The Travels of Marco Polo Volume II Part 42

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

viii. cap. I.)

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

(_Notes on Russia_, Hak. Soc. II. 224.)

NOTE 4.--_Basma_, as Valentyn indicated, seems to be the PASEI of the Malays, which the Arabs probably called _Basam_ or the like, for the Portuguese wrote it PACEM. [Mr. J.T. Thomson writes (_Proc.R.G.S._ XX.

p. 221) that of its actual position there can be no doubt, it being the Pa.s.sier of modern charts.--H.C.] Pasei is mentioned in the Malay Chronicle as founded by Malik-al-Salih, the first Mussulman sovereign of Samudra, the next of Marco's kingdoms. He a.s.signed one of these states to each of his two sons, Malik al-Dhahir and Malik al-Mansur; the former of whom was reigning at Samudra, and apparently over the whole coast, when Ibn Batuta was there (about 1346-47). There is also a Malay History of the Kings of Pasei to which reference has already been made.

Somewhat later Pasei was a great and famous city. Maj.a.pahit, Malacca, and Pasei being reckoned the three great cities of the Archipelago. The stimulus of conversion to Islam had not taken effect on those Sumatran states at the time of Polo's voyage, but it did so soon afterwards, and, low as they have now fallen, their power at one time was no delusion.

Achin, which rose to be the chief of them, in 1615 could send against Portuguese Malacca an expedition of more than 500 sail, 100 of which were galleys larger than any then constructed in Europe, and carried from 600 to 800 men each.

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

[Ill.u.s.tration: The three Asiatic Rhinoceroses, (upper) Indicus, (middle) Sondaicus, (lower) Sumatra.n.u.s.[2]]

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

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

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

[John Evelyn mentions among the curiosities kept in the Treasury at St.

Denis: "A faire unicorne's horn, sent by a K. of Persia, about 7 foote long." _Diary_, 1643, 12th Nov.--H.C.]

What the Traveller says of the animals' love of mire and mud is well ill.u.s.trated by the manner in which the _Semangs_ or Negritoes of the Malay Peninsula are said to destroy him: "This animal ... is found frequently in marshy places, with its whole body immersed in the mud, and part of the head only visible.... Upon the dry weather setting in ... the mud becomes hard and crusted, and the rhinoceros cannot effect his escape without considerable difficulty and exertion. The Semangs prepare themselves with large quant.i.ties of combustible materials, with which they quietly approach the animal, who is aroused from his reverie by an immense fire over him, which being kept well supplied by the Semangs with fresh fuel, soon completes his destruction, and renders him in a fit state to make a meal of." (_J. Ind. Arch._ IV. 426.)[5] There is a great difference in aspect between the one-horned species (_Rh. Sondaicus_ and _Rh.

Indicus_) and the two-horned. The Malays express what that difference is admirably, in calling the last _Badak-Karbau_, "the Buffalo-Rhinoceros,"

and the Sondaicus _Badak-Gajah_, "the Elephant-Rhinoceros."

The belief in the formidable nature of the tongue of the rhinoceros is very old and wide-spread, though I can find no foundation for it but the rough _appearance_ of the organ. ["His tongue also is somewhat of a rarity, for, if he can get any of his antagonists down, he will lick them so clean, that he leaves neither skin nor flesh to cover his bones." (_A.

Hamilton_, ed. 1727, II. 24. _M.S. Note of Yule_.) Compare what is said of the tongue of the Yak, I. p. 277.--H.C.] The Chinese have the belief, and the Jesuit Lecomte attests it from professed observation of the animal in confinement. (_Chin. Repos._ VII. 137; _Lecomte_, II. 406.) [In a Chinese work quoted by Mr. Groeneveldt (_T'oung Pao_, VII. No. 2, abst. p. 19) we read that "the rhinoceros has thorns on its tongue and always eats the thorns of plants and trees, but never gra.s.ses or leaves."--H.C.]

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

"'Tis then the huntsmen hasten up, abandoning their ambush; Clean from his head they chop his horn, prized antidote to poison; And let the docked and luckless beast escape into the jungles."

