The bark, which is but thin, you come on the wood of the tree which forms a thickness all round of some three fingers, but all inside this is a pith of flour, like that of the Carvolo (?). The trees are so big that it will take two men to span them. They put this flour into tubs of water, and beat it up with a stick, and then the bran and other impurities come to the top, whilst the pure flour sinks to the bottom. The water is then thrown away, and the cleaned flour that remains is taken and made into pasta in strips and other forms. These Messer Marco often partook of, and brought some with him to Venice. It resembles barley bread and tastes much the same. wood of this tree is like iron, for if thrown into the water it goes straight to the bottom. It can be split straight from end to end like a cane. When the flour has been removed the wood remains, as has been said, three inches thick. Of this the people make short lances, not long ones, because they are so heavy that no one could carry or handle them if long. One end is sharpened and charred in the fire, and when thus prepared they will pierce any armour, and much better than iron would do." Marsden points out that this heavy lance-wood is not that of the true Sagopalm, but of the Nibong or Caryota urens; which does indeed give some amount of sago. ["When sago is to be made, a full-grown tree is selected just before it is going to flower. It is cut down close to the ground, the leaves and leaf-stalks cleared away, and a broad strip of the bark taken off the upper side of the trunk. This exposes the pithy matter, which is of a rusty colour near the bottom of the tree, but higher up pure white, about as hard as a dry apple, but with woody fibres running through it about a quarter of an inch apart. This pith is cut or broken down into a coarse powder, by means of a tool constructed for the purpose. . . . Water is poured on the mass of pith, which is kneaded and pressed against the strainer till the starch is all dissolved and has passed through, when the fibrous refuse is thrown away, and a fresh basketful put in its place. The water charged with sago starch passes on to a trough, with a depression in the centre, where the sediment is deposited, the surplus water trickling off by a shallow outlet. When the trough is nearly full, the mass of starch, which has a slight reddish tinge, is made into cylinders of about thirty pounds' weight, and neatly covered with sago leaves, and in this state is sold as raw sago. Boiled with water this forms a thick glutinous mass, with a rather astringent taste, and is eaten with salt, limes, and chilies. Sago-bread is made in large quantities, by baking it into cakes in a small clay oven containing six or eight slits side by side, each about three-quarters of an inch wide, and six or eight inches square. The raw sago is broken up, dried in the sun, powdered, and finely sifted. The oven is heated over a clear fire of embers, and is lightly filled with the sago powder. The openings are then covered with a flat piece of sago bark, and in about five minutes the cakes are turned out sufficiently baked. The hot cakes are very nice with butter, and when made with the addition of a little sugar and grated cocoa-nut are quite a delicacy. They are soft, and something like corn-flour cakes, but have a slight characteristic flavour which is lost in the refined sago we use in this country. When not wanted for immediate use, they are dried for several days in the sun, and tied up in bundles of twenty. They will then keep for years; they are very hard, and very rough and dry. . . .” (A. R. Wallace's Malay Archipelago, 1869, II. pp. 118-121.)—HI. C.] NOTE 5.-In quitting the subject of these Sumatran Kingdoms it may appear to some readers that our explanations compress them too much, especially as Polo seems to allow only two kingdoms for the rest of the Island. In this he was doubtless wrong, and we may the less scruple to say so as he had not visited that other portion of the Island. We may note that in the space to which we assign the six kingdoms which Polo visited, De Barros assigns twelve, viz.: Bara (corresponding generally to Ferlec), Pacem (Basma), Pirada, Lide, Pedir, Biar, Achin, Lambri, Daya, Mancopa, Quinchel, Barros (Fansur). (Dec. III. v. 1.) [Regarding these Sumatrian kingdoms, Mr. Thomson (Proc. R. G. S. XX. p. 223) writes that Malaiur "is no other than Singapore . . . the ancient capital VOL. II. U Sumatra had become united, and that the town of Sumatra may have been represented by the Pacem of the Portuguese." I have to thank Mr. G. Phillips for the copy of a small Chinese chart showing the northern coast of the island, which he states to be from "one of about the 13th century." I much doubt the date, but the map is valuable as showing the town of Sumatra (Sumantala). This seems to be placed in the Gulf of Pasei, and very near where Pasei itself still exists. An extract of a "Chinese account of about A.D. 1413" accompanied the map. This states that the town was situated some distance up a river, so as to be reached in two tides. There was a village at the mouth of the river called Talumangkin.