the want complained of.
[Footnote 1: See Vol. I. p. 330.]
The only other important change has been a considerable addition to the
Index, which was felt to be essential for facilitating reference.
J E.T.
INTRODUCTION.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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