PREFACE. — FOOTNOTES — MARVELS DESCRIBED BY FRIAR JORDANUS, OF THE ORDER OF PREACHERS, NATIVE OF SEVERAC, AND BISHOP OF COLUMBUM IN INDIA THE GREATER.
The little work here presented was printed in the
original Latin at Paris in 1839, under the editorship
of M. Coquebert-Montbret, in the Recueil de
Voyages et de Mémoires, publié par la Société de Géographie,
vol. iv.
I cannot find that it has ever been published or
translated in England, or even noticed in any English
book, except in the Ceylon of Sir James Emerson
Tennent, where there is an allusion to it.
The book itself does not add anything to our knowledge;
but the observations of a traveller who resided
in India so far back as the beginning of the fourteenth
century must be very dull indeed if sufficient
interest cannot be derived from their date to make
them acceptable. Nor do I think our author is dull,
whilst I regret that he is so brief, and has omitted so
much that he might really have laid up as an addition
to our knowledge. The very fact that there
were Roman Catholic missionaries and a bishop in
India at that period, just between the days of Marco
Polo and those of Ibn Batuta, may indeed be excavated
from old ecclesiastical chronicles; but it is
certainly unfamiliar to the knowledge of those who
do not dig in such mines.
The translation which follows has been made, and
the brief particulars which I shall give respecting
the author have been derived, from the Recueil above
indicated.[22]
The manuscript from which the French editor
transcribed belonged to the Baron Walckenaer. It
is on parchment, of the fourteenth century, and contains
other matter, the work of Jordanus occupying
twenty-nine quarto pages.
The author is termed a native of Séverac. That
he was a Frenchman will appear from several passages
in his book. But there are at least five places
of the name of Séverac in France. Three of these
are in the district of Rouergue, in the department of
the Aveyron (near the eastern boundary of the old
province of Guyenne, and some ninety miles N.E.
of Toulouse), and it was probably from one of
these that he came. There was a noble family of
this province called De Séverac, of which was
Amaulry de Séverac, Marshal of France in the time
of Charles VII. But, as will afterwards appear, our
traveller was called Catalani.[23]
The dates of his birth, his death, or his first going
to the East, are undetermined. But it is ascertained
that he was in the East in 1321-1323, that he returned
to Europe, and started again for India, in or
soon after 1330. There appears to be nothing to
determine whether this book of Mirabilia was written
on his first, or on a subsequent, return to Europe.
The authorities for the dates just given are the
following:—
Two letters from Jordanus are found in a MS. in
the national library at Paris (in 1839,—Bibliothèque
du Roi—MS. No. 5,006, p. 182), entitled Liber de
ætatibus, etc. The first of these is dated from Caga,[24]
12th October, 1321. It is addressed to members of
his own order (the Dominican) and of that of St.
Francis, residing at Tauris, Tongan, and Marogo,[25]
and points out three stations adapted for the establishment
of missions, viz., Supera, Paroco, and
Columbum. On the receipt of these letters, Nicolaus
Romanus, who was Vice-Custos of the Dominicans
in Persia, is stated to have started for India.[26]
In his second letter, dated in January, 1324, Jordanus
relates how he had started from Tabriz to go
to Cathay, but embarked first for Columbum with
four Franciscan missionaries, and how they were
driven by a storm to Tana,[27] in India, where they
were received by the Nestorians. There he left his
companions, and started for Baroch, where he hoped
to preach with success, as he was better acquainted
with the Persian tongue than the others were. Being
detained however at Supera, he there heard that his
four brethren at Tana had been arrested, and returned
to aid them, but found them already put to
death. He was enabled to remove the bodies of
these martyrs by the help of a young Genoese
whom he found at Tana, and, having transported
them to Supera, he buried them in a church there as
honourably as he could.[28]
The only remaining date in the biography of Jordanus
is derived from a bull of Pope John XXII.,
the date of which is equivalent to 5th April 1330,
addressed to the Christians of Columbum, and intended
to be delivered to them by Jordanus, who was
nominated bishop of that place. The bull commences
as follows:—[29]
“Nobili viro domino Nascarinorum et universis sub eo
Christianis Nascarinis de Columbo, Venerabilem fratrem
nostrum Jordanum Catalani, episcopum Columbensem, Prædicatorum
Ordinis professorem, quem nuper ad episcopalis
dignitatis apicem auctoritate apostolicâ duximus promovendum⸺”
etc.
The Pope goes on to recommend the missionaries
to their good-will, and ends by inviting the Nascarini
(Nazrání, Christians, in India) to abjure their schism,
and enter the unity of the Catholic Church.
