i. p. 31, and _J. des Savans_,
1822, p. 71.) The people of Champa in this restricted sense are said to
exhibit Malay affinities, and they profess Mahomedanism. ["The Mussulmans
of Binh-Thuan call themselves _Bani_ or _Orang Bani_, 'men mussulmans,'
probably from the Arabic _beni_ 'the sons,' to distinguish them from the
Chams _Djat_ 'of race,' which they name also _Kaphir_ or _Akaphir_, from
the Arabic word _kafer_ 'pagans.' These names are used in _Binh-Thuan_ to
make a distinction, but Banis and Kaphirs alike are all Chams.... In
Cambodia all Chams are Mussulmans." (_E. Aymonier, Les Tchames_, p. 26.)
The religion of the pagan Chams of Binh-Thuan is degenerate Brahmanism with
three chief gods, Po-Nagar, Po-Rome, and Po-Klong-Garai. (Ibid., p.
35.)--H.C.] The books of their former religion they say (according to Dr.
Bastian) that they received from Ceylon, but they were converted to
Islamism by no less a person than 'Ali himself. The Tong-king people
received their Buddhism from China, and this tradition puts Champa as the
extreme flood-mark of that great tide of Buddhist proselytism, which went
forth from Ceylon to the Indo-Chinese regions in an early century of our
era, and which is generally connected with the name of Buddaghosha.

The prominent position of Champa on the route to China made its ports
places of call for many ages, and in the earliest record of the Arab
navigation to China we find the country noticed under the identical name
(allowing for the deficiencies of the Arabic Alphabet) of _Sanf_ or
_Chanf_. Indeed it is highly probable that the [Greek: Zaba] or [Greek:
Zabai] of Ptolemy's itinerary of the sea-route to the _Sinae_ represents
this same name.

["It is true," Sir Henry Yule wrote since (1882), "that Champa, as known in
later days, lay to the east of the Mekong delta, whilst Zabai of the Greeks
lay to the west of that and of the [Greek: mega akrotaerion]--the Great
Cape, or C. Cambodia of our maps. Crawford (_Desc. Ind. Arch._ p. 80) seems
to say that the Malays include under the name _Champa_ the whole of what we
call Kamboja. This may possibly be a slip. But it is certain, as we shall
see presently, that the Arab _Sanf_--which is unquestionably Champa--also
lay west of the Cape, i.e. within the Gulf of Siam. The fact is that the
Indo-Chinese kingdoms have gone through unceasing and enormous
vicissitudes, and in early days Champa must have been extensive and
powerful, for in the travels of Hiuen