XVI.

CONCERNING TURKEY.[190]

1. I was also in Turkey, in a certain camp on the coast of the main, held by a noble Genoese, by name Andreolo Cathani, who hath with him only fifty-two knights[191] and four hundred foot soldiers. He doth much scathe to the Turks. And there he himself maketh alum, without which no cloth can be properly dyed; and ’tis made in a marvellous way, nor do I believe that the art could have been invented by human ingenuity, but rather by the Holy Spirit.[192] For thus it is: stones be taken from under the ground, not stones of any kind, but such as be specially suitable, for few be found of that kind. And these stones be baked like bricks or pottery, and that in great quantity and for many days, and with a most potent fire. The stones be afterwards placed on a great platform, and water is poured upon them, and this two or three times a day for a month continuously, so that the stones become like [slaked] lime. Afterwards they be placed in great caldrons with water, and that which falleth to the bottom is extracted with great iron ladles. Then four-square tanks of plaster are prepared, numerous and large, and into these the water from the caldrons is poured, and there gradually taketh place a precipitation like crystal, and that is choice alum.[193]

2. In this Turkey be the VII Churches to which wrote the Blessed John in the Apocalypse, who also ordered a sepulchre to be dug for him in Ephesus, whereinto he entered and was seen no more. But I will tell one very marvellous thing concerning that excavation, as I heard it from a certain devout religious person, who was there and heard it with his own ears. From time to time is heard there a very loud sound, as of a man snoring, and yet is the sepulchre void.[194]

3. This Turkey, which is called Asia Minor, is inhabited by the Turks, and by a few schismatic Greeks and Armenians. Which Turks be most rascally Saracens, and capital archers withal, and the most warlike and perfidious of all mankind.

4. The country is very fertile, but uncultivated; for the Turks trouble not themselves.[195]

EXPLICIT.

FOOTNOTES

[41] Admiral Smyth says that the currents in the Faro are so numerous and varied, that it is difficult to ascertain anything precise about them. In settled seasons a central stream runs north and south, at the rate of two to five miles an hour. On each shore there is a _refluo_, or counter-set, often forming eddies to the central current. When the main current runs to the north it is called _Rema montante_, or flood; when it runs south, _Rema scendente_, or ebb; and this has obtained, perhaps, even from the days of Eratosthenes. He considers that the _special_ danger from the Faro currents is insignificant. There are dangerous _squalls_ from the ravines or river-beds on the high Calabrian coast.

He admits some little more of reality in the celebrated vortex of Charybdis, which must have been formidable to the undecked vessels of the ancients; for in the present day small craft are sometimes endangered, and he has seen even a seventy-four whirled round on its surface. The “Galofaro” appears to be an agitated water of from seventy to ninety fathoms in depth, circling in quick eddies, but rather an incessant undulation than a whirlpool, and the cases are only extreme when any vortiginous ripples threaten danger to laden boats. “It is owing probably to the meeting of the harbour and lateral currents with the main one, the latter being forced over in this direction by the opposite point of Pezzo. This agrees in some measure with the relation of Thucydides, who calls it a violent reciprocation of the Tyrrhene and Sicilian seas, and he is the only writer of remote antiquity I remember to have read who has assigned this danger its true situation, and not exaggerated its effects.” (_Abridged from_ Smyth’s _Mediterranean_, pp. 180-1). Our author seems to mix up the two phenomena in his exaggerated account. The _upward and downward current_ suggest that he had heard the local terms quoted by Admiral Smyth.

[42] “The breadth of the Euripus is diminished by a rock in mid-channel, on which a fort is built, dividing it into two channels: that towards the main, though rather the broader, is only practicable for small boats, as there is not more than three feet water at any time. Between the rock and the walls of Egripos is a distance of 33 feet, and the least depth at the highest water is 7 feet. It is here that the extraordinary tides take place for which the Euripus was formerly so noted; at times the water runs as much as eight miles an hour, with a fall under the bridge of 1½ foot; but what is most singular is, that vessels lying 150 yards from the bridge are not the least affected by this rapid. It remains but a short time in a quiescent state, changing its direction in a few minutes, and almost immediately resuming its velocity, which is generally from four to five miles an hour either way, its greatest rapidity being, however, always to the southward. The results of three months’ observation, in which the above phenomena were noted, afforded no sufficient data for reducing them to any regularity.”—_Penny Cyclop._, Article _Eubœa_. See also _Leake_ (_Tr. in Northern Greece_, ii. p. 257), who quotes Wheler and Spon.

[43] Greece generally is subject to earthquakes, but I cannot find evidence that Thebes is particularly so.

[44] The first ascent of Ararat is well known to have been made by Professor Parrot, of Dorpat, 9th October, 1829, whose account of his journey has been translated by Mr. Cooley.

“From the summit downwards, for nearly two-thirds of a mile perpendicular, or nearly three miles in an oblique direction, it is covered with a crown of eternal snow and ice” (_Parrot’s Journey_, p. 133). As to the clouds, the same author remarks with regard to a drawing of Ararat: “The belt of clouds about the mountain is characteristic” (p. 137). And Smith and Dwight (_Researches in Armenia_, p. 266) say that they were prevented by clouds from seeing it for three weeks. It is believed in the country that the Ark still exists on the mountain, access to which has been forbidden by Divine decree since Noah’s time. A holy monk called Jacob resolved to convince himself by inspection. But in his ascent of the mountain he three times was overtaken by sleep, and each time found that he had unconsciously lost the ground that he had gained when awake. At last an angel came to him when again asleep, and told him that his zeal was fruitless, but was to be rewarded by a fragment of the wood of the Ark, a sacred relic still preserved in the Cathedral of Echmiazin. (_Parrot_, and _Smith and Dwight_); see also the narrative of _Guillaume de Rubruk_ (Rubruquis), in _Rec. de Voyages_, iv. p. 387.

[45] Stories of serpents seem to be rife in Armenia. On the Araxes, south of Nakhcheván (see note below), is a mountain called the Serpent Mountain, where serpents are said to collect in such numbers at certain times, that no man or beast dare approach. (See _Haxthausen’s Transcaucasia_, pp. 144, 181, 353, etc.)

[46] The name of the province and town of Nakhcheván, east of Ararat, signifies “first place of descent, or of lodging.” The antiquity of the tradition is proved by the fact, that Josephus affirms that the Armenians call the place where the Ark rested “_the place of descent_;” whilst Ptolemy supplies the name of Naxuana. (_Smith and Dwight_, p. 255.)

The place alluded to by Jordanus appears to be Arguri, the only village upon Ararat. Here Noah is said to have built his altar on the exact spot now occupied by the church, and it is of the vineyards of Arguri that the Scripture is believed to speak when it is said that “Noah began to be an husbandman, and planted a vineyard.” The church is of unascertained but remote date; and the name of the place signifies (_Argh-urri_) “He planted the vine.” (_Parrot_, p. 122.) At Nakhcheván “the grapes were almost unequalled in excellence, and seemed to deserve the honour of growing on the spot.” (_Smith and Dwight_, p. 256.) Arguri was buried by an earthquake, accompanied by volcanic indications, July 2nd, 1840. (_Smith’s Dict. of the Bible, Art. Ararat._)

[47] The Armenian belief is, that Thaddeus, one of the Seventy, was, after the Ascension, sent by St. Thomas, according to commands given him by the Lord, to Abgarus of Edessa, who had written the celebrated letter. Thaddeus, and Bartholomew who followed him, were successively put to death by Sanatruk, the heathen nephew of Abgarus. Jude also came to preach in Armenia, and was put to death in Ormi (Urumia). The mission of Simon I do not find mentioned, but Chardin states that his body was said to be preserved in one of the churches. (See _Avdall’s_ Tr. of _Chamich’s Hist. of Armenia_. Calcutta, 1827, pp. 107-111, and _Smith and Dwight_.)

[48] The virgin must be _Rhipsime_, said to have been of the house of Claudius Cæsar, who, with Kayane and thirty-seven other holy virgins, were put to death in the time of Dioclesian. There are churches dedicated to R. and K. at Echmiazin. (_Smith and Dwight._)

[49] Tertal is Tiridates, in Armenian Dertad = Theodosius. (_Smith and Dwight._)

[50] St. Gregory, called The Illuminator, born A.D. 257, consecrated Archbishop of Armenia 302. He is said to have revived (probably _introduced_) Christianity in Armenia, and, after suffering persecution at the hands of King Tiridates, converted him and his whole people. The place alluded to by Jordanus is at the convent of Khor-virab (“Deep pit”), on the Araxes, under Ararat. Here Gregory is believed to have been confined in a cave with serpents, and in the endurance of manifold torments, for fourteen years. (_Smith and Dwight_, p. 273. See also _Chardin_, p. 251. _Curzon’s Armenia_ has a concise account of the Armenian church.)

[51] “The ancient and extensive Dominican mission, which once had its seat in this province, (Nakhcheván) is now no more. It was commenced about 1320 by an Italian papal monk of the Dominican order. Such success attended it that soon nearly thirty Armenian villages embraced the faith of Rome, and acknowledged subjection to a papal bishop, who after being consecrated at Rome resided in the village of Aburan, with the title of Archbishop of Nakhcheván.” (_Smith and Dwight_, p. 257.)

[52] At this time a Tartar successor of Hulaku.

[53] This Dead Sea is doubtless the Lake of Urumia, the waters of which are salter than sea water. It appears to be about ninety miles in length from north to south. There are no fish in it. It contains several islands, or peninsulas which are occasionally islands, two of which have been used as fortresses. In one of these Hulaku the Tartar conqueror of Baghdad was said to have stored his treasures. Another is said to be “as old as the days of Zoroaster,” who is believed to have been born in the vicinity. I do not find tombs mentioned. (_Penny Cyc._ in v. _Azerbijan_, also _Monteith_ in _Jour. Geog. Soc._ iii. 55, and _Smith and Dwight_, 348.)

[54] “_Thaurisium._”

[55] Sebast is doubtless Sivas, called by Marco Polo Sebastos, anciently Sebasteia (_Smith’s Dict. of Gr. and Rom. Geo._) south of Tokat, and giving name to a pachalik. The Barcarian mountains appear as _Barchal Dagh_ running parallel to the Black Sea between Trebizond and Kars. (_Stieler’s Hand-Atlas_, 43a.) Mogan is _Orogan_ in the original, but, as we shall see below, this is an error of transcription. The _Plain_ of Mogan is the great plain extending from the eastern foot of Caucasus along the Caspian, and stretching to the south of the Cyrus and Araxes. Here Pompey’s career eastward is said to have been arrested by the venomous serpents with which the long grass of the plain is infested. The dread of these serpents still exists. “Their hissing is heard from afar, and they seem to rise from the grass like fish from the sea”, Kinneir was told. Here the camp of Heraclius was pitched, as was that of the Tartar hosts for many months during their invasion of Armenia in the thirteenth century, and that of Nadir Shah when he placed the crown upon his head. (_Macd. Kinneir’s Mem. of Persia_, 153; _Avdall’s Hist. of Armenia._)

[56] The Lake appears to be Gokchai or Sevan, north-east of Erivan. There is a small island with a monastery upon it. There are many traditions attached to the monasteries in this vicinity, but I cannot find this one.

[57] Perhaps Erivan, but I cannot trace the name.

[58] Sir John Chardin (356) says he may “truly reck’n” the population of Tauris to be 550,000 persons, and that several in the city would have it to be double that number! yet he had said just before that it contained 15,000 houses and 15,000 shops, so that 150,000 souls would be a liberal estimate. It appears now to contain from 30,000 to 50,000. Kinneir calls it one of the most wretched cities in Persia. Such estimates of city population are common enough still. Many books and many gentlemen in India will still tell us that Benares contains half a million, and that Lucknow before 1857 contained 700,000; the fact being, as regards Benares, that by _census_ and including its suburbs it contains 171,668; whilst the estimate for Lucknow was probably five or six times the truth. I suspect the usual estimate of 900,000 in the city of Madras to be of equal value.

[59] At Tabriz “dew is entirely unknown, and not more than two or three showers fall between March and December. The plain around is very fertile where irrigated.” (_Penny Cyc._)

[60] The only manna I have known in India was exuded by a tamarisk; but it appears to be produced on various shrubs in Persia and the adjoining countries, camelthorns, tamarisks, and others. And one kind called _Bed-kisht_ is produced on a species of willow. (_Bed_ signifies a _willow_.) Some kinds of manna are used as sugar. (See _Pen. Cyc._ in v. _Manna_.) This authority does not seem to recognize the agency of any insect in its production. But Macdonald Kinneir (in his _Memoir of the Persian Empire_, p. 329) has the following note. “Manna is exported from Moosh, on the Euphrates [west of Lake Van] in considerable quantities. It is termed _guz_ by the Persians, and found in great quantities in Louristan, and in the district of Khonsar in Irak. It is taken from a small shrub, in appearance not unlike a funnel, about four feet in height and three in diameter at the top. The _guz_ is said to be produced by small insects, which are seen to move in vast numbers under the small and narrow leaves of the shrub.—These were always in motion, and continued to crawl between the bark and the leaves. The _guz_ is collected during the months of August and September in the following manner. A vessel of an oval form being placed under the bush as a receptacle, the leaves are beat every third day with a crooked stick covered with leather. The manna when first gathered has the tenacity and appearance of gum, but, when exposed to the heat of 90° of Fahrenheit’s thermometer, it dissolves into a liquid resembling honey. When mixed with sweetmeat its tenacity resists the application of the knife, but when suddenly struck it shivers into pieces.”

[61] There is a town called in the maps _Ahar_, about fifty miles north-east of Tabriz, but I cannot find that this was ever considered to be Ur of the Chaldees. Urfa, which is generally supposed to be Ur, is in quite another region, more than four hundred miles from Tabriz.

