ib.
xii. c. 42. The Greeks borrowed the tale from the Hindus, who believe
that the _Chandana_ or sandal-wood imparts its odours to the winds; and
their poete speak of the Malayan as the westerns did of the Sabaean
breezes. But the allusion to such perfumed winds was a trope common to
all the discoverers of unknown lands: the companions of Columbus
ascribed them to the region of the Antilles; and Verrazani and Sir
Walter Raleigh scented them off the coast of Carolina. Milton borrowed
from Diodorus Siculus, lib. iii. c. 46, the statement that:

"Far off at sea north-east winds blow
Sabaean odours from the spicy shore
Of Araby the Blest."
(_P.L._ iv. 163.)

Ariosto employs the same imaginative embellishment to describe the
charms of Cyprus:

"Serpillo e persa e rose e gigli e croco
Spargon dall'odorifero terreno
Tanta suavita, ch'in mar sentire
La fa ogni vento che da terra spire."
(_Oil. Fur._ xviii. 138.)

That some aromatic smell is perceptible far to seaward, in the vicinity
of certain tropical countries, is unquestionable; and in the instance of
Cuba, an odour like that of violets, which is discernible two or three
miles from land, when the wind is off the shore, has been traced by
Poeppig to a species of _Tetracera_, a climbing plant which diffuses its
odour during the night. But in the case of Ceylon? if the existence of
such a perfume be not altogether imaginary, the fact has been falsified
by identifying the alleged fragrance with cinnamon; the truth being that
the cinnamon laurel, unless it be crushed, exhales no aroma whatever;
and the peculiar odour of the spice is only perceptible after the bark
has been separated and dried.]

[Footnote 3: LASSEN, _Indische Alterthumskunde_ vol. i. p. 198.]

_Picturesque Outline_.--The nucleus of its mountain masses consists of
gneissic, granitic, and other crystalline rocks, which in their
resistless upheaval have rent the superincumbent strata, raising them
into lofty pyramids and crags, or hurling them in gigantic fragments to
the plains below. Time and decay are slow in their assaults on these
towering precipices and splintered pinnacles; and from the absence of
more perishable materials, there are few graceful sweeps along the
higher chains or rolling downs in the lower ranges of the hills. Every
bold elevation is crowned by battlemented cliffs, and flanked by chasms
in which the shattered strata are seen as sharp and as rugged as if they
had