The Pope had shortly before nominated John de
Core to be Archbishop of Sultania in Persia. This
metropolitan had, at least, three bishops under him,
viz., of Tabriz, of Semiscat, and of Columbum.[30]
The two latter were entrusted by the Pope with the
Pallium for the archbishop. Sultania, between Tabriz
and Tehran, was the seat of the Persian kings previous
to the Tartar conquest in the thirteenth century,
and was still a great centre of commerce between the
Indies and Europe. The number of Christians was
so great, that they had in this city, it is said, four
hundred churches. (?)[31]
We may suppose that Jordanus, after fulfilling his
commission at Sultania, proceeded to his see in
Malabar by the Persian Gulf, the route which he had
followed on his first visit to India; but whether he
ever reached it, or ever returned from it, seems to be
undetermined.[32] M. Coquebert-Montbret assumes
that he did both; but as far as I can gather, this is
based on the other assumption, that his Mirabilia was
written after returning a second time. My impression
is that it was written before he went out as
bishop, for it contains no allusion to his having held
that dignity. Nor does it appear to be known
whether he had any successor in his episcopate.
Another work appears to have been traced with
some plausibility to our author. It is a chronicle
composed in the fourteenth century, and quoted by
Muratori from a MS. which in 1740 existed in the
Vatican library, with the No. 1960. It is adorned
with fine miniatures, and is entitled
“Satyrica gestarum rerum, regum et regnorum, atque
summorum pontificum, historia, à creatione mundi usque ad
Henricum VII. Romanum augustum.”
The chronicle ends with the year 1320, and purports
to be written by one Jordanus. The passage
which is considered to identify him with our author
is one relating to the martyrdom of four Minor Friars
at Tana, and is so interesting in itself as to be worth
quoting at length. It is very perplexing, that though
several of the circumstances appear to identify his
narrative with that which forms the subject of our
author’s letter quoted in a previous page, the dates
are irreconcilable. This difficulty the French editor
does not notice, nor can I solve it.[33]
“Mdcccxix. Pope John read in the consistory, with
great approval, a letter which he had received, to the effect
following: To wit, that certain brethren of the orders of
Minors and Preachers, who had been sent on a mission to
Ormus to preach the faith to the infidels, when they found
that they could do no good there, thought it well to go over
to Columbum in India. And when they arrived at the
island called Dyo,[34] the brethren of the order of Minors
separated from the rest of the party, both Preachers and
secular Christians, and set out by land to a place called
Thana, that they might there take ship for Columbum.
Now there was at that place a certain Saracen of Alexandria,
Ysufus[35] by name, and he summoned them to the presence
of Melich, the governor of the land, to make inquest how
and why they were come. Being thus summoned, he
demands: what manner of men are ye called? They made
answer, that they were Franks, devoted to holy poverty, and
anxious to visit St. Thomas. Then, being questioned concerning
their faith, they replied that they were true Christians,
and uttered many things with holy fervour regarding
the faith of Christ. But when Melich let them go, the aforesaid
Yusuf a second and a third time persuaded him to
arrest and detain them. At length Melich and the Cadi
and the people of the place were assembled, Pagans and
idolaters as well as Saracens, and questioned the brethren:
How can Christ, whom ye call the Virgin’s son, be the son
of God, seeing that God hath not a mate? Then set they
forth many instances of divine generation, as from the sun’s
rays, from trees, from germs in the soil; so that the infidels
could not resist the Spirit who spake in them. But the
Saracens kindled a great fire, and said: Ye say that your
law is better than the law of Mahomet; an it be so, go ye
into the fire, and by miracle prove your words. The
brethren replied that, for the honour of Christ, that they
would freely do; and brother Thomas coming forward
would first go in, but the Saracens suffered him not, for
that he seemed older than the others; then came forward
the youngest of the brethren, James of Padua, a young
wrestler for Christ, and incontinently went into the fire, and
abode in it until it was well nigh spent, rejoicing and
uttering praise, and without any burning of his hair even,
or of the cloth of his gown. Now they who stood by shouted
with a great cry, Verily these be good and holy men!
“But the Cadi, willing to deny so glorious a miracle,
said: It is not as ye think, but his raiment came from the
land of Aben ...[36] a great friend of God, who when cast
into the flames in Chaldea, took no hurt; therefore, hath
this man abode scatheless in the fire.