[62] Wild asses are found in the dry regions from the frontiers of Syria to the Runn of Cutch, and north to 48° lat. Ferrier mentions herds of hundreds between Mushid and Herat, and on the banks of the Khashrood, south of Herat. “They are fleet as deer,” he says. Their flesh is more delicate than Persian beef, and the Afghans consider it a great delicacy, as did the old Roman epicures. This species, as I learn from a note with which Mr. Moore, of the India Museum, has kindly favoured me, is _Asinus Onager_, the _Kulan_ or _Ghor-khar_ of the Persians. That of Syria and Northern Arabia is the _Asinus Hemippus_, the Hemionus of the ancients; whilst the _Kyang_ or _Jiggetai_ (_Equus Hemionus_ of Pallas, _E. Polyodon_ of Hodgson) inhabits Tibet and thence northward to southern Siberia; and the true wild ass (_E. asinus_) is indigenous to north-eastern Africa, and perhaps to south Arabia and the island of Socotra.

[63] “_Lapis azurii_,” hod. _lapis lazuli_. Quantities of this are found in Badakshan. (_Burnes_, _Bokhara_, ii. 205. 8vo ed.)

[64] _Sic._ Probably L, or LV is intended.

[65] “_Ferculum et carnem._”

[66] “_Tobalia._”

[67] The Afghans exceed the practices here graphically described; for they, I believe, often expectorate in the hairy sleeve of the _postin_, which in winter they wear after the fashion of Brian O’Linn, “with the leather side out and the woolly side in.” Scott Waring (_Tour to Shiraz_, p. 103) notices the dirty table habits of the Persians.

[68] The friar’s remarks seem to shew that forks were common in Europe earlier than is generally represented to be the case.

[69] No doubt it should be _kīr_, which is bituminous pitch in Persian. What the parenthesis means I cannot make out. _Pegua_ can scarcely be a reference to the petroleum of Pegu at this early date?

[70] Burnes describes the vast fields of soft sand, formed into ridges, between Bokhara and the Oxus. Their uniformity is remarkable, all having the shape of a horse-shoe, convex towards the north, from which the prevailing wind blows. On this side they slope, inside they are precipitous. The height is from fifteen to twenty feet. “The particles of sand, moving from one mound to another, wheeling in the eddy or interior of the semicircle, and having now and then, particularly under the rays of the sun, much the look of water, an appearance, I imagine, which has given rise to the opinion of moving sands in the desert.” (_Bokhara_, ii. pp. 1, 2.)

Our author may possibly have heard of the _Reg-rawán_, or “flowing sand,” of the Koh Daman, near Istalif. (See _Wood’s Oxus_, p. 181.)

[71] It may be gathered from what follows, that Lesser India embraces Sindh, and probably Mekrán, and India along the coast as far as some point immediately north of Malabar. Greater India extends from Malabar very indefinitely to the eastward, for he makes it include Champa (Cambodia). India Tertia is the east of Africa.

According to the old Portuguese geographer, whose “Summary of Kingdoms,” etc., is given by Ramusio, _First India_ (see text, next page), ends at Mangalore, _Second India_ at the Ganges.

Marco Polo reverses the titles given by our author. He makes Greater India extend from Maabar (south part of the Coromandel coast) to Kesmacoran (Kidj-mekrán or Mekrán), whilst Lesser India stretches from the Coromandel to Champa. Abyssinia, Marco calls _Middle India_. (See _Murray’s Polo_, pt. ii. ch. xxxvi.) Benjamin of Tudela speaks of “Middle India which is called Aden.” Conti says all India is divided into three parts, the first extending from Persia (Ormus?) to the Indus, the second from the Indus to the Ganges, the third all beyond.

It is worth noting that Pliny says it was disputed whether Gedrosia (Mekrán), etc., belonged to India or to Ariana. (vi. p. 23.)

[72] I believe this is substantially correct. Sindh is the only province in India that produces edible dates. A date-palm is found all over India, but the fruit is worthless.

[73] Till half-past nine o’clock. “_Quod usque ad mediam tertiam per solis radios ullâtenus possit desiccari._” “The dews” in Lower Sindh, says Burnes, “are very heavy and dangerous.” (iii. p. 254.) The fertility of the country is, however, confined to the tracts inundated or irrigated from the Indus and its branches. As to the absence of rain, Dr. Lord says, that “the rainfall registered by Lt. Wood during one year at Hyderabad was only 2·55 inches, whilst at Larkhana, further north, a shower of rain which fell after the arrival of Burnes’s party was universally ascribed to the good fortune of the Firingis, as for three years, the natives said, rain had scarcely been known.” (_Reports and Papers on Sindh_, etc.—Calcutta, 1839, p. 61.)

[74] “_Risis autem comeditur atque sagina in aquâ tantummodo cocta._”

[75] He is wrong about the non-existence of horses and camels in what he calls India the Less.

[76] Five persons to _eat_, that is. But an English gentleman, who is a coffee planter in the middle of Java, told me that he once cut a jack (the fruit intended by the bishop), which it took _three_ men to _carry_. That they grow in Ceylon to 50 lbs. weight at least is testified by Cordiner and Sir Emerson Tennent. The former says they grow there to two feet in length, and to the same circumference, which is bigger than I ever saw them in Bengal. The manner of growing is accurately described in the next paragraph of the text.

The jack is, no doubt, the Indian fruit described by Pliny, Book xii. ch. 12, as putting forth its fruit from the bark, and as being remarkable for the sweetness of its juice, a single one containing enough to satisfy four persons. The name of the tree, he says, is _pala_, and of the fruit _Ariena_. The former is possibly the Tamul name, _Pila_, which is also one of the Malabar names. If, however, Pliny derived the whole of his information on this fruit, as he appears to derive part of it, from the historians of the Alexandrian invasion, the name may be merely the Sanskrit _phala_, a fruit, and it would be a comical illustration of the persistency of Indian habits of mind. For a stranger in India asking the question, “What is that?” would almost certainly at this day receive for reply, “_P’hal hai, khudáwand!_” “It is a _fruit_, my lord!”

The name _jack_, which we give to the tree and its fruits, is one of that large class of words which are neither English nor Hindustani, but _Anglo-Indian_, and the origin of which is often very difficult to trace. Drury gives _Pilavoo_ as the Malayalim name, but I find that Rheede (_Hortus Malabaricus_, vol. iii.) gives also _Tsjaka_; and Linschoten, too, says that the jack is in Malabar called Iaca: so here we have doubtless the original.

I was long puzzled by the two species of our author, _Chaqui_ and _Bloqui_. There are, indeed, two well-known species of artocarpus giving fruits which are both edible, and have a strong external resemblance, the jack and the breadfruit. But the breadfruit is _not_ as big, _not_ as sweet, and does _not_ bear its fruit from the trunk and roots, but from twigs. Nor is it grown in Malabar, though sometimes, Ainslie says (_Materia Medica_), imported from Ceylon for sale. No _modern_ authors that I can find make a clear distinction of kinds of jack. But, on referring back, we find that all the old authors, who really seem to have gone into these practical matters with more freshness and sympathy in native tastes, do so. Thus Linschoten says, “There are two sorts of them: the best are called _Girasal_, and the common or least esteemed _Chambasal_, though in fashion and trees there is no difference, save that the Girasals have a sweeter taste;” and his old commentator, “the learned Doctor Paludanus, of Enckhuysen,” says, also, there are “two sorts, and the best is called _Barca_, the other _Papa_, which is not so good, and yet in handling is soft like the other.” Nearly three hundred years earlier Ibn Batuta had said, that of the fruits of India “are those termed _Shaki_ and _Barki_, ... the fruit grows out from the bottom of the tree, and that which grows nearest to the earth is called the Barki; it is extremely sweet and well-flavoured in taste; what grows above this is called the Shaki,” etc. Lastly, we have Rheede, speaking with authority, “Ceterum arboris hujus ultra triginta numerantur species ratione fructuum distinctæ, _quæ tamen omnes ad duo referentur genera_; quorum alterius fructus qui carne succulentâ, gratissimi, mellinique saporis turgent, _varaka_; at alterius, qui carne flaccidâ, molliori et minus sapidâ referti sunt, _Tsjakapa_ nuncupantur.” (iii. p. 19.) Drury, indeed, says, “There are several varieties, but what is called the Honeyjack is by far the sweetest and best.”

To conclude this long discourse on a short text, it seems certain that the _Bloqui_ of our author is the _Barki_ of Ibn Batuta, the _Barka_ of Paludanus, the _Varaka_ “mellini saporis” of Rheede, and the Honeyjack of Drury. “He that desireth to see more hereof let him reade _Lodouicus Romanus_, in his fifth Booke and fifteene Chapter of his Nauigatiouns, and _Christopherus a Costa_ in his Cap. of _Iaca_, and _Gracia ab Horto_, in the second Booke and fourth Chapter,” saith the learned Paludanus,—and so say I, by all means!

[77] _Amba_ (Pers.), the Mango. Ibn Batuta writes it _’anbâ_ with an _’ain_, as appears from Lee’s note (p. 104), and the latter translates it “grape,” which is the meaning of that word I believe in _Arabic_. Our author’s just description of the flavour of the mango is applicable, however, only to the finer stocks, and seems to show that the “Bombay mango” already existed in the thirteenth century. The mango is commonly believed in Anglo-India to produce boils, which I see was also the belief in Linschoten’s day. But I agree with his commentator, that, at the time when the fruit is ripe, “by reason of the great heate and season of the yeare—many doe fall into the forenamed diseases, although they eate none of this fruite.”

[78] This would seem to imply that the orange was not known in Southern Europe in the author’s time; though there are such things as sweet lemons.

[79] The Persian name for the coco-nut, and coco-palm.

[80] So Ibn Batuta—“Of this sort of trees the palm will produce fruit twelve times in the year, each month supplying a fresh crop: so that you will see upon the trees the fruit of some large, of others small, of others dry, and of others green. And this is the case always.” (See p. 176.)

The account of the coco-palm, though slightly mythicized, is substantially correct. In the third year of the palm’s growth the fronds begin to fall, a new frond appearing at the end of every month. Of these there are twenty-eight, more or less, on a full-grown tree. On a single tree there are about twelve branches, or spadices, of nuts. Most of the young fruit falls off, only a few coming to perfection; but as from ten to fifteen nuts _on an average_ are produced on one branch, a single tree may produce eighty to one hundred nuts every year. (_Drury’s Useful Plants of India._)

[81] This is the _jaggeri_, or palm-sugar, used extensively in southern India. It is made by boiling down the fresh toddy over a slow fire. The description of the extraction of the toddy, etc., is substantially correct.

[82] “_Omni tempore mundi, et hoc sicut venit._”

[83] “The leaves are employed for thatching houses, especially in Malabar.” (_Drury_, p. 152.)

[84] The well known _coir_. The native practice is to steep the husk in salt water for eighteen months or two years before beating out the _coir_; but this has been proved to be injurious. The virtues of _coir_ are strength, lightness, elasticity, durability, power of standing sea-water. It is now largely used in England for brushes, mats, carpets, etc. (_Drury._)

[85] Persian _Tár_. _Tádí_ is the Teloogoo name, according to Drury; in Hindustani, _tár_ and _tál_. It is the palmyra (_Borassus flabelliformis_), a tree found from Malabar along the coast to Bengal, and thence down the transgangetic coast through Burma and the great islands, and also up the Ganges to Cawnpore, a little above which it ceases. The fruit is of no value. The wood is much used for rafters, etc., and it is better than that of any other Indian palm; but the tree is chiefly used for the derivation of the liquor to which, as taken from this and other palms, we give the slightly corrupted name of _toddy_, a name which in Scotland has received a new application. It is the tree from which palm-sugar is most generally made. The leaves are used for making fans (the typical fan being evidently a copy of this leaf), for writing on, and in some places for thatching, etc.

[86] _Belluri_ I conceive to be the _Caryota urens_, which, according to Rheede (_Hortus Malabar._, i.), is called by the Brahmans in Malabar _birala_. Most of our author’s names seem to be Persian in form; but there is probably no Persian name for this palm. Richardson, however, has “_barhal_, name of a tree and its fruit.” This tree yields more toddy than any other palm, as much as a hundred pints in twenty-four hours. Much sugar is made from it, especially in Ceylon. It also affords a sago, and a fibre for fishing lines, known in England as “Indian gut.” A woolly stuff found at the springing of the fronds, is said by Drury to be used for caulking. I may add that it makes an excellent _amadou_ for smokers; but the specific name does not come from this fact, as I have heard suggested, but from the burning acridity of the fruit when applied to the tongue. The _caryota_, with its enormous jagged fronds, and huge pendulous bunches of little bead-like berries, is a very beautiful object. The fruit is actually used for beads by the Mahomedans. Buchanan (_Mysore_, etc., ii, 454) says its leaves are the favourite food of the elephant, and that its sugar is superior to that of the palmyra, but inferior to that of the cocoa nut.

[87] The banyan:

“Such as at this day, to Indians known In Malabar or Decan, spreads her arms Branching so broad and long, that in the ground The bended twigs take root, and daughters grow About the mother-tree, a pillared shade High over-arched, and echoing walks between: There oft the Indian herdsman, shunning heat, Shelters in cool, and tends his pasturing herds At loopholes cut through thicket shade.”

(_Paradise Lost_, b. ix.)

