amongst their countrymen and co-religionists reports of the beauty, the fertility, and the riches of India's utmost isle. Not least in interest amongst the marvels told would be those respecting the mysterious relic on the summit of Al-rohoun,* the mighty mount they saw above the horizon for days before they moored their ships beneath the shadow of the palms that marged the coast. From what was recorded of Adam in the Kurán, and the Coptic traditions, with which the Arab traders would be well acquainted, connecting his name with the mountain and the foot-print, the whole combined failed not to invest the island with all the charms of an earthly elysium, and fixed in the minds of Moslems the idea that the mountain of Serandib, "than which the whole world does not contain a mountain of greater height,"t sprang from the site of Eden's garden, and was most probably that sacred spot,

"The Mount of Paradise, in clouds reposed,"

whence Adam was permitted to take his last long lingering look at the abodes of bliss from which he was for ever expelled, for

*So called from the Ruhuna division of the Island, in which Galle is situated, and from which Adam's Peak is seen.

The description given by TABARI, "the Livy of the Arabians," born A. D. 838, whose writings contain, it is believed, the earliest allusions to Ceylon to be found in any of the Arabian or Persian authors.

"that mysterious crime,

Whose dire contagion through elapsing time

Diffused the curse of death beyond control;"

or the pinnacle upon which he alighted, when, according to other traditions, he was cast out from the Paradise of the seventh heaven, and there "remained standing on one foot, until years of penitence and suffering had expiated his offence, and formed the footstep" that now marks the place upon which he stood.†

The traditions vary in their details; but all true Islamites hold to the belief that Ceylon was rendered for ever famous by the presence upon it, and the residence therein, of the Father of Mankind.‡ Sale, in the note already quoted from,

JAMES MONTGOMERY'S "World before the Flood."

"It is from the summit of this mountain, a tradition reports, that Adam took his last view of Paradise, before he quitted it never to return. The spot at which his foot stood at the moment, is still supposed to be found in an impression on the summit of the mountain, resembling the print of a man's foot, but more than double the ordinary size. After taking this farewell view, the father of mankind is said to have gone Over to the continent of India; which was at that time joined to the island; but no sooner had he passed Adam's Bridge than the sea closed behind him, and cut off all hopes of return."-PERCIVAL'S Account of Ceylon, p. 206-7.

Note to chap. ii. of SALE's Al-koran.

"There is another tradition related in the Caherman-nameh, namely, that Adam was banished to Serandib after his expulsion from Paradise, and that Caherman-Catel, wishing to bequeath to posterity a monument to record the birth of his son Sam-Neriman, caused a town to be built

mentions the further belief of the followers of the Prophet of Mecca, that Eve, who had fallen from Paradise near Jeddah, or Mecca, in Arabia, was, after a separation of two hundred years, reunited to Adam, who was conducted to her by the angel Gabriel, and that they afterwards both retired to Ceylon, where they continued to propagate their species. Percival, in his notice of the mountain named after him to whom

"the evening breeze

Had borne the voice of God among the trees;
whose morning eye

Outshone the star that told the sun was nigh,"
J. MONTGOMERY.

states that one of the chains near the top is said to have been made by Adam himself! but he gives no authority for the statement. Sir W. Ousely, in his Travels, quoting from the Berhan Kattea, a manuscript Persian dictionary, writes "Serandib (or Serandil) is the name of a celebrated mountain, whereon the venerable Adam, (to whom be the blessing of God!) descended from Paradise and resided....it is likewise reported, that here is interred the father of mankind." Ashref, a Persian poet of the fifteenth century, holding this belief, describes in the "Zaffer Namah Skendari," a voyage

in the great plain at the foot of the mountain where Adam was interred, and that he called the same Khorrem, place of joys and pleasures, such as the Greeks and Latins believed the Elysian fields to have been."Bibliotheque Orientale of D'HERBELOT, vol. iii. p. 308.

made to Ceylon by Alexander the Great, where, after landing and indulging himself and companions in feasts and revels, he next explores the wonders of the island, and "with the philosopher Bolinas [celebrated for the composition of magical talismans] devises means whereby they may ascend the mountain of Serandib, fixing thereto chains with rings, and nails or rivets, made of iron and brass, the remains of which exist even at this day; so that travellers, by the assistance of these chains, are enabled to climb the mountain and obtain glory by finding the sepulchre of Adam, on whom be the blessing of God!"* Unfortunately for Ashref's credibility, his statements are not supported by any reliable authority, and history is utterly silent in regard to this alleged voyage of Alexander and his companions.† His own countrymen too, are at issue with him as to the place of sepulture of the father of mankind, for Hamdallah Kazwini, the Persian geographer, says that Adam left Ceylon for the continent of India, and "crossed the sea on foot, though ships now sail Over the place of his passage, during the space of two or three days' voyage."‡

* Sir W. OUSELY'S Travels, vol. i. p. 58.

†This belief amongst Easterns of the visit of Alexander the Great to Ceylon existed long before the time of Ashref. Ibn Batúta, a century earlier, mentions "the ridge of Alexander," at the entrance to the mountain Serandib, "in which is a cave and a well of water," and a minaret there "named after Alexander."

Sir W. OUSELY's Travels, vol. i. p. 37.

The earliest account of the Mussulman tradition that connects the story of Adam with the Peak is that contained in the narrative of Soleyman, an Arab merchant who visited Ceylon in the beginning of the ninth century. His attention. was particularly directed to the mountain called by his countrymen "Al-rohoun," "to the top of which" he says, "it is thought Adam ascended, and there left the print of his foot, in a rock which is seventy cubits in length; and they say, that Adam at the same time stood with his other foot in the sea. About this mountain are mines of rubies, of opals, and amethysts.' Ibn Wahab, another trader who

visited Ceylon about the same period, speaks of its pearls and precious stones; and the narratives of both travellers are related in a work entitled "Voyages of the two Mohammadans," written between the years A. D. 851-911, and first printed in France in 1718.†

Sindbad the Sailor in his charming tales, written probably about the same period as those of the two Mohammadans, says in the account of his sixth voyage "The capital of Serandib stands at the end of a fine valley, in the middle of the island, encompassed by high mountains. They are seen

*History of Ceylon, by PHILALETHES, 1817, p. 7. The opals referred to by Soleyman must have been either cat's-eyes or moonstones; the real opal not being found in Ceylon.

By RENAUDOT; it was reprinted at Paris by REINAUD in 1845. An English translation was included in both HARRIS's and PINKERTON'S collections of early travels.