ilum before Comari is a question that will be
treated further on, with other misplacements of like kind that occur in
succeeding chapters.

[Illustration: Syrian Church at Caranyachirra (from "Life of Bp. D.
Wilson"), showing the quasi-Jesuit facade generally adopted in modern
times.]

[Illustration: Interior of Syrian Church at Kutteiyan in Travancore. (From
"Life of Bp. D. Wilson.")]

Kublai had a good deal of diplomatic intercourse of his usual kind with
Kaulam. De Mailla mentions the arrival at T'swan chau (or Zayton) in 1282
of envoys from KIULAN, an Indian State, bringing presents of various
rarities, including a black ape as big as a man. The Emperor had three
times sent thither an officer called Yang Ting-pi (IX. 415). Some rather
curious details of these missions are extracted by Pauthier from the
Chinese Annals. The royal residence is in these called _A-pu-'hota_[4]
The king is styled _Pinati_. I may note that Barbosa also tells us that
the King of Kaulam was called Benate-deri (_devar?_). And Dr. Caldwell's
kindness enables me to explain this title. _Pinati_ or _Benate_ represents
_Venadan_. "the Lord of the Venadu," or _Venattu_, that being the name of
the district to which belonged the family of the old kings of Kollam, and
_Venadan_ being their regular dynastic name. The Rajas of Travancore who
superseded the Kings of Kollam, and inherit their titles, are still
poetically styled Venadan. (_Pauthier_, p. 603 seqq.; _Ram._ I. f. 304.)

NOTE 2.--The brazil-wood of Kaulam appears in the Commercial Handbook of
Pegolotti (circa 1340) as _Verzino Colombino_, and under the same name
in that of Giov. d'Uzzano a century later. Pegolotti in one passage
details kinds of brazil under the names of _Verzino salvatico_,
_dimestico_, and _columbino_. In another passage, where he enters into
particulars as to the respective values of different qualities, he names
three kinds, as _Colomni_, _Ameri_, and _Seni_, of which the _Colomni_ (or
Colombino) was worth a sixth more than the _Ameri_ and three times as much
as the _Seni_. I have already conjectured that _Ameri_ may stand for
_Lameri_ referring to Lambri in Sumatra (supra ch. xi., note 1); and
perhaps _Seni_ is _Sini_ or Chinese, indicating an article brought to
India by the Chinese traders, probably from Siam.

We have seen in the last note that the Kaulam brazil is spoken of by
Abulfeda; and Ibn Batuta, in describing his voyage by the back waters from
Calicut to Ka