“Then stripped they the innocent youth, and all naked
as he was born was he cast by four men into the fire. But
he bore the flames without hurt, and went forth from the
fire unscathed and rejoicing. Then Melich set them free to
go whither they would. But the Cadi, and the aforesaid
Yusuf, full of malice, knowing that they had been entertained
in the house of a certain Christian, said to Melich:
What dost thou? why slayest thou not these Christ-worshipers?
He replied: That I find no cause of death in them.
But they say: If ye let them go, all will believe in Christ,
and the law of Mahomet will be utterly destroyed. Melich
again says: What will ye that I should do, seeing that I find
no cause of death? But they said: His blood be upon us.
For it is said that if one cannot go pilgrim to Mecca, let
him slay a Christian and he shall obtain a full remission of
sins, as if he had visited Mecca. Wherefore, the night following,
the three men aforesaid, Melich, the Cadi, and
Yusuf, sent officers who despatched the three brethren,
Thomas, James, and Demetrius, to the joys of heaven,
bearing the palm of martyrdom. And after awhile, having
made brother Peter, who was in another place, present himself
before them, when he firmly held to the faith of Christ, for
two days they vexed him with sore afflictions, and on the
third day, cutting off his head, accomplished his martyrdom.
But their comrades, the Preachers and the rest, when they
heard this, wrote to the West, lamenting wofully that they
had been parted from the company of the holy martyrs, and
saying that they were devoutly engaged in recovering the
relics of the martyrs.”
I had desired to add to this preface some notices
of the Christians of Malabar, embracing the latest
information; but my work is cut short by circumstances,
and I must content myself with saying something,
hurriedly put together, as to the identity of
Columbum, the seat of the bishop’s see.
It is clear that Columbum is not Colombo in Ceylon,
though the French editor is wrong in supposing that
the latter city did not exist in the time of Jordanus, for
it is mentioned by the modern name in Ibn Batuta’s
travels, only a few years later. Jordanus evidently
does not speak of Ceylon as one who had been there,
and whilst treating of greater India, he says distinctly,
“In istâ Indiâ, me existente in Columbo, fuerunt
inventi,” etc.
The identity of Columbum with Kulam or Quilon,
on the coast of Malabar (now in Travancore), might
therefore have been assumed, but for the doubts
which have been raised by some of the editors of
Marco Polo as to the position of the Kulam or Coilon
of Marco and other medieval travellers.
Mr. Hugh Murray, adopting the view of Count
Baldello Boni in his edition of Marco Polo, considers
that the place so-called by those travellers was on
the east coast of the Peninsula. I have not time to
seek for Baldello’s edition, and do not know his arguments;
but I conceive that there is enough evidence
to show that he is wrong.
The argument on which Murray rests is chiefly the
position in which Polo introduces his description of
Coilon, after Maabar, and before Comari; Maabar
being with him an extensive region of Coromandel,
and Comari doubtless the country about Cape
Comorin. But, omitting detailed discussion of the value
of this argument, which would involve a consideration
of all the other difficulties in reducing to geographical
order Polo’s notices of the kingdoms on the coast of
India, his description of Coilon as a great port for
pepper and brazil-wood, is sufficient to identify it as
on the coast of Malabar. The existence of places
called Coulan on the east coast in the maps of
D’Anville, Rennel, and Milburn, is of little moment,
for an inspection of the “Atlas of India” will show
scores of places so-called on both sides of Cape
Comorin, the word signifying, in the Tamul tongue,
‘an irrigation tank, formed by damming up natural
hollows.’ Indeed, though I have found no trace of
any well-known port on the east coast so-called, there
were at least four ports of the name on the west
coast frequented by foreign vessels, viz., Cote Colam,
north of Cananore; Colam, called Pandarani, north
of Calicut; Cai-Colam, or Kaincolam,[37] between
Cochin and the chief place of the name; Coulam,
or Quilon, the Columbum of our author.
We know that Kulam, on the coast of Malabar,
was founded in the ninth century, and that its foundation
formed an era from which dates were reckoned
in Malabar.[38] In that same century we find[39] that the
sailing directions for ships making the China voyage
from the Persian Gulf, were to go straight from
Maskát to Kulam Malé, a place evidently, both from
name and fact, on the coast of Malabar. Here there
was a custom-house, where ships from China paid
their dues.
The narrative of Rabbi Benjamin of Tudela is
very hazy. He calls Chulan only seven days from
El-Cathif (which is a port on the west coast of the
Persian Gulf), “and on the confines of the country
of the Sun-worshippers.” However, his description
of the pepper-gardens adjoining the city, the black
Jews, etc., identify it with one of the Kulams on the
Malabar coast, and doubtless with Quilon, which was
the chief of them.
