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Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

BY JOHN DE' IIARIGNOLLI.   359

It is said by the natives, especially by their monks who stay at the foot of the mountain, men of very holy life though without the faith,' that the deluge never mounted to that point, and thus the house has never been disturbed.~ Herein

Indeed he does not seem to have dreamt of mounting that "cacumen supereminens" as he calls it, but thanks God for a glimpse of it merely. The footmark that he saw therefore was not the footmark which has been the object of pilgrimage or curiosity for so many ages. Indeed the length of half an ell which he ascribes to it (ante, p. 353) does not agree with

that of the peak footstep. The length of the latter is given by Ibn Batuta at eleven spans, by Marshall at five feet six inches, by Tennent

at about five feet ; all in fair accordance. The planities altissima pul-

chra" on which Marignolli places the footmark, and apparently also a lake (see ante, p. 353), seems to correspond with the "pulcherrima qucedam planities" and lake of Odoric. I suspect that the place visited by both Franciscans was some Buddhist establishment at one of the stages

between the coast and Adam's Peak, where there was a model of the

sacred footstep, such as is common in Buddhist countries, and such as Tennent states to be shown at the Alu Wihara at Cotta, at Kornegalle,

and elsewhere in Ceylon. It is true that there was a second " genuine"

footstep shown in Fahian's time (end of fourth century), but this was "C to the north of the royal city," apparently Anurajapura, and out of

Marignolli's way, even if extant in his time. I see from Pridham and

Tennent that there appears to be a model of the foot at Palabadulla, one of the resting places in ascending from Ratnapura, which would be the

route likely to be followed by Marignolli, considering the position of the port where he landed. Probably the exact site of which our author speaks might still be identified by remains of the ancient building which he calls Adam's Dungeon. 'Knox also calls the footmark about two foot long," so that perhaps he was misled in the same manner as Marignolli (p. 3).

For the history of the Peak see Sir J. E. Tennent's Ceylon. Perhaps he has not noticed that it is represented pictorially in Fra Mauro's Map,

with the footstep at the top of it. It must also be added that Tennent

quotes from the Asiatic Journal, that the first Englishman to ascend Adam's Peak was Lieut. Malcolm in 1827. If the date is right, the fact

is wrong. For the late Dr. Henry Marshall and Mr. S. Sawers ascended together in 1819, and both published accounts of their ascent. To be sure they were both Scotchmen !

The statua qucedam sedens, etc., is of course a Buddha.

1 Qui staid ad pedes montis sine fide sanctissimce vitae." I am doubtful of the meaning.

2 Tennent mentions that the Samaritan version of the Pentateuch, and also an Arabic Pentateuch in the Bodleian, make the Ark rest on the mountains of Serendib or Ceylon (i, 552). Ricold di Montecroce says that the Indians denied that Noah's flood had reached to them, but they lied, for he had noticed as a fact that all the rivers that descended from Ararat flowed towards the Indian Ocean. (Peregrinat. Quatuor, p. 122.)