† [Mr. E. H. Parker writes (China Review, XXIV. p. 102): "Colonel Yule's remarks about Pasei are borne out by Chinese History (Ming, 325, 20, 24), which states that in 1521 Pieh-tu-lu (Pestrello [for Perestrello ?]) having failed in China 'went for' Pa-si. Again from Pa-si, Malacca, to Luzon, they swept the seas, and all the other nations were afraid of them.'"-H. C.] Among the Indian states which were prevailed on to send tribute (or presents) to Kúblái in 1286, we find Sumutala. The chief of this state is called in the Chinese record Tu-'han-pa-ti, which seems to be just the Malay words Tuan Pati, “Lord Ruler." No doubt this was the rising state of Sumatra, of which we have been speaking; for it will be observed that Marco says the people of that state called themselves the Kaan's subjects. Rashiduddin makes the same statement regarding the people of Java (i.e. the island of Sumatra), and even of Nicobar: "They are all subject to the Kaan." It is curious to find just the same kind of statements about the princes of the Malay Islands acknowledging themselves subjects of Charles V., in the report of the surviving commander of Magellan's ship to that emperor (printed by Baldelli-Boni, I. lxvii.). Pauthier has curious Chinese extracts containing a notable passage respecting the disappearance of Sumatra Proper from history: "In the years Wen-chi (1573-1615), the Kingdom of Sumatra divided in two, and the new state took the name of Achi (Achin). After that Sumatra was no more heard of." (Gaubil, 205; De Mailla, IX. 429; Elliot, I. 71; Pauthier, pp. 605 and 567.) NOTE 2.1 -" Vos di que la Tramontaine ne part. Et encore vos di que l'estoilles dou Meistre ne aparent ne pou ne grant” (G. T.). The Tramontaine is the Pole star: "De nostre Père l'Apostoille Volsisse qu'il semblast l'estoile Par cele estoile vont et viennent Et lor sen et lor voie tiennent Il l'apelent la tres montaigne." -La Bible Guiot de Provins in Barbazan, by Méon, II. 377. The Meistre is explained by Pauthier to be Arcturus; but this makes Polo's error greater than it is. Brunetto Latini says: "Devers la tramontane en a il i. autre (vent) plus debonaire, qui a non Chorus. Cestui apelent li marinier MAISTRE por vij. estoiles qui sont en celui meisme leu," etc. (Li Tresors, p. 122). Magister or Magistra in mediæval Latin, La Maistre in old French, signifies "the beam of a plough." Possibly this accounts for the application of Maistre to the Great Bear, or Plough. But on the other hand the pilot's art is called in old French maistrance. Hence this constellation may have had the name as the pilot's guide,-like our Lode * Castanheda speaks of Pacem as the best port of the Island: "standing on the bank of a river on marshy ground about a league inland; and at the mouth of the river there are some houses of timber where a customs collector was stationed to exact duties at the anchorage from the ships which touched there." (Bk. II. ch. iii.) This agrees with Ibn Batuta's account of Sumatra, 4 miles from its port. [A village named Samudra discovered in our days near Pasei is perhaps a remnant of the kingdom of Samara. (Merveilles de l'Inde, p. 234.)-H. C.j If Mr. Phillips had given particulars about his map and quotations, as to date, author, etc., it would have given them more value. He leaves this vague. star. The name was probably given to the N.W. point under a latitude in which the Great Bear sets in that quarter. In this way many of the points of the old Arabian Rose des Vents were named from the rising or setting of certain constellations. (See Reinaud's Abulfeda, Introd. pp. cxcix.-cci.) NOTE 3.-The tree here intended, and which gives the chief supply of toddy and sugar in the Malay Islands, is the Areng Saccharifera (from the Javanese name), called by the Malays Gomuti, and by the Portuguese Saguer. It has some resemblance to the date-palm, to which Polo compares it, but it is a much coarser and wilder-looking tree, with a general raggedness, incompta et adspectu tristis," as Rumphius describes it. It is notable for the number of plants that find a footing in the joints of its stem. On one tree in Java I have counted thirteen species of such parasites, nearly all ferns. The tree appears in the foreground of the cut at p. 273. Crawfurd thus describes its treatment in obtaining toddy: "One of the spathae, or shoots of fructification, is, on the first appearance of the fruit, beaten for three successive days with a small stick, with the view of determining the sap to the wounded part. The shoot is then cut off, a little way from the root, and the liquor which pours out is received in pots. The Gomuti palm is fit to yield toddy at 9 or 10 years old, and continues to yield it for 2 years at the average rate of 3 quarts a day." (Hist. of Ind. Arch. I. 398.) The words omitted in translation are unintelligible to me: "et sunt quatre raimes trois cel en." (G. T.) ["Polo's description of the wine-pots of Samara hung on the trees 'like datepalms,' agrees precisely with the Chinese account of the shu theu tsiu made from 'coir trees like cocoa-nut palms' manufactured by the Burmese. Therefore it seems more likely that Samara is Siam (still pronounced Shumuro in Japan, and Siamlo in Hakka), than Sumatra." (Parker, China Review, XIV. p. 359.) I think it useless to discuss this theory.