or
_Sundara_.

NOTE 4.--Kazwini names the brazil, or sapan-wood of Ceylon. Ibn Batuta
speaks of its abundance (IV. 166); and Ribeyro does the like (ed. of
Columbo, 1847, p. 16); see also _Ritter_, VI. 39, 122; and _Trans. R.A.S._
I. 539.

Sir E. Tennent has observed that Ibn Batuta is the first to speak of the
Ceylon cinnamon. It is, however, mentioned by Kazwini (circa A.D. 1275),
and in a letter written from Mabar by John of Montecorvino about the very
time that Marco was in these seas. (See _Ethe's Kazwini_, 229, and
_Cathay_, 213.)

[Mr. G. Phillips, in the _Jour. China B.R.A.Soc._, XX. 1885, pp. 209-226;
XXI. 1886, pp. 30-42, has given, under the title of _The Seaports of India
and Ceylon_, a translation of some parts of the _Ying-yai-sheng-lan_, a
work of a Chinese Mahomedan, Ma-Huan, who was attached to the suite of
Ch'eng-Ho, an envoy of the Emperor Yong-Lo (A.D. 1403-1425) to foreign
countries. Mr. Phillips's translation is a continuation of the _Notes_ of
Mr. W.P. Groeneveldt, who leaves us at Lambri, on the coast of Sumatra.
Ma-Huan takes us to the _Ts'ui-lan_ Islands (Nicobars) and to _Hsi-lan-kuo_
(Ceylon), whose "people," he says (p. 214), "are abundantly supplied with
all the necessaries of life. They go about naked, except that they wear a
green handkerchief round their loins, fastened with a waist-band. Their
bodies are clean-shaven, and only the hair of their heads is left.... They
take no meal without butter and milk, if they have none and wish to eat,
they do so unobserved and in private. The betel-nut is never out of their
mouths. They have no wheat, but have rice, sesamum, and peas. The
cocoa-nut, which they have in abundance, supplies them with oil, wine,
sugar, and food." Ma-Huan arrived at Ceylon at Pieh-lo-li, on the 6th of
the 11th moon (seventh year, Suean Teh, end of 1432). Cf. _Sylvain Levi,
Ceylan et la Chine, J. As._, Mai-juin, 1900, p. 411 seqq.

Odoric and the Adjaib do not mention cinnamon among the products of
Ceylon; this omission was one of the arguments of Dr. Schumann (_Ergaenz._
No. 73 zu _Petermann's Mitt._, 1883, p. 46) against the authenticity of
the Adjaib. These arguments have been refuted in the _Livre des Merveilles
de l'Inde_, p. 265 seqq.

Nicolo Conti, speaking of the "very noble island called Zeilan," says (p.
7): "Here also cinnamon grows in great abundance. It is a tree which very
much resembles our thick willows, excepting that the branches do not grow
upwards