--V. 399, seqq.

In the cut which we give of this from a mediaeval source the horn of the unicorn is evidently the tusk of a _narwhal_. This confusion arose very early, as may be seen from its occurrence in Aelian, who says that the horn of the unicorn or _Kartazonon_ (the Arab _Karkaddan_ or Rhinoceros) was not straight but twisted ([Greek: eligmous echon tinas], Hist. An.

xvi. 20). The mistake may also be traced in the ill.u.s.trations to Cosmas Indicopleustes from his own drawings, and it long endured, as may be seen in Jerome Cardan's description of a unicorn's horn which he saw suspended in the church of St. Denis; as well as in a circ.u.mstance related by P.

della Valle (II. 491; and Cardan, _de Varietate_, c. xcvii.). Indeed the supporter of the Royal arms retains the narwhal horn. To this popular error is no doubt due the reading in Pauthier's text, which makes the horn _white_ instead of black.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Monoceros and the Maiden.[7]]

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

"Monosceros est Beste, un corne ad en la teste, Purceo ad si a nun, de buc ad facun; Par Pucele est prise; or vez en quel guise.

Quant hom le volt cacer et prendre et enginner, Si vent hom al forest u sis riparis est; La met une Pucele hors de sein sa mamele, Et par odurement Monosceros la sent; Dunc vent a la Pucele, et si baiset la mamele, En sein devant se dort, issi vent a sa mort Li hom suivent atant ki l'ocit en dormant U trestout vif le prent, si fais puis sun talent.

Grant chose signifie."....

And so goes on to moralise the fable.

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

[1] See _Anderson's Missing to East Coast of Sumatra_. pp. 229, 233 and map. The _Ferlec_ of Polo was identified by Valentyn. (_Sumatra_, in vol. v. p. 21.) Marsden remarks that a terminal _k_ is in Sumatra always softened or omitted in p.r.o.nunciation. (_H. of Sum._ 1st. ed. p.

163.) Thus we have Perlak, and _Perla_, as we have Battak and _Batta_.

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

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

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

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

[6] _Tresor_, p. 253; _N. and E._, V. 263; _Jorda.n.u.s_, p. 43.

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

CHAPTER X.

THE KINGDOMS OF SAMARA AND DAGROIAN.

So you must know that when you leave the kingdom of Basma you come to another kingdom called Samara, on the same Island.[NOTE 1] And in that kingdom Messer Marco Polo was detained five months by the weather, which would not allow of his going on. And I tell you that here again neither the Pole-star nor the stars of the Maestro[NOTE 2] were to be seen, much or little. The people here are wild Idolaters; they have a king who is great and rich; but they also call themselves subjects of the Great Kaan.

When Messer Mark was detained on this Island five months by contrary winds, [he landed with about 2000 men in his company; they dug large ditches on the landward side to encompa.s.s the party, resting at either end on the sea-haven, and within these ditches they made bulwarks or stockades of timber] for fear of those brutes of man-eaters; [for there is great store of wood there; and the Islanders having confidence in the party supplied them with victuals and other things needful.] There is abundance of fish to be had, the best in the world. The people have no wheat, but live on rice. Nor have they any wine except such as I shall now describe.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ibn Batuta, about 1346, on his way to China, spent fifteen days at the court of Samudra, which he calls _Samathrah_ or _Samuthrah_. The king whom he found there reigning was the Sultan Al-Malik Al-Dhahir, a most zealous Mussulman, surrounded by doctors of theology, and greatly addicted to religious discussions, as well as a great warrior and a powerful prince.

The city was 4 miles from its port, which the traveller calls _Sarha_; he describes the capital as a large and fine town, surrounded with an enceinte and bastions of timber. The court displayed all the state of Mahomedan royalty, and the Sultan's dominions extended for many days along the coast. In accordance with Ibn Batuta's picture, the Malay Chronicle represents the court of Pasei (which we have seen to be intimately connected with Samudra) as a great focus of theological studies about this time.

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