Folk etymology in Francois Valentijan's CEYLON (1726)

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FRANCOIS VALENTIJN'S
DESCRIPTION OF CEYLON
translated and edited by Sinnappah Arasaratnam
London: THe Hakluyt Society
1978

   Francois Valentijn (1656-1727) published the original volume in Dutch in
1726.  I couldn't find any "hoppers."


Pg. 99:  For as the Persians and Arbas sail with difficulty to this island
past this reef, they always had it in their minds, saying they went to or
came from Cinlao*, which means nothing else but that they went to or came
from the reef of the Chinese, which letter having changed somewhat in time,
there grew the name of Ceylaon or Ceylon.**
*Cin-lao.  _Lao_ (Chinese)--Torrent, breaking of waves.
**Both Couto and Barros have this interpretation which seems fanciful (Barros
p. 33, Couto p. 88).

Pg. 118:  It gets its name from a mango leaf, which is named in the Cingalese
language, Cola Ambo,* as _Ambo_ means mango fruit and _Cola_ a leaf from
which the Portuguese and we after them have made up Colombo.**
*_Kola_ (Sinh.)--leaf; _amba_ (Sinh.)--mango.
**This is a folk etymology of Colombo of doubtful validity.  It was, however,
widely held in Ceylon.  Knox (pp. 1-2) gives a similar version.  A more
likely derivation is _kolamba_ (old Sinh.)--breach in bank or river or tank.

Pg. 161:  The attire of the Cingalese, who generally have long, smooth hair
and thick beard like the Swiss, consists of a piece of cloth made into a
jacket with folds or a cotton _baju_* or a cloth that they wrap round their
middle, pull through under the legs and let it hang down to the feet.
*_Baju_ (Malay)--a loose coat.
(OED has 1820 for "baju"--ed.)

Pg. 163:  Generally their houses are bad, small and low, but covered with
straw or _atap_,* made of poles or sticks like huts and plastered with clay;
but the walls are reasonably smooth and even.
*_Atap_ (Malay)--thatch for roofing.
(OED has 1817 for "atap," with 1672 in brackets--ed.)

Pg. 164:
Their food
   Rice is their bread and they are satisfied if they have some salt, a
little stewed vegetables with pepper and salt added and some lemon juice over
it.  To eat beef is a crime among them.  There is not much of other flesh or
fish and if they have some they will rather make money and sell it to
foreigners than eat it themselves, but for the very important and the
noblemen who have on their tables various curries* of fish or flesh steamed
for a long time.  For otherwise it is an honour among them to be sparing,
miserly and stingy and those who know how to subsist very frugally are often
praised.  Their most important food consists of rice, bananas and in this and
that other fruit which the land produces abundantly.
*_Kari_ (Hindi, Tam.)--spiced, dressed up dish eaten with rice.  The word is
now in vogue in the English language as curry.

Pg. 293:  It consisted of 60 canisters* cinnamon, 16 bales of pepper and 3
bales of _curcuma_** or Indian saffron.
*Boxes or baskets.  In vogue in Ceylon from Portuguese "canastra."
**_Kumkum_ (Hindi)--saffron.
(OED has 1938 for "kumkum"--ed.)