Ceylon; an Account of the Island | Page 8

"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 [Greek: "lithôn toreutôn kai
pelekêtôn"] (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
"[Greek: odontôn elephantinôn kai pithêkôn kai taônôn]." The editor of
the Aldine edition[4] compromised the matter by inserting "the ivory
and apes," and excluding the "peacocks," in order to introduce the
Vatican reading of "stones."[5] I have not compared the Complutensian
and other later versions.

[Footnote 1: Novemb. 19, 1859, p. 612.]
[Footnote 2: See Vol. II. Pt. VII., c. i. p. 102.]
[Footnote 3: 1 _Kings_, x. 22.]
[Footnote 4: Venice, 1518.]
[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.
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 mediæval voyagers of Italy and France; by
the annalists of Portugal and Spain; by the merchant adventurers of
Holland, and by the travellers and topographers