The Taprobanian (2.1887)

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THE TAPROBANIAN.

[June, 1887.

Mahomedans with Jektan, son of Heber, thereby in-
ducing the Arabs of Yaman to believe themselves
of the same blood, as these descended from Peleg.
It seems to me more probable, that this Jektan or
Kahtan is the Jecsan son of Ketura, of the book
of Genesis, where Yarab and Yashab are omitted,
and Saba’s name follows that of Jectan, as Saba’s
name also follows that of Jectan, son of Heber.
Though it be doubtful whether these Hamyarites or
Kahtanites are a collateral branch of the Jorhamites,
or descended from the mixed tribes of Ketura, there
is in either case a Semitic parentage.
This tribe became a great nation, practising irri-
gation, and holding the great cities of Sanhha an-
ciently called Ozal, and Saba or Mareb.
When the great dam of al Arem burst, which
most authors agree was shortly after the time of
Alexander the Great, this powerful and numerous
people were dispersed in so remarkable a manner,
that Mahomet notices it as a warning in the chapter
Saba of the Koran, where he says God “ dispersed
them with a total dispersion.”
The name Sali I believe originally to have come
into popular use from a peculiar source. It stands
as Sali, for Sa(v)ali, in Dravidian languages, and
this I take to be connected with Sinhalese sawa, a
hare, often, but wrongly, derived from Vsas, to
jump, as if a tatsama with Sanskrit sasava. The
moon-hare is yellow, but does not jump. This word
savala means “tawny,” or “red,” and is seen in
Tamil saval, a cock, &c.
But the sun was Elu of Chaldea, El of the Tamils,
and a translation of the name Sali gives us therefore
selu, helu, elu, through which I would trace the
name Ela div, Sela div, of Ceylon, and its Elu dialect;
regarding each of these as translations of the Arabic
derivative Sali. In Northern India such names as
Samkisa or Sangkisa show us the survival of the
older form of the word, which in Ceylon was replaced
by the form Ela or Sela, connected with Greek
helios, Latin sol and the Salii, and probably the
Hebrew Elohim, which the Jews used in the sense of
our “ God,” according to the interpreters of the
Pentateuch. This name originated the Salii of
Ptolemy’s Salike, which must be corrupted from the
Savali of Savalikai.
An early colony passed into Italy, where the
Sabines were established before the Romans formed
their kingdom.
These Sali of India, as Savali, or “ tawnymen,”
I take to be Sabeans. Saba I take to mean also the
“ tawny,” from the same root. Fa-Hian speaks of the
Sabeans of Ceylon as the “ Sapho merchants,” which
probably represents Sambu, rather than Sabo, and
with which we may compare the old Tamil name
samba for many kinds of sali or rice.
If they are mentioned in the Egyptian records
with the other Arabian races, they must be the Rot-

n-no, a people apparently of Persia, whence they may
have been deported or migrated to replace the
Thamudites in Sabsea.
I would therefore distinguish the Sanchala people
of India as the Thamudite race, and I would regard
the Sabeans who replaced them in Sabean Arabia,
as the people from whom the later Sali of India
and Ceylon descended.
Editor.
Kopts of India.
The Kopts appear to be the Kaphtorim of the book
of Genesis. This name Kaph-tor will help us to
trace the race. At first sight one is disposed to treat
Kaph as connected with Greek kephale, a head,
Arabic kaf, the mountain that surrounds the world,
and to suppose kaph means a head, a peak, a moun-
tain. The real derivation is from -\Zkab, gav, kav, &c.,
to “cover,” and from this come the various forms of
Sinhalese gaba, the womb, as well as Arabic kubbah,
a vault, kabur, tombs, kabra, a tomb, kahf, a cave,
kahuf, caves. These are of common derivation with
Sinhalese geya, a house or cave, guha, a cavern, &c.
Probably the myth of mount Kaf is merely the
Arabian version of the andha garbha, the womb of
space around the world, confused with a later use of
a derivative from the root, which came from the
“ head” sense, a head originally taking the name
kephale, caput, &c., because “ covered.”
Thus we find the Caph or kaph of this name,
allied to Arabic kahf, a cave ; the second syllable
probably comes from Arabic tur, a mountain, and
the whole compound means “ dwellers in mountain
caves.” The second syllable however may be sim-
ply “ men.” It seems these people are the Copts or
Kibt of Africa, and the original Cypriotes of
Cyprus or Kubros, but to follow that branch of the
race, will lead me too far from my subject. In
India they formed an important colony that worked
the lead mines of Baluchistan, and are the
classical Kephenians, whose princess Andromeda
married Perseus. They pushed up into the gold
district, and founded an extensive kingdom at
Kophene or Kaphene, the present territory of Kabul,
from which they penetrated the valleys of the
Himalaya in search of gold. The Kaphenians,
Kaphtorim, or Kibt were everywhere enthusiastic
miners. I was misled when first I commenced to
work out my notes on these subjects, into treating
this kaph as “head” or “mountain.” I am fully
satisfied now that such a sense had nothing to do
with this name.
From guha, a cave, they become in Sanskrit
Guhas, of whom we read in the fourth book of the
Vishnu Puranam that they were, in time, to become
masters of Kalinga, Mahishaka, and some other
place or places, regarding which the various readings
are at variance, perhaps a race still represented by