-H. C.] NOTE 4.-No one has been able to identify this state. Its position, however, must have been near PEDIR, and perhaps it was practically the same. Pedir was the most flourishing of those Sumatran states at the appearance of the Portuguese. Rashiduddin names among the towns of the Archipelago Dalmian, which may perhaps be a corrupt transcript of Dagroian. Mr. Phillips's Chinese extracts, already cited (p. 296), state that west of Sumatra (proper) were two small kingdoms, the first Nakú-urh, the second Liti. Nakú-urh, which seems to be the Ting-'ho-'rh of Pauthier's extracts, which sent tribute to the Kaan, and may probably be Dagroian as Mr. Phillips supposes, was also called the Kingdom of Tattooed Folk. [Mr G. Phillips wrote since (J.R.A.S., July 1895, p. 528): "Dragoian has puzzled many commentators, but on (a) Chinese chart . . . there is a country called Ta-hua-mien, which in the Amoy dialect is pronounced Dakolien, in which it is very easy to recognise the Dragoian, or Dagoyam, of Marco Polo." In his paper of The Seaports of India and Ceylon (Jour. China B.R.A.S., xx. 1885, p. 221), Mr. Phillips, referring to his Chinese Map, already said: Ta-hsiao-hua-mien, in the Amoy dialect Toa-sio-hoe (or Ko)-bin, “The Kingdom of the Greater and Lesser Tattooed Faces." The Toa-Ko-bin, the greater tattooed-face people, most probably represents the Dagroian, or Dagoyum, of Marco Polo. This country was called Na-ku-êrh, and Ma Huan says, "the King of Na-ku-erh is also called the King of the Tattooed Faces." -H. C.] (Cathay, Tattooing is ascribed by Friar Odoric to the people of Sumoltra. p. 86.) Liti is evidently the Lidé of De Barros, which by his list lay immediately east of Pedir. This would place Nakú-urh about Samarlangka. Beyond Liti was Lanmoli (i.e. Lambri). [See G. Schlegel, Geog. Notes, XVI. Li-taï, Nakur.-H. C.] There is, or was fifty years ago, a small port between Ayer Labu and Samarlangka, called Darián-Gadé (Great Darian?). This is the nearest approach to Dagroian that I have met with. (N. Ann. des V., tom. xviii. p. 16.) of the Malays or Malaiurs of old voyagers, existent in the times of Marco Polo [who] mentions no kingdom or city in Java Minor till he arrives at the kingdom of Felech or Perlak. And this is just as might be expected, as the channel in the Straits of Malacca leads on the north-eastern side out of sight of Sumatra; and the course, after clearing the shoals near Selangore, being direct towards Diamond Point, near which . . . the tower of Perlak is situated. Thus we see that the Venetian traveller describes the first city or kingdom in the great island that he arrived at... [After Basman and Samara] Polo mentions Dragoian . . . from the context, and following Marco Polo's course, we would place it west from his last city or Kingdom Samara; and we make no doubt, if the name is not much corrupted, it may yet be identified in one of the villages of the coast at this present time. . . . By the Malay annalist, Lambri was west of Samara ; consecutively it was also westerly from Samara by Marco Polo's enumeration. Fanfur . . . is the last kingdom named by Marco Polo [coming from the east], and the first by the Malay annalist [coming from the west]; and as it is known to modern geographers, this corroboration doubly settles the identity and position of all. Thus all the six cities or kingdoms mentioned by Marco Polo were situated on the north coast of Sumatra, now commonly known as the Pedir coast." I have given the conclusion arrived at by Mr. J. T. Thomson in his paper, Marco Polo's Six Kingdoms or Cities in Java Minor, identified in translations from the ancient Malay Annals, which appeared in the Proc. R. G. S. XX. pp. 215224, after the second edition of this Book was published and Sir H. Yule added the following note (Proc., l.c., p. 224): “Mr. Thomson, as he mentions, has not seen my edition of Marco Polo, nor, apparently, a paper on the subject of these kingdoms by the late Mr. J. R. Logan, in his Journal of the Indian Archipelago, to which reference is made in the notes to Marco Polo. In the said paper and notes the quotations and conclusions of Mr. Thomson have been anticipated; and Fansúr also, which he leaves undetermined, identified.”