The Travels of Marco Polo, Volume 2 by Marco Polo and Rustichello of Pisa (page 8)

plural) in the Arab _Relations_ of the 9th century, the last point of departure on the voyage to China, from which it was a month distant. This old record gives us the name _Sondor_; in modern times we have it as _Kondor_; Polo combines both names. [“These may also be the ‘Satyrs’ Islands’ of Ptolemy, or they may be his _Sindai_; for he has a _Sinda_ city on the coast close to this position, though his Sindai islands are dropt far away. But it would not be difficult to show that Ptolemy’s islands have been located almost at random, or as from a pepper castor.” (_Yule_, _Oldest Records_, p. 657.)] The group consists of a larger island about 12 miles long, two of 2 or 3 miles, and some half-dozen others of insignificant dimensions. The large one is now specially called Pulo Condore. It has a fair harbour, fresh water, and wood in abundance. Dampier visited the group and recommended its occupation. The E.I. Company did establish a post there in 1702, but it came to a speedy end in the massacre of the Europeans by their Macassar garrison. About the year 1720 some attempt to found a settlement there was also made by the French, who gave the island the name of _Isle d’Orleans_. The celebrated Pere Gaubil spent eight months on the island and wrote an interesting letter about it (February, 1722; see also _Lettres Edifiantes_, Rec. xvi.). When the group was visited by Mr. John Crawford on his mission to Cochin China the inhabitants numbered about 800, of Cochin Chinese descent. The group is now held by the French under Saigon. The chief island is known to the Chinese as the mountain of Kunlun. There is another cluster of rocks in the same sea, called the Seven Cheu, and respecting these two groups Chinese sailors have a kind of _Incidit-in-Scyllan_ saw:–

“_Shang p’a Tsi-cheu, hia-pa Kun-lun, Chen mi t’uo shih, jin chuen mo tsun._”[1]

Meaning:–

“With Kunlun to starboard, and larboard the Cheu, Keep conning your compass, whatever you do, Or to Davy Jones’ Locker go vessel and crew.”

(_Ritter_, IV. 1017; _Reinaud_, I. 18; _A. Hamilton_, II. 402; _Mem. conc. les Chinois_, XIV. 53.)

NOTE 3.–Pauthier reads the name of the kingdom _Soucat_, but I adhere to the readings of the G.T., _Lochac_ and _Locac_, which are supported by Ramusio. Pauthier’s C and the Bern MS. have _le chac_ and _le that_, which indicate the same reading.

Distance and other particulars point, as Hugh Murray discerns, to the east coast of the Malay Peninsula, or (as I conceive) to the territory now called Siam, including the said coast, as subject or tributary from time immemorial.

The kingdom of Siam is known to the Chinese by the name of _Sien-Lo_. The Supplement to Ma Twan-lin’s Encyclopaedia describes Sien-Lo as on the sea-board to the extreme south of Chen-ching. “It originally consisted of two kingdoms, _Sien_ and _Lo-hoh_. The Sien people are the remains of a tribe which in the year (A.D. 1341) began to come down upon the Lo-hoh, and united with the latter into one nation…. The land of the Lo-hoh consists of extended plains, but not much agriculture is done.”[2]

In this _Lo_ or LO-HOH, which apparently formed the lower part of what is now Siam, previous to the middle of the 14th century, I believe that we have our Traveller’s Locac. The latter half of the name may be either the second syllable of Lo-Hoh, for Polo’s _c_ often represents _h_; or it may be the Chinese _Kwo_ or _Kwe_, “kingdom,” in the Canton and Fo-kien pronunciation (i.e. the pronunciation of Polo’s mariners) _kok_; _Lo-kok_, “the kingdom of Lo.” _Sien_-LO-KOK is the exact form of the Chinese name of Siam which is used by Bastian.

What was this kingdom of Lo which occupied the northern shores of the Gulf of Siam? Chinese scholars generally say that _Sien-Lo_ means Siam and _Laos_; but this I cannot accept, if Laos is to bear its ordinary geographical sense, i.e. of a country bordering Siam on the _north-east and north_. Still there seems a probability that the usual interpretation may be correct, when properly explained.

[Regarding the identification of Locac with Siam, Mr. G. Phillips writes (_Jour. China B.R.A.S._, XXI., 1886, p. 34, note): “I can only fully endorse what Col. Yule says upon this subject, and add a few extracts of my own taken from the article on Siam given in the _Wu-pe-che_. It would appear that previously to 1341 a country called Lohoh (in Amoy pronunciation Lohok) existed, as Yule says, in what is now called Lower Siam, and at that date became incorporated with Sien. In the 4th year of Hung-wu, 1372, it sent tribute to China, under the name of Sien Lohok. The country was first called Sien Lo in the first year of Yung Lo, 1403. In the T’ang Dynasty it appears to have been known as _Lo-yueh_, pronounced _Lo-gueh_ at that period. This _Lo-yueh_ would seem to have been situated on the Eastern side of Malay Peninsula, and to have extended to the entrance to the Straits of Singapore, in what is now known as Johore.” –H.C.]

In 1864, Dr. Bastian communicated to the Asiatic Society of Bengal the translation of a long and interesting inscription, brought [in 1834] from Sukkothai to Bangkok by the late King of Siam [Mongkut, then crown prince], and dated in _a_ year 1214, which in the era of Salivahana (as it is almost certainly, see _Garnier_, cited below) will be A.D. 1292-1293, almost exactly coincident with Polo’s voyage. The author of this inscription was a Prince of _Thai_ (or Siamese) race, styled Phra Rama Kamheng (“The Valiant”) [son of Sri Indratiya], who reigned in Sukkothai, whilst his dominions extended from Vieng-chan on the Mekong River (lat. 18 deg.), to Pechabur, and Sri-Thammarat (i.e. Ligor, in lat. 8 deg. 18″), on the coast of the Gulf of Siam. [This inscription gives three dates–1205, 1209, and 1214 s’aka = A.D. 1283, 1287 and 1292. One passage says: “Formerly the Thais had no writing; it is in 1205 s’aka, year of the goat = A.D. 1283, that King Rama Kamheng sent for a teacher who invented the Thai writing. It is to him that we are indebted for it to-day.” (Cf. _Fournereau, Siam ancien_, p. 225; _Schmitt, Exc. et Recon._, 1885; _Aymonier, Cambodge_, II. p. 72.)–H.C.] The conquests of this prince are stated to have extended eastward to the “Royal Lake”, apparently the Great Lake of Kamboja; and we may conclude with certainty that he was the leader of the Siamese, who had invaded Kamboja shortly before it was visited (in 1296) by that envoy of Kublai’s successor, whose valuable account of the country has been translated by Remusat.[3]

Now this prince Rama Kamheng of Sukkothai was probably (as Lieutenant Garnier supposes) of the _Thai-nyai_, Great Thai, or Laotian branch of the race. Hence the application of the name Lo-kok to his kingdom can be accounted for.

It was another branch of the Thai, known as _Thai-noi_, or Little Thai, which in 1351, under another Phra Rama, founded Ayuthia and the Siamese monarchy, which still exists.

The explanation now given seems more satisfactory than the suggestions formerly made of the connection of the name _Locac_, either with Lophaburi (or _Lavo, Louvo_), a very ancient capital near Ayuthia, or with _Lawek_, i.e. Kamboja. Kamboja had at an earlier date possessed the lower valley of the Menam, but, we see, did so no longer.[4]

The name _Lawek_ or Lovek is applied by writers of the 16th and 17th centuries to the capital of what is still Kamboja, the ruins of which exist near Udong. _Laweik_ is mentioned along with the other Siamese or Laotian countries of Yuthia, Tennasserim, Sukkothai, Pichalok, Lagong, Lanchang (or Luang Prabang), Zimme (or Kiang-mai), and Kiang-Tung, in the vast list of states claimed by the Burmese Chronicle as tributary to Pagan before its fall. We find in the _Ain-i-Akbari_ a kind of aloes-wood called _Lawaki_, no doubt because it came from this region.

The G.T. indeed makes the course from Sondur to Locac _sceloc_ or S.E.; but Pauthier’s text seems purposely to correct this, calling it, “_v. c. milles_ oultre _Sandur_.” This would bring us to the Peninsula somewhere about what is now the Siamese province of Ligor,[5] and this is the only position accurately consistent with the next indication of the route, viz. a run of 500 miles _south_ to the Straits of Singapore. Let us keep in mind also Ramusio’s specific statement that Locac was on _terra firma_.

As regards the products named: (1) gold is mined in the northern part of the Peninsula and is a staple export of Kalantan, Tringano, and Pahang, further down. Barbosa says gold was so abundant in Malacca that it was reckoned by _Bahars_ of 4 cwt. Though Mr. Logan has estimated the present produce of the whole Peninsula at only 20,000 ounces, Hamilton, at the beginning of last century, says Pahang alone in some years exported above 8 cwt. (2) Brazil-wood, now generally known by the Malay term _Sappan_, is abundant on the coast. Ritter speaks of three small towns on it as entirely surrounded by trees of this kind. And higher up, in the latitude of Tavoy, the forests of sappan-wood find a prominent place in some maps of Siam. In mediaeval intercourse between the courts of Siam and China we find Brazil-wood to form the bulk of the Siamese present. [“Ma Huan fully bears out Polo’s statement in this matter, for he says: This Brazil (of which Marco speaks) is as plentiful as firewood. On Ch’eng-ho’s chart Brazil and other fragrant woods are marked as products of Siam. Polo’s statement of the use of porcelain shells as small change is also corroborated by Ma Huan.” (_G. Phillips, Jour. China B.R.A.S._, XXI., 1886, p. 37.)–H.C.] (3) Elephants are abundant. (4) Cowries, according to Marsden and Crawford, are found in those seas largely only on the Sulu Islands; but Bishop Pallegoix says distinctly that they are found _in abundance_ on the sand-banks of the Gulf of Siam. And I see Dr. Fryer, in 1673, says that cowries were brought to Surat “from Siam and the Philippine Islands.”

For some centuries after this time Siam was generally known to traders by the Persian name of _Shahr-i-nao_, or New City. This seems to be the name generally applied to it in the _Shijarat Malayu_ (or Malay Chronicle), and it is used also by Abdurrazzak. It appears among the early navigators of the 16th century, as Da Gama, Varthema, Giovanni d’Empoli and Mendez Pinto, in the shape of _Sornau, Xarnau_. Whether this name was applied to the new city of Ayuthia, or was a translation of that of the older _Lophaburi_ (which appears to be the Sansk. or Pali _Nava pura_ = New-City) I do not know.

[Reinaud (_Int. Abulfeda_, p. CDXVI.) writes that, according to the Christian monk of Nadjran, who crossed the Malayan Seas, about the year 980, at this time, the King of Lukyn had just invaded the kingdom of Sanf and taken possession of it. According to Ibn Khordadhbeh (_De Goeje_, p. 49) Lukyn is the first port of China, 100 parasangs distant from Sanf by land or sea; Chinese stone, Chinese silk, porcelain of excellent quality, and rice are to be found at Lukyn.–H.C.]

(_Bastian_, I. 357, III. 433, and in _J.A.S.B._ XXXIV. Pt. I. p. 27 seqq.; _Ramus._ I. 318; _Amyot_, XIV. 266, 269; _Pallegoix_, I. 196; _Bowring_, I. 41, 72; _Phayre_ in _J.A.S.B._ XXXVII. Pt. I. p. 102; _Ain Akb._ 80; _Mouhot_, I. 70; _Roe and Fryer_, reprint, 1873, p. 271.)

Some geographers of the 16th century, following the old editions which carried the travellers south-east or south-west of Java to the land of _Boeach_ (for Locac), introduced in their maps a continent in that situation. (See e.g. the map of the world by P. Plancius in Linschoten.) And this has sometimes been adduced to prove an early knowledge of Australia. Mr. Major has treated this question ably in his interesting essay on the early notices of Australia.

[1] [From the _Hsing-ch’a Sheng-lan_, by Fei Hsin.]

[2] The extract of which this is the substance I owe to the kindness of Professor J. Summers, formerly of King’s College.

[3] I am happy to express my obligation to the remarks of my lamented friend Lieutenant Garnier, for light on this subject, which has led to an entire reform in the present note. (See his excellent Historical Essay, forming ch. v. of the great “_Voyage d’Exploration en Indo-Chine_,” pp. 136-137).

[4] The _Kakula_ of Ibn Batuta was probably on the coast of Locac. The _Kamarah Komar_ of the same traveller and other Arab writers, I have elsewhere suggested to be _Khmer_, or Kamboja Proper. (See _I.B._ IV. 240; _Cathay_, 469, 519.) Kakula and Kamarah were both in “_Mul-Java_”; and the king of this undetermined country, whom Wassaf states to have submitted to Kublai in 1291, was called _Sri Rama_. It is possible that this was Phra Rama of Sukkothai. (See _Cathay_, 519; _Elliot_, III. 27)

[5] Mr. G Phillips supposes the name locac to be Ligor, or rather lakhon as the Siamese call it. But it seems to me pretty clear from what has been said the Lo-kok though including Ligor, is a different name from Lakhon. The latter is a corruption of the Sanskrit, _Nagara_, “city.”

CHAPTER VIII.