Which noble lines are almost an exact versification of Pliny’s description (xii, 11). Drury quotes Roxburgh as mentioning banyans, the vertical shadow of which had a circumference of five hundred yards. Just about half this size is the largest I have seen, near Hushyárpúr in the Northern Punjab. It is remarkable in some of the largest of these trees, that you cannot tell which has been the original and “mother-tree,” that having probably decayed and disappeared. The age of these trees is sometimes by no means so great as first impressions suggest. There is a very fine one in the Botanic Garden at Calcutta, (its exact size I do not remember, but the shade is not less than a hundred and eighty to two hundred feet across), whereof the garden tradition runs, that it originated in Roxburgh’s time, _i.e._, eighty or ninety years ago. It has, however, been carefully tended and _ex_tended, the vertical fibres being protected by bamboo tubes when young. It is said to have grown originally in the crown of a date tree, as often happens.

[88] True in a general way, but with exceptions, specific and local.

[89] _Siya-gosh_ (black-ear), the Persian name of the lynx. I have not been able to hear of a _white_ lynx. The lynx of the Dekkan, which is probably meant (_felis caracal_), has only the under part white, the back being a pale reddish brown. Its tenacity is a noted feature.

[90] “_Quod vocatur rinocerunta_”! The rhinoceros is not now, I believe, found in any part of India south (or west) of the Ganges; but it has become extinct in my own time in the forests of Rajmahl, on the right bank of that river; and very possibly extended at one time much further west, though our author’s statement is too vague to build upon, and scarcely indicates personal knowledge of the animal.

[91] Two-headed and even three-headed serpents might be suggested by the portentous appearance of a cobra with dilated hood and spectacles, especially if the spectator were (as probably would be the case) in a great fright. But for _five_ heads I can make no apology.

[92] This has puzzled me sorely, and I sought it vainly among Tamul and Malayalim synonyms. At the last moment the light breaks in upon me. It is, Fr., _cocatrix_; Ital., _calcatrice_; Anglicè, a _cockatrice_!

[93] Polo says: “Here and throughout all India the birds and beasts are different from ours, except one bird, which is the quail.” (iii, 20.)

[94] A literally accurate description of the great Indian bat, or flying fox. They generally cluster on some great banyan tree. These, I presume, are what Marco Polo quaintly calls “bald owls which fly in the night: they have neither wings (?) nor feathers, and are as large as an eagle.” (iii, 20.) There is a good account of the flying fox, and an excellent cut, in Tennent’s _Nat. History of Ceylon_. On the Indiarubber trees at the Botanic Gardens near Kandy, they “hang in such prodigious numbers that frequently large branches give way beneath their accumulated weight.” (p. 16.) Shall I be thought to be rivalling my author in the recital of marvels, if I say that in 1845 I saw, near Delhi, large branches which had been broken off by the accumulated weight—of _locusts_ a few days before? So all the peasantry testified.

[95] Probably some kind of jungle-fowl, such as _Gallus Sonneratii_. Pheasants are not found in southern India.

[96] _Spatham_, a straight sword (?); but a contemptuous expression is evidently intended. Polo says: “The people go to battle with lance and shield, entirely naked; yet are they not valiant and courageous, but mean and cowardly.”

[97] Is not this short and accurate statement the first account of the Parsis in India, and of their strange disposal of the dead?

[98] The _Domra_ or _Dóm_, one of the lowest Indian castes, and supposed to represent one of the aboriginal races. They are to this day, in Upper India, the persons generally employed to remove carcases, and to do the like jobs; sometimes also as hangmen. In the Dekkan they seem, according to Dubois (p. 468), who calls them _Dumbars_, to be often tumblers, conjurors, and the like.

[99] Ginger is cultivated in all parts of India. That of Malabar is best. (_Drury._)

[100] _Carrobiæ_,—referring, I presume, to the carob of the Mediterranean (_Ceratonia siliqua_). I do not know what he means unless it be tamarinds, which are leguminous pods with some analogy to the carobs of the Mediterranean. The _trees_ may often be called stupendous; but this seems scarcely to be his meaning. The European name is Arabic, _támar-ul-Hind_ (date of India), as Linschoten long ago pointed out.

[101] _Cassia fistula_ of Linnæus, if that be what is meant, is found in the Travancore forests, and probably all over India. Its beautiful, pendulous racemes of yellow flowers, shewing something like a Brobdignag laburnum, make it a favourite in the gardens of Upper India. It affords a laxative medicine, and is given by Milburn among the exports of western India. The long, cylindrical pods, sometimes two feet long, probably give the specific name. It is possible, however, that the bishop did not mean _C. fistula_, but _cassia lignea_, an inferior cinnamon, which grows in Malabar forests, and was at one time largely exported from Calicut and the other ports. Barbosa mentions it as _canella selvatica_. Linschoten says that it was worth only about one-fifth of the Ceylon cinnamon. It is perhaps the cassia of Pliny. It is remarkable however that he says the choice cassia was called by the barbarians by the name of _lada_; and _lada_ is the generic name which the Malays give to all the species of pepper, the word signifying _pungent_. (See _Drury_; _Crawfurd’s Malay Dict._; and _Bohn’s Pliny_, xii, 43.)

[102] This is a remarkable testimony to the character of the Hindus when yet uninjured by foreign domination or much foreign intercourse. M. Polo says the Abraiamain (Brahmans) “are the best and most honest of all merchants, and would not on any account tell a lie” (p. 304). Rabbi Benjamin says also, “This nation is very trustworthy in matters of trade, and whenever foreign merchants enter their port, three secretaries of the king immediately repair on board their vessels, write down their names, and report them to him. The king thereupon grants them security for their property, which they may even leave in the open fields without any guard” (_Asher’s Itinerary_ of R. Benj. of Tud., p. 138 _et seq._). There are many other passages, both in ancient and mediæval writers, giving an extravagantly high character for integrity and veracity to the Hindus, a character not very often deserved by them, and never ascribed to them, now-a-days. See some remarks on this subject in _Elphinstone’s History_,

## book iii. ch. xi.

It is curious, however, that, with reference to the very district of Travancore, which now includes Quilon, where the bishop’s experience must have chiefly lain, two English Residents have borne testimony lamentably opposed to his account of the character of the people in former times. One of these declares that “he never knew a people so destitute of truth and honesty, or so abandoned to vice and corruption”; the other asserts that “in no part of the world are men to be found to whose habits and affections the practice of vice is so familiar” (_Hamilton’s Desc. Hindost._, ii. 315).

[103] Says Marco, “The heat of the sun can scarcely be endured; if you put an egg into any river, it will be boiled before you have gone any great distance.” (iii. 25.)

[104] The reason of the reference to Multán is obscure. The allusion would seem to be to the conquest of the Carnatic and Malabar by the generals of the Khilji sovereigns of Delhi, Alá-ud-din and Mubárik (A.D. 1310-1319). The Khiljis were Turks by descent. Mooltan was at this time subject to Delhi (_Elphinstone’s History_, pp. 343, 348, and _Briggs’s Ferishta_). But, perhaps, the “not long since” has a wider import, and refers to the conquests and iconoclasms of the great Mahmúd of Ghazni, 300 years before. Indeed, he is here speaking of the Lesser India, _i.e._ of Sindh, Gujerat, and the Konkan, the scene of some of Mahmúd’s most memorable expeditions. Mahmúd coming from Ghazni would come _through_ Multán, and indeed he took that city several times.

[105] Perhaps a reference to the notions of Mahomedans about the latter days. But I think I have read of indications of this belief among Hindus, though I cannot quote them. This one is remarkable at so early a date.

[106] I need scarcely say that by Saracens he means Mahomedans, just as these were called _Moors_ by our people in India in the last century, and by some classes of Europeans perhaps to our own day. So also the Prayer-book, in the collect for Good Friday, speaks of “Jews, TURKS, infidels, and heretics.”

[107] “_Planeta._”

[108] Somewhat obscure. “_Isti faciunt idola ferè ad similitudinem omnium rerum idolotrarum animantium; habent desuper deum suum, ad similitudinem suam._”

[109] Apart from the Brahminical theosophies, the expressions of Hindus generally, when _religious_ (not superstitious) feeling or expression is drawn out, by sorrow or the like, are often purely Theistic. _Parmeswar_ or _Bhagwán_ in such cases is evidently meant to express the One Almighty, and no fabled divinity. But the old geographer in Ramusio makes the singular assertion that “all the country of Malabar believes in the Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and this beginning at Cambay and ending at Bengal”. Conti says the same at Ava, but _he_ was doubtless misled by the Buddhist triad, _Buddha_, _Dharma_, _Sangha_—the Divine person, the Law, and the Congregation.

[110] This does not agree in any way with any version of the Hindu mythical chronology that I know of.

[111] It would go hard with a man yet in a Hindu state who should kill an ox. It was capital under the Sikhs.

[112] “Whoever is most deeply tinted is honoured in proportion” (_M. Polo_, p. 304). So, among the flat-nosed Mongols, Rubruquis says, “_et quæ minus habet de naso, illa pulchrior reputatur!_”

[113] Than the bishop’s description thus far I doubt if a better is to be found till long after his time. The numbers of men represented to be carried on the _hauda_ seem not very credible to us and must be exaggerated, but all ancient accounts do speak of much larger numbers than we now-a-days are accustomed to put upon elephants under any circumstances.

[114] “A very pious animal,” as a German friend in India said to me, misled by the double sense of his vernacular _fromm_.

[115] _Brazil._ This is the sappan-wood, affording a red dye, from a species of _cæsalpina_ found in nearly all tropical Asia, from Malabar eastward. The name of brazil wood is now appropriated to that (derived from another species of caesalpina) which comes from Brazil, and which, according to Macculloch, gives twice as much dye from the same weight of wood. The history of the names here is worthy of note. First, _brazil_ is the name of the Indian wood in commerce. Then the great country is called _Brazil_, because a somewhat similar wood is found abundantly there. And now the Indian wood is robbed of its name, which is appropriated to that found in a country of the New World, and is supposed popularly to be derived from the name of that country. I do not know the origin of the word _brazil_. Sappan is from the Malay name (_sapang_).

[116] “_Lambruscæ._”

[117] The black pepper vine is indigenous in the forests of Malabar and Travancore (the districts which the Bishop has in his eye); and the Malabar pepper is acknowledged to be the best that is produced. The vines are planted at the base of trees with rough bark, the mango and others, and will climb twenty or thirty feet if allowed. After being gathered, the berries are dried on mats in the sun, turning from red to black. Pepper was for ages _the_ staple article of export to Europe from India, and it was with it that Vasco de Gama loaded his ships on his first voyage. A very interesting article on pepper will be found in that treasury of knowledge, Crawfurd’s _Dictionary of the Archipelago_.

The Bishop’s mention of “long pepper” shews confusion, probably in his amanuensis or copyist; for long pepper is the produce of a different genus (_Chavica_), which is _not_ a vine, but a shrub, whose stems are annual. The chemical composition and properties are nearly the same as those of black pepper. Crawfurd draws attention to the fact that, by Pliny’s account, _piper longum_ bore between three and four times the price of black pepper in the Roman market. (_Drury_ in voc.—_Crawfurd’s Dict._) Though long pepper is now cultivated in Malabar, it was not so, or at least not _exported_, in the sixteenth century. Linschoten says expressly that the “long pepper groweth onely in Bengala and Java.” (p. 111.) Its price at Rome was probably therefore a fancy one, due to its rarity. It is curious that Pliny supposed pepper to grow in pods, and that the long pepper was the immature pod picked and prepared for the market. He corrects a popular error that ginger was the root of the pepper tree (bk. xii). Ibn Batuta, like our Bishop, contradicts what “some have said, that they boil it in order to dry it,” as without foundation. But their predecessor, R. Benjamin, says—“the pepper is originally white, but when they collect it, they put it in basins and pour hot water upon it; it is then exposed to the heat of the sun,” etc.

[118] The cinnamon must have been the wild cinnamon or cassia. There is an article in Indian commerce called “cassia buds,” bearing some resemblance to cloves, and having the flavour of cinnamon. It is said by some to be the unexpanded flower of the Laurus cassia, but, strange to say, this seems still undetermined. (See _Penny Cyc._)

[119] Polo says the islands of India are estimated at 12,700 inhabited and uninhabited (iii, 37), and those of the China Sea at 7,448 (iii, 5). The Lakkadives are supposed to derive their name from Laksha or Lakh = 100,000.

[120] Ceylon, called by Polo Seilan, and the same by Ibn Batuta.

[121] The gorgeous lories of the Archipelago must have been imported to Quilon, and have been here in the Bishop’s remembrance.

[122] No doubt the large flying squirrel, which is found in Malabar and Ceylon as well as in Eastern India.

[123] The bandicoot; _Mus Malabaricus_, or _Mus giganticus_. The name is said by Sir E. Tennent (_Nat. Hist. of Ceylon_, p. 44) to be from the Teloogoo _Pandi-koku_, “Pig-rat.” “This rat is found in many places on the coast of Coromandel, in Mysore, and in several parts of Bengal between Calcutta and Hurdwar. It is a most mischievous animal, burrows to a great depth, and will pass under the foundations of granaries and store-houses if not carefully laid.” (_General Hardwicke_ in _Linnæan Trans._, vii., quoted in _Pen. Cyc._, article _Muridæ_.) The animal figured by Hardwicke was a female; its total length was 26¼ inches, of which the tail was 13 inches; and the weight was 2 pounds 11½ ounces. This is not quite so big as a fox, though the foxes in India _are_ very small. As an exaggeration, it is far from a parallel to that of Herodotus, who speaks (bk. iii.) of _ants_ in India as big as foxes. A story which reminds one of the question of a young Scotch lady just arrived in the Hoogly, when she saw an elephant for the first time, “Wull yon be what’s called a _musqueetae_?”

