8

of Mr. B. H. HODGSON and the toilsome researches of M. CSOMA of Körrös in Transylvania; and the minutest details of the doctrines and ceremonies of the former have been unfolded in the elaborate an 1 comprehensive collections of Mr. SPENCE HARDY.' From materials discovered by these and other earnest inquirers, Buddhism in its general aspect has been ably delineated in the dissertations of BURNOUF2 and SAINT HILAIRE3, and in the commentaries of REMUSAT, STANISLAS JULIEN, FOUCAUX, LASSEN, and WEBER. The portion thus added to the present edition has been to a great extent taken from a former work of mine on the local superstitions of Ceylon, and the "Introduction and Progress of Christianity" there; and as the section relating to Buddhism had the advantage, previous to publication, of being submitted to the Rev. Mr. GOGERLY, the most accomplished Pali scholar, as well as the most erudite student of Buddhistical literature in the island, I submit it with confidence as an accurate summary of the distinctive views of the Singhalese on the leading doctrines of their national faith.

A writer in the Saturday Review, in alluding to the passage in which I have sought to establish the identity of the ancient Tarshish with the modern Point de Galle 10, admits the force of the coincidence adduced, that the Hebrew terms for "ivory, apes, and peacocks" (the articles imported in the ships of Solomon) are identical with the Tamil names, by which

11

1 Eastern Monachism, an account of the origin, laws, discipline, sacred writings, mysterious rites, religious ceremonies, and present circumstances of the Order of Mendicants, founded by Gotoma Budha. 8vo. Lond. 1850; and A Manual of Budhism in its Modern Development. 8vo. Lond. 1853.

2 BURNOUF, Introduction à l'Histoire du Bouddhisme Indien. 4to. Paris. 1845; and translation of the Lotus de la bonne Loi.

3 J. BARTHELEMY SAINT-HILAIRE,

Le Bouddha et sa Religion. 8vo. Paris. 1860.

4 Introduction and Notes to the Foe Koue Ki of FA HIAN.

5 Life and travels of HIOUEN THSANG.

6 Translation of Lalitavistára by M. PH. ED. FOUCAUX.

7 Author of the Indische Alterthumskunde; &c.

8 Author of the Indische Studien; &c. 9 Novemb. 19, 1859, p. 612. 10 See Vol. II. Pt. vii., c. i. p. 102. 11 1 Kings, x. 22.

these objects are known in Ceylon to the present day; and, to strengthen my argument on this point, he adds that, "these terms were so entirely foreign and alien from the common Hebrew language as to have driven the Ptolemaist authors of the Septuagint version into a blunder, by which the ivory, apes, and peacocks come out as hewn and carven stones." The circumstance adverted to had not escaped my notice; but I forebore to avail myself of it; for, although the fact is accurately stated by the reviewer, so far as regards the Vatican MS., in which the translators have slurred over the passage and converted "ibha, kapi, and tukeyim” into “Xílwv TOρευτῶν καὶ πελεκητῶν” (literally, “ stones hammered and carved in relief"); still, in the other great MS. of the Septuagint, the Codex Alexandrinus, which is of equal antiquity, the passage is correctly rendered by “ ὀδοντῶν ἐλεφαντίνων καὶ TIOŃкwν Kai Tawvwv." The editor of the Aldine edition' compromised the matter by inserting "the ivory and apes," and excluding the "peacocks," in order to introduce the Vatican reading of "stones." I have not compared the Complutensian and other later versions.

66

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.

LONDON:

November 28th, 1859.

J. EMERSON TENNENT.

1 Venice, 1518.

* Καὶ ὀδοντῶν ἐλεφαντινῶν καὶ πιθήκων καὶ λίθων. ΒΑΣΙΛ. ΤΡΙΤΗ, Χ. 22.

TO

THE FIRST EDITION.

THERE is no island in the world, Great Britain itself not excepted, that has attracted the attention of authors in so many distant ages and so many different countries as Ceylon. There is no nation in ancient or modern times possessed of a language and a literature, the writers of which have not at some time made it their theme. Its aspect, its religion, its antiquities, and productions, have been described as well by the classic Greeks, as by those of the Lower Empire; by the Romans; by the writers of China, Burmah, India, and Kashmir; by the geographers of Arabia and Persia; by the medieval voyagers of Italy and France; by the annalists of Portugal and Spain; by the merchant adventurers of Holland, and by the travellers and topographers of Great Britain.

But amidst this wealth of materials as to the island, and its vicissitudes in early times, there is an absolute dearth of information regarding its state and progress during more recent periods, and its actual condition. at the present day.

I was made sensible of this want, on the occasion of my nomination, in 1845, to an office in con

nection with the government of Ceylon. I found abundant details as to the capture of the maritime provinces from the Dutch in 1795, in the narrative of Captain PERCIVAL1, an officer who had served in the expedition; and the efforts to organise the first system of administration are amply described by CORDINER 2, Chaplain to the Forces; by Lord VALENTIA 3, who was then travelling in the East; and by ANTHONY BERTOLACCI4, who acted as auditor-general to the first governor, Mr. North, afterwards Earl of Guilford. The story of the capture of Kandy in 1815 has been related by an anonymous eye-witness under the pseudonyme of PHILALETHES, and by MARSHALL in his Historical Sketch of the conquest. An admirable description of the interior of the island, as it presented itself some forty years ago, was furnished by Dr. DAVY', a brother of the eminent philosopher, who was employed on the medical staff in Ceylon, from 1816 till 1820.

Here the long series of writers is broken, just at the commencement of a period the most important and interesting in the history of the island. The interior, which for centuries had been mysteriously hidden from the Portuguese and Dutch, was suddenly opened to

earliest Period to the Year MDCCCXV, by PHILALETHES, A.M. 4to. Lond. 1817. The author is believed to have been the Rev. G. Bisset.

6 HENRY MARSHALL, F.R.S.E., &c. went to Ceylon as assistant surgeon of the 89th regiment, in 1805, and from 1816 till 1821 was the senior medical officer of the Kandyan provinces.

An Account of the Interior of Ceylon, &c., by JOHN DAVY, M.D. 4to. London, 1821.

8 VALENTYN, in his great work on the Dutch possessions in India, Oud