OF THE ISLAND CALLED PENTAM, AND THE CITY MALAIUR

When you leave Locac and sail for 500 miles towards the south, you come to an island called PENTAM, a very wild place. All the wood that grows thereon consists of odoriferous trees.[NOTE 1] There is no more to say about it; so let us sail about sixty miles further between those two Islands. Throughout this distance there is but four paces’ depth of water, so that great ships in passing this channel have to lift their rudders, for they draw nearly as much water as that.[NOTE 2]

And when you have gone these 60 miles, and again about 30 more, you come to an Island which forms a Kingdom, and is called MALAIUR. The people have a King of their own, and a peculiar language. The city is a fine and noble one, and there is great trade carried on there. All kinds of spicery are to be found there, and all other necessaries of life.[NOTE 3]

NOTE 1.–_Pentam_, or as in Ram. _Pentan_, is no doubt the Bintang of our maps, more properly BENTAN, a considerable Island at the eastern extremity of the Straits of Malacca. It appears in the list, published by Dulaurier from a Javanese Inscription, of the kingdoms conquered in the 15th century by the sovereigns reigning at Majapahit in Java. (_J.A._ ser. IV. tom. xiii. 532.) Bintang was for a long time after the Portuguese conquest of Malacca the chief residence of the Malay Sultans who had been expelled by that conquest, and it still nominally belongs to the Sultan of Johore, the descendant of those princes, though in fact ruled by the Dutch, whose port of Rhio stands on a small island close to its western shore. It is the _Bintao_ of the Portuguese whereof Camoens speaks as the persistent enemy of Malacca (X. 57).

[Cf. _Professor Schlegel’s Geog. Notes_, VI. _Ma-it_; regarding the odoriferous trees, Professor Schlegel remarks (p. 20) that they were probably santal trees.–H.C.]

NOTE 2.–There is a good deal of confusion in the text of this chapter. Here we have a passage spoken of between “those two Islands,” when only one island seems to have been mentioned. But I imagine the other “island” in the traveller’s mind to be the continuation of the same Locac, i.e. the Malay Peninsula (included by him under that name), which he has coasted for 500 miles. This is confirmed by Ramusio, and the old Latin editions (as Mueller’s): “between the kingdom of Locac and the Island of Pentan.” The passage in question is the Strait of Singapore, or as the old navigators called it, the Straits of Gobernador, having the mainland of the Peninsula and the Island of Singapore, on the one side, and the Islands of Bintang and Batang on the other. The length of the strait is roughly 60 geographical miles, or a little more; and I see in a route given in the _Lettres Edifiantes_ (II. p. 118) that the length of navigation is so stated: “Le detroit de Gobernador a vingt lieues de long, et est for difficile quand on n’y a jamais passe.”

The Venetian _passo_ was 5 feet. Marco here alludes to the well-known practice with the Chinese junks of raising the rudder, for which they have a special arrangement, which is indicated in the cut at p. 248.

NOTE 3.–There is a difficulty here about the indications, carrying us, as they do, first 60 miles through the Strait, and then 30 miles further to the Island Kingdom and city of Malaiur. There is also a singular variation in the readings as to this city and island. The G.T. has “_Une isle qe est roiame, et s’apelle_ Malanir e l’isle Pentam.” The Crusca has the same, only reading _Malavir_. Pauthier: “_Une isle qui est royaume, et a nom_ Maliur.” The Geog. Latin: “_Ibi invenitur una insula in qua est unus rex_ quem vocant Lamovich. _Civitas et insula vocantur_ Pontavich.” Ram.: “_Chiamasi la citta_ Malaiur, e cosi l’isola Malaiur.”

All this is very perplexed, and it is difficult to trace what may have been the true readings. The 30 miles beyond the straits, whether we give the direction _south-east_ as in G.T. or no, will not carry us to the vicinity of any place known to have been the site of an important city. As the point of departure in the next chapter is from _Pentam_ and not from Malaiur, the introduction of the latter is perhaps a digression from the route, on information derived either from hearsay or from a former voyage. But there is not information enough to decide what place is meant by Malaiur. Probabilities seem to me to be divided between _Palembang_, and its colony _Singhapura_. Palembang, according to the Commentaries of Alboquerque, was called by the Javanese MALAYO. The List of Sumatran Kingdoms in De Barros makes TANA-MALAYU the _next_ to Palembang. On the whole, I incline to this interpretation.

[In _Valentyn_ (V. 1, _Beschryvinge van Malakka_, p. 317) we find it stated that the Malay people just dwelt on the River _Malayu_ in the Kingdom of Palembang, and were called from the River _Orang Malayu.–MS. Note_.–H.Y.]

[Professor Schlegel in his _Geog. Notes_, IV., tries to prove by Chinese authorities that Maliur and Tana-Malayu are two quite distinct countries, and he says that Maliur may have been situated on the coast opposite Singapore, perhaps a little more to the S.W. where now lies Malacca, and that Tana-Malayu may be placed in Asahan, upon the east coast of Sumatra.–H.C.]

Singhapura was founded by an emigration from Palembang, itself a Javanese colony. It became the site of a flourishing kingdom, and was then, according to the tradition recorded by De Barros, the most important centre of population in those regions, “whither used to gather all the navigators of the Eastern Seas, from both East and West; to this great city of Singapura all flocked as to a general market.” (Dec. II. 6, 1.) This suits the description in our text well; but as Singhapura was in sight of any ship passing through the straits, mistake could hardly occur as to its position, even if it had not been visited.

I omit _Malacca_ entirely from consideration, because the evidence appears to me conclusive against the existence of Malacca at this time.

The Malay Chronology, as published by Valentyn, ascribes the foundation of that city to a king called Iskandar Shah, placing it in A.D. 1252, fixes the reign of Mahomed Shah, the third King of Malacca and first Mussulman King, as extending from 1276 to 1333 (not stating _when_ his conversion took place), and gives 8 kings in all between the foundation of the city and its capture by the Portuguese in 1511, a space, according to those data, of 259 years. As Sri Iskandar Shah, the founder, had reigned 3 years in Singhapura _before_ founding Malacca, and Mahomed Shah, the loser, reigned 2 years in Johore _after_ the loss of his capital, we have 264 years to divide among 8 kings, giving 33 years to each reign. This certainly indicates that the period requires considerable curtailment.

Again, both De Barros and the Commentaries or Alboquerque ascribe the foundation of Malacca to a Javanese fugitive from Palembang called Paramisura, and Alboquerque makes Iskandar Shah (_Xaquem darxa_) the _son_ of Paramisura, and the first convert to Mahomedanism. _Four_ other kings reign in succession after him, the last of the four being Mahomed Shah, expelled in 1511.

[Godinho de Eredia says expressly (Cap. i. _Do Citio Malaca_, p. 4) that Malacca was founded by _Permicuri, primeiro monarcha de Malayos_, in the year 1411, in the Pontificate of John XXIV., and in the reign of Don Juan II. of Castille and Dom Juan I. of Portugal.]

The historian De Couto, whilst giving the same number of reigns from the conversion to the capture, places the former event about 1384. And the Commentaries of Alboquerque allow no more than some ninety years from the foundation of Malacca to his capture of the city.

There is another approximate check to the chronology afforded by a Chinese record in the XIVth volume of Amyot’s collection. This informs us that Malacca first acknowledged itself as tributary to the Empire in 1405, the king being _Sili-ju-eul-sula_ (?). In 1411 the King of Malacca himself, now called _Peilimisula_ (Paramisura), came in person to the court of China to render homage. And in 1414 the Queen-Mother of Malacca came to court, bringing her son’s tribute.

Now this notable fact of the visit of a King of Malacca to the court of China, and his acknowledgment of the Emperor’s supremacy, is also recorded in the Commentaries of Alboquerque. This work, it is true, attributes the visit, not to Paramisura, the founder of Malacca, but to his son and successor Iskandar Shah. This may be a question of a _title_ only, perhaps borne by both; but we seem entitled to conclude with confidence that Malacca was founded by a prince whose son was reigning, and visited the court of China in 1411. And the real chronology will be about midway between the estimates of De Couto and of Alboquerque. Hence Malacca did not exist for a century, more or less, after Polo’s voyage.

[Mr. C.O. Blagden, in a paper on the Mediaeval Chronology of Malacca (_Actes du XI’e Cong. Int. Orient. Paris_, 1897), writes (p. 249) that “if Malacca had been in the middle of the 14th century anything like the great emporium of trade which it certainly was in the 15th, Ibn Batuta would scarcely have failed to speak of it.” The foundation of Malacca by Sri Iskandar Shah in 1252, according to the _Sejarah Malayu_ “must be put at least 125 years later, and the establishment of the Muhammadan religion there would then precede by only a few years the end of the 14th century, instead of taking place about the end of the 13th, as is generally supposed” (p. 251). (Cf. _G. Schlegel, Geog. Notes_, XV.)–H.C.]

Mr. Logan supposes that the form _Malayu-r_ may indicate that the Malay language of the 13th century “had not yet replaced the strong naso-guttural terminals by pure vowels.” We find the same form in a contemporary Chinese notice. This records that in the 2nd year of the Yuen, tribute was sent from Siam to the Emperor. “The Siamese had long been at war with the _Maliyi_ or MALIURH, but both nations laid aside their feud and submitted to China.” (_Valentyn_, V. p. 352; _Crawford’s Desc. Dict._ art. _Malacca_; _Lassen_, IV. 541 seqq.; _Journ. Ind. Archip._ V. 572, II. 608-609; _De Barros_, Dec. II. 1. vi. c. 1; _Comentarios do grande Afonso d’Alboquerque_, Pt. III. cap. xvii.; _Couto_, Dec. IV. liv. ii.; _Wade_ in _Bowring’s Kingdom and People of Siam_, I. 72.)

[From I-tsing we learn that going from China to India, the traveller visits the country of _Shih-li-fuh-shi_ (_Cribhoja_ or simply _Fuh-shi_ = Bhoja), then _Mo-louo-yu_, which seems to Professor Chavannes to correspond to the _Malaiur_ of Marco Polo and to the modern Palembang, and which in the 10th century formed a part of Cribhodja identified by Professor Chavannes with Zabedj. (_I-tsing_, p. 36.) The Rev. S. Beal has some remarks on this question in the _Merveilles de l’Inde_, p. 251, and he says that he thinks “there are reasons for placing this country [Cribhoja], or island, on the East coast of Sumatra, and near Palembang, or, on the Palembang River.” Mr. Groeneveldt (_T’oung Pao_, VII. abst. p. 10) gives some extracts from Chinese authors, and then writes: “We have therefore to find now a place for the Molayu of I-tsing, the Malaiur of Marco Polo, the Malayo of Alboquerque, and the Tana-Malayu of De Barros, all which may be taken to mean the same place. I-tsing tells us that it took fifteen days to go from Bhoja to Molayu and fifteen days again to go from there to Kieh-ch’a. The latter place, suggesting a native name Kada, must have been situated in the north-west of Sumatra, somewhere near the present Atjeh, for going from there west, one arrived in thirty days at Magapatana; near Ceylon, whilst a northern course brought one in ten days to the Nicobar Islands. Molayu should thus lie half-way between Bhoja and Kieh-ch’a, but this indication must not be taken too literally where it is given for a sailing vessel, and there is also the statement of De Barros, which does not allow us to go too far away from Palembang, as he mentions Tana-Malayu _next_ to that place. We have therefore to choose between the next three larger rivers: those of Jambi, Indragiri, and Kampar, and there is an indication in favour of the last one, not very strong, it is true, but still not to be neglected. I-tsing tells us: ‘Le roi me donna des secours grace auxquels je parvins au pays de _Mo-louo-yu_; j’y sejournai derechef pendant deux mois. Je changeai de direction pour aller dans le pays de _Kie-tcha_.’ The change of direction during a voyage along the east coast of Sumatra from Palembang to Atjeh is nowhere very perceptible, because the course is throughout more or less north-west, still one may speak of a change of direction at the mouth of the River Kampar, about the entrance of the Strait of Malacca, whence the track begins to run more west, whilst it is more north before. The country of Kampar is of little importance now, but it is not improbable that there has been a Hindoo settlement, as the ruins of religious monuments decidedly Buddhist are still existing on the upper course of the river, the only ones indeed on this side of the island, it being a still unexplained fact that the Hindoos in Java have built on a very large scale, and those of Sumatra hardly anything at all.”–Mr. Takakusu (_A Record of the Buddhist Religion_, p. xli.) proposes to place Shih-li-fuh-shi at Palembang and Mo-louo-yu farther on the northern coast of Sumatra.–(Cf. _G. Schlegel, Geog. Notes_, XVI.; _P. Pelliot, Bul. Ecole Franc. Ext. Orient_, II. pp. 94-96.)–H.C.]

CHAPTER IX.

CONCERNING THE ISLAND OF JAVA THE LESS. THE KINGDOMS OF FERLEC AND BASMA.

When you leave the Island of Pentam and sail about 100 miles, you reach the Island of JAVA THE LESS. For all its name ’tis none so small but that it has a compass of two thousand miles or more. Now I will tell you all about this Island.[NOTE 1]

You see there are upon it eight kingdoms and eight crowned kings. The people are all Idolaters, and every kingdom has a language of its own. The Island hath great abundance of treasure, with costly spices, lign-aloes and spikenard and many others that never come into our parts.[NOTE 2]

Now I am going to tell you all about these eight kingdoms, or at least the greater part of them. But let me premise one marvellous thing, and that is the fact that this Island lies so far to the south that the North Star, little or much, is never to be seen!

Now let us resume our subject, and first I will tell you of the kingdom of FERLEC.

This kingdom, you must know, is so much frequented by the Saracen merchants that they have converted the natives to the Law of Mahommet–I mean the townspeople only, for the hill-people live for all the world like beasts, and eat human flesh, as well as all other kinds of flesh, clean or unclean. And they worship this, that, and the other thing; for in fact the first thing that they see on rising in the morning, that they do worship for the rest of the day.[NOTE 3]

Having told you of the kingdom of Ferlec, I will now tell of another which is called BASMA.

