The Travels of Marco Polo, by Marco Polo and Rustichello of

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CHAPTER XXI. CONCERNING THE CITY OF CAIL.

Cail is a great and noble city, and belongs to ASHAR, the eldest of the five brother Kings. It is at this city that all the ships touch that come from the west, as from Hormos and from Kis and from Aden, and all Arabia, laden with horses and with other things for sale. And this brings a great concourse of people from the country round about, and so there is great business done in this city of Cail.[NOTE 1]

The King possesses vast treasures, and wears upon his person great store of rich jewels. He maintains great state and administers his kingdom with great equity, and extends great favour to merchants and foreigners, so that they are very glad to visit his city.[NOTE 2]

This King has some 300 wives; for in those parts the man who has most wives is most thought of.

As I told you before, there are in this great province of Maabar five crowned Kings, who are all own brothers born of one father and of one mother, and this king is one of them. Their mother is still living. And when they disagree and go forth to war against one another, their mother throws herself between them to prevent their fighting. And should they persist in desiring to fight, she will take a knife and threaten that if they will do so she will cut off the paps that suckled them and rip open the womb that bare them, and so perish before their eyes. In this way hath she full many a time brought them to desist. But when she dies it will most assuredly happen that they will fall out and destroy one another.[NOTE 3]

[All the people of this city, as well as of the rest of India, have a custom of perpetually keeping in the mouth a certain leaf called Tembul, to gratify a certain habit and desire they have, continually chewing it and spitting out the saliva that it excites. The Lords and gentlefolks and the King have these leaves prepared with camphor and other aromatic spices, and also mixt with quicklime. And this practice was said to be very good for the health.[NOTE 4] If any one desires to offer a gross insult to another, when he meets him he spits this leaf or its juice in his face. The other immediately runs before the King, relates the insult that has been offered him, and demands leave to fight the offender. The King supplies the arms, which are sword and target, and all the people flock to see, and there the two fight till one of them is killed. They must not use the point of the sword, for this the King forbids.][NOTE 5]

NOTE 1.—KAIL, now forgotten, was long a famous port on the coast of what is now the Tinnevelly District of the Madras Presidency. It is mentioned as a port of Ma'bar by our author's contemporary Rashiduddin, though the name has been perverted by careless transcription into Báwal and Kábal. (See Elliot, I. pp. 69, 72.) It is also mistranscribed as Kábil in Quatremère's publication of Abdurrazzák, who mentions it as "a place situated opposite the island of Serendib, otherwise called Ceylon," and as being the extremity of what he was led to regard as Malabar (p. 19). It is mentioned as Cahila, the site of the pearl-fishery, by Nicolo Conti (p. 7). The Roteiro of Vasco da Gama notes it as Caell, a state having a Mussulman King and a Christian (for which read Káfir) people. Here were many pearls. Giovanni d'Empoli notices it (Gael) also for the pearl-fishery, as do Varthema and Barbosa. From the latter we learn that it was still a considerable seaport, having rich Mahomedan merchants, and was visited by many ships from Malabar, Coromandel, and Bengal. In the time of the last writers it belonged to the King of Kaulam, who generally resided at Kail.

The real site of this once celebrated port has, I believe, till now never been identified in any published work. I had supposed the still existing Káyalpattanam to have been in all probability the place, and I am again indebted to the kindness of the Rev. Dr. Caldwell for conclusive and most interesting information on this subject. He writes:

"There are no relics of ancient greatness in Káyalpattanam, and no traditions of foreign trade, and it is admitted by its inhabitants to be a place of recent origin, which came into existence after the abandonment of the true Káyal. They state also that the name of Káyalpattanam has only recently been given to it, as a reminiscence of the older city, and that its original name was Sônagarpattanam.[1] There is another small port in the same neighbourhood, a little to the north of Káyalpattanam, called Pinna Cael in the maps, properly Punnei-Káyal, from Punnei, the Indian Laurel; but this is also a place of recent origin, and many of the inhabitants of this place, as of Káyalpattanam, state that their ancestors came originally from Káyal, subsequently to the removal of the Portuguese from that place to Tuticorin.

"The Cail of Marco Polo, commonly called in the neighbourhood Old Káyal, and erroneously named Koil in the Ordnance Map of India, is situated on the Tâmraparnî River, about a mile and a half from its mouth. The Tamil word káyal means 'a backwater, a lagoon,' and the map shows the existence of a large number of these káyals or backwaters near the mouth of the river. Many of these kayals have now dried up more or less completely, and in several of them salt-pans have been established. The name of Káyal was naturally given to a town erected on the margin of a káyal; and this circumstance occasioned also the adoption of the name of Punnei Káyal, and served to give currency to the name of Káyalpattanam assumed by Sônagarpattanam, both those places being in the vicinity of kayals.

"KAYAL stood originally on or near the sea-beach, but it is now about a mile and a half inland, the sand carried down by the river having silted up the ancient harbour, and formed a waste sandy tract between the sea and the town. It has now shrunk into a petty village, inhabited partly by Mahommedans and partly by Roman Catholic fishermen of the Parava caste, with a still smaller hamlet adjoining inhabited by Brahmans and Vellalars; but unlikely as the place may now seem to have been identical with 'the great and noble city' described by Marco Polo, its identity is established by the relics of its ancient greatness which it still retains. Ruins of old fortifications, temples, storehouses, wells and tanks, are found everywhere along the coast for two or three miles north of the village of Kayal, and a mile and a half inland; the whole plain is covered with broken tiles and remnants of pottery, chiefly of China manufacture, and several mounds are apparent, in which, besides the shells of the pearl-oyster and broken pottery, mineral drugs (cinnabar, brimstone, etc.), such as are sold in the bazaars of sea-port towns, and a few ancient coins have been found. I send you herewith an interesting coin discovered in one of those mounds by Mr. R. Puckle, collector of Tinnevelly.[2]

"The people of the place have forgotten the existence of any trade between Kayal and China, though the China pottery that lies all about testifies to its existence at some former period; but they retain a distinct tradition of its trade with the Arabian and Persian coasts, as vouched for by Marco Polo, that trade having in some degree survived to comparatively recent times…. Captain Phipps, the Master Attendant at Tuticorin, says: 'The roadstead of Old Cael (Káyal) is still used by native craft when upon the coast and meeting with south winds, from which it is sheltered. The depth of water is 16 to 14 feet; I fancy years ago it was deeper…. There is a surf on the bar at the entrance (of the river), but boats go through it at all times.'

* * * * *

"I am tempted to carry this long account of Kayal a little further, so as to bring to light the Kolkhoi [[Greek: kólchoi empórion]] of the Greek merchants, the situation of the older city being nearly identical with that of the more modern one. Kolkhoi, described by Ptolemy and the author of the Periplus as an emporium of the pearl-trade, as situated on the sea-coast to the east of Cape Comorin, and as giving its name to the Kolkhic Gulf or Gulf of Manaar, has been identified by Lassen with Keelkarei; but this identification is merely conjectural, founded on nothing better than a slight apparent resemblance in the names. Lassen could not have failed to identify Kolkhoi with KORKAI, the mother-city of Kayal, if he had been acquainted with its existence and claims. Korkai, properly KOLKAI (the l being changed into r by a modern refinement—it is still called Kolka in Malayalam), holds an important place in Tamil traditions, being regarded as the birthplace of the Pandyan Dynasty, the place where the princes of that race ruled previously to their removal to Madura. One of the titles of the Pandyan Kings is 'Ruler of Korkai.' Korkai is situated two or three miles inland from Kayal, higher up the river. It is not marked in the Ordnance Map of India, but a village in the immediate neighbourhood of it, called Mâramangalam, 'the Good-fortune of the Pandyas,' will be found in the map. This place, together with several others in the neighbourhood, on both sides of the river, is proved by inscriptions and relics to have been formerly included in Korkai, and the whole intervening space between Korkai and Kayal exhibits traces of ancient dwellings. The people of Kayal maintain that their city was originally so large as to include Korkai, but there is much more probability in the tradition of the people of Korkai, which is to the effect that Korkai itself was originally a sea-port; that as the sea retired it became less and less suitable for trade, that Kayal rose as Korkai fell, and that at length, as the sea continued to retire, Kayal also was abandoned. They add that the trade for which the place was famous in ancient times was the trade in pearls." In an article in the Madras Journal (VII. 379) it is stated that at the great Siva Pagoda at Tinnevelly the earth used ceremonially at the annual festival is brought from Korkai, but no position is indicated.

NOTE 2.—Dr. Caldwell again brings his invaluable aid:—

"Marco Polo represents Kayal as being governed by a king whom he calls Asciar (a name which you suppose to be intended to be pronounced Ashar), and says that this king of Kayal was the elder brother of Sonderbandi, the king of that part of the district of Maabar where he landed. There is a distinct tradition, not only amongst the people now inhabiting Kayal, but in the district of Tinnevelly generally, that Kayal, during the period of its greatness, was ruled by a king. This king is sometimes spoken of as one of 'the Five Kings' who reigned in various parts of Tinnevelly, but whether he was independent of the King of Madura, or only a viceroy, the people cannot now say…. The tradition of the people of Kayal is that … Sûr-Raja was the name of the last king of the place. They state that this last king was a Mahommedan, … but though Sûr-Raja does not sound like the name of a Mahommedan prince, they all agree in asserting that this was his name…. Can this Sûr be the person whom Marco calls Asciar? Probably not, as Asciar seems to have been a Hindu by religion. I have discovered what appears to be a more probable identification in the name of a prince mentioned in an inscription on the walls of a temple at Sri-Vaikuntham, a town on the Tamraparni R., about 20 miles from Kayal. In the inscription in question a donation to the temple is recorded as having been given in the time of 'Asadia-deva called also Surya-deva' This name 'Asadia' is neither Sanskrit nor Tamil; and as the hard d is often changed into r, Marco's Ashar may have been an attempt to render this Asad. If this Asadia or Surya-deva were really Sundara-pandi-deva's brother, he must have ruled over a narrow range of country, probably over Kayal alone, whilst his more eminent brother was alive; for there is an inscription on the walls of a temple at Sindamangalam, a place only a few miles from Kayal, which records a donation made to the place 'in the reign of Sundara-pandi-deva.'"[3]

NOTE 3.—["O aljofar, e perolas, que me manda que lha enuic, nom as posso auer, que as ha em Ceylão e Caille, que são as fontes dellas: compralashia do meu sangue, a do meu dinheiro, que o tenho porque vós me daes." (Letter of the Viceroy Dom Francisco to the King, Anno de 1508). (G. Correa, Lendas da India, I. pp. 908-909.)—Note by Yule.]