[124] The Talipat (_Corypha umbraculifera_), or great fan-palm, abundant in Ceylon, and found in the southern part of the peninsula, in Burma, and in the Malay islands, but scarcely known in Bengal. The leaves, according to Sir J. E. Tennent, have sometimes an area of two hundred square feet.

[125] “The King [of Ceylon] has the most beautiful ruby that ever was or can be in the whole world. It is the most splendid object on earth, and seems to glow like fire; it is of such value as money could scarcely purchase.” (_Polo_, iii. 17).

“I also saw in the possession of the King [of Ceylon] a saucer made of ruby, as large as the palm of the hand, in which he kept oil of aloes. I was much surprised at it, when the king said to me, ‘We have much larger than this.’” (_Ibn Batuta_, p. 187).

[126] “_De pannis quos emunt faciunt ad modum cortinarum parietes._”

[127] “_Jana_,” by mistranscription doubtless.

[128] His Java vaguely represents the Archipelago generally, with some special reference to Sumatra.

[129] Polo, in one chapter on Sumatra, tells how stuffed pygmies were manufactured for the western markets by shaving monkeys, “for neither in India, nor in any other country however savage, are there men so small as these pretended ones.” Yet, in another chapter, his incredulity gives way, and he tells of hairy men with tails, who remain in the mountains, never visiting the towns. No doubt the orang-utang, which exists in Sumatra, is at the bottom of these pygmy stories. The pygmies and cannibals together identify Sumatra as the scene of one of Sindbad’s adventures; not the Andamans, as a reviewer in the _Athenæum_ lately said.

[130] This seems to be a jumble of the myths about the spice-groves and the upas tree.

[131] The cubeb (_Piper cubeba_ and _P. caricum_) is the only one of the spices named which grows in Java proper. In those days it was probably exported as a condiment chiefly. This statement that pepper was not produced in the islands confirms the inference of the sagacious Crawfurd, that it is exotic in Sumatra. (See his _Dict. of the Archip._, article _Pepper_.)

[132] In Sumatra, we read, “Man’s flesh, if it be fat, is eaten as ordinarily there as beefe in our country. Marchants comming vnto this region for traffique do vsually bring to them fat men, selling them vnto the inhabitants as we sel hogs, who immediately kil and eate them.” (_Odoricus_, in Hakluyt, vol. ii.)

“In one part of the island, called _Batech_, the inhabitants eat human flesh,” etc. (_Conti_ in _India in the Fifteenth Century_, p. 9.) The cannibalism of certain tribes in Sumatra is noticed with more or less exaggeration by several other old travellers, and has been confirmed in the present century. The tribe is that of the Battas or Battaks, as correctly named by Conti, a race presenting the singular anomaly of Anthropophagi with a literature. Some have supposed that they may be the cannibal _Paddaei_ of Herodotus (iii. 99). It is not impossible, for the more we learn the further goes back the history of Eastern navigation.

[133] “Now, in all this province of Maabar, there is not a tailor, for the people go naked at every season. The air is always so temperate, that they wear only a piece of cloth round the middle. The king is dressed just like the others, except that his cloth is finer, and he wears a necklace full set with rubies, etc. He wears also round three parts both of his arms and legs, bracelets of gold, full of goodly stones and pearls.” (_Polo_, iii. 20.)

[134] For the continued existence of this remarkable custom of inheritance among the Nairs of Malabar, and for a description of the singular relations of the sexes out of which it springs, see a statement in Mr. Markham’s late _Travels in Peru and India_, p. 345. I am collecting, for another paper, the various examples of this law of inheritance in detail, and will only here mention that it exists, or has existed, also in Canara, (but there derived from the Nairs); among the aborigines of Hispaniola, and tribes of New Granada and Bogota; among negro tribes of the Niger; among certain sections of the Malays of Sumatra; in the royal family of Tipura, and among the Kasias of the Sylhet mountains (both east of Bengal); in a district of Ceylon adjoining Bintenne; in Madagascar; in the Fiji islands; and among the Hurons and Natchez of North America.

[135] Barbosa says that the King of Quilacare (Coilacaud), a city near Cape Comorin, after reigning twelve years, always sacrificed himself to an idol. See also _Odoricus_, in Hakluyt, ii. 161. The singular narrative in the text reminds us of Sir Jonah Barrington’s story of the Irish mower, who, making a dig at a salmon in a pool with the butt end of his scythe, which was over his shoulder, dropt his own head into the water. There is a remarkably parallel story in _Ibn Batuta_. When he was at the court of the pagan king of Mul-Java (which is certainly not Java, as the editors make it, but, as I hope to show elsewhere, Cambodia, or some country on the main in that quarter), he says, “I one day saw, in the assembly of this prince, a man with a long knife in his hand, which he placed upon his own neck; he then made a long speech, not a word of which I could understand; he then firmly grasped the knife, and its sharpness, and the force with which he urged it, were such that he severed his head from his body, and it fell on the ground. I was wondering much at the circumstance, when the king said to me: ‘Does any one among you do such a thing as this?’ I answered, ‘I never saw one do so.’ He smiled, and said: ‘These, our servants, do so out of their love to us.’ One who had been present at the assembly, told me that the speech he made was a declaration of his love to the sultan, and that on this account he had killed himself, just as his father had done for the father of the present king, and his grandfather for the king’s grandfather.” (_Lee’s Ibn Batuta_, p. 205.) Also we are told by Abu Zaid al Hasan, in Reinaud’s _Relation des Voyages faits par les Arabes_, etc. (Paris, 1845), how a young man of India, tying his hair to a great elastic bamboo stem, which was pulled down to the ground, cut his own head off, telling his friends to watch that they might see and hear how the head would _laugh_, as it sprung aloft with the resilient bamboo (i. 124). I wish I could relate, with the interesting detail with which it was told to me, a narrative which I heard from my friend Lieut.-Colonel Keatinge, V.C., of the Bombay Artillery. When encamped near a certain sacred rock on the Nerbudda, in the province of Nimar which was under his charge, a stalwart young man was brought to him, who had come thither from a distance, for the purpose of sacrificing himself by casting himself from the cliff, in fulfilment of a vow made by his own mother before his birth, in case she should, after long sterility, have a living son. After long remonstrance Colonel Keatinge at last succeeded in convincing him that it would be quite lawful to sacrifice a goat instead, and this having been done he departed with a relieved mind.

[136] As Quilon is between 8° and 9° of north latitude this is somewhat overstated.

[137] So Polo says that at Guzerat “the north star rose to the apparent height of six cubits”. This way of estimating celestial declinations appears to convey some distinct meaning to simple people, and even to some by no means illiterate Europeans. I remember once in India, when looking out for Venus, which was visible about two p.m., a native servant directed me to look “about one bamboo length from the moon;” and a young Englishman afterwards told me that he had seen it “about five feet from the moon.”

[138] “_Ibi videntur influentiæ oculo ad oculum, ita quod de nocte respicere est gaudiosum._”

[139] “_Astrologo._”

[140] Perhaps the good bishop by _infernales_ does not mean _infernal_, but only _inferior_. Yet the expression reminds us of the constant strain of oriental tradition, which represents the aborigines under the aspect of _Rakshasas_ or Demons. The reference is to the various forest tribes of the Peninsula, who represent either the Dravidian races unmodified by civilization, (whether Hindu or pre-Hindu), or some yet antecedent races. Dubois, speaking generally of the wild forest tribes of the south, says, “In the rainy season they shelter themselves in caverns, hollow trees, and clefts of the rocks; and in fine weather they keep the open field. They are almost entirely naked. The women wear nothing to conceal their nakedness but some leaves of trees stitched together, and bound round their waists,” etc. (473.) And Mr. Markham describes the Poliars, a race of wild and timid men of the woods in the Pulney Hills, east of Cochin, who are possibly the very people whom Jordanus had in his eye, as being said to have no habitations, but to run through the jungle from place to place, to sleep under rocks, and live on wild honey and roots. They occasionally trade with the peasantry, who place cotton and grain on some stone, and the wild creatures, as soon as the strangers are out of sight, take these and put honey in their place. But they will let no one come near them. (_Peru and India_, p. 404.) These wild races were no doubt in the mind’s eye of a little Hindu, who, during the examination of a native school by a late governor of Madras (now again occupying an eminent position in India), on being asked what became of the original inhabitants of Britain at the Saxon conquest? replied, “They fled into Wales and Cornwall, and other remote parts, where they exist as a wild and barbarous people to this day!” The little Hindu was not aware that—

“By Pol, _Tre_, and Pen You may know the Cornish men.”

[141] This is the practice of certain solitary wasps and kindred species, both in Europe and India (see _Kirby and Spence_, Letter xi., etc.). The spiders, etc., form a store of food for the use of the larvæ when hatched.

[142] “_Venas lapidum._”

[143] The most remarkable operation of white ants that I have heard of was told me by a scientific man, and I believe may be depended on. Having a case of new English harness, which he was anxious to secure from the white ants, he moved it about six inches from the wall, and placed it on stone vessels filled with water (as is often done), so that he considered it quite isolated and safe. On opening the case some time after he found the harness ruined, and on looking behind he saw that the white ants had actually projected their “crust” across the gap from the wall, so as to reach their prey by a tubular bridge. Here is engineering design as well as execution! The ants have apparently a great objection to working under the light of day, but that they “incontinently die” is a mistake.

[144]? “_Et sic se ingerunt sicut canes._” This appears to refer to the common rufous kite, abundant all over India. Of this, or a kindred kite, Sir J. E. Tennent says, “The ignoble birds of prey, the kites, keep close by the shore, and hover round the returning boats of the fishermen, to feast on the fry rejected from the nets” (_Nat. Hist. of C._, p. 246). The action described in the text is quite that of the Indian kite. I recollect seeing one swoop down upon a plate, which a servant was removing from the breakfast table in camp, and carry off the top of a silver muffineer, which however it speedily dropped.

[145] This may be the bird spoken of in the latter part of the next note, but I think it is probably the _Kulang_ (of Bengal), or great crane (_Grus cinerea_), which does travel at night, with a wailing cry during its flight.

[146] “_Ut ego audivi._” Ambiguum est, an ipse episcopus D⸺m loquentem audivisset? Not many years ago, an eccentric gentleman wrote from Sikkim to the secretary of the Asiatic Society in Calcutta, stating that, on the snows of the mountains there, were found certain mysterious footsteps, _more than thirty or forty paces asunder_, which the natives alleged to be _Shaitan’s_. The writer at the same time offered, if Government would give him leave of absence for a certain period, etc., to go and trace the author of these mysterious vestiges, and thus this strange creature would be discovered _without any expense to Government_. The notion of catching Shaitan without any expense to Government was a sublime piece of Anglo-Indian tact, but the offer was not accepted. Our author had, however, in view probably the strange cry of the Devil-bird, as it is called in Ceylon. “The Singhalese regard it literally with horror, and its scream by night in the vicinity of a village is bewailed as the harbinger of impending calamity.” “Its ordinary note is a magnificent clear shout, like that of a human being, and which can be heard at a great distance, and has a fine effect in the silence of the closing night. It has another cry like that of a hen just caught; but the sounds which have earned for it its bad name, and which I have heard but once to perfection, are indescribable, the most appalling that can be imagined, and scarcely to be heard without shuddering; I can only compare it to a boy in torture, whose screams are stopped by being strangled.” Mr. Mitford, from whom Sir E. Tennent quotes the last passage, considers it to be a _Podargus_ or night-hawk, rather than the brown owl as others have supposed. (_Tennent’s Nat. Hist. of Ceylon_, 246-8.)

[147] Champa is the Malay name of the coast of Cambodia, and appears in some form in our maps. Jordanus may have derived his information about those countries from his brother friar, Odoricus, who visited Champa, and mentions the king’s having 10,004 elephants. Late travellers in Cambodia use almost the expression in the text in speaking of the habitual employment of elephants in that country (_e.g._, see Mr. King, in _Jour. Geog. Soc._ for 1860, p. 178).

[148] This is evidently drawn from the life. Compare the account of elephant taming in Burma in the _Mission to Ava in 1855_, pp. 103-5, and the authors there quoted.

[149] The number _twelve_ is only general and conventional. Ibn Batuta says there were twelve kings in Malabar alone, and even a greater number are alluded to by some of the old travellers. It is extremely difficult to trace these kingdoms, both from the looseness of the statements and want of accessible histories of the states of Southern India, and from that absence of any distinction between really substantial monarchies and mere principalities of small account, which may be noticed in Polo and the other travellers of the time as well as in our author.

Telenc, however, he speaks of as a potent and great kingdom. This must have been the kingdom of interior Telingana, called _Andra_, the capital of which was Warangól, eighty miles north-east of Hyderabad, and which was powerful and extensive at the end of the thirteenth century. It was shortly afterwards invaded by the armies of the king of Delhi; the capital was taken in 1332, and the sovereignty at a later date merged in the Mussulman kingdom of Golkonda.

There does not seem to have been any very great kingdom in the MAHRATTA country at this time, and perhaps this is the reason why he there speaks of the kingdom, not of the king. The most powerful princes were the rajas of Deogiri (afterwards Daulutabad), of the Yadu family. Their dynasty was subverted by the Mahommedans in 1317. I believe there is no mention of the Mahrattas by the Mussulman historians till just about our author’s time.

COLUMBUM, or Kulam, we have disposed of in the preface. We see here that the kingdom included (part at least of) MOHEBAR, the Maabar of Marco Polo and of Ibn Batuta, _i.e._, the southern regions of the Coromandel coast; (see Preface, p. xvi). The name is apparently Arabic (_Ma’abar_—a ferry), in reference to the passage or ferry to Ceylon. The king, whose name was _Lingua_, may probably have been connected with the sect of the _Lingáyets_ still existing in Southern India, whose members wear a representation of the Lingam or Sivaite emblem round their necks, and have many peculiar practices. He was certainly a Nair, as appears from what Jordanus has said of the law of succession. And among the rajas of Coorg, who were both Nairs and Lingáyets, we find the name Linga borne by several during the last century. (Compare _Markham’s Peru and India_; _Hamilton’s Hindostan_, ii. 288, etc.)