When you quit the kingdom of Ferlec you enter upon that of Basma. This also is an independent kingdom, and the people have a language of their own; but they are just like beasts without laws or religion. They call themselves subjects of the Great Kaan, but they pay him no tribute; indeed they are so far away that his men could not go thither. Still all these Islanders declare themselves to be his subjects, and sometimes they send him curiosities as presents.[NOTE 4] There are wild elephants in the country, and numerous unicorns, which are very nearly as big. They have hair like that of a buffalo, feet like those of an elephant, and a horn in the middle of the forehead, which is black and very thick. They do no mischief, however, with the horn, but with the tongue alone; for this is covered all over with long and strong prickles [and when savage with any one they crush him under their knees and then rasp him with their tongue]. The head resembles that of a wild boar, and they carry it ever bent towards the ground. They delight much to abide in mire and mud. ‘Tis a passing ugly beast to look upon, and is not in the least like that which our stories tell of as being caught in the lap of a virgin; in fact, ’tis altogether different from what we fancied.[NOTE 5] There are also monkeys here in great numbers and of sundry kinds; and goshawks as black as crows. These are very large birds and capital for fowling.[NOTE 6]

I may tell you moreover that when people bring home pygmies which they allege to come from India, ’tis all a lie and a cheat. For those little men, as they call them, are manufactured on this Island, and I will tell you how. You see there is on the Island a kind of monkey which is very small, and has a face just like a man’s. They take these, and pluck out all the hair except the hair of the beard and on the breast, and then they dry them and stuff them and daub them with saffron and other things until they look like men. But you see it is all a cheat; for nowhere in India nor anywhere else in the world were there ever men seen so small as these pretended pygmies.

Now I will say no more of the kingdom of Basma, but tell you of the others in succession.

NOTE 1.–Java the Less is the Island of SUMATRA. Here there is no exaggeration in the dimension assigned to its circuit, which is about 2300 miles. The old Arabs of the 9th century give it a circuit of 800 parasangs, or say 2800 miles, and Barbosa reports the estimate of the Mahomedan seamen as 2100 miles. Compare the more reasonable accuracy of these estimates of Sumatra, which the navigators knew in its entire compass, with the wild estimates of Java Proper, of which they knew but the northern coast.

Polo by no means stands alone in giving the name of Java to the island now called Sumatra. The terms _Jawa, Jawi_, were applied by the Arabs to the islands and productions of the Archipelago generally (e.g., _Luban jawi_, “Java frankincense,” whence by corruption _Benzoin_), but also specifically to Sumatra. Thus Sumatra is the _Jawah_ both of Abulfeda and of Ibn Batuta, the latter of whom spent some time on the island, both in going to China and on his return. The Java also of the Catalan Map appears to be Sumatra. _Javaku_ again is the name applied in the Singalese chronicles to the Malays in general. _Jau_ and _Dawa_ are the names still applied by the Battaks and the people of Nias respectively to the Malays, showing probably that these were looked on as Javanese by those tribes who did not partake of the civilisation diffused from Java. In Siamese also the Malay language is called _Chawa_; and even on the Malay peninsula, the traditional slang for a half-breed born from a Kling (or Coromandel) father and a Malay mother is _Jawi Pakan_, “a Jawi (i.e. Malay) of the market.” De Barros says that all the people of Sumatra called themselves by the common name of _Jauijs_. (Dec. III. liv. v. cap. 1.)

There is some reason to believe that the application of the name Java to Sumatra is of very old date. For the oldest inscription of ascertained date in the Archipelago which has yet been read, a Sanskrit one from Pagaroyang, the capital of the ancient Malay state of Menang-kabau in the heart of Sumatra, bearing a date equivalent to A.D. 656, entitles the monarch whom it commemorates, Adityadharma by name, the king of “the First Java” (or rather Yava). This Mr. Friedrich interprets to mean Sumatra. It is by no means impossible that the _Iabadiu_, or Yavadvipa of Ptolemy may be Sumatra rather than Java.

An accomplished Dutch Orientalist suggests that the Arabs originally applied the terms Great Java and Little Java to Java and Sumatra respectively, not because of their imagined relation in size, but as indicating the former to be Java _Proper_. Thus also, he says, there is a _Great Acheh_ (Achin) which does not imply that the place so called is greater than the well-known state of Achin (of which it is in fact a part), but because it is Acheh _Proper_. A like feeling may have suggested the Great Bulgaria, Great Hungary, Great Turkey of the mediaeval travellers. These were, or were supposed to be, the original seats of the Bulgarians, Hungarians, and Turks. The _Great Horde_ of the Kirghiz Kazaks is, as regards numbers, not the greatest, but the smallest of the three. But the others look upon it as the most ancient. The Burmese are alleged to call the _Rakhain_ or people of Arakan _Mranma Gyi_ or Great Burmese, and to consider their dialect the most ancient form of the language. And, in like manner, we may perhaps account for the term of _Little Thai_, formerly applied to the Siamese in distinction from the _Great Thai_, their kinsmen of Laos.

In after-days, when the name of Sumatra for the Great Island had established itself, the traditional term “Little Java” sought other applications. Barbosa seems to apply it to _Sumbawa_; Pigafetta and Cavendish apply it to _Bali_, and in this way Raffles says it was still used in his own day. Geographers were sometimes puzzled about it. Magini says Java Minor is almost _incognita_.

(_Turnour’s Epitome_, p. 45; _Van der Tuuk, Bladwijzer tot de drie Stukken van het Bataksche Leesboek_, p. 43, etc.; _Friedrich_ in _Bat. Transactions_, XXVI.; _Levchine, Les Kirghiz Kazaks_, 300, 301.)

NOTE 2.–As regards the _treasure_, Sumatra was long famous for its produce of gold. The export is estimated in Crawford’s History at 35,530 ounces; but no doubt it was much more when the native states were in a condition of greater wealth and civilisation, as they undoubtedly were some centuries ago. Valentyn says that in some years Achin had exported 80 bahars, equivalent to 32,000 or 36,000 Lbs. avoirdupois (!). Of the other products named, lign-aloes or eagle-wood is a product of Sumatra, and is or was very abundant in Campar on the eastern coast. The _Ain-i-Akbari_ says this article was usually brought to India from _Achin_ and Tenasserim. Both this and spikenard are mentioned by Polo’s contemporary, Kazwini, among the products of Java (probably Sumatra), viz., _Java lign-aloes (al-‘ Ud al-Jawi)_, camphor _spikenard (Sumbul)_, etc. _Narawastu_ is the name of a grass with fragrant roots much used as a perfume in the Archipelago, and I see this is rendered _spikenard_ in a translation from the Malay Annals in the _Journal of the Archipelago_.

With regard to the kingdoms of the island which Marco proceeds to describe, it is well to premise that all the six which he specifies are to be looked for towards the north end of the island, viz., in regular succession up the northern part of the east coast, along the north coast, and down the northern part of the west coast. This will be made tolerably clear in the details, and Marco himself intimates at the end of the next chapter that the six kingdoms he describes were all at _this_ side or end of the island: “_Or vos avon contee de cesti roiames que sunt de ceste partie de scele ysle, et des autres roiames de_ l’autre _partie ne voz conteron-noz rien._” Most commentators have made confusion by scattering them up and down, nearly all round the coast of Sumatra. The best remarks on the subject I have met with are by Mr. Logan in his _Journal of the Ind. Arch._ II. 610.

The “kingdoms” were certainly many more than eight throughout the island. At a later day De Barros enumerates 29 on the coast alone. Crawford reckons 15 different nations and languages on Sumatra and its dependent isles, of which 11 belong to the great island itself.

(_Hist. of Ind. Arch._ III. 482; _Valentyn_, V. (Sumatra), p. 5; _Desc. Dict._ p. 7, 417; Gildemeister, p. 193; _Crawf. Malay Dict._ 119; _J. Ind. Arch._ V. 313.)

NOTE 3.–The kingdom of PARLAK is mentioned in the _Shijarat Malayu_ or Malay Chronicle, and also in a Malay History of the Kings of Pasei, of which an abstract is given by Dulaurier, in connection with the other states of which we shall speak presently. It is also mentioned (_Barlak_), as a city of the Archipelago, by Rashiduddin. Of its extent we have no knowledge, but the position (probably of its northern extremity) is preserved in the native name, _Tanjong_ (i.e. Cape) _Parlak_ of the N.E. horn of Sumatra, called by European seamen “Diamond Point,” whilst the river and town of _Perla_, about 32 miles south of that point, indicate, I have little doubt, the site of the old capital.[1] Indeed in Malombra’s Ptolemy (Venice, 1574), I find the next city of Sumatra beyond _Pacen_ marked as _Pulaca_.

The form _Ferlec_ shows that Polo got it from the Arabs, who having no _p_ often replace that letter by _f_. It is notable that the Malay alphabet, which is that of the Arabic with necessary modifications, represents the sound _p_ not by the Persian _pe_ ([Arabic]), but by the Arabic _fe_ ([Arabic]), with three dots instead of one ([Arabic]).

A Malay chronicle of Achin dates the accession of the first Mahomedan king of that state, the nearest point of Sumatra to India and Arabia, in the year answering to A.D. 1205, and this is the earliest conversion among the Malays on record. It is doubtful, indeed, whether there _were_ Kings of _Achin_ in 1205, or for centuries after (unless indeed _Lambri_ is to be regarded as Achin), but the introduction of Islam may be confidently assigned to that age.

The notice of the Hill-people, who lived like beasts and ate human flesh, presumably attaches to the Battas or Bataks, occupying high table-lands in the interior of Sumatra. They do not now extend north beyond lat. 3 deg. The interior of Northern Sumatra seems to remain a _terra incognita_, and even with the coast we are far less familiar than our ancestors were 250 years ago. The Battas are remarkable among cannibal nations as having attained or retained some degree of civilisation, and as being possessed of an alphabet and documents. Their anthropophagy is now professedly practised according to precise laws, and only in prescribed cases. Thus: (i) A commoner seducing a Raja’s wife must be eaten; (2) Enemies taken in battle _outside their village_ must be eaten _alive_; those taken in storming a village may be spared; (3) Traitors and spies have the same doom, but may ransom themselves for 60 dollars a-head. There is nothing more horrible or extraordinary in all the stories of mediaeval travellers than the _facts_ of this institution. (See _Junghuhn_, _Die Battalander_, II. 158.) And it is evident that human flesh is also at times kept in the houses for food. Junghuhn, who could not abide Englishmen but was a great admirer of the Battas, tells how after a perilous and hungry flight he arrived in a friendly village, and the food that was offered by his hosts was the flesh of two prisoners who had been slaughtered the day before (I. 249). Anderson was also told of one of the most powerful Batta chiefs who would eat only such food, and took care to be supplied with it (225).

The story of the Battas is that in old times their communities lived in peace and knew no such custom; but a Devil, _Nanalain_, came bringing strife, and introduced this man-eating, at a period which they spoke of (in 1840) as “three men’s lives ago,” or about 210 years previous to that date. Junghuhn, with some enlargement of the time, is disposed to accept their story of the practice being comparatively modern. This cannot be, for their hideous custom is alluded to by a long chain of early authorities. Ptolemy’s anthropophagi may perhaps be referred to the smaller islands. But the Arab _Relations_ of the 9th century speak of man-eaters in Al-Ramni, undoubtedly Sumatra. Then comes our traveller, followed by Odoric, and in the early part of the 15th century by Conti, who names the _Batech_ cannibals. Barbosa describes them without naming them; Galvano (p. 108) speaks of them by name; as does De Barros. (Dec. III. liv. viii. cap. I.)

The practice of worshipping the first thing seen in the morning is related of a variety of nations. Pigafetta tells it of the people of Gilolo, and Varthema in his account of Java (which I fear is fiction) ascribes it to some people of that island. Richard Eden tells it of the Laplanders. (_Notes on Russia_, Hak. Soc. II. 224.)

NOTE 4.–_Basma_, as Valentyn indicated, seems to be the PASEI of the Malays, which the Arabs probably called _Basam_ or the like, for the Portuguese wrote it PACEM. [Mr. J.T. Thomson writes (_Proc.R.G.S._ XX. p. 221) that of its actual position there can be no doubt, it being the Passier of modern charts.–H.C.] Pasei is mentioned in the Malay Chronicle as founded by Malik-al-Salih, the first Mussulman sovereign of Samudra, the next of Marco’s kingdoms. He assigned one of these states to each of his two sons, Malik al-Dhahir and Malik al-Mansur; the former of whom was reigning at Samudra, and apparently over the whole coast, when Ibn Batuta was there (about 1346-47). There is also a Malay History of the Kings of Pasei to which reference has already been made.

Somewhat later Pasei was a great and famous city. Majapahit, Malacca, and Pasei being reckoned the three great cities of the Archipelago. The stimulus of conversion to Islam had not taken effect on those Sumatran states at the time of Polo’s voyage, but it did so soon afterwards, and, low as they have now fallen, their power at one time was no delusion. Achin, which rose to be the chief of them, in 1615 could send against Portuguese Malacca an expedition of more than 500 sail, 100 of which were galleys larger than any then constructed in Europe, and carried from 600 to 800 men each.

[Dr. Schlegel writes to me that according to the Malay Dictionary of Von de Wall and Van der Tuuk, n. 414-415, Polo’s _Basman_ is the Arab pronunciation of _Paseman_, the modern Ophir in West Sumatra. _Gunung Paseman_ is Mount Ophir.–H.C.]

[Illustration: The three Asiatic Rhinoceroses, (upper) Indicus, (middle) Sondaicus, (lower) Sumatranus.[2]]

NOTE 5.–The elephant seems to abound in the forest tracts throughout the whole length of Sumatra, and the species is now determined to be a distinct one (_E. Sumatranus_) from that of continental India and identical with that of Ceylon.[3] The Sumatran elephant in former days was caught and tamed extensively. Ibn Batuta speaks of 100 elephants in the train of Al Dhahir, the King of Sumatra Proper, and in the 17th century Beaulieu says the King of Achin had always 900. Giov. d’Empoli also mentions them at Pedir in the beginning of the 16th century; and see _Pasei Chronicle_ quoted in _J. As._ ser. IV. tom. ix. pp. 258-259. This speaks of elephants as used in war by the people of Pasei, and of elephant-hunts as a royal diversion. The _locus_ of that best of elephant stories, the elephant’s revenge on the tailor, was at Achin.