NOTE 4.—Tembúl is the Persian name for the betel-leaf or pán, from the Sanskrit Támbúla. The latter is also used in Tamul, though Vettilei is the proper Tamul word, whence Betel (Dr. Caldwell). Marsden supposes the mention of camphor among the ingredients with which the pán is prepared to be a mistake, and suggests as a possible origin of the error that kápúr in the Malay language means not only camphor but quicklime. This is curious, but in addition to the fact that the lime is mentioned in the text, there seems ample evidence that his doubt about camphor is unfounded.

Garcia de Orta says distinctly: "In chewing betre … they mix areca with it and a little lime…. Some add Licio (i.e. catechu), but the rich and grandees add some Borneo camphor, and some also lign-aloes, musk, and ambergris" (31 v. and 32). Abdurrazzák also says: "The manner of eating it is as follows: They bruise a portion of faufel (areca), otherwise called sipari, and put it in the mouth. Moistening a leaf of the betel, together with a grain of lime, they rub the one upon the other, roll them together, and then place them in the mouth. They thus take as many as four leaves of betel at a time and chew them. Sometimes they add camphor to it" (p. 32). And Abúl Fazl: "They also put some betel-nut and kath (catechu) on one leaf, and some lime-paste on another, and roll them up; this is called a berah. Some put camphor and musk into it, and tie both leaves with a silk thread," etc. (See Blochmann's Transl. p. 73.) Finally one of the Chinese notices of Kamboja, translated by Abel Rémusat, says: "When a guest comes it is usual to present him with areca, camphor, and other aromatics." (Nouv. Mél. I. 84.)

[Illustration: Map showing the position of the Kingdom of ELY in MALABAR]

[Illustration: Sketch showing the position of KÁYAL in TINNEVELLY]

NOTE 5.—This is the only passage of Ramusio's version, so far as I know, that suggests interpolation from a recent author, as distinguished from mere editorial modification. There is in Barbosa a description of the duello as practised in Canara, which is rather too like this one.

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Notes:

[1] "Sônagar or Jônagar is a Tamil corruption of Yavanar, the Yavanas, the name by which the Arabs were known, and is the name most commonly used in the Tamil country to designate the mixed race descended from Arab colonists, who are called Mâpillas on the Malabar coast, and Lubbies in the neighbourhood of Madras." (Dr. C.'s note)

[2] I am sorry to say that the coin never reached its destination. In the latter part of 1872 a quantity of treasure was found near Káyal by the labourers on irrigation works. Much of it was dispersed without coming under intelligent eyes, and most of the coins recovered were Arabic. One, however, is stated to have been a coin of "Joanna of Castille, A.D. 1236." (Allen's India Mail, 5th January, 1874.) There is no such queen. Qu. Joanna I. of Navarre (1274-1276)? or Joanna II. of Navarre (1328-1336)?

[3] See above, p. 334, as to Dr. Caldwell's view of Polo's Sonderbandi. May not Ashar very well represent Áshádha, "invincible," among the applications of which Williams gives "N. of a prince". I observe also that Áschar (Sansk. Áschariya "marvellous") is the name of one of the objects of worship in the dark Sakti system, once apparently potent in S. India. (See Taylor's Catalogue Raisonné, II. 414, 423, 426, 443, and remark p. xlix.)

["Ils disent donc que Dieu qu'ils appellent Achar, c'est-à-dire, immobile ou immuable." (F. Bernier, Voy., ed. 1699, II. p. 134.)—MS. Note.—H.Y.]

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CHAPTER XXII. OF THE KINGDOM OF COILUM.

When you quit Maabar and go 500 miles towards the south-west you come to the kingdom of COILUM. The people are Idolaters, but there are also some Christians and some Jews. The natives have a language of their own, and a King of their own, and are tributary to no one.[NOTE 1]

A great deal of brazil is got here which is called brazil Coilumin from the country which produces it; 'tis of very fine quality.[NOTE 2] Good ginger also grows here, and it is known by the same name of Coilumin after the country.[NOTE 3] Pepper too grows in great abundance throughout this country, and I will tell you how. You must know that the pepper-trees are (not wild but) cultivated, being regularly planted and watered; and the pepper is gathered in the months of May, June, and July. They have also abundance of very fine indigo. This is made of a certain herb which is gathered, and [after the roots have been removed] is put into great vessels upon which they pour water and then leave it till the whole of the plant is decomposed. They then put this liquid in the sun, which is tremendously hot there, so that it boils and coagulates, and becomes such as we see it. [They then divide it into pieces of four ounces each, and in that form it is exported to our parts.] [NOTE 4] And I assure you that the heat of the sun is so great there that it is scarcely to be endured; in fact if you put an egg into one of the rivers it will be boiled, before you have had time to go any distance, by the mere heat of the sun!

The merchants from Manzi, and from Arabia, and from the Levant come thither with their ships and their merchandise and make great profits both by what they import and by what they export.

There are in this country many and divers beasts quite different from those of other parts of the world. Thus there are lions black all over, with no mixture of any other colour; and there are parrots of many sorts, for some are white as snow with red beak and feet, and some are red, and some are blue, forming the most charming sight in the world; there are green ones too. There are also some parrots of exceeding small size, beautiful creatures.[NOTE 5] They have also very beautiful peacocks, larger than ours, and different; and they have cocks and hens quite different from ours; and what more shall I say? In short, everything they have is different from ours, and finer and better. Neither is their fruit like ours, nor their beasts, nor their birds; and this difference all comes of the excessive heat.

Corn they have none but rice. So also their wine they make from [palm-] sugar; capital drink it is, and very speedily it makes a man drunk. All other necessaries of man's life they have in great plenty and cheapness. They have very good astrologers and physicians. Man and woman, they are all black, and go naked, all save a fine cloth worn about the middle. They look not on any sin of the flesh as a sin. They marry their cousins german, and a man takes his brother's wife after the brother's death; and all the people of India have this custom.[NOTE 6]

There is no more to tell you there; so we will proceed, and I will tell you of another country called Comari.

NOTE 1.—Futile doubts were raised by Baldelli Boni and Hugh Murray as to the position of COILUM, because of Marco's mentioning it before Comari or Cape Comorin; and they have insisted on finding a Coilum to the east of that promontory. There is, however, in reality, no room for any question on this subject. For ages Coilum, Kaulam, or, as we now write it, Quilon, and properly Kollam, was one of the greatest ports of trade with Western Asia.[1] The earliest mention of it that I can indicate is in a letter written by the Nestorian Patriarch, Jesujabus of Adiabene, who died A.D. 660, to Simon Metropolitan of Fars, blaming his neglect of duty, through which he says, not only is India, "which extends from the coast of the Kingdom of Fars to COLON, a distance of 1200 parasangs, deprived of a regular ministry, but Fars itself is lying in darkness." (Assem. III. pt. ii. 437.) The same place appears in the earlier part of the Arab Relations (A.D. 851) as Kaulam-Malé, the port of India made by vessels from Maskat, and already frequented by great Chinese Junks.

Abulfeda defines the position of Kaulam as at the extreme end of Balad-ul-Falfal, i.e. the Pepper country or Malabar, as you go eastward, standing on an inlet of the sea, in a sandy plain, adorned with many gardens. The brazil-tree grew there, and the Mahomedans had a fine mosque and square. Ibn Batuta also notices the fine mosque, and says the city was one of the finest in Malabar, with splendid markets and rich merchants, and was the chief resort of the Chinese traders in India. Odoric describes it as "at the extremity of the Pepper Forest towards the south," and astonishing in the abundance of its merchandise. Friar Jordanus of Séverac was there as a missionary some time previous to 1328, in which year he was at home; [on the 21st of August, 1329, he] was nominated Bishop of the See of Kaulam, Latinised as Columbum or Columbus [created by John XXII. on the 9th of August of the same year—H.C.]. Twenty years later John Marignolli visited "the very noble city of Columbum, where the whole world's pepper is produced," and found there a Latin church of St. George, probably founded by Jordanus.[2] Kaulam or Coilon continued to be an important place to the beginning of the 16th century, when Varthema speaks of it as a fine port, and Barbosa as "a very great city," with a very good haven, and with many great merchants, Moors and Gentoos, whose ships traded to all the Eastern ports as far as Bengal, Pegu, and the Archipelago. But after this its decay must have been rapid, and in the following century it had sunk into entire insignificance. Throughout the Middle Ages it appears to have been one of the chief seats of the St. Thomas Christians. Indeed both it and Kayal were two out of the seven ancient churches which Indo Syrian tradition ascribed to St. Thomas himself.[3]

[Illustration: Ancient Christian Church at Parur on the Malabar coast. (After Claudius Buchanan.)]

I have been desirous to give some illustration of the churches of that interesting body, certain of which must date from a very remote period, but I have found unlooked for difficulties in procuring such illustration. Several are given in the Life of Dr. Claudius Buchanan from his own sketches, and a few others in the Life of Bishop D. Wilson. But nearly all represent the churches as they were perverted in the 17th century and since, by a coarse imitation of a style of architecture bad enough in its genuine form. I give, after Buchanan, the old church at Parur, not far from Cranganore, which had escaped masquerade, with one from Bishop Wilson's Life, showing the quasi Jesuit deformation alluded to, and an interior also from the latter work, which appears to have some trace of genuine character. Parur church is probably Palur, or Pazhur, which is one of those ascribed to St. Thomas, for Dr. Buchanan says it bears the name of the Apostle, and "is supposed to be the oldest in Malabar." (Christ. Res. p. 113.)

[Quilon is "one of the oldest towns on the coast, from whose re-foundation in 1019 A.D., Travancore reckons its era." (Hunter, Gaz., XI., p. 339.)—H.C.]

How Polo comes to mention Coilum before Comari is a question that will be treated further on, with other misplacements of like kind that occur in succeeding chapters.

[Illustration: Syrian Church at Caranyachirra (from "Life of Bp. D. Wilson"), showing the quasi-Jesuit façade generally adopted in modern times.]

[Illustration: Interior of Syrian Church at Kutteiyan in Travancore. (From "Life of Bp. D. Wilson.")]

Kúblái had a good deal of diplomatic intercourse of his usual kind with Kaulam. De Mailla mentions the arrival at T'swan chau (or Zayton) in 1282 of envoys from KIULAN, an Indian State, bringing presents of various rarities, including a black ape as big as a man. The Emperor had three times sent thither an officer called Yang Ting-pi (IX. 415). Some rather curious details of these missions are extracted by Pauthier from the Chinese Annals. The royal residence is in these called A-pu-'hota[4] The king is styled Pinati. I may note that Barbosa also tells us that the King of Kaulam was called Benate-deri (devar?). And Dr. Caldwell's kindness enables me to explain this title. Pinati or Benate represents Vénádan. "the Lord of the Venádu," or Venattu, that being the name of the district to which belonged the family of the old kings of Kollam, and Venádan being their regular dynastic name. The Rajas of Travancore who superseded the Kings of Kollam, and inherit their titles, are still poetically styled Venádan. (Pauthier, p. 603 seqq.; Ram. I. f. 304.)

