C h a n k S h e l l s .
C y p r j e a
M o n e t a .
Sa l t - pans.
Mofcow, in 1689, aged 84; a ftrong proof of the predominancy
of a ruling paflion.
T h e Pearl Mufiel is not the only objedt of the diver. There
is a confiderable trade carried on in the ihells called Chanks or
Siiankos, or oblation ihells, which are in great efteem with the
Mahometans, for making bracelets and thumb-rings, which are
made ufe o f in drawing the bows. The Hindoos alfo make
them ferve to hold oil, to illuminate their pagodas. The feafon
o f fi filing is from the middle of December till the middle of
May. It is the Mur ex Tritonis o f Linnaus, Rumph. Muf.
tab. xxviii. fig. 560. Bonan. iii. 188. It is common to India,
Africa, and the Mediterranean, and is ftill ufed in many parts
as a trumpet for blowing alarms or giving fignals : it fends
forth a deep and hollow found. They were in ufe among the
Romans in their e'arlier days.
Buccina jam prifcos cogebat ad arma Quirites.
Mr. Efcbeljkroon, p. 330, adds, that abundance of the Cypraa
Moneta, or Cowries, are alfo found here. That author’s account
o f Ceylon is added to Wolf’s hiftory of that ifland.
A l l the coaft on the Madura and Ceyloneje fide is low, and
well adapted for falt-pans. A great quantity of fait is made
here and in Ceylon. The Dutch wifely confine the bufinefs to
thefe parts, and prohibit the making of it in every other fettle-
ment-they have in India. They keep their warehoufes always
filled, and if there happen to be a fuperfluity, they fpoil it by
mixing it with fand, or flinging it into the fea. By their pof-
feffion o f this neceflary o f life, they make it the moil: powerful
weapon
weapon poflible, againft even the Emperor o f Ceylon himfelf;
for on the left quarrel they forbid the ifluing of any from their
magazine, fo that he and his fubjedts muft inftantly fub-
mit.
THk kingdom of Madura runs far inland to the north-eaft;
it formed the fouthern part of the Regnum Pandionis o f Ptolemy,
the Pandi Mandalam of the modern Indians. Its capital
was the Madura of Ptolemy, and was the royal refidence o f the
antient monarchs. In later days it certainly was the fcene of
y the moft impudent fraud that ever was made fubfervient to the-
great purpofes of religion. Robert de Nobili, an Italian fefu it,
and, next to Xavier, a chief apoftle o f India, feated himfelf in
this country, and obferving the deep veneration that the Indians
paid to the Brahmins, as defcended from the gods,, he
aflumed their charadter; he befmeared his face,, and imitated,
the moft auftere and painful mode o f living pradtifed by their
penitents, till he had perfuaded the credulous people that he
really was of that venerated order. By incredible pains he.had.
acquired a knowlege of the cuftoms, religion, and language of
Madura, fufficient for the purpofes o f his defign. By this
ftratagem he gained over to Chriflianity twelve Brahmins, and:
by their influence engaged amazing numbers o f people to liften
to his inftrudtions, and to receive his dodtrine. To confirm,
the truth of his charadter of Brahmin, he forged a deed on old
dirty parchment in the antient Indian letters,, to prove that the-
Brahmins of Rome were of a far older date than thofe of Indian
and defcended in a diredt line from the god Brahma; and when
the authenticity o f his mufty old parchment, was callfed in:
queftion,,
K ingdom of
M adu ra ..
A RELIGIOUS'
F r a u d of. Ah
J e s u i t .