Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 15.djvu/353

Rh MALDIVE ISLANDS 331 had ruled on his behalf assumed the kingdom in 1760. In 1754 Pupleix occupied Male with a small French detachment, which remained several years. In 1811 the sultan wrote to the governor- ceneral (Lord Minto) to complain of the violent conduct of the otiicers of a ship under British colours which had been wrecked on- the islands. Lord Minto sent back a courteous answer with presents. There have been no other events during the British rule in Ceylon, and the last sultan, Mohammed Moidin, reigned without dispute from 1835 to 1882. AVe have only three substantial accounts of the Maldives from actual residence: (1) that of the Moorlbn Batuta, who lived upon them more than a year (1343-44), and filled the office of cadi ; it contains much curious detail ; (2) the narrative of Francois 1 yrarJ de la Val, a French adventurer on board a ship of St Malo, which was wrecked on a reef of the Malosmadulu atoll in 1602, and who was detained five years on the islands, a book of the greatest interest and accuracy, and by far the best account of these islands in existence ; (3) a memoir by two officers of the Indian navy, Lieut. Young and Mr Christopher, who had been employed in the survey of the islands under Captain R, Moresby in 1834-35, and who volunteered to remain behind at Male, iu order to acquire a knowledge, of the language, customs, &c., of the inhabitants, a laudable effort, but the result of it was marred somewhat by the illness which prostrated both officers. The sultan s residence and the capital of the kingdom is the island of Male&quot;, which lies near the middle of the archipelago on the east side. It is about 1 mile long by It has been at one time encompassed with walls and bastions, but these continue in repair only on the north and west. On the north too is an old fort, apparently of Portuguese construction, with a few old guns. On the north and west sides also advantage has been taken of the encircling reef as the base of a wall which has been built up so as to form the lagoon into a harbour for small craft, having a depth of 6 to 12 feet, and a width of 150 yards. The town is laid out in long regular streets at right angles, shaded with trees ; the houses are in &quot; compounds,&quot; with high fences excluding the street, and are surrounded with fruit trees and flowers. The sultan s palace, a large upper- roomed house, occupies with its appurtenances an area of 2 square mile, enclosed by a shallow ditch now choked with vegetation. The houses generally are large cottages of about 28 feet by 12, formed of substantial wooden frame, with peaked roofs thatched with cocoa-leaves ; the walls are matted with cocoa-leaves, but sometimes planked. There are several mosques, and at least one minaret, about 40 feet high, for the call to prayer. Stone-built houses, common in Pyrard s time, are so no longer ; there is now but one. There are marked distinctions of rank among the people. At least six classes (we hardly know whether to call them castes) are recognized, of whom the two highest form a pure aristocracy. The sixth class, called Kallo (&quot;black&quot; 1 ?), consists of the common people generally, of whom the toddy- drawers are regarded as the lowest. The employments of the common people are fishing, gathering cocoa-nuts and cowries, weaving, and toddy-draw ing. Women beat the cocoa-fibre and twist it into yarn, make mats, prepare breadfruit by slicing and drying in the sun, spin and dye cotton thread, make sweetmeats of cocoa- nut and palm -sugar. Women are not secluded or veiled as in typical Moslem countries. Rice, the staple of food, is imported. Other chief food is fish (chiefly dried bonito), breadfruit prepared in various ways, cocoa-nut, and a few fruits and vegetables. There are a few sheep and cattle on Maid island, which are oc casionally slaughtered. From the earliest notices the production of coir, the collection of cowries, and the weaving of excellent textures on these islands have been noted. This last, and that of fine mats are the only manufactures in which skill is shown. The mats seem to be now produced only in Suadiva atoll; the cloth chiefly, but not solely, in Malosmadulu atoll. The chief exports of the islands, besides coir and cowries (a decreasing trade), are cocoa-nuts, copra (i.e., cocoa-nut husk), tortoise-shell, and dried bonito-fish. An enormous amount of this last was formerly carried to Ceylon and Sumatra, the latter being supplied by traders who came from Chittagong. It has been known over the East from time immemorial as kololi-mus, a corruption apparently of the Maldivian kalu-bili-mds, &quot; black bonito fish,&quot; sometimes further corrupted to gomulmiitdi. Native vessels of 80 to 200 tons burthen make annual trips to Calcutta towards the end of the south-west monsoon, returning with the north-east monsoon in December. After leaving the Maldives they sight no land till Jagannath. They carry thither the articles named above, and bring back rice, cotton stuffs, and sundries. These long voyages are not confined to the craft of the capital. Moresby, in 1834-35, found that a small island in the North Nilandu atoll sent annually to Bengal five or six boats of 80 to 100 tons each. On the same island there was a kind of navigation school, and the natives made and repaired some kind of nautical instruments. The old cash of the Maldives was the curious larin or &quot; fish hook money &quot; made of a bent rod of silver. This has been, long replaced by coins of base metal bearing the same name. The Anglo-Injitan rupee is current for larger payments, and cowries are still used to some extent. Two alphabets are known on the islands (besides the Arabic, which appears on tombstones and in other inscrip tions). The first is an ancient alphabet, known as Divehi Ilakura, &quot; island letters.&quot; This in 1835 still survived iu the southern atolls, and orders for these were written in it. It is written, like all the Indian alphabets, from left to right, and is evidently (by comparison with plate xvii. in Dr Burnell s Elements of South Indian Palaeography) a form (with additional letters) of the old Tamil character (700 to 1300 A. D.) called in Malabar Vatteluttu, or &quot;round hand.&quot; l The modern Maldive writing, called Gabali Tana, is usually 2 written from right to left, like Arabic. It is said to have been introduced in the 16th century, and has gone through several variations. Some of the letters are modified from the Arabic character, and nine of them are the Arabic numeral digits. On the other hand numerals are represented by letters of the alphabet. The former system of reckoning was duodecimal, but this is dying out. Nothing is accurately known of the flora of the islands, and Kew possesses no illustration of it. Among larger trees are mentioned the banyan, pippal, breadfruit, tamarind, and a large tree called kcmdu, affording a very light wood used for rafts, floats, &c. ; also species of pandanus. The castor-oil tree is abundant, though not used. The cocoa-nut of the islands, though of fine quality, is very small, not much larger than an orange. The tree itself furnishes the only indigenous wood used for boat building. The dumbari (Calopkyllum inophylhim) and kuradi (PtmpJds addula) are used in minor wood-work. A tuber, grated and steeped in water to remove its acridity, is made into flour, perliaps a Colocasia, which Ibn Batuta mentions (al-kalakds) as used to make a kind of vermicelli. They have also sweet potatoes, pine-apples, pomegranates (bearing fruit throughout the year), plantains, and most of the other tropical or subtropical Indian fruits, chillies, a few areca trees, &c. The double cocoa-nut of the Seychelles Islands (fruit of Lodoicea SecMlarum) used to be_ cast up on the islands, arid was believed to be a submarine pro- 1 The resemblance to this is much closer tlian to tire old Singhalese with which it is compared in Mr Albert Gray s valuable paper already referred to. 2 &quot;Usually&quot;; but a Maldivian skipper who gave James. rinsep information wrote it from left to right (see Jour. As. Soc. Bengal, v. 794).
 * mile wide, and contains a population approaching 2000.