NOTE 2.—The brazil-wood of Kaulam appears in the Commercial Handbook of Pegolotti (circa 1340) as Verzino Colombino, and under the same name in that of Giov. d'Uzzano a century later. Pegolotti in one passage details kinds of brazil under the names of Verzino salvatico, dimestico, and columbino. In another passage, where he enters into particulars as to the respective values of different qualities, he names three kinds, as Colomni, Ameri, and Seni, of which the Colomni (or Colombino) was worth a sixth more than the Ameri and three times as much as the Seni. I have already conjectured that Ameri may stand for Lameri referring to Lambri in Sumatra (supra ch. xi., note 1); and perhaps Seni is Sini or Chinese, indicating an article brought to India by the Chinese traders, probably from Siam.

We have seen in the last note that the Kaulam brazil is spoken of by Abulfeda; and Ibn Batuta, in describing his voyage by the back waters from Calicut to Kaulam, says: "All the trees that grow by this river are either cinnamon or brazil trees. They use these for firewood, and we cooked with them throughout our journey." Friar Odoric makes the same hyperbolic statement: "Here they burn brazil-wood for fuel."

It has been supposed popularly that the brazil-wood of commerce took its name from the great country so called; but the verzino of the old Italian writers is only a form of the same word, and bresil is in fact the word used by Polo. So Chaucer:—

"Him nedeth not his colour for to dien
With brazil, ne with grain of Portingale."
—The Nun's Priests Tale.

The Eastern wood in question is now known in commerce by its Malay name of Sappan (properly Sapang), which again is identical with the Tamil name Sappangi. This word properly means Japan, and seems to have been given to the wood as a supposed product of that region.[5] It is the wood of the Caesalpinia Sapan, and is known in Arabic (and in Hindustani) as Bakam. It is a thorny tree, indigenous in Western India from Goa to Trevandrum, and growing luxuriantly in South Malabar. It is extensively used by native dyers, chiefly for common and cheap cloths, and for fine mats. The dye is precipitated dark-brown with iron, and red with alum. It is said, in Western India, to furnish the red powder thrown about on the Hindu feast of the Húli. The tree is both wild and cultivated, and is grown rather extensively by the Mahomedans of Malabar, called Moplahs (Mapillas, see p. 372), whose custom it is to plant a number of seeds at the birth of a daughter. The trees require fourteen or fifteen years to come to maturity, and then become the girl's dowry.

Though to a great extent superseded by the kindred wood from Pernambuco, the sappan is still a substantial object of importation into England. That American dye-stuff which now bears the name of brazil-wood is believed to be the produce of at least two species of Caesalpinia, but the question seems to partake of the singular obscurity which hangs over the origin of so many useful drugs and dye-stuffs. The variety called Braziletto is from C. bahamensis, a native of the Bahamas.

The name of Brazil has had a curious history. Etymologists refer it to the colour of braise or hot coals, and its first application was to this dye-wood from the far East. Then it was applied to a newly-discovered tract of South America, perhaps because producing a kindred dye-wood in large quantities: finally the original wood is robbed of its name, which is monopolised by that imported from the new country. The Region of Brazil had been originally styled Santa Cruz, and De Barros attributes the change of name to the suggestion of the Evil One, "as if the name of a wood for colouring cloth were of more moment than that of the Wood which imbues the Sacraments with the tincture of Salvation."

There may perhaps be a doubt if the Land of Brazil derived its name from the dye-wood. For the Isle of Brazil, long before the discovery of America, was a name applied to an imaginary Island in the Atlantic. This island appears in the map of Andrea Bianco and in many others, down at least to Coronelli's splendid Venetian Atlas (1696); the Irish used to fancy that they could see it from the Isles of Arran; and the legend of this Island of Brazil still persisted among sailors in the last century.[6] The story was no doubt the same as that of the green Island, or Island of Youth, which Mr. Campbell tells us the Hebrideans see to the west of their own Islands. (See Pop. Tales of West Highlands, IV. 163. For previous references, Delia Decirna,, III. 298, 361; IV. 60; I.B. IV. 99; Cathay, p. 77; Note by Dr. H. Gleghorn; Marsh's ed. of Wedgwood's Etym. Dict. I. 123; Southey, H. of Brazil, I. 22.)

NOTE 3.—This is the Colombine ginger which appears not unfrequently in mediaeval writings. Pegolotti tells us that "ginger is of several sorts, to wit, Belledi, Colombino, and Mecchino. And these names are bestowed from the producing countries, at least this is the case with the Colombino and Mecchino, for the Belledi is produced in many districts of India. The Colombino grows in the Island of Colombo of India, and has a smooth, delicate, ash-coloured rind; whilst the Mecchino comes from the districts about Mecca and is a small kind, hard to cut," etc. (Delia Dec. III. 359.) A century later, in G. da Uzzano, we still find the Colombino and Belladi ginger (IV. 111, 210, etc.). The Baladi is also mentioned by Rashiduddin as an export of Guzerat, and by Barbosa and others as one of Calicut in the beginning of the 16th century. The Mecchino too is mentioned again in that era by a Venetian traveller as grown in the Island of Camran in the Red Sea. Both Columbine (gigembre columbin) and Baladi ginger (gig. baladit) appear among the purchases for King John of France, during his captivity in England. And we gather from his accounts that the price of the former was 13_d._ a pound, and of the latter 12_d._, sums representing three times the amount of silver that they now indicate, with a higher value of silver also, and hence equivalent to about 4_s._ and 4_s._ 4_d._ a pound. The term Baladi (Ar.), Indigenous or "Country" ginger, indicated ordinary qualities of no particular repute. The word Baladi seems to have become naturalised in Spanish with the meaning "of small value." We have noticed on a former occasion the decay of the demand for pepper in China. Ginger affords a similar example. This spice, so highly prized and so well known throughout Europe in the Middle Ages, I have found to be quite unknown by name and qualities to servants in Palermo of more than average intelligence. (Elliot, I. 67; Ramusio, I. f. 275, v. 323; Dozy and Engelm. pp. 232-233; Douet d'Arcq, p. 218; Philobiblon Soc. Miscellanies, vol. ii. p. 116.)

NOTE 4.—In Bengal Indigo factories artificial heat is employed to promote the drying of the precipitated dye; but this is not essential to the manufacture. Marco's account, though grotesque in its baldness, does describe the chief features of the manufacture of Indigo by fermentation. The branches are cut and placed stem upwards in the vat till it is three parts full; they are loaded, and then the vat is filled with water. Fermentation soon begins and goes on till in 24 hours the contents of the vat are so hot that the hand cannot be retained in it. This is what Marco ascribes to the sun's heat. The liquor is then drawn off to another cistern and there agitated; the indigo separates in flakes. A quantity of lime-water then is added, and the blue is allowed to subside. The clear water is drawn off; the sediment is drained, pressed, and cut into small squares, etc. (See Madras Journal, vol. viii. 198.)

Indigo had been introduced into Sicily by the Jews during the time of Frederick II., in the early part of Polo's century. Jews and Indigo have long vanished from Sicily. The dye is often mentioned in Pegolotti's Book; the finest quality being termed Indaco Baccadeo a corruption of Bághdádi. Probably it came from India by way of Baghdad. In the Barcelona Tariffs it appears as Indigo de Bagadel. Another quality often mentioned is Indigo di Golfo. (See Capmany, Memorias II. App. p. 73.) In the bye-laws of the London Painters' Guild of the 13th century, quoted by Sir F. Palgrave from the Liber Horne, it is forbidden to paint on gold or silver except with fine (mineral) colours, "e nient de brasil, ne de inde de Baldas, ne de nul autre mauveise couleur." (The Merchant and the Friar, p. xxiii.) There is now no indigo made or exported at Quilon, but there is still some feeble export of sappanwood, ginger, and pepper. These, and previous particulars as to the present Quilon, I owe to the kindness of Mr. Ballard, British Resident at Trevandrum.

NOTE 5.—Black Tigers and black Leopards are not very rare in Travancore (See Welsh's Mil. Reminiscences, II. 102.)

NOTE 6.—Probably founded on local or caste customs of marriage, several of which in South India are very peculiar; e.g., see Nelson's Madura, Pt. II. p. 51.

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Notes:

[1] The etymology of the name seems to be doubtful. Dr. Caldwell tells me it is an error to connect it (as in the first edition) with the word for a Tank, which is Kulam. The apparent meaning of Kollam is "slaughter," but he thinks the name is best explained as "Palace" or "Royal Residence."

[2] There is still a Syrian church of St. George at Quilon, and a mosque of some importance;—the representatives at least of those noted above, though no actual trace of antiquity of any kind remains at the place. A vague tradition of extensive trade with China yet survives. The form Columbum is accounted for by an inscription, published by the Prince of Travancore (Ind. Antiq. II. 360), which shows that the city was called in Sanskrit Kolamba. May not the real etymology be Sansk. Kolam, "Black Pepper"?

On the suggestion ventured in this note Dr. Caldwell writes:

"I fancy Kôla, a name for pepper in Sanskrit, may be derived from the name of the country Kôlam, North Malabar, which is much more celebrated for its pepper than the country around Quilon. This Kôlam, though resembling Kollam, is really a separate word, and never confounded with the latter by the natives. The prince of Kôlam (North Malabar) is called Kolastri or Kolattiri[A]. Compare also Kôlagiri, the name of a hill in the Sanskrit dictionaries, called also the Kôlla giri. The only possible derivations for the Tamil and Malayalim name of Quilon that I am acquainted with are these: (1) From Kolu, the 'Royal Presence' or presence-chamber, or hall of audience. Kollam might naturally be a derivation of this word; and in confirmation I find that other residences of Malabar kings were also called Kollam, e.g. Kodungalur or Cranganore. (2) From Kolu, the same word, but with the meaning 'a height' or 'high-ground'. Hence Kollei, a very common word in Tamil for a 'dry grain field, a back-yard'. Kolli is also, in the Tamil poets, said to be the name of a hill in the Chera country, i.e. the Malabar coast. Kôlam in Tamil has not the meaning of pepper; it means 'beauty', and it is said also to mean the fruit of the jujuba. (3) It might possibly be derived from Kol, to slay;—Kollam, slaughter, or a place where some slaughter happened … in the absence, however, of any tradition to this effect, this derivation seems improbable."

[A] see II. 387.

[3] Burnell.

[4] The translated passage about 'Apuhota is a little obscure. The name looks like Kapukada, which was the site of a palace north of Calicut (not in Kaulam), the Capucate of the Portuguese.