As Polo’s account of the rhinoceros is evidently from nature, it is notable that he should not only _call_ it unicorn, but speak so precisely of its one horn, for the characteristic, if not the only, species on the island, is a two-horned one (_Rh. Sumatranus_),[4] and his mention of the buffalo-like hair applies only to this one. This species exists also on the Indo-Chinese continent and, it is believed, in Borneo. I have seen it in the Arakan forests as high as 19 deg. 20′; one was taken not long since near Chittagong; and Mr. Blyth tells me a stray one has been seen in Assam or its borders.

[Ibn Khordadhbeh says (_De Goeje’s Transl._ p. 47) that rhinoceros is to be found in Kameroun (Assam), which borders on China. It has a horn, a cubit long, and two palms thick; when the horn is split, inside is found on the black ground the white figure of a man, a quadruped, a fish, a peacock or some other bird.–H.C.]

[John Evelyn mentions among the curiosities kept in the Treasury at St. Denis: “A faire unicorne’s horn, sent by a K. of Persia, about 7 foote long.” _Diary_, 1643, 12th Nov.–H.C.]

What the Traveller says of the animals’ love of mire and mud is well illustrated by the manner in which the _Semangs_ or Negritoes of the Malay Peninsula are said to destroy him: “This animal … is found frequently in marshy places, with its whole body immersed in the mud, and part of the head only visible…. Upon the dry weather setting in … the mud becomes hard and crusted, and the rhinoceros cannot effect his escape without considerable difficulty and exertion. The Semangs prepare themselves with large quantities of combustible materials, with which they quietly approach the animal, who is aroused from his reverie by an immense fire over him, which being kept well supplied by the Semangs with fresh fuel, soon completes his destruction, and renders him in a fit state to make a meal of.” (_J. Ind. Arch._ IV. 426.)[5] There is a great difference in aspect between the one-horned species (_Rh. Sondaicus_ and _Rh. Indicus_) and the two-horned. The Malays express what that difference is admirably, in calling the last _Badak-Karbau_, “the Buffalo-Rhinoceros,” and the Sondaicus _Badak-Gajah_, “the Elephant-Rhinoceros.”

The belief in the formidable nature of the tongue of the rhinoceros is very old and wide-spread, though I can find no foundation for it but the rough _appearance_ of the organ. [“His tongue also is somewhat of a rarity, for, if he can get any of his antagonists down, he will lick them so clean, that he leaves neither skin nor flesh to cover his bones.” (_A. Hamilton_, ed. 1727, II. 24. _M.S. Note of Yule_.) Compare what is said of the tongue of the Yak, I. p. 277.–H.C.] The Chinese have the belief, and the Jesuit Lecomte attests it from professed observation of the animal in confinement. (_Chin. Repos._ VII. 137; _Lecomte_, II. 406.) [In a Chinese work quoted by Mr. Groeneveldt (_T’oung Pao_, VII. No. 2, abst. p. 19) we read that “the rhinoceros has thorns on its tongue and always eats the thorns of plants and trees, but never grasses or leaves.”–H.C.]

The legend to which Marco alludes, about the Unicorn allowing itself to be ensnared by a maiden (and of which Marsden has made an odd perversion in his translation, whilst indicating the true meaning in his note), is also an old and general one. It will be found, for example, in Brunetto Latini, in the _Image du Monde_, in the _Mirabilia of Jordanus_,[6] and in the verses of Tzetzes. The latter represents Monoceros as attracted not by the maiden’s charms but by her perfumery. So he is inveigled and blindfolded by a stout young knave, disguised as a maiden and drenched with scent:–

“‘Tis then the huntsmen hasten up, abandoning their ambush; Clean from his head they chop his horn, prized antidote to poison; And let the docked and luckless beast escape into the jungles.” –V. 399, seqq.

In the cut which we give of this from a mediaeval source the horn of the unicorn is evidently the tusk of a _narwhal_. This confusion arose very early, as may be seen from its occurrence in Aelian, who says that the horn of the unicorn or _Kartazonon_ (the Arab _Karkaddan_ or Rhinoceros) was not straight but twisted ([Greek: eligmous echon tinas], Hist. An. xvi. 20). The mistake may also be traced in the illustrations to Cosmas Indicopleustes from his own drawings, and it long endured, as may be seen in Jerome Cardan’s description of a unicorn’s horn which he saw suspended in the church of St. Denis; as well as in a circumstance related by P. della Valle (II. 491; and Cardan, _de Varietate_, c. xcvii.). Indeed the supporter of the Royal arms retains the narwhal horn. To this popular error is no doubt due the reading in Pauthier’s text, which makes the horn _white_ instead of black.

[Illustration: Monoceros and the Maiden.[7]]

We may quote the following quaint version of the fable from the Bestiary of Philip de Thaun, published by Mr. Wright (_Popular Treatises on Science_, etc. p. 81):

“Monosceros est Beste, un corne ad en la teste, Purceo ad si a nun, de buc ad facun;
Par Pucele est prise; or vez en quel guise. Quant hom le volt cacer et prendre et enginner, Si vent hom al forest u sis riparis est; La met une Pucele hors de sein sa mamele, Et par odurement Monosceros la sent;
Dunc vent a la Pucele, et si baiset la mamele, En sein devant se dort, issi vent a sa mort Li hom suivent atant ki l’ocit en dormant U trestout vif le prent, si fais puis sun talent. Grant chose signifie.”….

And so goes on to moralise the fable.

NOTE 6.–In the _J. Indian Archip._ V. 285, there is mention of the _Falco Malaiensis_, black, with a double white-and-brown spotted tail, said to belong to the ospreys, “but does not disdain to take birds and other game.”

[1] See _Anderson’s Missing to East Coast of Sumatra_. pp. 229, 233 and map. The _Ferlec_ of Polo was identified by Valentyn. (_Sumatra_, in vol. v. p. 21.) Marsden remarks that a terminal _k_ is in Sumatra always softened or omitted in pronunciation. (_H. of Sum._ 1st. ed. p. 163.) Thus we have Perlak, and _Perla_, as we have Battak and _Batta_.

[2] Since this engraving was made a fourth species has been established, _Rhin lasyotis_, found near Chittagong.

[3] The elephant of India has 6 true ribs and 13 false ribs, that of Sumatra and Ceylon has 6 true and 14 false.

[4] Marsden, however, does say that a one-horned species (_Rh. sondaicus_?) is also found on Sumatra (3rd ed. of his _H. of Sumatra_, p. 116).

[5] An American writer professes to have discovered in Missouri the fossil remains of a bogged mastodon, which had been killed precisely in this way by human contemporaries. (See _Lubbock, Preh. Times_, ad ed. 279.)

[6] _Tresor_, p. 253; _N. and E._, V. 263; _Jordanus_, p. 43.

[7] Another mediaeval illustration of the subject is given in _Les Arts au Moyen Age_, p. 499, from the binding of a book. It is allegorical, and the Maiden is there the Virgin Mary.

CHAPTER X.

THE KINGDOMS OF SAMARA AND DAGROIAN.

So you must know that when you leave the kingdom of Basma you come to another kingdom called Samara, on the same Island.[NOTE 1] And in that kingdom Messer Marco Polo was detained five months by the weather, which would not allow of his going on. And I tell you that here again neither the Pole-star nor the stars of the Maestro[NOTE 2] were to be seen, much or little. The people here are wild Idolaters; they have a king who is great and rich; but they also call themselves subjects of the Great Kaan. When Messer Mark was detained on this Island five months by contrary winds, [he landed with about 2000 men in his company; they dug large ditches on the landward side to encompass the party, resting at either end on the sea-haven, and within these ditches they made bulwarks or stockades of timber] for fear of those brutes of man-eaters; [for there is great store of wood there; and the Islanders having confidence in the party supplied them with victuals and other things needful.] There is abundance of fish to be had, the best in the world. The people have no wheat, but live on rice. Nor have they any wine except such as I shall now describe.

You must know that they derive it from a certain kind of tree that they have. When they want wine they cut a branch of this, and attach a great pot to the stem of the tree at the place where the branch was cut; in a day and a night they will find the pot filled. This wine is excellent drink, and is got both white and red. [It is of such surpassing virtue that it cures dropsy and tisick and spleen.] The trees resemble small date-palms; … and when cutting a branch no longer gives a flow of wine, they water the root of the tree, and before long the branches again begin to give out wine as before.[NOTE 3] They have also great quantities of Indian nuts [as big as a man’s head], which are good to eat when fresh; [being sweet and savoury, and white as milk. The inside of the meat of the nut is filled with a liquor like clear fresh water, but better to the taste, and more delicate than wine or any other drink that ever existed.]

Now that we have done telling you about this kingdom, let us quit it, and we will tell you of Dagroian.

When you leave the kingdom of Samara you come to another which is called DAGROIAN. It is an independent kingdom, and has a language of its own. The people are very wild, but they call themselves the subjects of the Great Kaan. I will tell you a wicked custom of theirs.[NOTE 4]

When one of them is ill they send for their sorcerers, and put the question to them, whether the sick man shall recover of his sickness or no. If they say that he will recover, then they let him alone till he gets better. But if the sorcerers foretell that the sick man is to die, the friends send for certain judges of theirs to put to death him who has thus been condemned by the sorcerers to die. These men come, and lay so many clothes upon the sick man’s mouth that they suffocate him. And when he is dead they have him cooked, and gather together all the dead man’s kin, and eat him. And I assure you they do suck the very bones till not a particle of marrow remains in them; for they say that if any nourishment remained in the bones this would breed worms, and then the worms would die for want of food, and the death of those worms would be laid to the charge of the deceased man’s soul. And so they eat him up stump and rump. And when they have thus eaten him they collect his bones and put them in fine chests, and carry them away, and place them in caverns among the mountains where no beast nor other creature can get at them. And you must know also that if they take prisoner a man of another country, and he cannot pay a ransom in coin, they kill him and eat him straightway. It is a very evil custom and a parlous.[NOTE 5]

Now that I have told you about this kingdom let us leave it, and I will tell you of Lambri.

NOTE 1.–I have little doubt that in Marco’s dictation the name was really _Samatra_, and it is possible that we have a trace of this in the _Samarcha_ (for _Samartha_) of the Crusca MS.

The _Shijarat Malayu_ has a legend, with a fictitious etymology, of the foundation of the city and kingdom of _Samudra_, or SUMATRA, by Marah Silu, a fisherman near Pasangan, who had acquired great wealth, as wealth is got in fairy tales. The name is probably the Sanskrit _Samudra_, “the sea.” Possibly it may have been imitated from Dwara Samudra, at that time a great state and city of Southern India. [We read in the Malay Annals, _Salalat al Salatin_, translated by Mr. J.T. Thomson (_Proc.R.G.S._ XX. p. 216): “Mara Silu ascended the eminence, when he saw an ant as big as a cat; so he caught it, and ate it, and on the place he erected his residence, which he named Samandara, which means Big Ant (_Semut besar_ in Malay).”–H.C.] Mara Silu having become King of Samudra was converted to Islam, and took the name of Malik-al-Salih. He married the daughter of the King of _Parlak_, by whom he had two sons; and to have a principality for each he founded the city and kingdom of _Pasei_. Thus we have Marco’s three first kingdoms, Ferlec, Basma, and Samara, connected together in a satisfactory manner in the Malayan story. It goes on to relate the history of the two sons Al-Dhahir and Al-Mansur. Another version is given in the history of Pasei already alluded to, with such differences as might be expected when the oral traditions of several centuries came to be written down.

Ibn Batuta, about 1346, on his way to China, spent fifteen days at the court of Samudra, which he calls _Samathrah_ or _Samuthrah_. The king whom he found there reigning was the Sultan Al-Malik Al-Dhahir, a most zealous Mussulman, surrounded by doctors of theology, and greatly addicted to religious discussions, as well as a great warrior and a powerful prince. The city was 4 miles from its port, which the traveller calls _Sarha_; he describes the capital as a large and fine town, surrounded with an enceinte and bastions of timber. The court displayed all the state of Mahomedan royalty, and the Sultan’s dominions extended for many days along the coast. In accordance with Ibn Batuta’s picture, the Malay Chronicle represents the court of Pasei (which we have seen to be intimately connected with Samudra) as a great focus of theological studies about this time.

There can be little doubt that Ibn Batuta’s Malik Al-Dhahir is the prince of the Malay Chronicle the son of the first Mahomedan king. We find in 1292 that Marco says nothing of Mahomedanism; the people are still wild idolaters; but the king is already a rich and powerful prince. This may have been Malik Al-Salih before his conversion; but it may be doubted if the Malay story be correct in representing him as the _founder_ of the city. Nor is this apparently so represented in the Book of the Kings of Pasei.

Before Ibn Batuta’s time, Sumatra or Samudra appears in the travels of Fr. Odoric. After speaking of _Lamori_ (to which we shall come presently), he says: “In the same island, towards the south, is another kingdom, by name SUMOLTRA, in which is a singular generation of people, for they brand themselves on the face with a hot iron in some twelve places,” etc. This looks as if the conversion to Islam was still (circa 1323) very incomplete. Rashiduddin also speaks of _Sumutra_ as lying beyond Lamuri. (_Elliot_, I. p. 70.)

The power attained by the dynasty of Malik Al-Salih, and the number of Mahomedans attracted to his court, probably led in the course of the 14th century to the extension of the name of Sumatra to the whole island. For when visited early in the next century by Nicolo Conti, we are told that he “went to a fine city of the island of Taprobana, which island is called by the natives _Shamuthera_.” Strange to say, he speaks of the natives as all idolaters. Fra Mauro, who got much from Conti, gives us _Isola Siamotra_ over _Taprobana_; and it shows at once his own judgment and want of confidence in it, when he notes elsewhere that “Ptolemy, professing to describe Taprobana, has really only described Saylan.”

