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and fingers , who paid a tax to government; Ferilhta,tranflated by Dow, vol. i. p. }2. The third kingdomwas Cachemire. lYlafToudi, as far as I know, is the h.ftauthor who mentions this paradife of India , of which hegives a fhort but juft defcription. The fourth is the king-dom of Guzerate, which he reprefents as the greateft andmolt powerful j and he Concurs with the two ArabianTravellers, in giving the fovereigns of it the appellation ofBalhara. What Alaffoudi relates concerning India is moreworthy of notice, as he himfelf had vifited that country;Notices et Extraits des Manufcrits de la Bibliotheque duRoi, tom. i. p. 9, 10. Malfoudi confirms what the twoArabian Travellers relate, concerning the extraordinaryprogrefs of the Indians in altronomical lcience. Accordingto his account, a temple was built during the reigns ofBrahman, the firft monarch of India , with twelve towers,reprefenting the twelve figns of the zodiac; and in whichwas delineated , a view of all the ftars as they appear inthe heavens. In the fame reign was compofed the famousSind-Hind, which feems to be the ltandard treatife ofIndian allronomy; Notices, &c. tom. i. p. 7. AnotherArabian author, who wrote about the middle of the four-teenth century , divides India into three parts. The nor-thern, comprehending all the provinces on the Indus, Themiddle, extending from Guzerate to the Ganges. Thefouthern , which he denominates Comar, from Cape Comorin ; Notices, &c. tom. ii. p. 46.
NOTE XXXVII. Sect. III. p. 101.
The naval fkill of the Chinefe feems not to have beenfuperior to that of the Greeks, the Homans, or Arabians.The courfe which they held from Canton to Siraf, nearthe mouth of the Berlian Gulf, is defcribed by their ownauthors. They kept as near as puffible to the flrore untilthey reached the illand of Ceylon , and then doubling Cape Comorin , they failed along the weft fide of the Peninfula,