[5] Dr. Caldwell.

[6] Indeed, Humboldt speaks of Brazil Isle as appearing to the west of Ireland in a modern English map-Purdy's; but I do not know its date. (See Examen, etc., II. 244-245)

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CHAPTER XXIII. OF THE COUNTRY CALLED COMARI

Comari is a country belonging to India, and there you can see something of the North Star, which we had not been able to see from the Lesser Java thus far. In order to see it you must go some 30 miles out to sea, and then you see it about a cubit above the water.[NOTE 1]

This is a very wild country, and there are beasts of all kinds there, especially monkeys of such peculiar fashion that you would take them for men! There are also gatpauls[NOTE 2] in wonderful diversity, with bears, lions, and leopards, in abundance.

NOTE 1.—Kumári is in some versions of the Hindu cosmography the most southerly of the nine divisions of Jambodvipa, the Indian world. Polo's Comari can only be the country about Cape COMORIN, the [Greek: komária ákron] of Ptolemy, a name derived from the Sanskrit Kumári, "a Virgin," an appellation of the goddess Durgá. The monthly bathing in her honour, spoken of by the author of the Periplus, is still continued, though now the pilgrims are few. Abulfeda speaks of Rás Kumhari as the limit between Malabar and Ma'bar. Kumari is the Tamul pronunciation of the Sanskrit word and probably Comari was Polo's pronunciation.

At the beginning of the Portuguese era in India we hear of a small Kingdom of COMORI, the prince of which had succeeded to the kingdom of Kaulam. And this, as Dr. Caldwell points out, must have been the state which is now called Travancore. Kumari has been confounded by some of the Arabian Geographers, or their modern commentators, with Kumár, one of the regions supplying aloes-wood, and which was apparently Khmer or Kamboja. (Caldwell's Drav. Grammar, p. 67; Gildem. 185; Ram. I. 333.)

The cut that we give is, as far as I know, the first genuine view of Cape Comorin ever published.

[Mr. Talboys Wheeler, in his History of India, vol. iii. (p. 386), says of this tract:

"The region derives its name from a temple which was erected there in honour of Kumárí, 'the Virgin'; the infant babe who had been exchanged for Krishna, and ascended to heaven at the approach of Kansa." And in a note:

"Colonel Yule identifies Kumárí with Durgá. This is an error. The temple of Kumárí was erected by Krishna Raja of Narsinga, a zealous patron of the Vaishnavas."

Mr. Wheeler quotes Faria y Souza, who refers the object of worship to what is meant for this story (II. 394), but I presume from Mr. Wheeler's mention of the builder of the temple, which does not occur in the Portuguese history, that he has other information. The application of the Virgin title connected with the name of the place, may probably have varied with the ages, and, as there is no time to obtain other evidence, I have removed the words which identified the existing temple with that of Durgá. But my authority for identifying the object of worship, in whose honour the pilgrims bathe monthly at Cape Comorin, with Durgá, is the excellent one of Dr. Caldwell. (See his Dravidian Grammar as quoted in the passage above.) Krishna Raja of whom Mr. Wheeler speaks, reigned after the Portuguese were established in India, but it is not probable that the Krishna stories of that class were even known in the Peninsula (or perhaps anywhere else) in the time of the author of the Periplus, 1450 years before; and 'tis as little likely that the locality owed its name to Yasoda's Infant, as that it owed it to the Madonna in St. Francis Xavier's Church that overlooks the Cape.

Fra Paolino, in his unsatisfactory way (Viaggio, p. 68), speaks of Cape Comorin, "which the Indians call Canyamuri, Virginis Promontorium, or simply Comarí or Cumarí 'a Virgin,' because they pretend that anciently the goddess Comari 'the Damsel,' who is the Indian Diana or Hecate, used to bathe" etc. However, we can discover from his book elsewhere (see pp. 79, 285) that by the Indian Diana he means Párvatí, i.e. Durgá.

Lassen at first[1] identified the Kumárí of the Cape with Párvatí; but afterwards connected the name with a story in the Mahábhárata about certain Apsarases changed into Crocodiles.[2] On the whole there does not seem sufficient ground to deny that Párvatí was the original object of worship at Kumárí, though the name may have lent itself to various legends.]

[Illustration: Cape Comorin (From a sketch by Mr. Foote, of the Geological Survey of India)]

NOTE 2.—I have not been able to ascertain with any precision what animal is meant by Gat-paul. The term occurs again, coupled with monkeys as here, at p. 240 of the Geog. Text, where, speaking of Abyssinia, it is said: "Il ont gat paulz et autre gat-maimon si divisez," etc. Gatto maimone, for an ape of some kind, is common in old Italian, the latter part of the term, from the Pers. Maimún, being possibly connected with our Baboon. And that the Gat-paul was also some kind of ape is confirmed by the Spanish Dictionaries. Cobarrubias gives: "Gato-Paus, a kind of tailed monkey. Gato-paus, Gato pablo; perhaps as they call a monkey 'Martha,' they may have called this particular monkey 'Paul,'" etc. (f. 431 v.). So also the Diccion. de la Lengua Castellana comp. por la Real Academia (1783) gives: "Gato Paul, a kind of monkey of a grey colour, black muzzle and very broad tail." In fact, the word is used by Columbus, who, in his own account of his third voyage, describes a hill on the coast of Paria as covered with a species of Gatos Paulos. (See Navarrete, Fr. ed. III. 21, also 147-148.) It also occurs in Marmol, Desc. General de Affrica, who says that one kind of monkeys has a black face; "y estas comunemente se llaman en España Gatos Paules, las quales se crian en la tierra de los Negros" (I. f. 27). It is worth noting that the revisers of the text adopted by Pauthier have not understood the word. For they substitute for the "Il hi a gat paul si divisez qe ce estoit mervoille" of the Geog. Text, "et si a moult de granz paluz et moult grans pantains à merveilles"—wonderful swamps and marshes! The Pipino Latin has adhered to the correct reading—"Ibi sunt cati qui dicuntur pauli, valde diversi ab aliis."

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Notes:

[1] Ind. Alt. 1st ed. I. 158.

[2] Id. 564; and 2nd ed. I. 103.

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CHAPTER XXIV. CONCERNING THE KINGDOM OF ELI.

Eli is a kingdom towards the west, about 300 miles from Comari. The people are Idolaters and have a king, and are tributary to nobody; and have a peculiar language. We will tell you particulars about their manners and their products, and you will better understand things now because we are drawing near to places that are not so outlandish.[NOTE 1]

There is no proper harbour in the country, but there are many great rivers with good estuaries, wide and deep.[NOTE 2] Pepper and ginger grow there, and other spices in quantities.[NOTE 3] The King is rich in treasure, but not very strong in forces. The approach to his kingdom however is so strong by nature that no one can attack him, so he is afraid of nobody.

And you must know that if any ship enters their estuary and anchors there, having been bound for some other port, they seize her and plunder the cargo. For they say, "You were bound for somewhere else, and 'tis God has sent you hither to us, so we have a right to all your goods." And they think it no sin to act thus. And this naughty custom prevails all over these provinces of India, to wit, that if a ship be driven by stress of weather into some other port than that to which it was bound, it is sure to be plundered. But if a ship come bound originally to the place they receive it with all honour and give it due protection.[NOTE 4] The ships of Manzi and other countries that come hither in summer lay in their cargoes in 6 or 8 days and depart as fast as possible, because there is no harbour other than the river-mouth, a mere roadstead and sandbanks, so that it is perilous to tarry there. The ships of Manzi indeed are not so much afraid of these roadsteads as others are, because they have such huge wooden anchors which hold in all weather.[NOTE 5]

There are many lions and other wild beasts here and plenty of game, both beast and bird.

NOTE 1.—No city or district is now known by the name of ELY, but the name survives in that of Mount Dely, properly Monte d'ELY, the Yeli-mala of the Malabar people, and called also in the legends of the coast Sapta-shaila, or the Seven Hills. This is the only spur of the Gháts that reaches the sea within the Madras territory. It is an isolated and very conspicuous hill, or cluster of hills, forming a promontory some 16 miles north of Cananore, the first Indian land seen by Vasco da Gama, on that memorable August morning in 1498, and formerly very well known to navigators, though it has been allowed to drop out of some of our most ambitious modern maps. Abulfeda describes it as "a great mountain projecting into the sea, and descried from a great distance, called Ras Haili"; and it appears in Fra Mauro's map as Cavo de Eli.

Rashiduddin mentions "the country of Hili," between Manjarúr (Mangalore) and Fandaraina (miswritten in Elliot's copy Sadarsa). Ibn Batuta speaks of Hili, which he reached on leaving Manjarúr, as "a great and well-built city, situated on a large estuary accessible to great ships. The vessels of China come hither; this, Kaulam, and Kalikut, are the only ports that they enter." From Hili he proceeds 12 miles further down the coast to Jor-fattan, which probably corresponds to Baliapatan. ELLY appears in the Carta Catalana, and is marked as a Christian city. Nicolo Conti is the last to speak distinctly of the city. Sailing from Cambay, in 20 days he arrived at two cities on the sea-shore, Pacamuria (Faknúr, of Rashid and Firishta, Baccanor of old books, and now Bárkúr, the Malayálim Vákkanúr) and HELLI. But we read that in 1527 Simon de Melo was sent to burn ships in the River of Marabia and at Monte d'Elli.[1] When Da Gama on his second voyage was on his way from Baticala (in Canara) to Cananor, a squall having sprung his mainmast just before reaching Mt. d'Ely, "the captain-major anchored in the Bay of Marabia, because he saw there several Moorish ships, in order to get a mast from them." It seems clear that this was the bay just behind Mt. d'Ely.

Indeed the name of Marabia or Máráwí is still preserved in Mádávi or Mádái, corruptly termed Maudoy in some of our maps, a township upor the river which enters the bay about 7 or 8 miles south-east of Mt. d'Ely, and which is called by De Barros the Rio Marabia. Mr. Ballard informs me that he never heard of ruins of importance at Madai, but there is a place on the river just mentioned, and within the Madai township, called Payangádi ("Old Town"), which has the remains of an old fort of the Kolastri (or Kolatiri) Rajas. A palace at Madai (perhaps this fort) is alluded to by Dr. Gundert in the Madras Journal, and a Buddhist Vihara is spoken of in an old Malayalim poem as having existed at the same place. The same paper speaks of "the famous emporium of Cachilpatnam near Mt. d'Ely," which may have been our city of Hili, as the cities Hili and Marawi were apparently separate though near.[2]

[Illustration: Mount d'Ely, from the Sea, in last century.]