We have no means of settling the exact position of the city of Sumatra, though possibly an enquiry among the natives of that coast might still determine the point. Marsden and Logan indicate Samarlanga, but I should look for it nearer Pasei. As pointed out by Mr. Braddell in the _J. Ind. Arch._, Malay tradition represents the site of Pasei as selected on a hunting expedition from Samudra, which seems to imply tolerable proximity. And at the marriage of the Princess of Parlak to Malik Al-Salih, we are told that the latter went to receive her on landing at Jambu Ayer (near Diamond Point), and thence conducted her to the city of Samudra. I should seek Samudra near the head of the estuary-like Gulf of Pasei, called in the charts _Telo_ (or Talak) _Samawe_; a place very likely to have been sought as a shelter to the Great Kaan’s fleet during the south-west monsoon. Fine timber, of great size, grows close to the shore of this bay,[1] and would furnish material for Marco’s stockades.

When the Portuguese first reached those regions Pedir was the leading state upon the coast, and certainly no state _called_ Sumatra continued to exist. Whether the _city_ continued to exist even in decay is not easy to discern. The _Ain-i-Akbari_ says that the best civet is that which is brought from _the seaport town of Sumatra, in the territory of Achin_, and is called _Sumatra Zabad_; but this may have been based on old information. Valentyn seems to recognise the existence of a place of note called _Samadra_ or _Samotdara_, though it is not entered on his map. A famous mystic theologian who flourished under the great King of Achin, Iskandar Muda, and died in 1630, bore the name of Shamsuddin _Shamatrani_, which seems to point to the city of Sumatra as his birth place.[2] The most distinct mention that I know of the city so called, in the Portuguese period, occurs in the _soi-disant_ “Voyage which Juan Serano made when he fled from Malacca,” in 1512, published by Lord Stanley of Alderley, at the end of his translation of Barbosa. This man speaks of the “island of Samatra” as named from “_a city of this northern part_.” And on leaving Pedir, having gone down the northern coast, he says, “I drew towards the south and south-east direction, and reached to another country and city which is called Samatra,” and so on. Now this describes the position in which the city of Sumatra should have been if it existed. But all the rest of the tract is mere plunder from Varthema.[3]

There is, however, a like intimation in a curious letter respecting the Portuguese discoveries, written from Lisbon in 1515, by a German, Valentine Moravia, who was probably the same Valentyn Fernandez, the German, who published the Portuguese edition of Marco Polo at Lisbon in 1502, and who shows an extremely accurate conception of Indian geography. He says: “La maxima insula la quale e chiamata da Marcho Polo Veneto Iava Minor, et al presente si chiama _Sumotra_, da un _emporie di dicta insula_” (printed by _De Gubernatis, Viagg. Ita._ etc., p. 170).

Several considerations point to the probability that the states of Pasei and Sumatra had become united, and that the town of Sumatra may have been represented by the Pacem of the Portuguese.[4] I have to thank Mr. G. Phillips for the copy of a small Chinese chart showing the northern coast of the island, which he states to be from “one of about the 13th century.” I much doubt the date, but the map is valuable as showing the town of Sumatra (_Sumantala_). This seems to be placed in the Gulf of Pasei, and very near where Pasei itself still exists. An extract of a “Chinese account of about A.D. 1413” accompanied the map. This states that the town was situated some distance up a river, so as to be reached in two tides. There was a village at the mouth of the river called _Talumangkin_.[5]

[Mr. E.H. Parker writes (_China Review_, XXIV. p. 102): “Colonel Yule’s remarks about Pasei are borne out by Chinese History (Ming, 325, 20, 24), which states that in 1521 Pieh-tu-lu (Pestrello [for Perestrello ?]) having failed in China ‘went for’ _Pa-si_. Again ‘from Pa-si, Malacca, to Luzon, they swept the seas, and all the other nations were afraid of them.'”–H. C]

Among the Indian states which were prevailed on to send tribute (or presents) to Kublai in 1286, we find _Sumutala_. The chief of this state is called in the Chinese record _Tu-‘han-pa-ti_, which seems to be just the Malay words _Tuan Pati_, “Lord Ruler.” No doubt this was the rising state of Sumatra, of which we have been speaking; for it will be observed that Marco says the people of that state called themselves the Kaan’s subjects. Rashiduddin makes the same statement regarding the people of Java (i.e. the island of Sumatra), and even of Nicobar: “They are all subject to the Kaan.” It is curious to find just the same kind of statements about the princes of the Malay Islands acknowledging themselves subjects of Charles V., in the report of the surviving commander of Magellan’s ship to that emperor (printed by Baldelli-Boni, I. lxvii.). Pauthier has curious Chinese extracts containing a notable passage respecting the disappearance of Sumatra Proper from history: “In the years _Wen-chi_ (1573-1615), the Kingdom of Sumatra divided in two, and the new state took the name of Achi (Achin). After that Sumatra was no more heard of.” (_Gaubil_, 205; _De Mailla_, IX. 429; _Elliot_, I. 71; _Pauthier_, pp. 605 and 567.)

NOTE 2.–“_Vos di que la Tramontaine ne part. Et encore vos di que l’estoilles dou Meistre ne aparent ne pou ne grant_” (G.T.). The _Tramontaine_ is the Pole star:–

“De nostre Pere l’Apostoille
Volsisse qu’il semblast l’estoile
Qui ne se muet …
Par cele estoile vont et viennent
Et lor sen et lor voie tiennent
Il l’apelent la _tres montaigne_.” –_La Bible Guiot de Provins_ in _Barbazan_, by _Meon_, II. 377.

The _Meistre_ is explained by Pauthier to be Arcturus; but this makes Polo’s error greater than it is. Brunetto Latini says: “Devers la tramontane en a il i. autre (vent) plus debonaire, qui a non _Chorus_. Cestui apelent li marinier MAISTRE _por vij. estoiles qui sont en celui meisme leu_,” etc. (_Li Tresors_, p. 122). _Magister_ or _Magistra_ in mediaeval Latin, _La Maistre_ in old French, signifies “the beam of a plough.” Possibly this accounts for the application of _Maistre_ to the Great Bear, or _Plough_. But on the other hand the pilot’s art is called in old French _maistrance_. Hence this constellation may have had the name as the pilot’s guide,–like our _Lode-star_. The name was probably given to the N.W. point under a latitude in which the Great Bear sets in that quarter. In this way many of the points of the old Arabian _Rose des Vents_ were named from the rising or setting of certain constellations. (See _Reinaud’s Abulfeda_, Introd. pp. cxcix.-cci.)

NOTE 3.–The tree here intended, and which gives the chief supply of toddy and sugar in the Malay Islands, is the _Areng Saccharifera_ (from the Javanese name), called by the Malays _Gomuti_, and by the Portuguese _Saguer_. It has some resemblance to the date-palm, to which Polo compares it, but it is a much coarser and wilder-looking tree, with a general raggedness, “_incompta et adspectu tristis_,” as Rumphius describes it. It is notable for the number of plants that find a footing in the joints of its stem. On one tree in Java I have counted thirteen species of such parasites, nearly all ferns. The tree appears in the foreground of the cut at p. 273.

Crawford thus describes its treatment in obtaining toddy: “One of the _spathae_, or shoots of fructification, is, on the first appearance of the fruit, beaten for three successive days with a small stick, with the view of determining the sap to the wounded part. The shoot is then cut off, a little way from the root, and the liquor which pours out is received in pots…. The _Gomuti_ palm is fit to yield toddy at 9 or 10 years old, and continues to yield it for 2 years at the average rate of 3 quarts a day.” (_Hist. of Ind. Arch._ I. 398.)

The words omitted in translation are unintelligible to me: “_et sunt quatre raimes trois cel en_.” (G.T.)

[“Polo’s description of the wine-pots of Samara hung on the trees ‘like date-palms,’ agrees precisely with the Chinese account of the _shu theu tsiu_ made from ‘coir trees like cocoa-nut palms’ manufactured by the Burmese. Therefore it seems more likely that Samara is Siam (still pronounced _Shumuro_ in Japan, and _Siamlo_ in Hakka), than Sumatra.” (_Parker_, _China Review_, XIV. p. 359.) I think it useless to discuss this theory.–H.C.]

NOTE 4.–No one has been able to identify this state. Its position, however, must have been near PEDIR, and perhaps it was practically the same. Pedir was the most flourishing of those Sumatran states at the appearance of the Portuguese.

Rashiduddin names among the towns of the Archipelago _Dalmian_, which may perhaps be a corrupt transcript of Dagroian.

Mr. Phillips’s Chinese extracts, already cited, state that west of Sumatra (proper) were two small kingdoms, the first _Naku-urh_, the second _Liti_. Naku-urh, which seems to be the _Ting-‘ho-‘rh_ of Pauthier’s extracts, which sent tribute to the Kaan, and may probably be Dagroian as Mr. Phillips supposes, was also called the _Kingdom of Tattooed Folk_.

[Mr. G. Phillips wrote since (_J.R.A.S._, July 1895, p. 528): “Dragoian has puzzled many commentators, but on (a) Chinese chart … there is a country called _Ta-hua-mien_, which in the Amoy dialect is pronounced _Dakolien_, in which it is very easy to recognise the Dragoian, or Dagoyam, of Marco Polo.” In his paper of _The Seaports of India and Ceylon_ (_Jour. China B.R.A.S._, xx. 1885, p. 221), Mr. Phillips, referring to his Chinese Map, already said: _Ta-hsiao-hua-mien_, in the Amoy dialect _Toa-sio-hoe_ (or _Ko_)-_bin_, “The Kingdom of the Greater and Lesser Tattooed Faces.” The Toa-Ko-bin, the greater tattooed-face people, most probably represents the Dagroian, or Dagoyum, of Marco Polo. This country was called _Na-ku-erh_ and Ma Huan says, “the King of _Na-ku-erh_ is also called the King of the Tattooed Faces.”–H.C.]

Tattooing is ascribed by Friar Odoric to the people of _Sumoltra_. (_Cathay_, p. 86.) _Liti_ is evidently the _Lide_ of De Barros, which by his list lay immediately east of Pedir. This would place _Naku-urh_ about Samarlangka. Beyond _Liti_ was _Lanmoli_ (i.e. Lambri). [See _G. Schlegel_, _Geog. Notes_, XVI. Li-tai, Nakur.–H.C.]

There is, or was fifty years ago, a small port between Ayer Labu and Samarlangka, called _Darian_-Gade (_Great_ Darian?). This is the nearest approach to Dagroian that I have met with. (_N. Ann. des V._, tom. xviii. p. 16.)

NOTE 5.–Gasparo Balbi (1579-1587) heard the like story of the Battas under Achin. True or false, the charge against them has come down to our times. The like is told by Herodotus of the Paddaei in India, of the Massagetae, and of the Issedonians; by Strabo of the Caspians and of the Derbices; by the Chinese of one of the wild tribes of Kwei-chau; and was told to Wallace of some of the Aru Island tribes near New Guinea, and to Bickmore of a tribe on the south coast of Floris, called _Rakka_ (probably a form of Hindu _Rakshasa_, or ogre-goblin). Similar charges are made against sundry tribes of the New World, from Brazil to Vancouver Island. Odoric tells precisely Marco’s story of a certain island called Dondin. And in “King Alisaunder,” the custom is related of a people of India, called most inappropriately _Orphani_:–

“Another Folk woneth there beside;
_Orphani_ he hatteth wide.
When her eldrynges beth elde,
And ne mowen hemselven welde
Hy hem sleeth, and bidelve
And,” etc., etc.
–Weber, I. p. 206.

Benedetto Bordone, in his _Isolario_ (1521 and 1547), makes the same charge against the _Irish_, but I am glad to say that this seems only copied fiom Strabo. Such stories are still rife in the East, like those of men with tails. I have myself heard the tale told, nearly as Raffles tells it of the Battas, of some of the wild tribes adjoining Arakan. (_Balbi_, f. 130; _Raffles_, Mem. p. 427; _Wallace, Malay Archip._ 281; _Bickmore’s Travels_, p. III; _Cathay_, pp. 25, 100).

The latest and most authentic statement of the kind refers to a small tribe called _Birhors_, existing in the wildest parts of Chota Nagpur and Jashpur, west of Bengal, and is given by an accomplished Indian ethnologist, Colonel Dalton. “They were wretched-looking objects … assuring me that they had themselves given up the practice, they admitted that their fathers were in the habit of disposing of their dead in the manner indicated, viz., by feasting on the bodies; but they declared that they never shortened life to provide such feast, and shrunk with horror at the idea of any bodies but those of their own blood relations being served up at them!” (_J.A.S.B._ XXXIV. Pt. II. 18.) The same practice has been attributed recently, but only on hearsay, to a tribe of N. Guinea called _Tarungares_.

The Battas now bury their dead, after keeping the body a considerable time. But the people of Nias and the Batu Islands, whom Junghuhn considers to be of common origin with the Battas, do not bury, but expose the bodies in coffins upon rocks by the sea. And the small and very peculiar people of the Paggi Islands expose their dead on bamboo platforms in the forest. It is quite probable that such customs existed in the north of Sumatra also; indeed they may still exist, for the interior seems unknown. We do hear of pagan hill-people inland from Pedir who make descents upon the coast, (_Junghuhn_ II. 140; _Tijdschrift voor Indische Taal_, etc. 2nd year, No. 4; _Nouv. Ann. des. V._ XVIII.)

[1] _Marsden_, 1st ed. p. 291.

[2] _Veth’s Atchin_, 1873, p. 37.

[3] It might be supposed that Varthema had stolen from Serano; but the book of the former was _published_ in 1510.

