Elephants and ivory were in request; and the only manufactures alluded to for export were woven cotton[1], gold ornaments, and jewelry; including models of the shrines in which were deposited the sacred relics of Buddha.[2] Statues of Buddha were frequently sent as royal presents, and so great was the fame of Ceylon for their production in the fourth and fifth centuries, that according to the historian of the Wei Tartar dynasty, A.D. 386-556, people “from the countries of Central Asia, and the kings of those nations, emulated each other in sending artisans to procure copies, but none could rival the productions of Nan-te.[3] On standing about ten paces distant they appeared truly brilliant, but the lineaments gradually disappeared on a nearer approach."[4]

[Footnote 1:  Tsih-foo yuen-kwei, A.D. 1012, b. dcccclxxi. p. 15.  At a later period “Western cloth” is mentioned among the exports of Ceylon, but the reference must be to cloth previously imported either from India or Persia.—­Ming-she History of the Ming Dynasty, A.D. 1368—­1643, b. cccxxvi. p. 7.]

[Footnote 2:  A model of the shrine containing the sacred tooth was sent to the Emperor of China in the fifth century by the King of Ceylon; “Chacha Mo-ho-nan," a name which appears to coincide with Raja Maha Nama, who reigned A.D. 410—­433.—­Shunshoo, A.D. 487, b. xlvii. p. 6.]

[Footnote 3:  Nan-te was a Buddhist priest, who in the year A.D. 456 was sent on an embassy to the Emperor of China, and was made the bearer of three statues of his own making.—­Ts[)i]h-foo yuen-kwei, b. li. p. 7.]

[Footnote 4:  Wei-shoo, A.D. 590, b. cxiv. p. 9.]

Pearls, corals, and crystals were eagerly sought after; but of all articles the gems of Ceylon were in the greatest request.  The business of collecting and selling them seems from the earliest time to have fallen into the hands of the Arabs, and hence they bore in China the designation of “Mahometan stones."[1] They consisted of rubies, sapphires, amethysts, carbuncles (the “red precious stone, the lustre of which serves instead of a lamp at night")[2]; and topazes of four distinct tints, “those the colour of wine; the delicate tint of young goslings, the deep amber, like bees’-wax, and the pale tinge resembling the opening bud of the pine."[3] It will not fail to be observed that throughout all these historical and topographical works of the Chinese, extending over a period of twelve centuries, from the year A.D. 487, there is no mention whatever of cinnamon as a production of Ceylon; although cassia, described under the name of kwei, is mentioned as indigenous in China and Cochin-China.  In exchange for these commodities the Chinese traders brought with them silk, variegated lute strings, blue porcelain, enamelled dishes and cups, and quantities of copper cash wanted for adjusting the balances of trade.[4]

[Footnote 1:  Tsih-ke, quoted in the Chinese Mirror of Sciences, b. xxxiii. p. 1.]