The state of Hílí-Máráwi is also mentioned in the Arabic work on the early history of the Mahomedans in Malabar, called Tuhfat-al-Mujáhidín, and translated by Rowlandson; and as the Prince is there called Kolturee, this would seem to identify him either in family or person with the Raja of Cananor, for that old dynasty always bore the name of Kolatiri.[3]

The Ramusian version of Barbosa is very defective here, but in Stanley's version (Hak. Soc. East African and Malabar Coasts, p. 149) we find the topography in a passage from a Munich MS. clear enough: "After passing this place" (the river of Nirapura or Nileshwaram) "along the coast is the mountain Dely (of Ely) on the edge of the sea; it is a round mountain, very lofty, in the midst of low land; all the ships of the Moors and Gentiles that navigate in this sea of India sight this mountain when coming from without, and make their reckoning by it; … after this, at the foot of the mountain to the south, is a town called Marave, very ancient and well off, in which live Moors and Gentiles and Jews; these Jews are of the language of the country; it is a long time that they have dwelt in this place."

(Stanley's Correa, Hak. Soc. pp. 145, 312-313; Gildem. p. 185; Elliot, I. 68; I.B. IV. 81; Conti, p. 6; Madras Journal, XIII. No. 31, pp. 14, 99, 102, 104; De Barros, III. 9, cap. 6, and IV. 2, cap. 13; De Couto, IV. 5, cap. 4.)

NOTE 2.—This is from Pauthier's text, and the map with ch. xxi. illustrates the fact of the many wide rivers. The G.T. has "a good river with a very good estuary" or mouth. The latter word is in the G.T. faces, afterwards more correctly foces, equivalent to fauces. We have seen that Ibn Batuta also speaks of the estuary or inlet at Hili. It may have been either that immediately east of Mount d'Ely, communicating with Kavváyi and the Nileshwaram River, or the Madai River. Neither could be entered by vessels now, but there have been great littoral changes. The land joining Mt. d'Ely to the main is mere alluvium.

NOTE 3.—Barbosa says that throughout the kingdom of Cananor the pepper was of excellent quality, though not in great quantity. There was much ginger, not first-rate, which was called Hely from its growing about Mount d'Ely, with cardamoms (names of which, Elá in Sanskrit, Hel Persian, I have thought might be connected with that of the hill), mirobolans, cassia fistula, zerumbet, and zedoary. The two last items are two species of curcuma, formerly in much demand as aromatics; the last is, I believe, the setewale of Chaucer:—

"There was eke wexing many a spice,
As clowe gilofre and Licorice,
Ginger and grein de Paradis,
Canell and setewale of pris,
And many a spice delitable
To eaten when men rise from table."—R. of the Rose.

The Hely ginger is also mentioned by Conti.

NOTE 4.—This piratical practice is noted by Abdurrazzak also: "In other parts (than Calicut) a strange practice is adopted. When a vessel sets sail for a certain point, and suddenly is driven by a decree of Divine Providence into another roadstead, the inhabitants, under the pretext that the wind has driven it thither, plunder the ship. But at Calicut every ship, whatever place it comes from, or wherever it may be bound, when it puts into this port, is treated like other vessels, and has no trouble of any kind to put up with" (p. 14). In 1673 Sivaji replied to the pleadings of an English embassy, that it was "against the Laws of Conchon" (Ptolemy's Pirate Coast!) "to restore any ships or goods that were driven ashore." (Fryer, p. 261.)

NOTE 5.—With regard to the anchors, Pauthier's text has just the opposite of the G.T. which we have preferred: "Les nefs du Manzi portent si grans ancres de fust, que il seuffrent moult de grans fortunes aus plajes" De Mailla says the Chinese consider their ironwood anchors to be much better than those of iron, because the latter are subject to strain. (Lett. Edif. XIV. 10.) Capt. Owen has a good word for wooden anchors. (Narr. of Voyages, etc., I. 385.)

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Notes:

[1] The Town of Monte d'Ely appears (Monte Dil) in Coronelli's Atlas (1690) from some older source. Mr. Burnell thinks Baliapatan (properly Valarpattanam) which is still a prosperous Máppila town, on a broad and deep river, must be Hili. I see a little difficulty in this. [Marabia at Monte Dely is often mentioned in Correa, as one of the ports of the Kingdom of Cananor.]

[2] Mr. Burnell thinks _Kachchil_pattanam must be an error (easy in Malayálim) for _Kavvil_pattanam, i.e. Kavváyi (Kanwai in our map).

[3] As printed by Rowlandson, the name is corrupt (like many others in the book), being given as Hubaee Murawee. But suspecting what this pointed to, I examined the MS. in the R.A. Society's Library. The knowledge of the Arabic character was quite sufficient to enable me to trace the name as [Arabic], Hílí Máráwi. (See Rowlandson, pp. 54, 58-59, and MS. pp. 23 and 26, also Indian Antiquary, III. p. 213.)

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CHAPTER XXV. CONCERNING THE KINGDOM OF MELIBAR.

Melibar is a great kingdom lying towards the west. The people are Idolaters; they have a language of their own, and a king of their own, and pay tribute to nobody.[NOTE 1]

In this country you see more of the North Star, for it shows two cubits above the water. And you must know that from this kingdom of Melibar, and from another near it called Gozurat, there go forth every year more than a hundred corsair vessels on cruize. These pirates take with them their wives and children, and stay out the whole summer. Their method is to join in fleets of 20 or 30 of these pirate vessels together, and then they form what they call a sea cordon,[NOTE 2] that is, they drop off till there is an interval of 5 or 6 miles between ship and ship, so that they cover something like an hundred miles of sea, and no merchant ship can escape them. For when any one corsair sights a vessel a signal is made by fire or smoke, and then the whole of them make for this, and seize the merchants and plunder them. After they have plundered them they let them go, saying: "Go along with you and get more gain, and that mayhap will fall to us also!" But now the merchants are aware of this, and go so well manned and armed, and with such great ships, that they don't fear the corsairs. Still mishaps do befall them at times.[NOTE 3]

There is in this kingdom a great quantity of pepper, and ginger, and cinnamon, and turbit, and of nuts of India.[NOTE 4] They also manufacture very delicate and beautiful buckrams. The ships that come from the east bring copper in ballast. They also bring hither cloths of silk and gold, and sendels; also gold and silver, cloves and spikenard, and other fine spices for which there is a demand here, and exchange them for the products of these countries.

Ships come hither from many quarters, but especially from the great province of Manzi.[NOTE 5] Coarse spices are exported hence both to Manzi and to the west, and that which is carried by the merchants to Aden goes on to Alexandria, but the ships that go in the latter direction are not one to ten of those that go to the eastward; a very notable fact that I have mentioned before.

Now I have told you about the kingdom of Melibar; we shall now proceed and tell you of the kingdom of Gozurat. And you must understand that in speaking of these kingdoms we note only the capitals; there are great numbers of other cities and towns of which we shall say nothing, because it would make too long a story to speak of all.

NOTE 1.—Here is another instance of that confusion which dislocates Polo's descriptions of the Indian coast; we shall recur to it under ch. xxx.

Malabar is a name given by the Arabs, and varies in its form: Ibn Batuta and Kazwini write it [Arabic], al-Malíbár, Edrisi and Abulfeda [Arabic], al-Maníbár, etc., and like variations occur among the old European travellers. The country so-called corresponded to the Kerala of the Brahmans, which in its very widest sense extended from about lat. 15° to Cape Comorin. This, too, seems to be the extension which Abulfeda gives to Malabar, viz., from Hunáwar to Kumhári; Rashiduddin includes Sindábúr, i.e. Goa. But at a later date a point between Mt. d'Ely and Mangalore on the north, and Kaulam on the south, were the limits usually assigned to Malabar.

NOTE 2.—"Il font eschiel en la mer" (G.T.). Eschiel is the equivalent of the Italian schera or schiera, a troop or squadron, and thence applied to order of battle, whether by land or sea.

NOTE 3.—The northern part of Malabar, Canara, and the Konkan, have been nests of pirates from the time of the ancients to a very recent date. Padre Paolino specifies the vicinity of Mt. d'Ely as a special haunt of them in his day, the latter half of last century. Somewhat further north Ibn Batuta fell into their hands, and was stripped to his drawers.

NOTE 4.—There is something to be said about these Malabar spices. The cinnamon of Malabar is what we call cassia, the canella grossa of Conti, the canela brava of the Portuguese. Notices of it will be found in Rheede (I. 107) and in Garcia (f. 26 seqq.). The latter says the Ceylon cinnamon exceeded it in value as 4:1. Uzzano discriminates canella lunga, Salami, and Mabari. The Salami, I have no doubt, is Sailani, Ceylonese; and as we do not hear of any cassia from Mabar, probably the last was Malabar cinnamon.

Turbit: Radex Turpethi is still known in pharmacy, at least in some parts of the Continent and in India, though in England obsolete. It is mentioned in the Pharmacopoeia of India (1868) as derived from Ipomoea Turpethum.

But it is worthy of note that Ramusio has cubebs instead of turbit. The former does not seem now to be a product of Western India, though Garcia says that a small quantity grew there, and a Dutch report of 1675 in Valentyn also mentions it as an export of Malabar. (V., Ceylon, p. 243.) There is some ambiguity in statements about it, because its popular name Kábab-chíní seems to be also applied to the cassia bud. Cubeb pepper was much used in the Middle Ages as a spice, and imported into Europe as such. But the importation had long practically ceased, when its medical uses became known during the British occupation of Java, and the demand was renewed.

Budaeus and Salmasius have identified this drug with the [Greek: kómakon], which Theophrastus joins with cinnamomum and cassia as an ingredient in aromatic confections. The inducement to this identification was no doubt the singular resemblance which the word bears to the Javanese name of cubeb pepper, viz., Kumukus. If the foundation were a little firmer this would be curious evidence of intercourse and trade with Java in a time earlier than that of Theophrastus, viz., the 4th century B.C.

In the detail of 3 cargoes from Malabar that arrived at Lisbon in September 1504 we find the following proportions: Pepper, 10,000 cantars; cinnamon, 500; cloves, 450; zz. (i.e. zenzaro, ginger), 130; lac and brazil, 750; camphor, 7; cubebs, 191; mace, 2-1/2; spikenard, 3; lign-aloes, 1-1/3.

(Buchanan's Mysore, II. 31, III. 193, and App. p. v.; Garcia, Ital. version, 1576, f. 39-40; Salmas. Exerc. Plin. p. 923; Bud. on Theoph. 1004 and 1010; Archiv. St. Ital., Append. II. p. 19.)