I cannot trace any particulars of a king of Molepoor or Molepatam. But the only pearl fishery on the Indian main is at _Tuticorin_, about ninety miles north-east of Cape Comorin, and near this there is a place given by Hamilton, called Mooloopetta (= Mooloopatam), which may probably be the seat of the king alluded to. He was most likely the same as the king of Cail, spoken of by Marco Polo; that place being apparently now represented by Coilpatam, a small seaport of Tinnevelly, in this immediate vicinity. This appears from Barbosa, who, at the beginning of the sixteenth century, states precisely that Cail was ninety miles from Cape Comorin, and that it was the seat of a great pearl market and fishery.

BATIGALA, or Batikala, which, he says, had a Saracen king, is a port of Canara, fifty-five miles north of Mangalore; it is called Batcul, or Batcole, in English maps. It is not mentioned by Ibn Batuta, the nearest authority in time; but he does state that at Hinaur (Hunáwur or Onore), a port a little to the north of Baticala, the people were Moslem, and their king “one of the best of princes,” one _Jamál ad-Dín Mahommed Ibn Hasan_, to whom Malabar generally paid tribute, dreading his bravery by sea, (which means, I suppose, that this excellent prince was a pirate). Very probably this was the king of Batigala to whom Jordanus refers. He was, however, himself “subject to an infidel king, whose name was Horaib” (_Lee’s Ibn Batuta_, p. 166), doubtless the king of Narsinga or Bisnagur, whom Jordanus omits to mention. Two centuries later Barbosa describes Batticala as a great place, where many merchants trafficked, and where were many _Moors_ and Gentiles, great merchants. And the “_Summary of Kingdoms_,” in _Ramusio_, says the king of Baticula was then a Gentile Canarese, “greater than him of Honor;” the governor, however, being a Moorish eunuch, named Caipha. Later in the sixteenth century, Vincent Le Blanc describes it as still a fine place, and one of great trade.

The great king of Molebar, or MALABAR, is, I suppose, the Samudra Raja, or Zamorin of the Portuguese, whose capital was at Calicut.

_Singuyli_ is a nut hard to crack. Our friar’s contemporary, Odoricus, calls the two chief ports of the pepper country in his day _Flandrina_ and _Cyncilim_. The former is no doubt the _Fandaraina_ of Ibn Batuta, “a large and beautiful place,” the Colam Pandarani of Ramusio’s Geographer, lying a little north of Calicut, but not marked in our modern maps. (The lying Mandevill says it was called Flandrina after Flanders by Ogero the Dane, who conquered those parts!) Cyncilim I suspect to be _Kain Kulam_ or _Cai Colam_, one of the old ports a few miles north of Quilon, and formerly a little kingdom. Singuyli is not very like Kain Kulam, but Cyncilim is somewhat like both; and the position in which he mentions it, between Calicut and Quilon, would suit.

As for _Chopa_, I suspect it to be a misreading (Chãpa, read as Chopa), for CHAMPA, whereby he seems to mean hazily India ultra Gangem in general, though the name belongs to Cambodia.

[150] India Tertia is apparently Eastern Africa, south of Abyssinia.

[151] So far we have the old Herodotean myth (_Her._, iii. 116), which Milton has rendered into stately verse—

“As when a gryphon in the wilderness With winged course, o’er hill or moory dale, Pursues the Arimaspian, who by stealth Had from his wakeful custody purloined The guarded gold”⸺

But the scene has been transferred from the north of Europe to Æthiopia. The rest of the fable I cannot trace.

[152] A dissertation on Prester John, and the confusions which transferred a Christian prince of Central Asia to Central Africa, will be found in M. D’Avezac’s preface to _Carpini_, in the volume from which we are translating.

[153] For the Roc see _Marco_, iii. 35; _Ibn Batuta_ (in _Lee_), p. 222; Sindbad the Sailor, and Aladdin! See also Mr. Major’s preface to _India in the Fifteenth Century_.

[154] “_Etiam et medullâ._”

[155] “_Istud ales_”!

[156] _Viverra Indica_, the civet cat, seems to be found over a great part of Asia and Africa. The perfume is secreted from very peculiar glands, existing in both sexes; and in North Africa, where the animals are kept for the purpose, the secretion is scraped from the pouch with an iron spatula, about twice a week (_Penny Cyclop._). But the text is confirmed by Sir E. Tennent, who says that the Tamils in Northern Ceylon, who also keep the animal for its musk, collect this from the wooden bars of the cage, on which it rubs itself (_Nat. Hist. Ceylon_, p. 32).

[157] It is a Ceylonese story, according to Tennent, that the cobra’s stomach sometimes contains a stone of inestimable price. The cerastes or horned adder is now well known.

[158] _Ambergris_, a substance found chiefly in warm climates, floating on the surface of the sea or thrown on the coasts. It was formerly believed to be the exudation of a tree, but is now considered to be a morbid animal concretion, having been found in the intestinal canal of the sperm whale. It is found usually in small pieces, but some times in lumps of fifty to one hundred pounds weight. The best comes from Madagascar, Surinam, and Java. It is opaque, of a bright grey colour, softish, and when rubbed or heated exhales an agreeable odour. It is inflammable; and is used as a perfume. (_Penny Cyclop._ and _Macculloch’s Commercial Dictionary_.)

[159] This strange myth is in _Marco Polo_ (Part iii. c. 23). He represents the islands to be “full five hundred miles out at sea,” south of Mekrán. The people of Sumatra believe that the inhabitants of Engano, a small island south of Bencoolen, are all females, and, like the mares of ancient story, are impregnated by the wind. (_Marsden’s Sumatra._)

[160] This is probably a legendary notice of the Andaman islanders, whom Polo represents as “having a head, teeth, and jaws like those of a mastiff dog” (iii. c. 16). And Ibn Batuta, describing the people of “Barahnakár” (under which name he seems to have mixed up the stories of the Andamans which he had heard, with his experience of some port on the main at which he had touched on his way from Bengal to Sumatra), says, “Their men are of the same form with ourselves, except that their mouths are like those of dogs; _but the women have mouths like other folks_” (_Lee’s Trans._, p. 198). The stories of the Andaman islanders are as old as Ptolemy, whose _Agmatæ_ (compare Polo’s _Angaman_) and adjacent islands, they doubtless are. Till Dr. Mouat’s account, just published, we had little more knowledge of them than these 1800-year-old legends gave us, and even now we do not know much, near as they are to Calcutta.

[161] He had probably, during his voyages in the Persian Gulph, touched at some point of the north-east of Arabia, where Wellsted notices the peculiar wildness and low civilization of the people, “of a darker hue than the common race of Arabs;” “the greater number residing in caves and hollows;” “their principal food dates and salt fish, rice being nearly unknown to them;” whilst they testified as much surprise at the sight of looking-glasses, watches, etc., as could have been exhibited by the veriest savage of New Holland. (_Wellsted’s Travels in Arabia_, i. 241-2.)

[162] “_Duplarum._”

[163] As we say in later times, “The Great Mogul”.

[164] See the same statement in _Marco Polo_, i. 29.

[165] As M. Polo says, with a facetiousness unusual in him, “With regard to the money of Kambalu, the great Khan is a perfect alchymist, for he makes it himself” (i. 26).

[166] From Rubruquis to Père Huc all travellers in Buddhistic Tartary and Thibet have been struck by the extraordinary resemblance of many features of the ecclesiastical system and ritual to those of the Roman Church. Father Grueber, in 1661, speaking of the veneration paid to the Lama, ascribes it to “the manifest deceits of the devil, who has transferred the veneration due to the sole Vicar of Christ to the superstitious worship of barbarous nations, as he has also, in his innate malignity, parodied the other mysteries of the Christian faith.” (In Kircher’s _China Illustrata_.) Huc and Gabet say, “The crosier, the mitre, the dalmatica, the cope or pluvial (which the Grand Lamas wear in travelling), the double-choired liturgy, the psalmody, the exorcisms, the censer ... the benedictions ... the rosary, the ecclesiastical celibate, the spiritual retreats, the worship of saints; fasts, processions, holy water; in all these numerous particulars do the Buddhists coincide with us.” The cardinal’s red hat among the Lamas is a modern fact. (Abridged from a paper by the present writer in _Blackwood_ for March 1852.)

[167] Ibn Batuta describes how at the funeral of the Great Khan four female slaves and six favourite Mamluks were buried alive with him, and four horses were impaled alive upon the tumulus; the same being done in burying his relatives, according to their degree (_Lee_, p. 220).

[168] This is perhaps the Tartar city of Iymyl, called by the Chinese Yemi-li, built by Okkodai, the son of Chengiz Khan, somewhere to the east of Lake Balkash. (See _D’Avezac’s Notice of Travels in Tartary_, _Recueil de Voyages_, iv. p. 516). But the description rather suggests one of the vast cities of China, such as Marco Polo describes Kinsai (Hang-choo-foo).

[169] “_Vasa pulcherrima et nobilissima atque virtuosa et porseleta._” Perhaps “full of good qualities, and of fine enamelled surface”?

[170] Carpini says that there was a certain cemetery for the emperors and chiefs, to which their bodies were carried whenever they died, and that much treasure was buried with them. No one was allowed to come near this cemetery except the keepers (_Recueil de Voyages_, iv. 631). Marco Polo says that if the chief lord died a hundred days journey from this cemetery, which was in the Altai mountains, his body must be carried thither. Also “when the bodies of the Khans are carried to these mountains, the conductors put to the sword all the men whom they meet on the road, saying, ‘Go and serve the great lord in the other world;’ and they do the same to the horses, killing also for that purpose the best he has” (ii. 45).

[171] This seems from Alcock to be the Japanese practice. _Le Roi est mort, vive le Roi!_

[172] Doubtless our friar had in his mind the words of Isaiah, “Wild beasts of the desert shall lie there; and their houses shall be full of doleful creatures: and owls shall dwell there, and satyrs shall dance there. And the wild beasts of the island shall cry in their desolate houses, and dragons in their pleasant palaces” (xiii. 21-22).

[173] Probably a _kirbah_, or water skin, or perhaps several tied together, frequently used by the _fellahs_ to cross the Tigris and Euphrates. There are no large tortoises in either of those rivers. (B.)

[174] A couple of buffalos, perhaps, which may frequently be seen swimming across the stream with only their muzzles and horns above water. (B.)

[175] Referring probably to Harrán, the Haran of Scripture. The country generally being desert, there was little to say about it. (B).

This chapter is a worthy parallel to that one in _Horrebow’s History of Iceland_, “Concerning Owls and Snakes,” which Sir Walter Scott quotes more than once with such zest.

[176] See ch. ii. parag. 7, _ante_.

[177] One of the best accounts of Baku is in the _Travels_ of George Forster, of the Bengal Civil Service, who came overland from India by the Caspian in 1784. There were at that time a considerable number of Multán Hindus at Baku, where they had long been established, and were the chief merchants of Shirwán. The _Átish-gáh_, or Place of Fire, was a square of about thirty yards, surrounded by a low wall, and containing many apartments, in each of which was a small jet of sulphureous fire issuing through a furnace or funnel, “constructed in the form of a Hindu altar.” The fire was used for worship, cookery, and warmth. On closing the funnel the fire was extinguished, when a hollow sound was heard, accompanied by a strong and cold current of air. Exclusive of these there was a large jet from a natural cleft, and many small jets outside the wall, one of which was used by the Hindus for burning the dead.

The whole country round Baku has at times, according to Kinneir, the appearance of being enveloped in flame, and during moonlight nights in November and December a bright blue light is observed to cover the whole western range. My friend Colonel Patrick Stewart, who was lately for some days at Baku, tells me that it is often possible to “set the sea on fire”, _i.e._, the gaseous exhalations on the surface. He says the Hindus are now only two or three, one of whom, a very old man, had lost the power of speaking his native tongue.

The quantity of naphtha procured in the plain near the city is enormous. Some of the wells are computed to give from 1000 to 1500 pounds a day. It is discriminated as _black_ and _white_. The white naphtha appears to be used chiefly as a remedy for allaying pains and inflammations. The flat roofs of Baku are covered with the black naphtha, and it is made into balls with sand as a fuel. (See _Forster’s Journey from Bengal to England_, London, 1798; and _Macdonald Kinneir’s Geog. Memoir of the Persian Empire_, p. 359.)

From Haxthausen we learn that the Átish-gáh or Átish-jáh has been altered since Forster’s time. The flame now issues from a central opening, and from four circumjacent hollow pillars within the temple, which is a building of a triangular form, and of about one hundred and ninety paces to the side, erected by a Hindu merchant in the present century. The flame is described as being about four feet high, bright, and “waving heavily to and fro against the dark sky, a truly marvellous and spectral sight.” The Átish-gáh of Baku appears to be the “Castle of the Fire-worshippers” spoken of by Polo (ii. 9). He says they revere the fire “as a god, and use it for burning all their sacrifices; and when at any time it goes out, they repair to that well, where the fire is never extinguished, and from it bring a fresh supply.”

[178] Some trace of the practice here alluded to is to be found among the Nestorians. “Once a year there is a kind of _Agapæ_ to commemorate the departed, in all the mountain villages. For days previous such families as intend to contribute to the feast are busily engaged in preparing their offerings. These consist of lambs and bread, which are brought into the church-yard; and after the people have communicated of the holy Eucharist, the priest goes forth, cuts several locks of wool off the fleeces, and throws them into a censer. Whilst a deacon swings this to and fro in presence of the assembled guests, the priest recites the following anthem:

“‘THE FOLLOWING IS TO BE SAID OVER THE LAMBS THAT ARE SLAIN IN SACRIFICE FOR THE DEAD:—

...

