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'combolly masse' because they are all black. They cook them in salt water, and then dry them by the fire on clayes so thoroughly that when dry they keep for a very long time. It is in this commodity they carry on so extensive a traffic, not only among themselves but they even supply the rest of India, where this article is in great request" (p. 138). And again (p. 141): "The fish which are found on the banks or lagoons of the Atols are called in the Mâldive language phuremasse' [M. faru mas] that is to say, 'rock fish,' because 'phare' is a 'bank' or 'shelf of rock,' masse' is 'fish.' The other kind which is caught in the high (open) sea is called, as I have already said, 'combolly masse,' that is to say 'black fish. It is in this that they have so large a trade, and with which they supply all the coasts of the Continent. It is cooked in salt water and dried, for it is not otherwise salted; although sometimes they salt some of it, yet it remains always in the brine until wanted. But it is not this that they export
4
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[JULY, 1882.
or send away. As there is no salt made at the Måldives, that of which they make use comes from the coast of Malabar, and it would not suffice for so large a quantity of fish as is daily caught for the supply of the inhabitants as well as for trade. For, in truth, I believe there is no place throughout India, nor elsewhere, where the fishery is richer and more plentiful."
Two and a half centuries earlier the Arab traveller Ibn Batûta (A. D. 1344) also wrote of this fishery:-"The food of the natives consists of a fish like the lyroûn, which they call koulb al más. Its flesh is red; it has no grease, but its smell resembles that of mutton. When caught at the fishery, each fish is cut up into four pieces, and then slightly cooked. It is then placed in baskets of coco leaves and suspended in the smoke. It is eaten when perfectly dry. From this country it is exported to India, China, and Yaman. It is called koulb al más." (A. Gray, translating 'Voyages d'Ibn Batoutah,' Tome 4e; Paris, 1879).
CONTRIBUTIONS TO SIMHALESE GRAMMAR.1 BY DR. E. MÜLLER. The Simhalese language, whatever degree of reliance we may place in the historical traditions of the people who spoke it, was certainly severed from Indian soil more than two centuries before the reign of the Emperor Aśoka, that is to say, at the latest 450 B. c. Whatever direct relations therefore we find between the language of Ceylon and the vernaculars of India, will be highly interesting as throwing some light on the real rustic speech of India, as opposed to the language of the learned at so remote a period.
i. e. "the fish blood" and "salt fish" occasionally imported into Ceylon, called by the Maldivians rhi hakuru (lit. fish sugar'). This consists of the broth in which the bonito has been boiled, to which odd scraps are added from time to time, the whole after two or three days being again boiled down to a gelatinous syrup containing more solid lumps.
The plan of this I found among Dr. Goldschmidt's papers, but as it could not be published in that form, I thought it better to wait till I could complete it from the new materials I was then about to find. I have added all the references from the different inscriptions, of which only a comparatively small number was known to Dr. Goldschmidt at the time he wrote this, and have also considerably enlarged the number of examples from the Elu poetry. In the introduction, which treats of the position of the Simhalese language, I was obliged to make some alterations, as the knowledge of Indian vernaculars has been considerably increased by several new publications of Pali, Prikrit, and Jaina texts made after Dr. Goldschmidt's death.
The Simhalese, according to their own narrative (Maháv. p. 43 ff.), emigrated from a small kingdom called Lala, situated in, or adjacent to, Magadha. The correctness of this we need not doubt, not because I am of opinion that more faith ought to be placed in the legends of the Simhalese than of other Hindus, but because I can see no reason whatever why they should choose a small and insignificant kingdom as the native country of their ancestors."
We may therefore attempt to state how far this tradition is borne out or confuted respec
Lassen (Ind. Alterth. vol. II, p. 105) identifies Lala with Lata (Greek Larike-Gujarat). The whole context of the Mahav. however shews that this cannot be meant. King Nissanka Malla, a prince of Kalinga, who has left many inscriptions in different parts of Ceylon, was born in a city called Simhapura; which he maintains to be the same as Simhapura, where Wijaya was born. If so, Lâla was part of the latter kingdom, Kalinga, a not unlikely place to suppose the Aryan conquerors of Ceylon to have started from. This seems also to be the opinion of Burnouf (Recherches sur la Geographie Ancienne de Ceylon, p. 61) as he identifies Lala with Radha-" la partie basse du Bengale actuel, qui s'etend sur la rive. droite de la rivière Hougli, et comprend les districts de Tamlouk et de Midnapour." This country then must have been thoroughly Aryan at so remote a time as the 5th century B.C. at the latest, for not only is the Simhalese language Sanskrit, but the vast majority of the higher castes of the Simhalese have unmistakeably the Aryan type of faces, and, as for the lower castes, they do not look like Dravidians, but resemble the Veddas.