NOTE 5.—We see that Marco speaks of the merchants and ships of Manzi, or Southern China, as frequenting Kaulam, Hili, and now Malabar, of which Calicut was the chief port. This quite coincides with Ibn Batuta, who says those were the three ports of India which the Chinese junks frequented, adding Fandaraina (i.e. Pandarani, or Pantaláni, 16 miles north of Calicut), as a port where they used to moor for the winter when they spent that season in India. By the winter he means the rainy season, as Portuguese writers on India do by the same expression (IV. 81, 88, 96). I have been unable to find anything definite as to the date of the cessation of this Chinese navigation to Malabar, but I believe it may be placed about the beginning of the 15th century. The most distinct allusion to it that I am aware of is in the information of Joseph of Cranganore, in the Novus Orbis (Ed. of 1555, p. 208). He says: "These people of Cathay are men of remarkable energy, and formerly drove a first-rate trade at the city of Calicut. But the King of Calicut having treated them badly, they quitted that city, and returning shortly after inflicted no small slaughter on the people of Calicut, and after that returned no more. After that they began to frequent Mailapetam, a city subject to the king of Narsingha; a region towards the East, … and there they now drive their trade." There is also in Caspar Correa's account of the Voyages of Da Gama a curious record of a tradition of the arrival in Malabar more than four centuries before of a vast merchant fleet "from the parts of Malacca, and China, and the Lequeos" (Lewchew); many from the company on board had settled in the country and left descendants. In the space of a hundred years none of these remained; but their sumptuous idol temples were still to be seen. (Stanley's Transl., Hak. Soc., p. 147.)[1] It is probable that both these stories must be referred to those extensive expeditions to the western countries with the object of restoring Chinese influence which were despatched by the Ming Emperor Ch'êng-Tsu (or Yung-lo), about 1406, and one of which seems actually to have brought Ceylon under a partial subjection to China, which endured half a century. (See Tennent, I. 623 seqq.; and Letter of P. Gaubil in J.A. sér. II. tom. x. pp. 327-328.) ["So that at this day there is great memory of them in the ilands Philippinas, and on the cost of Coromande, which is the cost against the kingdome of Norsinga towards the sea of Cengala: whereas is a towne called unto this day the soile of the Chinos, for that they did reedifie and make the same. The like notice and memory is there in the kingdom of Calicut, whereas be many trees and fruits, that the naturals of that countrie do say, were brought thither by the Chinos, when that they were lords and gouernours of that countrie." (Mendoza, Parke's transl. p. 71.)] De Barros says that the famous city of Diu was built by one of the Kings of Guzerat whom he calls in one place Dariar Khan, and in another Peruxiah, in memory of victory in a sea-fight with the Chinese who then frequented the Indian shores. It is difficult to identify this King, though he is represented as the father of the famous toxicophagous Sultan Mahmúd Begara (1459-1511). De Barros has many other allusions to Chinese settlements and conquests in India which it is not very easy to account for. Whatever basis of facts there is must probably refer to the expeditions of Ch'êng-Tsu, but not a little probably grew out of the confusion of Jainas and Chinas already alluded to; and to this I incline to refer Correa's "sumptuous idol-temples."

There must have been some revival of Chinese trade in the last century, if P. Paolino is correct in speaking of Chinese vessels frequenting Travancore ports for pepper. (De Barros, Dec. II. Liv. ii. cap. 9, and Dec. IV. Liv. v. cap. 3; Paolino, p. 74.)

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Notes:

[1] It appears from a paper in the Mackenzie MSS. that down to Colonel Mackenzie's time there was a tribe in Calicut whose ancestors were believed to have been Chinese. (See Taylor's Catal. Raisonné, III. 664.) And there is a notable passage in Abdurrazzak which says the seafaring population of Calicut were nicknamed Chíní bachagán, "China boys." (India in XVth Cent. p. 19.)

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CHAPTER XXVI. CONCERNING THE KINGDOM OF GOZURAT.

Gozurat is a great kingdom. The people are Idolaters and have a peculiar language, and a king of their own, and are tributary to no one. It lies towards the west, and the North Star is here still more conspicuous, showing itself at an altitude of about 6 cubits.[NOTE 1]

The people are the most desperate pirates in existence, and one of their atrocious practices is this. When they have taken a merchant-vessel they force the merchants to swallow a stuff called Tamarindi mixed in sea-water, which produces a violent purging.[NOTE 2] This is done in case the merchants, on seeing their danger, should have swallowed their most valuable stones and pearls. And in this way the pirates secure the whole.

In this province of Gozurat there grows much pepper, and ginger, and indigo. They have also a great deal of cotton. Their cotton trees are of very great size, growing full six paces high, and attaining to an age of 20 years. It is to be observed however that, when the trees are so old as that, the cotton is not good to spin, but only to quilt or stuff beds withal. Up to the age of 12 years indeed the trees give good spinning cotton, but from that age to 20 years the produce is inferior.[NOTE 3]

[Illustration: Mediaeval Architecture in Guzerat. (From Fergusson.)]

They dress in this country great numbers of skins of various kinds, goat-skins, ox-skins, buffalo and wild ox-skins, as well as those of unicorns and other animals. In fact so many are dressed every year as to load a number of ships for Arabia and other quarters. They also work here beautiful mats in red and blue leather, exquisitely inlaid with figures of birds and beasts, and skilfully embroidered with gold and silver wire. These are marvellously beautiful things; they are used by the Saracens to sleep upon, and capital they are for that purpose. They also work cushions embroidered with gold, so fine that they are worth six marks of silver a piece, whilst some of those sleeping-mats are worth ten marks.[NOTE 4]

NOTE 1.—Again we note the topographical confusion. Guzerat is mentioned as if it were a province adjoining Malabar, and before arriving at Tana, Cambay, and Somnath; though in fact it includes those three cities, and Cambay was then its great mart. Wassáf, Polo's contemporary, perhaps acquaintance, speaks of Gujarat which is commonly called Kambáyat. (Elliot, III. 31.)

NOTE 2.—["The origin of the name [Tamarina] is curious. It is Ar. tamar-u'l-Hind, 'date of India,' or perhaps rather, in Persian form, tamar-i-Hindí. It is possible that the original name may have been thamar, ('fruit') of India, rather than tamar, ('date')." (Hobson-Jobson.)]

NOTE 3.—The notice of pepper here is hard to explain. But Hiuen Tsang also speaks of Indian pepper and incense (see next chapter) as grown at 'Ochali which seems to be some place on the northern border of Guzerat (II. 161).

Marsden, in regard to the cotton, supposes here some confused introduction of the silk-cotton tree (Bombax or Salmalia, the Semal of Hindustan), but the description would be entirely inapplicable to that great forest tree. It is remarkable that nearly the same statement with regard to Guzerat occurs in Rashiduddin's sketch of India, as translated in Sir H. Elliot's History of India (ed. by Professor Dowson, I. 67): "Grapes are produced twice during the year, and the strength of the soil is such that cotton-plants grow like willows and plane-trees, and yield produce ten years running." An author of later date, from whom extracts are given in the same work, viz., Mahommed Masúm in his History of Sind, describing the wonders of Síwí, says: "In Korzamin and Chhatur, which are districts of Siwi, cotton-plants grow as large as trees, insomuch that men pick the cotton mounted" (p. 237).

These would appear to have been plants of the species of true cotton called by Royle Gossipium arboreum and sometimes termed G. religiosum, from its being often grown in South India near temples or abodes of devotees; though the latter name has been applied also to the nankeen cotton. That of which we speak is, however, according to Dr. Cleghorn, termed in Mysore Deo kapás, of which G. religiosum would be a proper translation. It is grown in various parts of India, but generally rather for ornament than use. It is stated, however, to be specially used for the manufacture of turbans, and for the Brahmanical thread, and probably afforded the groundwork of the story told by Philostratus of the wild cotton which was used only for the sacred vestments of the Brahmans, and refused to lend itself to other uses. One of Royle's authorities (Mr. Vaupell) mentions that it was grown near large towns of Eastern Guzerat, and its wool regarded as the finest of any, and only used in delicate muslins. Tod speaks of it in Bikanír, and this kind of cotton appears to be grown also in China, as we gather from a passage in Amyot's Mémoires (II. 606), which speaks of the "Cotonniers arbres, qui ne devoient être fertiles qu'après un bon nombre d'années."

The height appears to have been a difficulty with Marsden, who refers to the G. arboreum, but does not admit that it could be intended. Yet I see in the English Cyclopaedia that to this species is assigned a height of 15 to 20 feet. Polo's six paces therefore, even if it means 30 feet as I think, is not a great exaggeration. (Royle, Cult. of Cotton, 144, 145, 152; Eng. Cycl. art. Gossypium.)

NOTE 4.—Embroidered and Inlaid leather-work for bed-covers, palankin mats and the like, is still a great manufacture in Rajkot and other places of Kattiawar in Peninsular Guzerat, as well as in the adjoining region of Sind. (Note from Sir Bartle Frere.) The embroidery of Guzerat is highly commended by Barbosa, Linschoten, and A. Hamilton.

The G.T. adds at the end of this passage: "E qe voz en diroi? Sachíés tout voiremant qe en ceste reingne se labore roiaus dereusse de cuir et plus sotilment que ne fait en tout lo monde, e celz qe sunt de greingnors vailance."

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CHAPTER XXVII. CONCERNING THE KINGDOM OF TANA.

Tana is a great kingdom lying towards the west, a kingdom great both in size and worth. The people are Idolaters, with a language of their own, and a king of their own, and tributary to nobody.[NOTE 1] No pepper grows there, nor other spices, but plenty of incense; not the white kind however, but brown.[NOTE 2]

There is much traffic here, and many ships and merchants frequent the place; for there is a great export of leather of various excellent kinds, and also of good buckram and cotton. The merchants in their ships also import various articles, such as gold, silver, copper, and other things in demand.

With the King's connivance many corsairs launch from this port to plunder merchants. These corsairs have a covenant with the King that he shall get all the horses they capture, and all other plunder shall remain with them. The King does this because he has no horses of his own, whilst many are shipped from abroad towards India; for no ship ever goes thither without horses in addition to other cargo. The practice is naughty and unworthy of a king.

NOTE 1.—The town of THÁNA, on the landward side of the island of Salsette, still exists, about 20 miles from Bombay. The Great Peninsular Railroad here crosses the strait which separates Salsette from the Continent.

The Konkan is no doubt what was intended by the kingdom of Thána. Albiruni speaks of that city as the capital of Konkan; Rashiduddin calls it Konkan-Tána, Ibn Batuta Kúkin-Tána, the last a form which appears in the Carta Catalana as Cucintana. Tieffentaller writes Kokan, and this is said (Cunningham's Anc. Geog. 553) to be the local pronunciation. Abulfeda speaks of it as a very celebrated place of trade, producing a kind of cloth which was called Tánasi, bamboos, and Tabashír derived from the ashes of the bamboo.