“‘When ye present oblations and offer pure sacrifices, and bring lambs to be slain, ye should first call the priests, who shall sign them with the sign of the cross before they are slain, and say over them these words: He was brought as a lamb to the slaughter,’” etc.

... “‘O Lord, let the oblation which thy servants have offered before thee this day be acceptable, as was that of faithful Abraham the righteous, who vowed his son as an oblation, and stretched out the knife upon his throat, _whereupon he saw a lamb hung on a tree like his life-giving Lord who was crucified_,’” etc. (_Rev. G. P. Badger’s Nestorians_, i. 229.)

See also Dr. Stanley’s account of the cruciform spit used by the Samaritans in roasting the Paschal lamb, in the notes to his _Sermons before the Prince of Wales_.

The Yezidís also have some mixture of Christian names in their superstitions, and sacrifice to Christ. Of the Ossetes of the Caucasus also we are told that the majority are nominally Christians, but in fact semi-pagans, and rarely baptized. They offer sacrifices of bread and flesh in sacred groves, and observe the Christian festivals with various sacrifices, _e.g._, a _lamb at Easter_, a pig on New Year’s Day, an ox at Michaelmas, a goat at Christmas. Both Georgians and Armenians are said still to be addicted to the practice of sacrifice in their churches. (_Haxthausen’s Transcaucasia_, p. 397.)

[179] “The Georgians are the Christian, the Circassians the Mohammedan, cavaliers of the Caucasian countries; they stand in the same relative position as the Goths and Moors of Spain.” “The bases and principles of the organization and general condition of the Georgian people bore great resemblance to those of the Germanic race, comprising a feudal constitution, perfectly analogous to the Romano-Germanic. In this _warlike country_ the Christian hierarchy was constituted in a perfectly analogous manner to the temporal feudal state,” etc. (_Haxthausen_, pp. 113, 117.)

[180] _Tana_ was the name of a place at the mouth of the Don or Tanais, the site of an early Venetian factory.

[181] See note (2) page 54.

[182] “_Cicilia_,” in orig.

[183] Marco Polo also places the country of the three Magi, Balthazar, Gaspar, and Melchior, in this region (ii. 9), as appears from his connecting them with the worshipped fire at Baku. Their tombs, according to him, were in a city called Sava.

[184] The Iron Gates, at the place called by the Persians Der-bend (Dăr-bănd), or the Closed Gate, the capital of Daghestan, and lying in a defile between the Caucasus and the Caspian. The city is traditionally said to have been founded by Alexander, and part of the celebrated wall of Gog and Magog, said to have extended from the Black Sea to the Caspian, is to be seen here, running over high and almost inaccessible mountains. (_Kinneir’s Pers. Empire_, p. 355.)

[185] One suspects some mistake here. He would seem still to be speaking of Cathay, in which case his estimate would have some propriety.

[186] I cannot explain all these names. But the author’s reference is to the several empires into which the vast conquests of Chengiz Khan were

## partitioned among his descendants. 1. _Cathay_, or all the eastern part

of the empire, including China, with a paramount authority over all, fell to Okkodai and his successors, the “Great Khans” or “Great Tartars” of our author. 2. _Kipchak_, or Comania, all the country westward of the Ural river, through the south of Russia, fell eventually to Batu, the grandson of Chengiz, whose invasion, penetrating to Silesia and Hungary, struck terror into Europe. This is the Gatzaria of the text; Khazaria being properly the country adjoining the Sea of Azoph, and including the Crimea. The expression “now of Osbet” appears to refer to Uzbeg, who was Khan of Kipchak from 1313 to 1340. 3. _Jagatai_ (Elchigaday = El Jagatai, I suppose) was Transoxiana, lying between the first and second empires. It was so called from Jagatai, the son of Chengiz, to whom it fell. _Kaidu_, the grandson of Jagatai, according to Marco Polo, was the ruler of this country in the time of that traveller. Dua and Capac I cannot explain. 4. _Persia._ The second and third are of course the “other two empires of the Tartars” mentioned in the text. (See D’Avezac’s “Notice of Old Travels in Tartary” in _Recueil de Voyages_, vol. iv.; and Introduction to _Erskine’s Translation of Baber’s Memoirs_, etc.)

[187] See in _Ibn Batuta_, p. 172, a description of the great Chinese junks, trading at that time to Malabar. It is remarkable that the Arabian traveller uses literally the word _junk_, showing that we got it through the Arab mariners, though ultimately from the Malay _ajong_, a ship.

[188] _Sic in orig._ Qu. _Arabia_?

[189] It was just about this time that a great proselytizing energy was developed by Islám in the far east, extending to Sumatra and Java.

[190] _Asiatic_ Turkey, of course, at this date.

[191] Or horsemen.

[192] The good friar was doubtless thinking of _Exodus_ xxxv. 30-31.

[193] According to Beckman, the ancients were not acquainted with real alum. He says it was discovered by the orientals, who established works in the thirteenth century in Syria (apparently at Rukka or Rochha, east of Aleppo, whence the name of _Roch-alum_, still in use). The best now comes from the neighbourhood of Civita Vecchia. The method of manufacture in England and Scotland is to mix broken alum slate with fuel, and to set it on fire. When combustion is over the residual mixture is lixiviated with water; a solution of the earthy salt being obtained, potash salts are added, and crystals of alum are the result. (_Penny Cyclop._ and _Macculloch’s Comm. Dict._)

[194] A curious instance of the persistence of legend in the face of Scripture. See _John_, xxi, 23.

[195] “_Quia Turci non multum curant._” Some time ago a foreign ambassador at the Sublime Porte told the Grand Vizier that there were three enemies who would eventually destroy the Turkish empire, viz: _Bakalum_, (We shall see;) _In-shäa-Alláh_, (If it please God;) and _Yarun sabáh_ (to-morrow morning). (B.)

For this and several other very apt notes which I have marked with the letter B, I have to thank Mr. Badger’s kindness.

INDEX TO THE _MIRABILIA_ OF JORDANUS AND THE COMMENTARY THEREON.

Abgarus of Edessa, 5

Aboriginal races of India, 35

Abraham; Mussul. legend of, xi; birthplace of, 9

Abu-Zaid-al-Hasan, see _Reinaud_.

Abyssinia, the Middle India of Polo, 11 See _Æthiopia_.

Adder, horned, 43

Æthiopia, 42, 43, 45; Population of, 54

Afghan manners, 10

Africa, South-Eastern (India Tertia), 41

Agmatæ of Ptolemy, 44

Ahar, city of Armenia, 9

Ainslie’s Materia Medica, 13

Aladdin, 42

Alcock’s Japan, 48

Alms of Great Khan, 48

Altai mountains, 48

Alum, manufacture of, 57

Amadou, 17

Ambergris, 43

Andaman islanders, 31, 44

Andra (Telingana), 39

Andreolo Cathani, 57

Angaman, 44

Aniba, Amba (the Mango), 14

Animals of India, 12, 18, 26, 35, 36, 38

⸺ of India Tertia (S. E. Africa), 42, 43, 44

Anthropophagi, 31

Ants, Indian, of Herodotus, 29; white, 36

Arab sailors’ yarns, xvii

Arabes, Voyages des, see _Reinaud_.

Arabia, the Greater, 45, 55

Aran, concerning, 50

Ararat, 3, 5

Araxes, 4, 5, 7

Archipelago, Indian, 30

⸺ Crawfurd’s Dictionary of the, 27, 28, 31

Arguri (village on Ararat), 4

Ariana, 11

Ariena (Pliny’s name for jack-fruit), 13

Arimaspian, 42

Ark, legends of the, 3, 4

Armenia the Greater, 3 _et seq._, 11, 53

Armenians, Schismatic, 5, 58; their sacrifices, 52

Artocarpus, see _Jack_.

Asher’s Benjamin of Tudela, 22

Asia Minor, 11, 53, 58

Asses; wild, 9; in India, 12

Athenæum referred to, 31

Átish-gáh of Baku, 50, 51

Atlas, of India, xiii; Keith Johnstone’s, xiv; Steiler’s, 6

Ava, Mission to, 39

Avdall’s Trans. of Chamich’s Hist. of Armenia, 5, 7

Azerbijan, 6

Baber, Erskine’s, 54

Babylon, deserted, 49; Sultan of (Egyptian), 46

Bacu (Baku), 50, 51, 53

Badakshan, 9

Badger, Rev. G. P., v, viii, xi, xviii, 58; his _Nestorians_, 51

Baldello Boni’s ed. of Polo, xiii

Balkash, Lake, 47

Banyan trees, 17, 18, 19

Baptism of converts, 23, 24

Barahnakár, 44

Barbosa, Odoardo, xiv, xvi, 22, 33, 40

Barca and Papa (names of Jack-fruit), 13, 14

Barcarian mountains (Barchal Dagh), 6

Baroch, vi

Barrington, Sir Jonah, 33

Bartholomew, Apostle, in Armenia, 4, 5

Batigala (Batcole), 40, 41

Battas, Battaks, their cannibalism, 31

Bats, 19, 29

Batu Khan, 54

Beasts, wild, see _Animals_.

Beckman’s Hist. of Inventions, 57

Bed-kisht (sp. of manna), 8

Belluri (sp. of palm), 17

Benares visited by Conti, xiv; population of, 8

Benjamin of Tudela, xv, 11, 22, 28

Bhagwán, 24

Biblioth. Hist. Vetus, vii

Birala, see _Belluri_.

Bird, wailing, 37; devil, _ib._; like a kite, 36; enormous, 42

Birds of India, 19, 28

Bisnagur, king of, 40

Black Sea, 53

Blackness of Indians, 12, 25, 26; of Africans, 43

Blackwood’s Mag., 47

Bloqui, an Indian fruit (Jack), 13, 14

Boats stitched, 16, 53

Bodies kept long, 47

Boils, 14

Bokhara, 10

Bollandists, vii

Borassus flabelliformis, 16

Botanic Garden, Calcutta, 18; Kandy, 20

Brahmans, 22

Brazil-wood, xiii; history of the name, 27

Breadfruit, 13

Briggs’s Ferishta, 23

Buchanan, Dr. F., his Mysore, 17

Buddhist Triad, 25; rites, 46

Buds, Cassia, 28

Buffaloes, 49

Burial-place of St. John, 58

Burma, 39

Burnes, Sir Alex., quoted, 9, 10, 12

Burning; of the dead, 20, 47; of widows, 20

⸺ mountains, 45

Cæsalpina, 27

Caga, a port of Persia, v

Cai-Colam or Kain-Kulam, xiv, 40

Cail, a city near C. Comorin, xvi, 40

Calabria, 1, 2

Calcatix (crocodile), 19

Calcutta Botanic Garden, 18

Caldea, 11, 49, 43

Calicut, xiv, xv, 40

Cambay, 6

Cambodia, xvi, 11, 33, 37, 38, 41

Camels, 12

Cananore, xiv

Canara, 32, 40

Canella selvatica, 22

Cannibals, 31

Canopus, 34

Capac, 54

Cappadocia, 11, 53

Carbuncles and dragons, 42

Cardinal’s hats used by idol pontiffs, 46, 47

Carelessness, Turkish, 58

Carnatic, Mahom. conquest of, 23

Carobs, 21

Carpini quoted, 48

Caryota Urens, 17

Caspian Sea, 7; Hills, 6, (and tribes) 51, 52

Cassia Fistula, 21, 22

⸺ Lignea, 22, 28

⸺ Laurus, 28

⸺ buds, _ib._

Cathay, vi, 54 See _China_ and _Tartar_.

Catholic rites, Pagan semblances of, 46, 47

Cats; winged, 29; civet, 43

Caucasus, 7; see also _Caspian_.

Cayda, 54

Cemetery of Great Khans, 48

Cerastes, 43

Ceratonia Siliqua, 21

Ceylon, xii, 37; mentioned by Jordanus, 28, 30, 41

⸺ Sir J. E. Tennent’s, iii, 13, 30

⸺ ⸺ ⸺ Natural History of, 20, 29, 36, 37, 43

Chaldees, Ur of the, 9

Chaldeia (Chaldæa), see _Caldea_.

Chamich’s History of Armenia, see _Avdall_.

Champa, see _Cambodia_.

Chaqui, a fruit of India (the Jack), 13

Character ascribed to the Hindus, 22

Chardin quoted, viii, 5, 7

Chengiz Khan, 47, 54

China, ships of, xiv, xv, 54; cities of, 47; porcelain, 48 See also _Tartar_ and _Cathay_.

_China Illustrata_, Kircher’s, 47

Chios, Island of, 56

Chopa, 41

Choral Service of Buddhists, 46

Christendom, advantages of, enumerated by Jord., 55

Christians; in India, vi, vii, xi, xii, 23, 55; in Persia, viii, 8, 9; in Armenia, 5, 6; in Æthiopia, 46; selfstyled in Caspian Hills, 51

Christian mysteries, Pagan semblances of, 47

Christopherus A’Costa, 14

Chronicle ascribed to Jordanus, ix

Chronology, Hindu Mythical, 25

Chulan, xv

Churches; in India, vii, 23; in Persia, viii, 8, 9; in Armenia, 4, 5

⸺ The, vii, 58

Cilicia, 53

Cinnamon, 22, 27, 28

Circassians, 52

Cities of the Great Tartar, 47

Civet cat, 43

Clove trees, 31

Cobra, 19, 43

Cochin, xiv, 35

Coco-nut-palm described, 15, 16

Cockatrice, 19

Coilpatam, 40

Coir, 16

Coilon, xv, xvi, see _Columbum_ and _Quilon_.