—H. C.] CHAPTER XII. CONCERNING THE ISLAND OF NECUVERAN. WHEN you leave the Island of Java (the less) and the kingdom of Lambri, you sail north about 150 miles, and then you come to two Islands, one of which is called NECUVERAN. In this Island they have no king nor chief, but live like beasts. And I tell you they go all naked, both men and women, and do not use the slightest covering of any kind. They are Idolaters. Their woods are all of noble and valuable kinds of trees; such as Red Sanders and Indian-nut and Cloves and Brazil and sundry other good spices.1 There is nothing else worth relating; so we will go on, and I will tell you of an Island called Angamanain. NOTE 1.-The end of the last chapter and the commencement of this I have taken from the G. Text. There has been some confusion in the notes of the original dictation which that represents, and corrections have made it worse. Thus Pauthier's text runs : "I will tell you of two small Islands, one called Gauenispola and the other Necouran," and then "You sail north about 150 miles and find two Islands, one called Necouran and the other Gauenispola." Ramusio does not mention Gauenispola, but says in the former passage: "I will tell you of a small Island called Nocueran"- and then : "You find two islands, one called Nocueran and the other Angaman." : Knowing the position of Gauenispola there is no difficulty in seeing how the passage should be explained. Something has interrupted the dictation after the last chapter. Polo asks Rusticiano, "Where were we?" "Leaving the Great Island." Polo forgets the " very small Island called Gauenispola," and passes to the north, where he has to tell us of two islands, "one called Necuveran and the other Angamanain." So, I do not doubt, the passage should run. Let us observe that his point of departure in sailing north to the Nicobar Islands was the Kingdom of Lambri. This seems to indicate that Lambri included Achin Head or came very near it, an indication which we shall presently see confirmed. As regards Gauenispola, of which he promised to tell us and forgot his promise, its name has disappeared from our modern maps, but it is easily traced in the maps of the 16th and 17th centuries, and in the books of navigators of that time. The latest in which I have observed it is the Neptune Oriental, Paris 1775, which calls it Pulo Gommes. The name is there applied to a small island off Achin Head, outside of which lie the somewhat larger Islands of Pulo Nankai (or Nási) and Pulo Brás, whilst Pulo Wai lies further east. I imagine, however, that the name was by the older navigators applied to the larger Island of Pulo Bras, or to the whole group. Thus Alexander Hamilton, who calls it Gomus and Pulo Gomuis, says that "from the Island of Gomus and Pulo Wey. the southernmost of the Nicobars may be seen." Dampier most precisely applies the name of Pulo Gomez to the larger island which modern charts call Pulo Bras. So also Beaulieu couples the islands of Gomispoda and Pulo Way" in front of the roadstead of Achin. De Barros mentions that Gaspar d'Acosta was lost on the Island of Gomispola. Linschoten, describing the course from Cochin to Malacca, says: "You take your course towards the small Isles of GOMES POLA, which are in 6°, near the corner of Achin in the Island of Sumatra." And the Turkish author of the Mohit, in speaking of the same navigation, 66 ... says: “If you wish to reach Malacca, guard against seeing JÁMISFULAH (?), because the mountains of LÁMRI advance into the sea, and the flood is there very strong." The editor has misunderstood the geography of this passage, which evidently means "Don't go near enough to Achin Head to see even the islands in front of it." And here we see again that Lambri is made to extend to Achin Head. The passage is illustrated by the report of the first English Voyage to the Indies. Their course was for the Nicobars, but "by the Master's fault in not duly observing the South Star, they fell to the southward of them, within sight of the Islands of Gomes Polo." (Nept. Orient. Charts 38 and 39, and pp. 126-127; Hamilton, II. 66 and Map; Dampier, ed. 1699, II. 122; H. Gén. des Voyages, XII. 310; Linschoten, Routier, p. 30; De Barros, Dec. III. liv. iii. cap. 3; J. A. S. B. VI. 807; Astley, I. 238.) The two islands (or rather groups of Islands) Necuveran and Angamanain are the Nicobar and Andaman groups. A nearer trace of the form Necuveran, or Necouran as it stands in some MSS., is perhaps preserved in Nancouri, the existing name of one of the islands. They are perhaps the Nalo-kilo-chéu (Narikela-dvipa) or Coco-nut Islands of which Hiuen Tsang speaks as existing some thousand li to the south of Ceylon. The men, he had heard, were but 3 feet high, and had the beaks of birds. It was a mistake to suppose the name had disappeared, for it is applied, in the form Pulo Gaimr, to the small island above indicated, in Colon 1 Versteeg's map to Veth's Atchin (1873). In a map chiefly borrowed from that, in Ocean Highways, August, 1873, I have ventured to restore the name as Pulo Gomus. The name is perhaps (Mal.) Gamás, "hard, rough." VOL. II. U 2 |