[4] Castanheda speaks of Pacem as the best port of the land: “standing on the bank of a river on marshy ground about a league inland; and at the mouth of the river there are some houses of timber where a customs collector was stationed to exact duties at the anchorage from the ships which touched there.” (Bk. II. ch. iii.) This agrees with Ibn Batuta’s account of Sumatra, 4 miles from its port. [A village named _Samudra_ discovered in our days near Pasei is perhaps a remnant of the kingdom of Samara. (_Merveilles de l’Inde_, p. 234.)–H.C.]

[5] If Mr. Phillips had given particulars about his map and quotations, as to date, author, etc., it would have given them more value. He leaves this vague.

CHAPTER XI.

OF THE KINGDOMS OF LAMBRI AND FANSUR.

When you leave that kingdom you come to another which is called LAMBRI. [NOTE 1] The people are Idolaters, and call themselves the subjects of the Great Kaan. They have plenty of Camphor and of all sorts of other spices. They also have brazil in great quantities. This they sow, and when it is grown to the size of a small shoot they take it up and transplant it; then they let it grow for three years, after which they tear it up by the root. You must know that Messer Marco Polo aforesaid brought some seed of the brazil, such as they sow, to Venice with him, and had it sown there; but never a thing came up. And I fancy it was because the climate was too cold.

Now you must know that in this kingdom of Lambri there are men with tails; these tails are of a palm in length, and have no hair on them. These people live in the mountains and are a kind of wild men. Their tails are about the thickness of a dog’s.[NOTE 2] There are also plenty of unicorns in that country, and abundance of game in birds and beasts.

Now then I have told you about the kingdom of Lambri.

You then come to another kingdom which is called FANSUR. The people are Idolaters, and also call themselves subjects of the Great Kaan; and understand, they are still on the same Island that I have been telling you of. In this kingdom of Fansur grows the best Camphor in the world called _Canfora Fansuri_. It is so fine that it sells for its weight in fine gold.[NOTE 3]

The people have no wheat, but have rice which they eat with milk and flesh. They also have wine from trees such as I told you of. And I will tell you another great marvel. They have a kind of trees that produce flour, and excellent flour it is for food. These trees are very tall and thick, but have a very thin bark, and inside the bark they are crammed with flour. And I tell you that Messer Marco Polo, who witnessed all this, related how he and his party did sundry times partake of this flour made into bread, and found it excellent.[NOTE 4]

There is now no more to relate. For out of those eight kingdoms we have told you about six that lie at this side of the Island. I shall tell you nothing about the other two kingdoms that are at the other side of the Island, for the said Messer Marco Polo never was there. Howbeit we have told you about the greater part of this Island of the Lesser Java: so now we will quit it, and I will tell you of a very small Island that is called GAUENISPOLA.[NOTE 5]

NOTE 1.–The name of Lambri is not now traceable on our maps, nor on any list of the ports of Sumatra that I have met with; but in old times the name occurs frequently under one form or another, and its position can be assigned generally to the north part of the west coast, commencing from the neighbourhood of Achin Head.

De Barros, detailing the twenty-nine kingdoms which divided the coast of Sumatra, at the beginning of the Portuguese conquests, begins with _Daya_, and then passes round by the north. He names as next in order LAMBRIJ, and then _Achem_. This would make Lambri lie between Daya and Achin, for which there is but little room. And there is an apparent inconsistency; for in coming round again from the south, his 28th kingdom is _Quinchel_ (_Singkel_ of our modern maps), the 29th _Mancopa_, “which _falls upon Lambrij_, which adjoins Daya, the first that we named.” Most of the data about Lambri render it very difficult to distinguish it from Achin.

The name of Lambri occurs in the Malay Chronicle, in the account of the first Mahomedan mission to convert the Island. We shall quote the passage in a following note.

The position of Lambri would render it one of the first points of Sumatra made by navigators from Arabia and India; and this seems at one time to have caused the name to be applied to the whole Island. Thus Rashiduddin speaks of the very large Island LAMURI lying beyond Ceylon, and adjoining the country of _Sumatra_; Odoric also goes from India across the Ocean to a certain country called LAMORI, where he began to lose sight of the North Star. He also speaks of the camphor, gold, and lign-aloes which it produced, and proceeds thence to _Sumoltra_ in the same Island.[1] It is probable that the _verzino_ or brazil-wood of _Ameri_ (L’Ameri, i.e. Lambri?) which appears in the mercantile details of Pegolotti was from this part of Sumatra. It is probable also that the country called _Nanwuli_, which the Chinese Annals report, with _Sumuntula_ and others, to have sent tribute to the Great Kaan in 1286, was this same Lambri which Polo tells us called itself subject to the Kaan.

In the time of the Sung Dynasty ships from T’swan-chau (or Zayton) bound for _Tashi_, or Arabia, used to sail in forty days to a place called _Lanli-poi_ (probably this is also Lambri, _Lambri-puri?_). There they passed the winter, i.e. the south-west monsoon, just as Marco Polo’s party did at Sumatra, and sailing again when the wind became fair, they reached Arabia in sixty days. (_Bretschneider_, p. 16.)

[The theory of Sir H. Yule is confirmed by Chinese authors quoted by Mr. Groeneveldt (_Notes on the Malay Archipelago_, pp. 98-100): “The country of Lambri is situated due west of Sumatra, at a distance of three days sailing with a fair wind; it lies near the sea and has a population of only about a thousand families…. On the east the country is bordered by Litai, on the west and the north by the sea, and on the south by high mountains, at the south of which is the sea again…. At the north-west of this country, in the sea, at a distance of half a day, is a flat mountain, called the Hat-island; the sea at the west of it is the great ocean, and is called the Ocean of Lambri. Ships coming from the west all take this island as a landmark.” Mr. Groeneveldt adds: “Lambri [according to his extracts from Chinese authors] must have been situated on the north-western corner of the island of Sumatra, on or near the spot of the present Achin: we see that it was bounded by the sea on the north and the west, and that the Indian Ocean was called after this insignificant place, because it was considered to begin there. Moreover, the small island at half a day’s distance, called Hat-island, perfectly agrees with the small islands Bras or Nasi, lying off Achin, and of which the former, with its newly-erected lighthouse, is a landmark for modern navigation, just what it is said in our text to have been for the natives then. We venture to think that the much discussed situation of Marco Polo’s Lambri is definitely settled herewith.” The Chinese author writes: “The mountains [of Lambri] produce the fragrant wood called _Hsiang-chen Hsiang_.” Mr. Groeneveldt remarks (l.c. p. 143) that this “is the name of a fragrant wood, much used as incense, but which we have not been able to determine. Dr. Williams says it comes from Sumatra, where it is called laka-wood, and is the product of a tree to which the name of _Tanarius major_ is given by him. For different reasons, we think this identification subject to doubt.”

Captain M.J.C. Lucardie mentions a village called Lamreh, situated at Atjeh, near Tungkup, in the xxvi. Mukim, which might be a remnant of the country of Lameri. (_Merveilles de l’Inde_, p. 235.)–H.C.]

(_De Barros_, Dec. III. Bk. V. ch. i.; _Elliot_, I. 70; _Cathay_, 84, seqq.; _Pegol._ p. 361; _Pauthier_, p. 605.)

NOTE 2.–Stories of tailed or hairy men are common in the Archipelago, as in many other regions. Kazwini tells of the hairy little men that are found in Ramni (Sumatra) with a language like birds’ chirping. Marsden was told of hairy people called _Orang Gugu_ in the interior of the Island, who differed little, except in the use of speech, from the Orang utang. Since his time a French writer, giving the same name and same description, declares that he saw “a group” of these hairy people on the coast of Andragiri, and was told by them that they inhabited the interior of Menangkabau and formed a small tribe. It is rather remarkable that this writer makes no allusion to Marsden though his account is so nearly identical (_L’Oceanie_ in _L’Univers Pittoresque_, I. 24.) [One of the stories of the _Merveilles de l’Inde_ (p. 125) is that there are anthropophagi with tails at Lulu bilenk between Fansur and Lameri.–H.C.] Mr. Anderson says there are “a few wild people in the Siak country, very little removed in point of civilisation above their companions the monkeys,” but he says nothing of hairiness nor tails. For the earliest version of the tail story we must go back to Ptolemy and the Isles of the Satyrs in this quarter; or rather to Ctesias who tells of tailed men on an Island in the Indian Sea. Jordanus also has the story of the hairy men. Galvano heard that there were on the Island certain people called _Daraque Dara_ (?), which had tails like unto sheep. And the King of Tidore told him of another such tribe on the Isle of Batochina. Mr. St. John in Borneo met with a trader who had seen and _felt_ the tails of such a race inhabiting the north-east coast of that Island. The appendage was 4 inches long and very stiff; so the people all used perforated seats. This Borneo story has lately been brought forward in Calcutta, and stoutly maintained, on native evidence, by an English merchant. The Chinese also have their tailed men in the mountains above Canton. In Africa there have been many such stories, of some of which an account will be found in the _Bulletin de la Soc. de Geog._ ser. IV. tom. iii. p. 31. It was a story among mediaeval Mahomedans that the members of the Imperial House of Trebizond were endowed with short tails, whilst mediaeval Continentals had like stories about Englishmen, as Matthew Paris relates. Thus we find in the Romance of Coeur de Lion, Richard’s messengers addressed by the “Emperor of Cyprus”:–

“Out, _Taylards_, of my palys!
Now go, and say your _tayled_ King That I owe him nothing.”
–_Weber_, II. 83.

The Princes of Purbandar, in the Peninsula of Guzerat, claim descent from the monkey-god Hanuman, and allege in justification a spinal elongation which gets them the name of _Punchariah_, “Taylards.”

(_Ethe’s Kazwini_, p. 221; _Anderson_, p. 210; _St. John, Forests of the Far East_, I. 40; _Galvano_, Hak. Soc. 108, 120; _Gildemeister_, 194; _Allen’s Indian Mail_, July 28, 1869; _Mid. Kingd._ I. 293; _N. et Ext._ XIII. i. 380; _Mat. Paris_ under A.D. 1250; _Tod’s Rajasthan_, I. 114.)

NOTE 3.–The Camphor called _Fansuri_ is celebrated by Arab writers at least as old as the 9th century, e.g., by the author of the first part of the _Relations_, by Mas’udi in the next century, also by Avicenna, by Abulfeda, by Kazwini, and by Abul Fazl, etc. In the second and third the name is miswritten _Kansur_, and by the last _Kaisuri_, but there can be no doubt of the correction required. (_Reinaud_, I. 7; _Mas._ I. 338; _Liber Canonis_, Ven. 1544, I. 116; _Buesching_, IV. 277; _Gildem._ p. 209; _Ain-i-Akb._ p. 78.) In Serapion we find the same camphor described as that of _Pansor_; and when, leaving Arab authorities and the earlier Middle Ages we come to Garcias, he speaks of the same article under the name of camphor of _Barros_. And this is the name–_Kapur Barus_–derived from the port which has been the chief shipping-place of Sumatran camphor for _at least_ three centuries, by which the native camphor is still known in Eastern trade, as distinguished from the _Kapur China_ or _Kapur-Japun_, as the Malays term the article derived in those countries by distillation from the _Laurus Camphora_. The earliest western mention of camphor is in the same prescription by the physician Aetius (circa A.D. 540) that contains one of the earliest mentions of musk. (supra, I. p. 279.) The prescription ends: “and _if you have a supply of camphor_ add two ounces of that.” (_Aetii Medici Graeci Tetrabiblos_, etc., Froben, 1549, p. 910.)

It is highly probable that _Fansur_ and _Barus_ may be not only the same locality but mere variations of the same name.[2] The place is called in the _Shijarat Malayu_, _Pasuri_, a name which the Arabs certainly made into _Fansuri_ in one direction, and which might easily in another, by a very common kind of Oriental metathesis, pass into _Barusi_. The legend in the Shijarat Malayu relates to the first Mahomedan mission for the conversion of Sumatra, sent by the Sherif of Mecca via India. After sailing from Malabar the first place the party arrived at was PASURI, the people of which embraced Islam. They then proceeded to LAMBRI, which also accepted the Faith. Then they sailed on till they reached _Haru_ (see on my map _Aru_ on the East Coast), which did likewise. At this last place they enquired for SAMUDRA, which seems to have been the special object of their mission, and found that they had passed it. Accordingly they retraced their course to PERLAK, and after converting that place went on to SAMUDRA, where they converted Mara Silu the King. (See note 1, ch. x. above.) This passage is of extreme interest as naming _four_ out of Marco’s six kingdoms, and in positions quite accordant with his indications. As noticed by Mr. Braddell, from whose abstract I take the passage, the circumstance of the party having passed Samudra unwittingly is especially consistent with the site we have assigned to it near the head of the Bay of Pasei, as a glance at the map will show.

Valentyn observes: “_Fansur_ can be nought else than the famous _Pantsur_, no longer known indeed by that name, but a kingdom which we become acquainted with through _Hamza Pantsuri_, a celebrated Poet, and native of this Pantsur. It lay in the north angle of the Island, and a little west of Achin: it formerly was rife with trade and population, but would have been utterly lost in oblivion had not Hamza Pantsuri made us again acquainted with it.” Nothing indeed could well be “a little west of Achin”; this is doubtless a slip for “a little down the west coast from Achin.” Hamza Fantsuri, as he is termed by Professor Veth, who also identifies Fantsur with Barus, was a poet of the first half of the 17th century, who in his verses popularised the mystical theology of Shamsuddin Shamatrani (supra, p. 291), strongly tinged with pantheism. The works of both were solemnly burnt before the great mosque of Achin about 1640. (_J. Ind. Arch._ V. 312 seqq; _Valentyn_, Sumatra, in Vol. V., p. 21; _Veth, Atchin_, Leiden, 1873, p. 38.)

