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the mart in the interior, at a city known as Modiera. The district from which pepper is carried down to Barace in boats hollowed out of a single tree (see illustration on p. 212), is known as Cottonara. None of these names of nations, ports, and cities are to be found in any of the former writers, from which circumstance it would appear that the localities hat e since changed their names. Travellers set sail from India on their return to Europe, at the beginning of the Egyptian month of Tybis, which is our December, or at all events before the sixth day of the Egyptian month Mechir, the same as our Ides of Janu- ary; if they do this they can go and return in the same year. They set sail from India with a south-east wind, and upon entering the Red Sea, catch the south-west or south.”
58. Dark Red Mountain. — The text is Pyrrhon. __ There can be no doubt that it refers to the “Red Bluffs,” a series of high sandstone and laterite headlands, which abut on the coast at Varkkallai (8° 42’ N. ), and again below Anjengo (8° 40' N., 76° 45' E.). These are the “Warkalli Beds” of the Indian geologists, and have recently been pierced by a canal to complete the backwater communication between Tirur and Trivandrum, nearly 200 miles. ( Imperial Gazetteer, XXIV, 300.)
Beyond this point we must assume that the author of the Periplus did not go. The remainder of his work, usually referred to as the “sequel,” represents what he learned by inquiring of acquaintances at Nelcynda or Bacare, and set down in writing toward lightening the darkness of Mediterranean ideas concerning all matters oriental.
58. Paralia. — According to Caldwell ( Dravldian Grammar , 56), this is a translation of the Tamil Karel, “coast;” according to Burnell and Yule, it is Purali, an ancient local name for Travancore. This is supported by Gundert in his Malayalam Dictionary, and by the Malayalam translation of the Ramayana. The Raja’s titles still include that of Purahsan, “Lord of Purali.” The native name for this country in general was Malayalam , from mala, mountain, and alam, depth; the land at the foot of the mountains, — Piedmont.
Paralia, to the author of the Periplus, is the coast-line below the Travancore backwaters, around Cape Comorin, and as far as Adam’s Bridge: comprised within the modern districts of Travancore and Tinnevelly.
58. Balita. — This is probably the modern Varkkallai (8° 42’ N. , 76° 43’ E. ). It was formerly the southern end of the long line of backwaters, and a place of considerable commercial importance. By cutting through a bluff the l acliwaters have recently been connected with others leading as far as Trivandrum, which is now the chief port