Then comes Polo’s notice of Coilon already alluded
to, followed by our author’s mention of it, and residence
there.
It is probable that the Polumbrum or Polembum
of his contemporaries Odoricus and Mandevill, are
corrupt readings of the name of Kulam or Columbum.
The former describes this place as at the head of the
pepper forest towards the south, and as abounding in
all sorts of merchandize; Mandevill adding, “thither
go merchants often from Venice to buy pepper and
ginger.”
Ibn Batuta, only half a century after Polo, is quite
clear in his description of Kaulam, as the seat of an
infidel king, the last city on the Malabar coast, and
frequented by many Mahomedan merchants. He
also says that Kaulam, Calicut, and Hílí were the
only ports entered by the ships of China.
So also Conti, early in the fifteenth century, on his
return from the Eastern Archipelago, departing from
Champa (Cambodia), doubtless in one of those same
ships of China, after a month’s voyage arrives at
Coloen, a noble city, three days from Cochin, and
“situated in the province called Melibaria.”
Coming down to later times, Barbosa, in the first
years of the sixteenth century, speaks of Coulon still
as the great pepper port, the seat of one of the three
(chief) kings of Malabar, and where lived many
Moors, Gentiles, and Christians, who were great merchants,
and had many ships trading to Coromandel,
Ceylon, Bengal, Pegu, Malacca, Sumatra, etc.
Here, however, at last, we find something to
justify Marco Polo in regard to the position in which
he introduces the kingdom of Coilon. For, after
speaking of Coulam on the Malabar coast, Barbosa
goes forward to Cape Comorin, where he says the
country of Malabar indeed terminates, but the “aforesaid
kingdom of Coulam” still goes on and comes to
an end at the city of Cail, where the King of Coulam
made his continual residence. So also the “Summary
of kingdoms,” etc., in Ramusio, describes the
kingdom of Colam as extending on both sides of Cape
Comorin.
It is intelligible, therefore, that Marco, coming
upon territory belonging to the kingdom of Coilon,
before reaching Cape Comorin, should proceed to
speak of the city of that name, though it lay upon
the western coast. But there is in this no ground
for asserting, as Mr. Murray does, that “the place of
that name described by Marco and other early Europeans
lay to the east of that great promontory.”
We have seen that a regular catena of authorities,
from the ninth to the sixteenth century, concurs in
representing Coulam, Kulam, Coloen, Coilon (Quilon),
on the coast of Malabar, as the great entrepôt of
trade with east and west, and there can be no reasonable
doubt that this is the Columbum which was the
seat of our author’s mission.
The occasional quotations given in the notes will
indicate the quality of the author’s Latin. The
French editor is unwilling to believe that episcopal
Latinity could be so bad, and suggests that his vernacular
was Latinized by some humbler scribe, and
probably extracted from a larger work. In support
of this, he adduces the abrupt commencement, and
the “but” with which he plunges in—“Inter Siciliam
autem et Calabriam.” But he gives a fac-simile of
the beginning of the MS., and the words seem to me
(all inexpert I confess) almost certainly to be “Inter
Siciliam atque Calabriam,” so that this argument is
null.
One must notice the frequent extraordinary coincidences
of statement, and almost of expression,
between this and other travellers of the same age,
especially M. Polo. At first one would think that
Jordanus had Polo’s book. But he certainly had not
Ibn Batuta’s, and the coincidences with him are
sometimes almost as striking. Had those ancient
worthies, then, a Murray from whom they pilfered
experiences, as modern travellers do? I think they
had; but their Murray lay in the traditional yarns of
the Arab sailors with whom they voyaged, some of
which seem to have been handed down steadily from
the time of Ptolemy—peradventure of Herodotus[40]—almost
to our own day.
And so I commend the simple and zealous Jordanus
to kindly entertainment.
London, June 27th, 1863.
Nota Bene. The English edition of Marco Polo, so often referred
to in my notes, is Mr. Hugh Murray’s fourth edition; Edinburgh,
Oliver and Boyd, (no date; more shame to Oliver and Boyd).
In my absence on the continent my friend Mr. Badger has undertaken
the correction of the press. The revise sheets have been
sent to me, but in the absence of my manuscript and references I
fear some errors may still inevitably escape correction.
