his island—Langkapuri. Next he attacked and sunk the fleet in which the young Prince of Rúm, under the guidance of a trusted minister named MARONG MAHAWANGSA, was sailing for the capital of China to be united to his betrothed. The scene of the shipwreck was on the eastern side of the Bay of Ben- gal, and the prince, who clung to a plank, was cast on shore on the island of Langkapuri. Here, one day, he was found by the princess of China and her attendants, who hid him in a cave, and carefully concealed from the bird Gerda the fact of his presence. The dénouement is easily guessed. When Gerdal appeared before King SOLOMON to boast that he had carried out his determination, the prophet despatched a jin to Pulau Langkapuri, and had the prince, the princess and their attend. ants conveyed in a chest to his audience hall, where Gerda was put to shame, and the inutility of attempting to resist the course of pre-ordained fate was demonstrated.
The chronicler of Kedah, which, by the way, was colonised by the minister of the Emperor of Rúm—MARONG MAHAWANGSA—seems to have been sufficiently satisfied that Pulau Lang. kapuri, the scene of the wars of RAMA and RAWANA, was iden- tical with the island off the coast of Kedah which the Malays now call Langkawi, and which may have been called Langka- puri in former times. And successive generations of Kedah Malays have, no doubt, been ignorant of the identity of Lang- ka with Ceylon, and have contentedly localised their legend in an island of their own. So it is not surprising that the islanders are still able to point out the very cave in which the prince of Rúm was hidden from his enemy—the bird Gerda, who in former times had taken part in the wars of the Rámá- yana.
We landed in a sandy bay between two rocky headlands, and viewed the cave, which is principally remarkable for an inscription in Malay carved in the rock at a height of some twelve feet from the ground. It has been much injured by ex- posure to the weather, but seems to record the visit of some Raja 240 years ago, if the date A. H. 1060, which occurs in the inscription, is to be taken as the date when it was written and not of some past event commemmorated at a later period. Perhaps, with some trouble, a better conjecture as to the
