Category: Travel Writing
I. General Aspect. Singular beauty of the island Its ancient renown in consequence Fable of its "perfumed winds" (note) Character of the scenery II. Geographical Position Ancient views regarding it amongst the Hindus,--"the Meridian of Lanka" Buddhist traditions of former subm...
With the exception of the Mammalia and the Birds, the fauna of Ceylon has, up to the present, failed to receive that systematic attention to which its richness and variety so am...
8. ccxxiv. The renown of Ceylon as it reached Europe in the seventeenthcentury is thus summed up by PURCHAS in _His Pilgrimage_, b.v.c. 18, p. 550:--"The heauens with their dewes, the ayre with a pleasant holesomenesse and fragrant freshnesse, the...
17. BOOK VIII.(Ch. i) "This is the voyage which Joramus, the king of the Tyrians ordered Joramus, the priest of Melicarthus, to recount and to engrave on a pillar in the temple of Melicarthus...
10. CHAPTER I.It was long affirmed by Europeans that the Singhalese annals, like those of the Hindus, were devoid of interest or value as historical material; that, as religious disquisitions...
13. part i. ch. iv. p. 12), but this is a misapprehension. Professor H.H.WILSON, in a private letter to me, says, "In Hindustan we are accustomed to consider 'curry' to be derived from, _tarkari_, a general term for esculent vegetables, but it is pro...
14. book iii. ch. i. p. 127.King Bujas Raja, A.D. 339, increased his claim to popular acknowledgment by adding "an astrologer, a devil-dancer, and a preacher."[1] At the present day the astronomical treati...
11. book ii. ch. iv. p. 239.The obligation, to maintain the religion of Buddha was as binding as the command to abstain from assailing that of its rivals, and hence the kings who had treated the snake-wors...
6. CHAPTER I.First heard of by the companions of Alexander the Great Various ancient names of Ceylon (note) Early doubts whether it was an island or a continent Mentioned by Aristotle Allege...
16. Part I. ch. i. p. 43.[Footnote 4: The description of Taprobane given by Ptolemy proves that the island had been thoroughly circumnavigated and examined by the mariners who were his informants. Not h...
12. CHAPTER IPOPULATION.--In no single instance do the chronicles of Ceylon mention the precise amount of the population of the island, at any particular period; but there is a sufficiency o...
15. CHAPTER I.Although mysterious rumours of the wealth and wonders of India had reached the Western nations in the heroic ages, and although travellers at a later period returning from Persi...
4. CHAPTER I.Ceylon formerly thought to have no authentic history Researches of Turnour Biographical sketch of Turnour (note) The Mahawanso Recovery of the "tika" on the Mahawanso Outline of...
5. CHAPTER I.Population encouraged by the fertility of Ceylon Evidence of its former extent in the ruins of the tanks and canals Means by which the population was preserved Causes of its dis...
3. CHAPTER I.Neglect of Zoology in Ceylon Monkeys Wanderoo Error regarding the _Silenus Veter_ (note) Presbytes Cephalopterus P. Ursinus in the Hills P. Thersites in the Wanny P. Priamus, Ja...
2. CHAPTER I.I. General Aspect. Singular beauty of the island Its ancient renown in consequence Fable of its "perfumed winds" (note) Character of the scenery II. Geographical Position Ancien...
7. CHAPTER IGENERAL ASPECT.--Ceylon, from whatever direction it is approached, unfolds a scene of loveliness and grandeur unsurpassed, if it be rivalled, by any land in the universe. The tr...
1. VOLUME I