Note {2} — Chapter XVI

Note 2.—Marco’s account of the pearl-fishery is still substantially correct. Bettelar, the rendezvous of the fishery, was, I imagine, Patlam on the coast of Ceylon, called by Ibn Batuta Batthála. Though the centre of the pearl-fishery is now at Aripo and Kondachi further north, its site has varied sometimes as low as Chilaw, the name of which is a corruption of that given by the Tamuls, Salábham, which means “the Diving,” i.e. the Pearl-fishery. Tennent gives the meaning erroneously as “the Sea of Gain.” I owe the correction to Dr. Caldwell. (Ceylon, I. 440; Pridham, 409; Ibn Bat. IV. 166; Ribeyro, ed. Columbo, 1847, App. p. 196.)