Coincidences between mediæval travellers, xvii

Colam, Coulam, see _Columbum_.

⸺ meaning of, xiii; sundry places named, xiv

⸺ Pandarani, xiv, 40

Coloen, xvi, see _Columbum_.

Columbo in Ceylon, xii

Columbum, the see of Jordanus (Quilon), v, vi; the Christians of, vii, viii, x; identification of, xii-xvii; foundation of, xiv, 29; king of, 39, 40

Comania, 54

Comari (Comorin), xiii

Comorin, Cape, xiii, xvi, 33, 40

Conengue, v

Constantine, 5

Constantinople, 53, 57

Conti, Nicolo de’, xiv, xv, xvi, 25, 31; division of India according to, 11

Conversion; of Pagans and Saracens, 23, 24, 55; of schismatics, 5, 6, 8, 9, 55

Cooley, W. D., Trans. of Panot’s Ararat, 3

Coorg, Rajas of, 40

Coquebert-Montbret (French editor), iii, iv, v, vi, vii, viii, xii, xvii

Cordiner’s Ceylon, 13

Coromandel, xiii

Corypha umbraculifera, 30

Cote-coulam, xiv

Cows, see _Oxen_.

Crawfurd, John, Dictionary of the Indian Archipelago, 27, 28, 31

⸺ Malay Dictionary, 22

Crimea, 54

Crocodile described, 19

Cross, Sheep sacrificed on a, 51

Crows, 19

Cubebs, 31

Curzon’s Armenia, 5

Cyncilim, 40

Cyrus (Kur) river, 7

Daghestan, 53

D’Anville, vi, xiii

Date-palms in India, 11

Daulutabad, 39

Daumghan, v

D’Avezac, M., quoted, v, viii, ix, 42, 47, 54

Day and Night, length of, 12, 34

Dead, disposal of, 20, 21, 47

⸺ Sea in Armenia (Urumia), 6

Declinations, quaint estimate of, 34

Dekkan, Mahom. conquest of, 39

Delhi, 20

Demetrius, a Franciscan martyr in India, xii

Demons in Chaldæa, 49

Deogiri, rajas of, 39

Der-bend, 53

Devil speaketh in India, 37; bird, _ib._

Dew absent, 8; heavy, 12

Diamonds, 20

Dictionary, Macculloch’s Commercial, 27, 44, 57; Crawfurd’s Malay, 22; Crawfurd’s, of the Indian Archipelago, 27, 28, 31; Smith’s, of the Bible, 4; Smith’s, of Greek and Roman Geography, 6; Richardson’s Persian, 17

Dioclesian’s Persecution, 5

Distances of eastern countries, 52

Dog-headed folk, 44

Dominicans, or Preaching Friars, v, vi, x, xii, 5, 6, 55

Dóms, Domra, a low caste, 21

Dragons, 5, 41

Dravidian races, 35

Dress of Hindus, 32

Drury, Capt. H., Useful Plants of India, 14, 15, 16, 17, 21, 22, 28

Dua, 54

Dubois, Abbé, quoted, 21, 35

Dumbri, see _Dóm_.

Dyo or Diu, x

Earthquakes, in Greece, 2; at Ararat, 4

Eating, Asiatic habits of, 10

Echmiazin, 3, 5

Egripos, 2

Elchigaday, 54

El-Cathif, xv

Electrum, 23

Elephant, not found in Lesser India, 12; described, 26; story of, 29; extensive use of in Champa, 37; their wars, 38; mode of capture, 38, 39; of Ceylon, 41; carried by the Roc, 42

El-Kât, Port of the P. Gulph, v

Elphinstone’s Hist. of India, 22, 23

Embar (Ambergris), 43

Emperor, Persian (Tartar), 6; of Æthiopia, 42, 45, 46; of Cathay, 46, 47, 48; of Constantinople, 53

Empire, Persian (Tartar), 6, 52, 54; Great Tartar (Cathay), 46, 47, 48, 53; several Tartar, 54

Engano, legend of, 44

Ephesus, 58

Erivan, 7

Erskine’s Baber, 54

Euphrates, v, 49

Euripus, flux and reflux, 2

Exodus quoted, 57

Facetiousness of M. Polo, exceptional, 46

Fandaraina, 40

Fans, 17

Faro of Messina, 1

Female line, inheritance in, 32

Ferrier’s travels, 9

Fertility of Lesser India, 12; of Turkey, 58

Fighting in India, 20

Fiji Islands, 32

Fire at Baku, 50, 51, 53

⸺ worshippers, 21; castle of the, 51

Flandrina, 40

Flying foxes, 19

⸺ squirrels, 29

Food of Lesser India, 12

Footsteps, mysterious, 37

Forest tribes, see _Wild_.

Forks, no new invention, 10

Forster’s, George, travels, 50

Fowls, Indian, 20

Foxes in India, 29; flying, 19

France, king of, might subdue the world, 56

Francis of Pisa, vii

Franciscan or Minor friars, v, vi, ix, x, 5, 55

Friars, see _Franciscan_ and _Dominican_.

Fruits of India, 13-17

Funeral rites, Tartar, 47, 48

Gabet, Père, 47

Gallus Sonneratii, 20

Galofaro (Charybdis), 2

Gatzaria, 54

Gedrosia, 11

Geographer in Ramusio, see _Sommario_, 24

Gemma Marina, 43

Genoese, vi, 56, 57

Georgiana, 52, 53

Georgian schismatics, 9

Ginger, xv, 21, 27

Girasal and Chambasal, 13

God, the one recognized by Hindus, 24

Gog and Magog, wall of, 53

Gokchai, Lake, 7

Gold, in Persia, 9; in India, 23; Water making, 29; dust for money, 30

Golden mountains, 45, 46

⸺ sands, 42

Golkonda, Kingdom of, 39

Gracia ab Horto, 14

Grapes, 4, 15

Greece, 2, 11, 55

Greeks, 9, 56, 58

Gregory, St., Ap. of Armenia, 5

Grueber, Father, 47

Grus Cinerea, 37

Gryphons, 42, 45

Guz (manna), 8

Hakluyt, ix, 31, 33

Hamilton’s (W.) Desc. of Hindostan, 22, 40

Hardwicke, General, 29

Harrán or Haran, 50

Hauda, 26

Haxthausen’s Transcaucasia, 4, 50, 52

Heavenly bodies, 35

Hell, Babylon called, 49

Heraclius, 7

Heretics, 46

Herodotus, xviii, 29, 31, 42

Hílí, a port of Malabar, xv

Hindus; decent eating, 10; blackness, 12, 25, 26; high character of, 22; their toleration, 24; sacrifices, 24; idols, _ib._; reverence for oxen, 25; dress, 31; inheritance, 32; self-immolation, 32; wars, 20; at Baku, 50, 51

Hispaniola, 32

Honeyjack, 14

Horrebow’s Iceland, 50

Horses not used in Lesser India acc. to Jordanus, 12; sacrifice of, 47

Hortus Malabaricus, see _Rheede_.

Huc, Père, 46, 47

Hulaku, vi, 6

Hunáwur, 40

Hunters, Negro, 43

Hurons, 32

Hushyárpúr, banyan at, 18

Hyemo, city of, 47

Iaca (jack-fruit), 13, 14

Ibn Batuta, travels of, iii; mentions Columbo, xii; Kaulam, xv; coincidences with Jordanus, xvii; his desc. of jack-fruit, 14; mango, 14; coco-palm, 15; pepper, 28; his name of Ceylon, 28; mentions great ruby, 30; his singular story of self-immolation, 33; his mention of Maabar, 39; of Hunáwur; of Fandaraina, 40; of the Roc, 42; of the Andaman stories, 44; of the Great Khan’s funeral rites, 47; of Chinese junks in India, 54

Ichthyophagi Troglodytes of Arabia, 45

Idols, Indian, 24, 32, 33; processions of, 33; sacrifices to, 24, 32; temples of, destroyed by Saracens, 23; temples of, in Tartary, 46

India, mediæval divisions of, 11

⸺ the Lesser, 10; described, 11 and seq., 53

⸺ the Greater, 26 and seq., 53

⸺ First and Second, 11, 12

⸺ Middle, 11

⸺ Tertia, 11; described, 41 & seq.

⸺ Ultra Gangem, 41

⸺ wild races of, 35

⸺ kings in, 39

⸺ islands of, 28, 30, 31, 44, 53

⸺ vessels of, 16, 53

India in the fifteenth century, Major’s, xiv, 42 See also _Conti_.

India rubber trees, 20

Infernal, Tribes characterized as, 35

Inheritance, singular custom of, 32

Insects, 36

Iron in India, 23

Iron-gates, the, 53

Irrigation at Tabriz, 8

Isaiah’s prophecy of Babylon, 49

Islands of India, their number, 28, 53; Ceylon, 28, 30; island having marvellous water and tree, 29; of naked people, 30; of Java, 30, 41; of women only and men only, 44; of dog-headed folk, 44

Ivory, 38

Iymyl, a Tartar city, see _Hyemo_.

Jack-fruit, 13, 14

Jacobites, 9

Jacobus, Armenian martyr, 5

Jagatai Khan, 54

Jaggeri (palm-sugar), 16

James of Padua, a Franciscan martyr, xi

Java (the Archipelago), its wonders, 30, 31, 33; kings in, 41, 55

Jews, black, xv; in Persia, 9

John, St., legend of, 58

⸺ Prester, 42, 45

⸺ XXII, Pope, vii, x

⸺ de Core, archbishop of Sultania, vii

Jordanus, his birthplace, iv; dates in his life, v, vii; letters, v, vi; first goes to India, vi; named bishop of Columbum, vii; time of writing this book, viii; Chronicle ascribed to him, ix; his Latinity, xvii; his coincidences with other travellers, xvii

Josephus, 4

Jude the Apostle, in Armenia, 4, 5

Jungle fowl, 20

Junks, Chinese, xv, 55; origin of the name, 55

Kaidu Khan, 54

Kain-Kulam, xiv, 40, 41

Kambalu, 46

Karrack, v

Kars, 6

Kasias, 32

Kaulam, xv, (see _Columbum_).

Kayane, virgin martyr, 5

Keatinge, Col. R. H., 33

Kesmacoran of Polo, 11

Khan, Great, see _Tartar_.

Khârej or Khárg, see _Karrack_.

Khazaria, 54

Khor-virab, convent of, 5

Khounouk, v

Khilji sovereigns of Delhi, 23

Kic (for _Kīr_, bitumen), 10

Killing Oxen capital, 25

Kine alone used in Lesser India, 12

Kings in India; their dress, 32; some of them detailed, 39

⸺ 52 under Prester John, 45

⸺ The Three, 53

King, Account of Cambodia by, 38

Kinneir, Macdonald, quoted, 7, 8, 50, 53

Kipchak, 54

Kirbah (Waterskin), 49

Kirby and Spence, quoted, 36

Kircher’s _China Illustrata_, 47

Kite, Rufous, 36

Kulang (sp. of crane), 37

Kulam. See _Columbum_, etc.

⸺ Malé, xiv

Lada, 22

Lake Urumia, 6

⸺ Sevan, 7

Lakkadives, 28

Lamas, 47

Lambs, Nestorian Sacrifice of, 51

Lapis Lazuli, 9

Latinity of Jordanus, xvii

Latter Days, Mahom. notions respecting, 23

Leake’s Travels in Greece, 2

Leaves; perennial, 18; gigantic, 29, 30

Le Blanc, Vincent, 40

Lee, Dr. S., 14. See _Ibn Batuta_.

Lemons, sweet and sour, 15

Leopards, 18, 43

Liber de Ætatibus, v

Liberality of Great Tartar, 46

Linga, Lingam, 40, 41

Lingáyet sect, 39, 40

Lingua, King of Mohebar and of Columbum, 39, 41

Linschoten’s Voyages, 13, 14, 21, 22, 28

Lions, 18, 43

Locusts, 20

Lodovicus Romanus, 14

Lord, Dr. P., quoted, 12

Lories, 29

Lucknow, population of, 8

Lycia, 53

Lynx, 18

Maabar, a region of the Coromandel coast, xiii, 32, 39, 41

Maarazia, a city of India (Benares), xiv

Macculloch’s Commercial Dictionary, 27, 44, 58

Mace, 31

Mackenzie Collections, xiv

Madagascar, 32

Madras, population of referred to, 8

Magi, 53

Mahmúd of Ghazni, 23

Mahratta, 39, 41

Major’s India in the 15th century, xiv, 42 See _Conti_.

Malabar; Ports of, xiv-xvi; Chinese Trade with, xv, 54; Kings in, 39; Mahom. Conquest of, 23

Malayalim names of Jack-fruit, 13, 14

Mandevill, Sir John, xv; his lies, 40

Mangalore, 11, 40

Mango, 14

Manna, 8, 10

Manners; of Persians, 9, 10; of Hindus, 10, 12, 20, 22; of Tartar Empire, 47

Maragha, vi

Marogo (Maragha), v, vi

Marsden’s Sumatra, 44

Martin Zachary, Captain, 56

Martyrdoms; of Missionaries, vi, ix, xi, 56; Sundry in Armenia, 4, 5, 7

Mastick, 56

Masudi, vi

Media, 53

Mediterranean, Adm. Smyth’s, 2

Mekrán, 11

Melibaria of Conti (Malabar), xvi

Men only and women only, and Islands of, 44

Metals in India, 23

Mice, white, 31

Milburn’s Oriental Commerce, xiii, 22

Milk, Coco-nut, 15

Milton quoted, 17, 42

Minor Friars. See _Franciscan_.