As early as the 16th year of the Hijra (A.D. 637) an Arab fleet from Oman made a hostile descent on the Island of Thána, i.e. Salsette. The place (Sri Sthánaka) appears from inscriptions to have been the seat of a Hindu kingdom of the Konkan, in the 11th century. In Polo's time Thána seems to have been still under a Hindu prince, but it soon afterwards became subject to the Delhi sovereigns; and when visited by Jordanus and by Odoric some thirty years after Polo's voyage, a Mussulman governor was ruling there, who put to death four Franciscans, the companions of Jordanus. Barbosa gives it the compound name of TANA-MAIAMBU, the latter part being the first indication I know of the name of Bombay (Mambai). It was still a place of many mosques, temples, and gardens, but the trade was small. Pirates still did business from the port, but on a reduced scale. Botero says that there were the remains of an immense city to be seen, and that the town still contained 5000 velvet-weavers (p. 104). Till the Mahrattas took Salsette in 1737, the Portuguese had many fine villas about Thána.

Polo's dislocation of geographical order here has misled Fra Mauro into placing Tana to the west of Guzerat, though he has a duplicate Tana nearer the correct position.

NOTE 2.—It has often been erroneously supposed that the frankincense (olibanum) of commerce, for which Bombay and the ports which preceded it in Western India have for centuries afforded the chief mart, was an Indian product. But Marco is not making that mistake; he calls the incense of Western India brown, evidently in contrast with the white incense or olibanum, which he afterwards assigns to its true locality (infra. ch. xxxvii., xxxviii.). Nor is Marsden justified in assuming that the brown incense of Tana must needs have been Benzoin imported from Sumatra, though I observe Dr. Birdwood considers that the term Indian Frankincense which occurs in Dioscorides must have included Benzoin. Dioscorides describes the so-called Indian Frankincense as blackish; and Garcia supposes the name merely to refer to the colour, as he says the Arabs often gave the name of Indian to things of a dark colour.

There seems to be no proof that Benzoin was known even to the older Arab writers. Western India supplies a variety of aromatic gum-resins, one of which was probably intended by our traveller:

I. BOSWELLIA THURIFERA of Colebrooke, whose description led to a general belief that this tree produced the Frankincense of commerce. The tree is found in Oudh and Rohilkhand, in Bahár, Central India, Khandesh, and Kattiawár, etc. The gum-resin is used and sold locally as an incense, but is soft and sticky, and is not the olibanum of commerce; nor is it collected for exportation.

The Coromandel Boswellia glabra of Roxburgh is now included (see Dr. Birdwood's Monograph) as a variety under the B. thurifera. Its gum-resin is a good deal used as incense, in the Tamul regions, under the name of Kundrikam, with which is apparently connected Kundur, one of the Arabic words for olibanum (see ch. xxxviii., note 2).

II. Vateria Indica (Roxb.), producing a gum-resin which when recent is known as Piney Varnish, and when hardened, is sold for export under the names of Indian Copal, White Dammar, and others. Its northern limit of growth is North but the gum is exported from Bombay. The tree is the Chloroxylon Dupada of Buchanan, and is, I imagine, the Dupu or Incense Tree of Rheede. (Hort. Malab. IV.) The tree is a fine one, and forms beautiful avenues in Malabar and Canara. The Hindus use the resin as an incense, and in Malabar it is also made into candles which burn fragrantly and with little smoke. It is, or was, also used as pitch, and is probably the thus with which Indian vessels, according to Joseph of Cranganore (in Novus Orbis), were payed. Garcia took it for the ancient Cancamum, but this Dr. Birdwood identifies with the next, viz.:—

III. Gardenia lucida (Roxb.). It grows in the Konkan districts, producing a fragrant resin called Dikamáli in India, and by the Arabs Kankham.

IV. Balsamodendron Mukul, growing in Sind, Kattiawár and the Deesa District, and producing the Indian Bdellium, Mukl of the Arabs and Persians, used as an incense and as a cordial medicine. It is believed to be the [Greek: Bdélla] mentioned in the Periplus as exported from the Indus, and also as brought down with Costus through Ozene (Ujjain) to Barygaza (Baroch—see Müller's Geog. Graec. Minor. I. 287, 293). It is mentioned also (Mukl) by Albiruni as a special product of Kachh, and is probably the incense of that region alluded to by Hiuen Tsang. (See last chapter, note 3.) It is of a yellow, red, or brownish colour. (Eng. Cyc. art. Bdellium; Dowson's Elliot, I. 66; Reinaud in J. As. sér. IV. tom. iv. p. 263).

V. Canarium strictum (Roxb.), of the Western Ghats, affording the Black Dammar of Malabar, which when fresh is aromatic and yellow in colour. It abounds in the country adjoining Tana. The natives use it as incense, and call the tree Dhúp (incense) and Gugul (Bdellum).

Besides these resinous substances, the Costus of the Ancients may be mentioned (Sansk. Kushth), being still exported from Western India, as well as from Calcutta, to China, under the name of Putchok, to be burnt as incense in Chinese temples. Its identity has been ascertained in our own day by Drs. Royle and Falconer, as the root of a plant which they called Aucklandia Costus. But the identity of the Pucho (which he gives as the Malay name) with Costus was known to Garcia. Alex. Hamilton, at the beginning of last century, calls it Ligna Dulcis (sic), and speaks of it as an export from Sind, as did the author of the Periplus 1600 years earlier.

My own impression is that Mukl or Bdellium was the brown incense of Polo, especially because we see from Albiruni that this was regarded as a staple export from neighbouring regions. But Dr. Birdwood considers that the Black Dammar of Canarium strictum is in question. (Report on Indian Gum-Resins, by Mr. Dalzell of Bot. Gard. Bombay, 1866; Birdwood's Bombay Products, 2nd ed. pp. 282, 287, etc.; Drury's Useful Plants of India, 2nd ed.; Garcia; A. Hamilton, I. 127; Eng. Cyc., art. Putchuk; Buchanan's Journey, II. 44, 335, etc.)

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CHAPTER XXVIII. CONCERNING THE KINGDOM OF CAMBAET.

Cambaet is a great kingdom lying further west. The people are Idolaters, and have a language of their own, and a king of their own, and are tributary to nobody.[NOTE 1]

The North Star is here still more clearly visible; and henceforward the further you go west the higher you see it.

There is a great deal of trade in this country. It produces indigo in great abundance; and they also make much fine buckram. There is also a quantity of cotton which is exported hence to many quarters; and there is a great trade in hides, which are very well dressed; with many other kinds of merchandize too tedious to mention. Merchants come here with many ships and cargoes, but what they chiefly bring is gold, silver, copper [and tutia].

There are no pirates from this country; the inhabitants are good people, and live by their trade and manufactures.

NOTE 1.—CAMBAET is nearer the genuine name of the city than our CAMBAY. Its proper Hindu name was, according to Colonel Tod, Khambavati, "the City of the Pillar." The inhabitants write it Kambáyat. The ancient city is 3 miles from the existing Cambay, and is now overgrown with jungle. It is spoken of as a flourishing place by Mas'udi, who visited it in A.D. 915. Ibn Batuta speaks of it also as a very fine city, remarkable for the elegance and solidity of its mosques, and houses built by wealthy foreign merchants. Cambeth is mentioned by Polo's contemporary Marino Sanudo, as one of the two chief Ocean Ports of India; and in the 15th century Conti calls it 14 miles in circuit. It was still in high prosperity in the early part of the 16th century, abounding in commerce and luxury, and one of the greatest Indian marts. Its trade continued considerable in the time of Federici, towards the end of that century; but it has now long disappeared, the local part of it being transferred to Gogo and other ports having deeper water. Its chief or sole industry now is in the preparation of ornamental objects from agates, cornelians, and the like.

The Indigo of Cambay was long a staple export, and is mentioned by Conti, Nikitin, Santo Stefano, Federici, Linschoten, and Abu'l Fazl.

The independence of Cambay ceased a few years after Polo's visit; for it was taken in the end of the century by the armies of Aláuddín Khilji of Delhi, a king whose name survived in Guzerat down to our own day as Aláuddín Khúní—Bloody Aláuddín. (Rás Málá, I. 235.)

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CHAPTER XXIX. CONCERNING THE KINGDOM OF SEMENAT.

Semenat is a great kingdom towards the west. The people are Idolaters, and have a king and a language of their own, and pay tribute to nobody. They are not corsairs, but live by trade and industry as honest people ought. It is a place of very great trade. They are forsooth cruel Idolaters. [NOTE 1]

[Illustration: 'The Gates of Somnath,' preserved in the British Arsenal at Agra, from a photograph (converted into elevation)]

NOTE 1.—SOMNATH is the site of the celebrated Temple on the coast of Sauráshtra, or Peninsular Guzerat, plundered by Mahmúd of Ghazni on his sixteenth expedition to India (A.D. 1023). The term "great kingdom" is part of Polo's formula. But the place was at this time of some importance as a commercial port, and much visited by the ships of Aden, as Abulfeda tells us. At an earlier date Albiruni speaks of it both as the seat of a great Mahadeo much frequented by Hindu pilgrims, and as a port of call for vessels on their way from Sofala in Africa to China,—a remarkable incidental notice of departed trade and civilisation! He does not give Somnath so good a character as Polo does; for he names it as one of the chief pirate-haunts. And Colonel Tod mentions that the sculptured memorial stones on this coast frequently exhibit the deceased as a pirate in the act of boarding. In fact, piratical habits continued in the islands off the coast of Kattiawár down to our own day.

Properly speaking, three separate things are lumped together as Somnáth: (1) The Port, properly called Veráwal, on a beautiful little bay; (2) the City of Deva-Pattan, Somnáth-Pattan, or Prabhás, occupying a prominence on the south side of the bay, having a massive wall and towers, and many traces of ancient Hindu workmanship, though the vast multitude of tombs around shows the existence of a large Mussulman population at some time; and among these are dates nearly as old as our Traveller's visit; (3) The famous Temple (or, strictly speaking, the object of worship in that Temple) crowning a projecting rock at the south-west angle of the city, and close to the walls. Portions of columns and sculptured fragments strew the soil around.

Notwithstanding the famous story of Mahmúd and the image stuffed with jewels, there is little doubt that the idol really termed Somnáth (Moon's Lord) was nothing but a huge columnar emblem of Mahadeo. Hindu authorities mention it as one of the twelve most famous emblems of that kind over India, and Ibn Ásir's account, the oldest extant narrative of Mahmúd's expedition, is to the same effect. Every day it was washed with water newly brought from the Ganges. Mahmúd broke it to pieces, and with a fragment a step was made at the entrance of the Jámi' Mosque at Ghazni.

