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then approach and deposit more gold, until they have satished them; neither party ever wrongs the other; for they do not touch the gold before it is made adequate to the value of the merchandise, nor do the natives touch the merchandise before the other party has taken the gold.’
Pomponius Mela (III, viii, 60) seems also to speak of the silent trade of the Himalayas; Ammianus Marcellinus, in the passage already quoted, tells of such a custom at Tashkurghan, the ‘‘Stone Tower’’ of the Pamirs, where silk passed from Eastern hands to Western; while Fa-Hien, describing a similar custom in Ceylon, ascribes it to the “‘spirits and nagas,’’ the tutelary guardians of the pre- cious articles of trade. ( Trave/s, chap. xxxviii. )
65. Great packs and baskets.—The same thing is in con- stant use today in this region, being the regular burden of the coolies
of Nepal and Sikkim.
65. Petri.—Our author is misled by a fancied resemblance to the Greek petros, fiber; the word is the Sanscrit patra, leaf. Other- wise the description of the preparation of the tama/a leaves is correct, being corroborated throughout by Pliny.
65. Malabathrum.—The Cinnamomum tamala is native in this part of the Himalayas, being one of the principal trees.
So Marco Polo (II, xlvi), in his account of Tebet: ‘‘It contains in several quarters rivers and lakes, in which gold-dust is found in great abundance. Cinnamon also grows there in great plenty. Coral is in great demand in this country and fetches a high price, for they delight to hang it round the necks of their women and of their idols.”’
’ (See pp. 82-4, 87, 89, 216-18, 256. )
66. Influence of the gods.—This is still the geography of Brahman writings. Like Tavernier in the 17th century, who sum- marized the Ramayana in his Trave/s, so this merchant of Berenice in the 1st century came under the spell of the great epics of India, as he sojourned among
““the sister nations three, Cholas, Cheras, and the Pandyas dwelling by the southern sea.’’
The region beyond Sikkim, “‘impassable by reason of its great cold,” and including the mightiest peaks of the Himalayas, was within the sphere of the Kurukshetra of the later Vedas, the Brahmanas, and the Mahabharata, the home-land of the Brahman faith; with the greatest of all mountains, Everest, is associated the name of Gauri- sankar, a name of Siva and Durga; in the western curve of the great