Note 1 — CHAP. III.

: "In front of the image of Buddha there is a sacred bowl which is neither made of jade, nor copper, nor iron; it is of a purple colour and glossy, and when struck it sounds like glass. At the commencement of the Yuen dynasty, three separate envoys were sent to obtain it."—Taou-e che-leo "Account of Island Foreigners," A.D. 1350, quoted in the "Foreign Geography", b. xviii. p. 15. This statement of the Chinese authorities corroborates the story told by MARCO POLO, possibly from personal knowledge, that "the Grand Khan Kublai sent ambassadors to Ceylon with a request that the king would yield to him possession of 'the great ruby' in return for the 'value of a city.'"—(Travels, ch. xix.) The MS. of MARCO POLO, which contains the Latin version of his Travels, is deposited in the Imperial Library of Paris, and it is remarkable that a passage in it, which seems to be wanting in the Italian and other MSS., confirms this account of the Chinese annalists, and states that the alms-dish of Buddha was at length yielded by the King of Ceylon as a gift to Kublai Khan, and carried with signal honour to China. MARCO POLO describes the scene as something within his own knowledge:—"Quando autem magnus Kaan scivit quod isti ambaxiatores redibant cum reliquis istis, et erant prope terram ubi ipse tune erat, scilicet in Cambalu (Pekin), fecit mitti bandum quod omnes de terra obviarent reliquis istis (quia credebat quod essent reliquiæ de Adam) et istud fuit A.D. 1284."