The temples and idols of Pattan underwent a second visitation at the hands of Aláuddin's forces a few years after Polo's visit (1300),[1] and this seems in great measure to have wiped out the memory of Mahmúd. The temple, as it now stands deserted, bears evident tokens of having been converted into a mosque. A good deal of old and remarkable architecture remains, but mixed with Moslem work, and no part of the building as it stands is believed to be a survival from the time of Mahmúd; though part may belong to a reconstruction which was carried out by Raja Bhima Deva of Anhilwara about twenty-five years after Mahmúd's invasion. It is remarkable that Ibn Ásir speaks of the temple plundered by Mahmúd as "built upon 56 pillars of teak-wood covered with lead." Is it possible that it was a wooden building?

In connection with this brief chapter on Somnáth we present a faithful representation of those Gates which Lord Ellenborough rendered so celebrated in connection with that name, when he caused them to be removed from the Tomb of Mahmúd, on the retirement of our troops from Kabul in 1842. His intention, as announced in that once famous paean of his, was to have them carried solemnly to Guzerat, and there restored to the (long desecrated) temple. Calmer reflection prevailed, and the Gates were consigned to the Fort of Agra, where they still remain.

Captain J.D. Cunningham, in his Hist. of the Sikhs (p. 209), says that in 1831, when Sháh Shúja treated with Ranjít Singh for aid to recover his throne, one of the Mahárája's conditions was the restoration of the Gates to Somnáth. This probably put the scheme into Lord Ellenborough's head. But a remarkable fact is, that the Sháh reminded Ranjít of a prophecy that foreboded the downfall of the Sikh Empire on the removal of the Ghazni Gates. This is quoted from a report of Captain Wade's, dated 21st November, 1831. The gates were removed to India in the end of 1842. The "Sikh Empire" practically collapsed with the murder of Sher Singh in September, 1843.

It is not probable that there was any real connection between these Gates, of Saracenic design, carved (it is said) in Himalayan cedar, and the Temple of Somnáth. But tradition did ascribe to them such a connection, and the eccentric prank of a clever man in high place made this widely known. Nor in any case can we regard as alien to the scope of this book the illustration of a work of mediaeval Asiatic art, which is quite as remarkable for its own character and indisputable history, as for the questionable origin ascribed to it. (Tod's Travels, 385, 504; Burgess, Visit to Somnath, etc.; Jacob's Report on Kattywar, p. 18; Gildemeister, 185; Dowson's Elliot, II. 468 seqq.; Asiatic Journal, 3rd series, vol. I.).

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Notes:

[1] So in Elliot, II. 74. But Jacob says there is an inscription of a Mussulman Governor in Pattan of 1297.

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CHAPTER XXX. CONCERNING THE KINGDOM OF KESMACORAN.

Kesmacoran is a kingdom having a king of its own and a peculiar language. [Some of] the people are Idolaters, [but the most part are Saracens]. They live by merchandize and industry, for they are professed traders, and carry on much traffic by sea and land in all directions. Their food is rice [and corn], flesh and milk, of which they have great store. There is no more to be said about them.[NOTE 1]

And you must know that this kingdom of Kesmacoran is the last in India as you go towards the west and north-west. You see, from Maabar on, this province is what is called the GREATER INDIA, and it is the best of all the Indies. I have now detailed to you all the kingdoms and provinces and (chief) cities of this India the Greater, that are upon the seaboard; but of those that lie in the interior I have said nothing, because that would make too long a story.[NOTE 2]

And so now let us proceed, and I will tell you of some of the Indian Islands. And I will begin by two Islands which are called Male and Female.

NOTE 1.—Though M. Pauthier has imagined objections there is no room for doubt that Kesmacoran is the province of Mekran, known habitually all over the East as Kij-Makrán, from the combination with the name of the country of that of its chief town, just as we lately met with a converse combination in Konkan-tana. This was pointed out to Marsden by his illustrious friend Major Rennell. We find the term Kij Makrán used by Ibn Batuta (III. 47); by the Turkish Admiral Sidi 'Ali (J. As., sér. I. tom. ix. 72; and J.A.S.B. V. 463); by Sharifuddin (P. de la Croix, I. 379, II. 417-418); in the famous Sindian Romeo-and-Juliet tale of Sassi and Pannún (Elliot, I. 333); by Pietro della Valle (I. 724, II. 358); by Sir F. Goldsmid (J.R.A.S., N.S., I. 38); and see for other examples, J.A.S.B. VII. 298, 305, 308; VIII. 764; XIV. 158; XVII. pt. ii. 559: XX. 262, 263.

The argument that Mekrán was not a province of India only amounts to saying that Polo has made a mistake. But the fact is that it often was reckoned to belong to India, from ancient down to comparatively modern times. Pliny says: "Many indeed do not reckon the Indus to be the western boundary of India, but include in that term also four satrapies on this side the river, the Gedrosi, the Arachoti, the Arii, and the Parapomisadae (i.e. Mekran, Kandahar, Herat, and Kabul) …. whilst others class all these together under the name of Ariana" (VI. 23). Arachosia, according to Isidore of Charax, was termed by the Parthians "White India." Aelian calls Gedrosia a part of India. (Hist. Animal. XVII. 6.) In the 6th century the Nestorian Patriarch Jesujabus, as we have seen (supra, ch. xxii. note 1), considered all to be India from the coast of Persia, i.e. of Fars, beginning from near the Gulf. According to Ibn Khordâdbeh, the boundary between Persia and India was seven days' sail from Hormuz and eight from Daibul, or less than half-way from the mouth of the Gulf to the Indus. (J. As. sér. VI. tom. v. 283.) Beladhori speaks of the Arabs in early expeditions as invading Indian territory about the Lake of Sijistan; and Istakhri represents this latter country as bounded on the north and partly on the west by portions of India. Kabul was still reckoned in India. Chach, the last Hindu king of Sind but one, is related to have marched through Mekrán to a river which formed the limit between Mekrán and Kermán. On its banks he planted date-trees, and set up a monument which bore: "This was the boundary of Hind in the time of Chach, the son of Sfláij, the son of Basábas." In the Geography of Bakui we find it stated that "Hind is a great country which begins at the province of Mekrán." (N. and E. II. 54.) In the map of Marino Sanuto India begins from Hormuz; and it is plain from what Polo says in quitting that city that he considered the next step from it south-eastward would have taken him to India (supra, I. p. 110).

["The name Mekran has been commonly, but erroneously, derived from Mahi Khoran, i.e. the fish-eaters, or ichthyophagi, which was the title given to the inhabitants of the Beluchi coast-fringe by Arrian. But the word is a Dravidian name, and appears as Makara in the Brhat Sanhita of Varaha Mihira in a list of the tribes contiguous to India on the west. It is also the [Greek: Makaraénae] of Stephen of Byzantium, and the Makuran of Tabari, and Moses of Chorene. Even were it not a Dravidian name, in no old Aryan dialect could it signify fish-eaters." (Curzon, Persia, II. p. 261, note.)

"It is to be noted that Kesmacoran is a combination of Kech or Kej and Makrán, and the term is even to-day occasionally used." (Major P.M. Sykes, Persia, p. 102.)—H.C.]

We may add a Romance definition of India from King Alisaunder:—

"Lordynges, also I fynde,
At Mede so bigynneth Ynde:
Forsothe ich woot, it stretcheth ferest
Of alle the Londes in the Est,
And oth the South half sikerlyk,
To the cee taketh of Affryk;
And the north half to a Mountayne,
That is yclepèd Caucasayne."—L 4824-4831.

It is probable that Polo merely coasted Mekrán; he seems to know nothing of the Indus, and what he says of Mekrán is vague.

NOTE 2.—As Marco now winds up his detail of the Indian coast, it is proper to try to throw some light on his partial derangement of its geography. In the following columns the first shows the real geographical order from east to west of the Indian provinces as named by Polo, and the second shows the order as he puts them. The Italic names are brief and general identifications.

Real order. Polo's order.
1. Mutfili (Telingana) 1. Mutfili
MAABAR, / 2. St. Thomas's (Madras). 2. St. Thomas's
including | 3. Maabar Proper, Kingdom of (Lar, west of do.).
| Sonder Bandi (Tanjore) 3. Maabar proper, or Soli.
\ 4. Cail (Tinnevelly). 4. Cail.
5. Comari (C. Comorin). 5. Coilum.
MELIBAR, / 6. Coilum (Travancore). 6. Comari.
including \ 7. Eli (Cananore). 7. Eli.
GUZERAT, / 8. Tana (Bombay). 8. (MELIBAR).
or LAR, | 9. Canbaet (Cambay). 9. (GOZURAT).
including | 10. Semenat (Somnath). 10. Tana.
\ 11. Kesmacoran (Mekran). 11. Canbaet.
12. Semenat.
13. Kesmacoran.

It is difficult to suppose that the fleet carrying the bride of Arghun went out of its way to Maabar, St. Thomas's, and Telingana. And on the other hand, what is said in chapter xxiii. on Comari, about the North Star not having been visible since they approached the Lesser Java, would have been grossly inaccurate if in the interval the travellers had been north as far as Madras and Motupalle. That passage suggests to me strongly that Comari was the first Indian land made by the fleet on arriving from the Archipelago (exclusive perhaps of Ceylon). Note then that the position of Eli is marked by its distance of 300 miles from Comari, evidently indicating that this was a run made by the traveller on some occasion without an intermediate stoppage. Tana, Cambay, Somnath, would follow naturally as points of call.

In Polo's order, again, the positions of Comari and Coilum are transposed, whilst Melibar is introduced as if it were a country westward (as Polo views it, northward we should say)[1] of Coilum and Eli, instead of including them, and Gozurat is introduced as a country lying eastward (or southward, as we should say) of Tana, Cambaet, and Semenat, instead of including them, or at least the two latter. Moreover, he names no cities in connection with those two countries.

The following hypothesis, really not a complex one, is the most probable that I can suggest to account for these confusions.

I conceive, then, that Cape Comorin (Comari) was the first Indian land made by the fleet on the homeward voyage, and that Hili, Tana, Cambay, Somnath, were touched at successively as it proceeded towards Persia.

I conceive that in a former voyage to India on the Great Kaan's business Marco had visited Maabar and Kaulam, and gained partly from actual visits and partly from information the substance of the notices he gives us of Telingana and St Thomas's on the one side and of Malabar and Guzerat on the other, and that in combining into one series the results of the information acquired on two different voyages he failed rightly to co-ordinate the material, and thus those dislocations which we have noticed occurred, as they very easily might, in days when maps had practically no existence; to say nothing of the accidents of dictation.

The expression in this passage for "the cities that lie in the interior," is in the G.T. "celz qe sunt en fra terres"; see I. 43. Pauthier's text has "celles qui sont en ferme terre," which is nonsense here.

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Notes:

[1] Abulfeda's orientation is the same as Polo's.