Missionaries Martyred. See _Martyrdoms_.

Missions, Views of Jordanus on Indian, 55, 56

⸺ Papal, in Armenia, 5, 6

Mitford, 37

Mogan, Plain of, 6, 50, 53

Mohebar, 39, 41 See _Maabar_.

Molebar (Malabar), 40

Molephatam, 40, 41

Molepoor, 40, 41

Monarchies of South India, 39, 40, 41

Monasteries in Tartary, 46

Money, Paper, 46

Monsters at Babylon, 49

Monteith, General, quoted, 6

Mooloopetta, 40

Moorish Sea (Mediterranean), 53

Moors (for Mahomedans), 24, 40

Moosh, 8

Moslem Kings in India, 40

Mosques made out of Temples and Churches, 23

Mouat’s Andamans, Dr., 44

Mules not used in Lesser India, 12

Mul-Java, 33

Multán, 23

Muratori, ix

Murray, Hugh, his Polo, xiii, xvi, xviii

Murray’s Guide, The Medieval, xvii

Musk, 47

Mus Malabaricus, 29

Mysore, Buchanan’s, 17

Nadir Shah, 7

Naft (Naphtha), 50 See also 10

Nairs of Malabar, their law of inheritance, 32, 40

Naked Tribes, 30, 43

Nakhcheván, 4, 6

Namadus, vi

Nargil (Coco-nut), 15

Narsinga, King of, 40

Nascarini (Nazrání or Indian Christians), vii

Natchez, 32

Naxuana of Ptolemy, 4

Negroes described, 43

Negropont, 2

Nerbudda, vi, 33

Nestorians, vi, 9, 51

⸺ The, by the Rev. G. P. Badger, 51

Nicolaus Romanus, vi

Niger, Tribes on, 32

Night and Day, variation of, 34

⸺ Brightness and glory of, in India, 34

Noah, Armenian Traditions of, 3, 4

Nose, flat, a beauty among Mongols, 25

Nutmegs, 31

Nuts of India, 16

Odericus Raynaldus, vii

Odoricus of Friuli, Traveller and Saint, ix, 31, 33, 38, 40

Ogero the Dane, 40

Oil, Coco-nut, 15

Okkodai, Khan of the Tartars, 47

Onagri, 9

Orang-utang, 31

Oranges, 15

Ormi (Urumia), 5

Ormus, x, 11

Ornas. See _Verna_.

Orogan (error for Mogan), 6

Osbet, 54

Ossetes, 51

Ounces, 18, 43

Oxen, Hindu reverence for, 25

Oxus, 10

⸺ Wood’s, 11

Pagan Prophecies of Latin domination, 23

Pala, name of Jack-tree in Pliny, 13

Palmyra, 16

Paludanus, 13, 14

Pandarani, xiv, 40

Paper Money in Tartary, 46

Paradise, Terrestrial, 42, 43

Parmeswar, 24

Paroco, a city of India (Baroch), v, vi

Parody of Catholic rites, 47

Parrot’s Ascent of Ararat, 3, 4

Parrots, 19, 29

Parsis described, 21

Peacocks, 20

Pearl Fishery, 28, 40, 41

_Pegua_ (?), 10

Penny Cyclopædia, quoted, 2, 6, 8, 28, 29, 43, 44, 58

Pepper, xiii; gardens, xv; forest, xv; described, 27

⸺ Long, 27, 28; not indigenous in the I. Archipelago, 31

Persecution; of Dioclesian, 5; of preachers lay the Saracens, x, 55, 56

Persia; Notices of, 7 _et seq._, 52 See _Emperor_ and _Empire_. See also _Kinneir_.

Peter, a Franciscan Martyr, xii

Pheasants, 20

Pitch, Mineral, 10

Pila, Tamul name of Jack-fruit, 13

Pirates in Malabar, 40

Planets as seen in India, 34

Pliny; western limit of India according to, 11; his account of Jack-fruit, 13; of the Banyan, 17; of Cassia, 22; of Pepper, 28

Podargus, 37

Pole-star, height of, 34

Poliars, a forest race, 35

Polo, Marco, iii, v, viii; his Coilon, xiii, xv, xvi; his coincidences with Jordanus, xvii; his division of the Indies, 11; quoted with reference to birds and beasts of India, 19; big bats, 19; armament of Indian troops, 20; honesty of Brahmans, 22; horrid heat, 22; admiration of black skins, 25; Indian Islands, 28; Ceylon, 28; great ruby, 30; pygmies, 31; dress of Indian kings, 32; Maabar, 39; king of Cail, 40; Male and Female Islands, 44; Andamans, 44; bounty of the G. Khan, 46; Paper-money, 46; City of Kinsai, 47; burial of G. Khan, 48; fire of Baku, 51, 53; division of Tartar conquests, 54

⸺ Murray’s edition of, xiii, xviii; Baldello Boni’s, xiii

Polumbrum or Polembum, xv

Pomegranates, 15

Population; of Tabriz, 7; fallacious estimates of, 8; of Eastern Countries, 11; of Cathay, 47, 54; of Æthiopia (?), 54

Porcelain, China, 48

Preachers wanted for India, 55

⸺ Saracen, 55

Preaching among idolaters of India, 24

⸺ Friars. See _Dominicans_.

Prester John, 42, 45

Priests, idolatrous, 24

Prophecies of Latin domination, 23

Ptolemy; his Supara, vi; stories received from Arab Sailors, xviii; his Naxuana, 4; his Agmatæ, 44

Pudefitania of Conti (Pudipatanam), xiv

Pulney Hills, 35

Quails, 19, 20

Quétif and Echard, v

Quilacare (Coilacaud) King of, 33

Quilon, the Columbum of Jordanus, vi, xii-xvii, 34, 39, 41 (See _Columbum_, _Coulam_, etc.)

Races, wild, 35

Rain, absence of, 8; scarcity of, 12

Rainy season, 12

Rajmahl Forests, 18

Rakshasas, 35

Ramusio, xiv, xvi, 11, 24, 40

Rats, gigantic, 29

Recueil de Voyages et de Mémoires, i, iii, iv, ix, 3, 42, 47, 48, 54

Reg-rawán, 11

Reinaud—Relation des Voyages faits par les Arabes, etc., vi, xiv, 33

Renaudot, xiv

Rennel, xiii

Reptiles, 18, 19

Resemblances to R. Cath. rites, 24, 33, 46

Rheede’s Hortus Malabaricus, 13, 14, 17

Rhinoceros, 18

Rhipsime, Virgin Martyr, 5

Rhubarb, 47

Richardson’s Persian Diction., 17

Rice, 12

Rivers of Paradise, 42, 43

Roc, The, 42

Roch-Alum, 58

Roxburgh, quoted, 17

Rubies, great, 30

Rubruquis, William, 3, 25, 46

Rukka, 58

Russia, 54

Sacrifices; Idol, in India, 24; in Tartary, 46; of sheep on a cross, 51; suicidal, 32

Samarkand, viii

Samosata, viii

Samudra Raja, 40

Sandhills, Flowing, 10

Sap of trees for liquor, 15, 16

Sappan-wood, 27

Saracens; _i.e._, Mahomedans, x, 9, 23, 41, 58; their preachers and persecution of Christians, 55; ravage India, 23

Saracenized Tartars, 9

Sati, 20

Sava, 53

Scala, 5

Schismatic Christians, vii, 5, 6, 8, 9, 55, 58

Scotch lady’s musquito, 29

Scott, Walter, 50

Scott-Waring, 10

Seamanship, eastern and western, 55

Sebast, Sebasteia, 6

Sefara, see _Supera_.

Self-immolation, stories of, 33

Semiscat, a see under Sultania, vii

Semur (?), a city of Armenia, 7

Serpents; in India, 18, 35; two-, three-, and five-headed, 19; in Armenia, 4, 5, 7; horned, and with gems, 43; vast, in Æthiopia, 45; in Chaldæa, 49

Sevan, Lake, 7

Séverac, birthplace of Jordanus, iv

Shaki and Barki—Arabic names for Jack-fruit, 14

Shadows, direction of, 34

Sheep sacrificed on cross, 51

Siagois (_Siya-gosh_, the lynx), 18

Sicily, whirlpools, etc., 1

Silk in Persia, 9

Silem, see _Sylen_ and _Ceylon_.

Simon, Apostle, in Armenia, 4, 5

Sindbad the sailor, 31, 42

Sindh, 11, 12; Reports on, 12

Singuyli, King of, 40, 41

Sister’s son inherits, 32

Sivas, 6

Slaves, funeral sacrifice of, 47

Smith and Dwight, Researches in Armenia, 3, 4, 5, 6

Smith’s Dict. of the Bible, 4

⸺ Dict. of Greek and Roman geography, 6

Smyth, Admiral, the Mediterranean, 1, 2

Soldan of Babylon (in Egypt), 46

Soldiers in India, 20

_Sommario dei Regni_, etc., in Ramusio, xiv, xv, 24, 40

Sparrows, 19

Sperm-whale, 44

Spices, 23, 27, 30, 31

Spiders, Wasps that kill, 35

Springs, miraculous, 4; of pitch, 10

Squirrels, flying, 29

Stanley, Dr. Arthur P., quoted, 51

Stewart, Lt.-Col. Patrick, R.E., 50

Steiler’s Hand Atlas, 6

Stitched Vessels, 53

Stones, Pretious, 20; in Ceylon, 30, 41; in serpents, 43; in the heads of dragons, 42; in Æthiopia, 45

Sugar, Palm, 16, 17

Sultania, viii, 9

Sugar-cane, 21

Sumatra, 30, 31, 32, 44, 55

Supera, a port of India supposed near Surat, v, vi

Surat, vi

Surplice, 24

Sylen (Ceylon), or Silem, 28, 30, 41 (see _Ceylon_).

Sylvester, St., 5

Tabriz, v, vi, viii, 6, 7, 8, 9

Talipat-tree, 30

Tamarinds, and meaning of the word, 21

Tamerlane, viii

Tamul words, xiii, 13, 19

Tamils in Ceylon, 43

Tana, an Indian port near Bombay, vi, vii, ix

Tana, Tanan (Tanais), an ancient factory on the Sea of Azoph, viii, 53

Tapti river, vi

Tárí, Tádí, 16

Tartar, The Great, 46, 47, 48, 54

Tartars; in Armenia, 7, 24; different empires of, 54

Tartary, 10, 46, 53

Tauris (see _Tabriz_).

Telenc (Telingana), an Indian kingdom, 39, 41

Teloogoo, 29

Tennent, Sir J. E., see _Ceylon_.

Terrors of Babylon, 49

Thaddeus, the Apostle, 5

Thaurisium, 6 (see _Tabriz_).

Thebes (Greece), 2

Theistic feeling among Hindus, 24

Thibet, 47

Thomas the Apostle, Saint, x, 5, 23

⸺ a Franciscan martyr, xi

Thucydides, 2

Tigris, 49

Tipura, 32

Tiridates, K. of Armenia, 5

Toddy, process of drawing, 16, 17

Tokat, 6

Tongan (Daumghan), v

Tortoise, monster, 49

Toulouse, 47

Transoxiana, 54

Travancore, people of, 22

Treasure of the sea, 43

Trebizond, 6, 53

Triad, the Buddhist, 25

Trinity, alleged belief in the Holy, in India, 24; in Ava, 25

Troglodytes Ichthyophagi, 45

Tsjaka (Malayalim name of Jack-fruit), 13

Turks, 56, 57, 58; for Mahomedans, 24; their pococurantism, 58

Turkish Saracens, 23

Turkey (in Asia), 57

Tuticorin, 40

Two-headed monsters, 49; also see _serpents_.

Ultramarine, 9

Unicorn, 18, 42

Upas tree, 31

Ur of the Chaldees, 9

Ural River, 54

Urfa, 9

Urumia, Lake, 6; city, 5

Uzbeg, 54

Variation of day and night in India, 12, 34

Vasco de Gama, 27

Venice, merchants of, in Malabar, xv

Venus seen in broad day, 34

Verna, an Eastern see, viii

Vessels of India, 16, 53; of Cathay, xv, 54

Vincent’s Periplus of the Erythræan Sea, vi

Vines; of Noah, 4; in India, 15

Virgin martyrs, 5

⸺ only can take a unicorn, 43

Viverra Civetta, 43

Vows of self-immolation, 32

Wadding, Annales Minorum, v

Walckenaer, Baron, iv

War, elephants used in, 26

⸺ of elephants among themselves, 38

Warangól, 39

Wasps, remarkable, 35

Water, marvellous, 29

Wellsted’s Travels in Arabia, 45

Wheat in India, 12

Widow-burning, 20

Wild; tribes in India, 35; men, 43

Willows exuding manna, 8

Wilson, H. H., quoted, xiv

Wine; not made in India, 15; substitutes for, 15, 16

Wood’s Oxus, quoted, 11

World’s duration according to Hindus, 25

Yadu family, 39

Yemi-li (see _Hyemo_).

Yezidís, 51

Zachary, an Armen. Archbishop, 5

⸺ a Genoese Captain, 56

Zamorin of Calicut, 40

Zebra, 44

Zoroaster, 6

_CORRIGENDA._

P. viii. _Dele_ note 2, which is based on an oversight.

P. 2. Last line of note on Charybdis, insert “_which are_” after “local terms.”

P. 5. Note 2, last word of second line, for “_were_” read “_was_.”

P. 12. Note 1, first line, for “_half-past nine_” read “_half-past eight_.”

P. 14. Note 1, first line, for “_Amba_” read “_Anba_.”

P. 36, § 33, first line, read “_a certain big bird like a kite_.”