Mas’udi says that the Fansur Camphor was found most plentifully in years rife with storms and earthquakes. Ibn Batuta gives a jumbled and highly incorrect account of the product, but one circumstance that he mentions is possibly founded on a real superstition, viz., that no camphor was formed unless some animal had been sacrificed at the root of the tree, and the best quality only then when a human victim had been offered. Nicolo Conti has a similar statement: “The Camphor is found inside the tree, and if they do not sacrifice to the gods before they cut the bark, it disappears and is no more seen.” Beccari, in our day, mentions special ceremonies used by the Kayans of Borneo, before they commence the search. These superstitions hinge on the great uncertainty of finding camphor in any given tree, after the laborious process of cutting it down and splitting it, an uncertainty which also largely accounts for the high price. By far the best of the old accounts of the product is that quoted by Kazwini from Mahomed Ben Zakaria Al-Razi: “Among the number of marvellous things in this Island” (_Zanij_ for Zabaj, i.e. Java or Sumatra) “is the Camphor Tree, which is of vast size, insomuch that its shade will cover a hundred persons and more. They bore into the highest part of the tree and thence flows out the camphor-water, enough to fill many pitchers. Then they open the tree lower down about the middle, and extract the camphor in lumps.” [This very account is to be found in Ibn Khordadhbeh. (_De Goeje’s transl._ p. 45.)–H.C.] Compare this passage, which we may notice has been borrowed bodily by Sindbad of the Sea, with what is probably the best modern account, Junghuhn’s: “Among the forest trees (of Tapanuli adjoining Barus) the Camphor Tree (_Dryabalanops Camphora_) attracts beyond all the traveller’s observation, by its straight columnar and colossal grey trunk, and its mighty crown of foliage, rising high above the canopy of the forest. It exceeds in dimensions the _Rasamala_,[3] the loftiest tree of Java, and is probably the greatest tree of the Archipelago, if not of the world,[4] reaching a height of 200 feet. One of the middling size which I had cut down measured at the base, where the camphor leaks out, 7-1/2 Paris feet in diameter (about 8 feet English); its trunk rose to 100 feet, with an upper diameter of 5 feet, before dividing, and the height of the whole tree to the crown was 150 feet. The precious consolidated camphor is found in small quantities, 1/4 lb. to 1 lb. in a single tree, in fissure-like hollows in the stem. Yet many are cut down in vain, or split up the side without finding camphor. The camphor oil is prepared by the natives by bruising and boiling the twigs.” The oil, however, appears also to be found in the tree, as Crawford and Collingwood mention, corroborating the ancient Arab.

It is well known that the Chinese attach an extravagantly superior value to the Malay camphor, and probably its value in Marco’s day was higher than it is now, but still its estimate as worth its weight in gold looks like hyperbole. Forrest, a century ago, says Barus Camphor was in the Chinese market worth nearly its weight in _silver_, and this is true still. The price is commonly estimated at 100 times that of the Chinese camphor. The whole quantity exported from the Barus territory goes to China. De Vriese reckons the average annual export from Sumatra between 1839 and 1844 at less than 400 kilogrammes. The following table shows the wholesale rates in the Chinese market as given by Rondot in 1848:–

_Qualities of Camphor_. _Per picul of 133-1/3 lbs._ Ordinary China, 1st quality 20 dollars. ” ” 2nd ” 14 “
Formosa 25 “
Japan 30 “
China _ngai_ (ext. from an Artemisia) 250 ” Barus, 1st quality 2000 ” ” 2nd ” 1000 “

The Chinese call the Sumatran (or Borneo) Camphor _Ping-pien_ “Icicle flakes,” and _Lung-nan_ “Dragon’s Brains.” [Regarding Baros Camphor, Mr. Groeneveldt writes (_Notes_, p. 142): “This substance is generally called _dragon’s brain perfume_, or _icicles_. The former name has probably been invented by the first dealers in the article, who wanted to impress their countrymen with a great idea of its value and rarity. In the trade three different qualities are distinguished: the first is called _prune-blossoms_, being the larger pieces; the second is _rice-camphor_, so called because the particles are not larger than a rice-kernel, and the last quality is _golden dregs_, in the shape of powder. These names are still now used by the Chinese traders on the west coast of Sumatra. The _Pen-ts’au Kang-mu_ further informs us that the Camphor Baros is found in the trunk of a tree in a solid shape, whilst from the roots an oil is obtained called _Po-lut_ (Pa-lut) _incense_, or _Polut balm_. The name of Polut is said to be derived from the country where it is found (Baros.)” –H. C] It is just to remark, however, that in the _Ain Akbari_ we find the price of the Sumatran Camphor, known to the Hindus as _Bhim Seni_, varying from 3 rupees as high as 2 mohurs (or 20 rupees) for a rupee’s weight, which latter price would be _twice_ the weight in gold. Abul Fazl says the worst camphor went by the name of _Balus_. I should suspect some mistake, as we know from Garcias that the fine camphor was already known as _Barus_. (_Ain-i-Akb._ 75-79.)

(_Mas’udi_, I. 338; _I.B._ IV. 241; _J.A._ ser. IV. tom. viii. 216; _Lane’s Arab. Nights_ (1859), III. 21; _Battalaender_, I. 107; _Crawf. Hist._ III. 218, and _Desc. Dict._ 81; _Hedde et Rondot, Com. de la Chine_, 36-37; _Chin. Comm. Guide; Dr. F.A. Flueckiger, Zur Geschichte des Camphers_, in _Schweiz. Wochenschr. fuer Pharmacie_, Sept., Oct., 1867.)

NOTE 4.–An interesting notice of the Sago-tree, of which Odoric also gives an account. Ramusio is, however, here fuller and more accurate: “Removing the first bark, which is but thin, you come on the wood of the tree which forms a thickness all round of some three fingers, but all inside this is a pith of flour, like that of the _Carvolo_ (?). The trees are so big that it will take two men to span them. They put this flour into tubs of water, and beat it up with a stick, and then the bran and other impurities come to the top, whilst the pure flour sinks to the bottom. The water is then thrown away, and the cleaned flour that remains is taken and made into _pasta_ in strips and other forms. These Messer Marco often partook of, and brought some with him to Venice. It resembles barley bread and tastes much the same. The wood of this tree is like iron, for if thrown into the water it goes straight to the bottom. It can be split straight from end to end like a cane. When the flour has been removed the wood remains, as has been said, three inches thick. Of this the people make short lances, not long ones, because they are so heavy that no one could carry or handle them if long. One end is sharpened and charred in the fire, and when thus prepared they will pierce any armour, and much better than iron would do.” Marsden points out that this heavy lance-wood is not that of the true Sago-palm, but of the _Nibong_ or Caryota urens; which does indeed give some amount of sago.

[“When sago is to be made, a full-grown tree is selected just before it is going to flower. It is cut down close to the ground, the leaves and leaf-stalks cleared away, and a broad strip of the bark taken off the upper side of the trunk. This exposes the pithy matter, which is of a rusty colour near the bottom of the tree, but higher up pure white, about as hard as a dry apple, but with woody fibres running through it about a quarter of an inch apart. This pith is cut or broken down into a coarse powder, by means of a tool constructed for the purpose…. Water is poured on the mass of pith, which is kneaded and pressed against the strainer till the starch is all dissolved and has passed through, when the fibrous refuse is thrown away, and a fresh basketful put in its place. The water charged with sago starch passes on to a trough, with a depression in the centre, where the sediment is deposited, the surplus water trickling off by a shallow outlet. When the trough is nearly full, the mass of starch, which has a slight reddish tinge, is made into cylinders of about thirty pounds’ weight, and neatly covered with sago leaves, and in this state is sold as raw sago. Boiled with water this forms a thick glutinous mass, with a rather astringent taste, and is eaten with salt, limes, and chilies. Sago-bread is made in large quantities, by baking it into cakes in a small clay oven containing six or eight slits side by side, each about three-quarters of an inch wide, and six or eight inches square. The raw sago is broken up, dried in the sun, powdered, and finely sifted. The oven is heated over a clear fire of embers, and is lightly filled with the sago powder. The openings are then covered with a flat piece of sago bark, and in about five minutes the cakes are turned out sufficiently baked. The hot cakes are very nice with butter, and when made with the addition of a little sugar and grated cocoa-nut are quite a delicacy. They are soft, and something like corn-flour cakes, but have a slight characteristic flavour which is lost in the refined sago we use in this country. When not wanted for immediate use, they are dried for several days in the sun, and tied up in bundles of twenty. They will then keep for years; they are very hard, and very rough and dry….” (_A. R. Wallace’s Malay Archipelago_, 1869, II. pp. 118-121.) –H.C.]

NOTE 5.–In quitting the subject of these Sumatran Kingdoms it may appear to some readers that our explanations compress them too much, especially as Polo seems to allow only two kingdoms for the rest of the Island. In this he was doubtless wrong, and we may the less scruple to say so as he had _not_ visited that other portion of the Island. We may note that in the space to which we assign the _six_ kingdoms which Polo visited, De Barros assigns _twelve_, viz.: Bara (corresponding generally to _Ferlec_), Pacem (_Basma_), Pirada, Lide, Pedir, Biar, Achin, _Lambri_, Daya, Mancopa, Quinchel, Barros (_Fansur_). (_Dec._ III. v. 1.)

[Regarding these Sumatrian kingdoms, Mr. Thomson (_Proc.R.G.S._ XX. p. 223) writes that Malaiur “is no other than Singapore … the ancient capital of the Malays or Malaiurs of old voyagers, existent in the times of Marco Polo [who] mentions no kingdom or city in Java Minor till he arrives at the kingdom of Felech or Perlak. And this is just as might be expected, as the channel in the Straits of Malacca leads on the north-eastern side out of sight of Sumatra; and the course, after clearing the shoals near Selangore, being direct towards Diamond Point, near which … the tower of Perlak is situated. Thus we see that the Venetian traveller describes the first city or kingdom in the great island that he arrived at…. [After Basman and Samara] Polo mentions Dragoian … from the context, and following Marco Polo’s course, we would place it west from his last city or Kingdom Samara; and we make no doubt, if the name is not much corrupted, it may yet be identified in one of the villages of the coast at this present time…. By the Malay annalist, Lambri was west of Samara; consecutively it was also westerly from Samara by Marco Polo’s enumeration. Fanfur … is the last kingdom named by Marco Polo [coming from the east], and the first by the Malay annalist [coming from the west]; and as it is known to modern geographers, this corroboration doubly settles the identity and position of all. Thus all the six cities or kingdoms mentioned by Marco Polo were situated on the north coast of Sumatra, now commonly known as the Pedir coast.” I have given the conclusion arrived at by Mr. J.T. Thomson in his paper, _Marco Polo’s Six Kingdoms or Cities in Java Minor, identified in translations from the ancient Malay Annals_, which appeared in the _Proc.R.G.S._ XX. pp. 215-224, after the second edition of this Book was published and Sir H. Yule added the following note (_Proc._, l.c., p. 224): “Mr. Thomson, as he mentions, has not seen my edition of _Marco Polo_, nor, apparently, a paper on the subject of these kingdoms by the late Mr. J.R. Logan, in his _Journal of the Indian Archipelago_, to which reference is made in the notes to _Marco Polo_. In the said paper and notes the quotations and conclusions of Mr. Thomson have been anticipated; and _Fansur_ also, which he leaves undetermined, identified.”–H.C.]

[1] I formerly supposed _Al-Ramni_, the oldest Arabic name of Sumatra, to be a corruption of Lambri; but this is more probably of Hindu origin. One of the _Dvipas_ of the ocean mentioned in the Puranas is called _Ramaniyaka_, “delightfulness.” (_Williams’s Skt. Dict._)

[2] Van der Tuuk says positively, I find: “Fantsur was the ancient name of Barus.” (_J.R.A.S._ n.s. II. 232.) [Professor Schlegel writes also (_Geog. Notes_, XVI. p. 9): “At all events, _Fansur_ or _Pantsur_ can be naught but Baros.”–H.C.]

[3] _Liquidambar Altingiana_.

[4] The Californian and Australian giants of 400 feet were not then known.

CHAPTER XII.

CONCERNING THE ISLAND OF NECUVERAN.

When you leave the Island of Java (the less) and the kingdom of Lambri, you sail north about 150 miles, and then you come to two Islands, one of which is called NECUVERAN. In this Island they have no king nor chief, but live like beasts. And I tell you they go all naked, both men and women, and do not use the slightest covering of any kind. They are Idolaters. Their woods are all of noble and valuable kinds of trees; such as Red Sanders and Indian-nut and Cloves and Brazil and sundry other good spices. [NOTE 1]

There is nothing else worth relating; so we will go on, and I will tell you of an Island called Angamanain.

NOTE 1.–The end of the last chapter and the commencement of this I have taken from the G. Text. There has been some confusion in the notes of the original dictation which that represents, and corrections have made it worse. Thus Pauthier’s text runs: “I will tell you of two small Islands, one called Gauenispola and the other Necouran,” and then: “You sail north about 150 miles and find two Islands, one called Necouran and the other Gauenispola.” Ramusio does not mention Gauenispola, but says in the former passage: “I will tell you of a small Island called Nocueran”–and then: “You find two islands, one called Nocueran and the other Angaman.”

Knowing the position of Gauenispola there is no difficulty in seeing how the passage should be explained. Something has interrupted the dictation after the last chapter. Polo asks Rusticiano, “Where were we?” “Leaving the Great Island.” Polo forgets the “very small Island called Gauenispola,” and passes to the north, where he has to tell us of two islands, “one called Necuveran and the other Angamanain.” So, I do not doubt, the passage should run.

Let us observe that his point of departure in sailing north to the Nicobar Islands was the _Kingdom of Lambri_. This seems to indicate that Lambri included Achin Head or came very near it, an indication which we shall presently see confirmed.

As regards Gauenispola, of which he promised to tell us and forgot his promise, its name has disappeared from our modern maps, but it is easily traced in the maps of the 16th and 17th centuries, and in the books of navigators of that time. The latest in which I have observed it is the _Neptune Oriental_, Paris 1775, which calls it _Pulo Gommes_. The name is there applied to a small island off Achin Head, outside of which lie the somewhat larger Islands of Pulo Nankai (or Nasi) and Pulo Bras, whilst Pulo Wai lies further east.[1] I imagine, however, that the name was by the older navigators applied to the larger Island of Pulo Bras, or to the whole group. Thus Alexander Hamilton, who calls it _Gomus_ and _Pulo Gomuis_, says that “from the Island of Gomus and Pulo Wey … the southernmost of the Nicobars may be seen.” Dampier most precisely applies the name of Pulo Gomez to the larger island which modern charts call Pulo Bras. So also Beaulieu couples the islands of “_Gomispoda_ and Pulo Way” in front of the roadstead of Achin. De Barros mentions that Gaspar d’Acosta was lost on the Island of _Gomispola_. Linschoten, describing the course from Cochin to Malacca, says: “You take your course towards the small Isles of GOMESPOLA, which are in 6 deg., near the corner of Achin in the Island of Sumatra.” And the Turkish author of the _Mohit_, in speaking of the same navigation, says: “If you wish to reach Malacca, guard against seeing JAMISFULAH ([Arabic]), because the mountains of LAMRI advance into the sea, and the flood is there very strong.” The editor has misunderstood the geography of this passage, which evidently means “Don’t go near enough to Achin Head to see even the islands in front of it.” And here we see again that Lambri is made to extend to Achin Head. The passage is illustrated by the report of the first English Voyage to the Indies. Their course was for the Nicobars, but “by the Master’s fault in not duly observing the South Star, they fell to the southward of them, _within sight of the Islands of Gomes Polo_.” (_Nept. Orient._ Charts 38 and 39, and pp. 126-127; _Hamilton_, II. 66 and Map; _Dampier_, ed. 1699, II. 122; _H. Gen. des Voyages_, XII. 310; _Linschoten_, Routier, p. 30; _De Barros_, Dec. III. liv. iii. cap. 3; _J.A.S.B._ VI. 807; _Astley_, I. 238.)

The two islands (or rather groups of islands) _Necuveran_ and _Angamanain_ are the Nicobar and Andaman groups. A nearer trace of the form Necuveran, or _Necouran_ as it stands in some MSS., is perhaps preserved in _Nancouri_, the existing name of one of the islands. They are perhaps the _Nalo-kilo-cheu_ (_Narikela-dvipa_) or Coco-nut Islands of which Hiuen Tsang speaks as existing some thousand _li_ to the south of Ceylon. The men, he had heard, were but 3 feet high, and had the beaks of birds. They had no cultivation and lived on coco-nuts. The islands are also believed to be the _Lanja balus_ or _Lankha balus_ of the old Arab navigators: “These Islands support a numerous population. Both men and women go naked, only the women wear a girdle of the leaves of trees. When a ship passes near, the men come out in boats of various sizes and barter ambergris and coco-nuts for iron,” a description which has applied accurately for many centuries. [Ibn Khordadhbeh says (_De Goeje’s transl._, p. 45) that the inhabitants of Nicobar (Alankabalous), an island situated at ten or fifteen days from Serendib, are naked; they live on bananas, fresh fish, and coco-nuts; the precious metal is iron in their country; they frequent foreign merchants.–H.C.] Rashiduddin writes of them nearly in the same terms under the name of _Lakvaram_, but read NAKAVARAM opposite LAMURI. Odoric also has a chapter on the island of _Nicoveran_, but it is one full of fable. (_H. Tsang_, III. 114 and 517; _Relations_, p. 8; _Elliot_, I. p. 71; _Cathay_, p. 97.)

[Mr. G. Phillips writes (_J.R.A.S._, July 1895, P. 529) that the name Tsui-lan given to the Nicobars by the Chinese is, he has but little doubt, “a corruption of Nocueran, the name given by Marco Polo to the group. The characters Tsui-lan are pronounced Ch’ui-lan in Amoy, out of which it is easy to make Cueran. The Chinese omitted the initial syllable and called them the Cueran Islands, while Marco Polo called them the Nocueran Islands.”–H.C.]

[The Nicobar Islands “are generally known by the Chinese under the name of _Rakchas_ or Demons who devour men, from the belief that their inhabitants were anthropophagi. In A.D. 607, the Emperor of China, Yang-ti, had sent an envoy to Siam, who also reached the country of the Rakchas. According to _Tu-yen’s T’ung-tien_, the Nicobars lie east [west] of Poli. Its inhabitants are very ugly, having red hair, black bodies, teeth like beasts, and claws like hawks. Sometimes they traded with _Lin-yih_ (Champa), but then at night; in day-time they covered their faces.” (_G. Schlegel, Geog. Notes_, I. pp. 1-2).–H.C.]

Mr. Phillips, from his anonymous Chinese author, gives a quaint legend as to the nakedness of these islanders. Sakya Muni, having arrived from Ceylon, stopped at the islands to bathe. Whilst he was in the water the natives stole his clothes, upon which the Buddha cursed them; and they have never since been able to wear any clothing without suffering for it.

[Professor Schlegel gives the same legend (_Geog. Notes_, I. p. 8) with reference to the _Andaman_ Islands from the _Sing-ch’a Sheng-lan_, published in 1436 by Fei-sin; Mr. Phillips seems to have made a confusion between the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. (_Doolittle’s Vocab._ II. p. 556; cf. _Schlegel_, l.c. p. 11.)–H.C.]

The chief part of the population is believed to be of race akin to the Malay, but they seem to be of more than one race, and there is great variety in dialect. There have long been reports of a black tribe with woolly hair in the unknown interior of the Great Nicobar, and my friend Colonel H. Man, when Superintendent of our Andaman Settlements, received spontaneous corroboration of this from natives of the former island, who were on a visit to Port Blair. Since this has been in type I have seen in the _F. of India_ (28th July, 1874) notice of a valuable work by F.A. de Roepstorff on the dialects and manners of the Nicobarians. This notice speaks of an aboriginal race called _Shob’aengs_, “purely Mongolian,” but does not mention negritoes. The natives do not now go quite naked; the men wear a narrow cloth; and the women a grass girdle. They are very skilful in management of their canoes. Some years since there were frightful disclosures regarding the massacre of the crews of vessels touching at these islands, and this has led eventually to their occupation by the Indian Government. Trinkat and Nancouri are the islands which were guilty. A woman of Trinkat who could speak Malay was examined by Colonel Man, and she acknowledged having seen nineteen vessels scuttled, after their cargoes had been plundered and their crews massacred. “The natives who were captured at Trinkat,” says Colonel Man in another letter, “were a most savage-looking set, with remarkably long arms, and very projecting eye-teeth.”

The islands have always been famous for the quality and abundance of their “Indian Nuts,” i.e. cocos. The tree of next importance to the natives is a kind of Pandanus, from the cooked fruit of which they express an edible substance called Melori, of which you may read in Dampier; they have the betel and areca; and they grow yams, but only for barter. As regards the other vegetation, mentioned by Polo, I will quote, what Colonel Man writes to me from the Andamans, which probably is in great measure applicable to the Nicobars also! “Our woods are very fine, and doubtless resemble those of the Nicobars. Sapan wood (i.e. Polo’s _Brazil_) is in abundance; coco-nuts, so numerous in the Nicobars, and to the north in the Cocos, are not found naturally with us, though they grow admirably when cultivated. There is said to be sandal-wood in our forests, and camphor, but I have not yet come across them. I do not believe in _cloves_, but we have lots of the wild nutmeg.”[2] The last, and cardamoms, are mentioned in the _Voyage of the Novara_, vol. ii., in which will be found a detail of the various European attempts to colonise the Nicobar Islands with other particulars. (See also _J.A.S.B._ XV. 344 seqq.) [See _Schlegel’s Geog. Notes_, XVI., _The Old States in the Island of Sumatra._–H.C.]

[1] It was a mistake to suppose the name had disappeared, for it is applied, in the form _Pulo Gaimr_, to the small island above indicated, in Colonel Versteeg’s map to Veth’s _Atchin_ (1873). In a map chiefly borrowed from that, in _Ocean Highways_, August, 1873, I have ventured to restore the name as _Pulo Gomus_. The name is perhaps (Mal.) _Gamas_, “hard, rough.”

[2] Kurz’s _Vegetation of the Andaman Islands_ gives four _myristicae_ (nutmegs); but no sandal-wood nor camphor-laurel. Nor do I find sappan-wood, though there is another Caesalpinia (_C. Nuga_).

CHAPTER XIII.

CONCERNING THE ISLAND OF ANGAMANAIN.

Angamanain is a very large Island. The people are without a king and are Idolaters, and no better than wild beasts. And I assure you all the men of this Island of Angamanain have heads like dogs, and teeth and eyes likewise; in fact, in the face they are all just like big mastiff dogs! They have a quantity of spices; but they are a most cruel generation, and eat everybody that they can catch, if not of their own race.[NOTE 1] They live on flesh and rice and milk, and have fruits different from any of ours.

Now that I have told you about this race of people, as indeed it was highly proper to do in this our book, I will go on to tell you about an Island called Seilan, as you shall hear.

NOTE 1.–Here Marco speaks of the remarkable population of the Andaman Islands–Oriental negroes in the lowest state of barbarism–who have remained in their isolated and degraded condition, so near the shores of great civilised countries, for so many ages. “Rice and milk” they have not, and their fruits are only wild ones.

[From the _Sing-ch’a Sheng-lan_ quoted by Professor Schlegel (_Geog. Notes_, I. p. 8) we learn that these islanders have neither “rice or corn, but only descend into the sea and catch fish and shrimps in their nets; they also plant Banians and Cocoa-trees for their food.”–H.C.]

I imagine our traveller’s form _Angamanain_ to be an Arabic (oblique) dual–“The two ANDAMANS,” viz. The Great and The Little, the former being in truth a chain of three islands, but so close and nearly continuous as to form apparently one, and to be named as such.

[Illustration: The Borus. (From a Manuscript.)]

[Professor Schlegel writes (_Geog. Notes._ I. p. 12): “This etymology is to be rejected because the old Chinese transcription gives _So_–(or _Sun_) _daman_…. The _Pien-i-tien_ (ch. 107, I. fol. 30) gives a description of Andaman, here called _An-to-man kwoh_, quoted from the _San-tsai Tu-hwui_.”–H.C.]

The origin of the name seems to be unknown. The only person to my knowledge who has given a meaning to it is Nicolo Conti, who says it means “Island of Gold”; probably a mere sailor’s yarn. The name, however, is very old, and may perhaps be traced in Ptolemy; for he names an island of cannibals called that of _Good Fortune_, [Greek: Agathou daimonos]. It seems probable enough that this was [Greek: Agdaimouos Naesos], or the like, “The Angdaman Island,” misunderstood. His next group of Islands is the _Barussae_, which seems again to be the Lankha _Balus_ of the oldest Arab navigators, since these are certainly the Nicobars. [The name first appears distinctly in the Arab narratives of the 9th century. (_Yule, Hobson-Jobson_.)]

The description of the natives of the Andaman Islands in the early Arab _Relations_ has been often quoted, but it is too like our traveller’s account to be omitted: “The inhabitants of these islands eat men alive. They are black with woolly hair, and in their eyes and countenance there is something quite frightful…. They go naked, and have no boats. If they had they would devour all who passed near them. Sometimes ships that are wind-bound, and have exhausted their provision of water, touch here and apply to the natives for it; in such cases the crew sometimes fall into the hands of the latter, and most of them are massacred” (p. 9).

[Illustration: The Cynocephali. (From the _Livre des Merveilles_.)]

The traditional charge of cannibalism against these people used to be very persistent, though it is generally rejected since our settlement upon the group in 1858. Mr. Logan supposes the report was cherished by those who frequented the islands for edible birds’ nests, in order to keep the monopoly. Of their murdering the crews of wrecked vessels, like their Nicobar neighbours, I believe there is no doubt; and it has happened in our own day. Cesare Federici, in Ramusio, speaks of the terrible fate of crews wrecked on the Andamans; all such were killed and eaten by the natives, who refused all intercourse with strangers. A. Hamilton mentions a friend of his who was wrecked on the islands; nothing more was ever heard of the ship’s company, “which gave ground to conjecture that they were all devoured by those savage cannibals.”

They do not, in modern times, I believe, in their canoes, quit their own immediate coast, but Hamilton says they used, in his time, to come on forays to the Nicobar Islands; and a paper in the _Asiatic Researches_ mentions a tradition to the same effect as existing on the Car Nicobar. They have retained all the aversion to intercourse anciently ascribed to them, and they still go naked as of old, the utmost exception being a leaf-apron worn by the women near the British Settlement.

The Dog-head feature is at least as old as Ctesias. The story originated, I imagine, in the disgust with which “allophylian” types of countenance are regarded, kindred to the feeling which makes the Hindus and other eastern nations represent the aborigines whom they superseded as demons. The Cubans described the Caribs to Columbus as man-eaters with dogs’ muzzles; and the old Danes had tales of Cynocephali in Finland. A curious passage from the Arab geographer Ibn Said pays an ambiguous compliment to the forefathers of Moltke and Von Roon: “The _Borus_ (Prussians) are a miserable people, and still more savage than the Russians….. One reads in some books _that the _Borus _have dogs’ faces; it is a way of saying that they are very brave”_ Ibn Batuta describes an Indo-Chinese tribe on the coast of Arakan or Pegu as having dogs’ mouths, but says the _women_ were beautiful. Friar Jordanus had heard the same of the dog-headed islanders. And one odd form of the story, found, strange to say, both in China and diffused over Ethiopia, represents the males as _actual_ dogs