The numbers to chapters and paragraphs have been attached
by me,
H. Y.
IV. CONCERNING INDIA THE LESS. [71]
1. In the entrance to India the Less are [date] palms,
giving a very great quantity of the sweetest fruit; but further
on in India they are not found.[72]
2. In this lesser India are many things worthy to be noted
with wonder; for there are no springs, no rivers, no ponds;
nor does it ever rain, except during three months, viz.,
between the middle of May and the middle of August; and
(wonderful!) notwithstanding this, the soil is most kindly
and fertile, and during the nine months of the year in which
it does not rain, so much dew is found every day upon the
ground that it is not dried up by the sun’s rays till the middle
of the third hour of the day.[73]
3. Here be many and boundless marvels; and in this First
India beginneth, as it were, another world; for the men and
women be all black, and they have for covering nothing but
a strip of cotton tied round the loins, and the end of it flung
over the naked back. Wheaten bread is there not eaten by
the natives, although wheat they have in plenty; but rice is
eaten with its seasoning,[74] only boiled in water. And they
have milk and butter and oil, which they often eat uncooked.
In this India there be no horses, nor mules, nor camels, nor
elephants; but only kine, with which they do all their doings
that they have to do, whether it be riding, or carrying, or
field labour. The asses are few in number and very small,
and not much worth.[75]
4. The days and nights do not vary there more than by
two hours at the most.
5. There be always fruits and flowers there, divers trees,
and fruits of divers kinds; for (example) there are some trees
which bear very big fruit, called Chaqui; and the fruit is of
such size that one is enough for five persons.[76]
6. There is another tree which has fruit like that just
named, and it is called Bloqui, quite as big and as sweet, but
not of the same species. These fruits never grow upon the
twigs, for these are not able to bear their weight, but only
from the main branches, and even from the trunk of the tree
itself, down to the very roots.
7. There is another tree which has fruit like a plum, but
a very big one, which is called Aniba. This is a fruit so
sweet and delicious as it is impossible to utter in words.[77]
8. There be many other fruit trees of divers kinds, which
it would be tedious to describe in detail.
9. I will only say this much, that this India, as regards
fruit and other things, is entirely different from Christendom;
except, indeed, that there be lemons there, in some places,
as sweet as sugar, whilst there be other lemons sour like
ours.[78] There be also pomegranates, but very poor and small.
There be but few vines, and they make from them no wine,
but eat the fresh grapes; albeit there are a number of other
trees whose sap they collect, and it standeth in place of wine
to them.
10. First of these is a certain tree called Nargil;[79] which
tree every month in the year sends out a beautiful frond like
[that of] a [date] palm-tree, which frond or branch produces
very large fruit, as big as a man’s head. There often grow
on one such stem thirty of those fruits as big as I have said.
And both flowers and fruits are produced at the same time,
beginning with the first month and going up gradually to
the twelfth; so that there are flowers and fruit in eleven
stages of growth to be seen together. A wonder! and a
thing which cannot be well understood without being witnessed.[80]
From these branches and fruits is drawn a very
sweet water. The kernel [at first] is very tender and pleasant
to eat; afterwards it waxeth harder, and a milk is drawn
from it as good as milk of almonds; and when the kernel
waxeth harder still, an oil is made from it of great medicinal
virtue. And if any one careth not to have fruit, when the
fruit-bearing stem is one or two months old he maketh a cut
in it, and bindeth a pot to this incision; and so the sap,
which would have been converted into fruit, drops in; and
it is white like milk, and sweet like must, and maketh drunk
like wine, so that the natives do drink it for wine; and those
who wish not to drink it so, boil it down to one-third of its
bulk, and then it becometh thick, like honey; and ’tis sweet,
and fit for making preserves, like honey and the honeycomb.[81]
One branch gives one potful in the day and one in the night,
on the average throughout the year:[82] thus five or six pots
may be found hung upon the same tree at once. With the
leaves of this tree they cover their houses during the rainy
season.[83] The fruit is that which we call nuts of India; and
from the rind of that fruit is made the twine with which they
stitch their boats together in those parts.[84]
11. There is another tree of a different species, which like
that gives all the year round a white liquor pleasant to drink,
which tree is called Tárí.[85] There is also another, called Belluri,
giving a liquor of the same kind, but better.[86] There be
also many other trees, and wonderful ones; among which is
one which sendeth forth roots from high up, which gradually
grow down to the ground and enter it, and then wax into
trunks like the main trunk, forming as it were an arch; and
by this kind of multiplication one tree will have at once as
many as twenty or thirty trunks beside one another, and all
connected together. ’Tis marvellous! And truly this which
I have seen with mine eyes, ’tis hard to utter with my tongue.
The fruit of this tree is not useful, but poisonous and deadly.[87]
There is [also] a tree harder than all, which the strongest
arrows can scarcely pierce.
12. The trees in this India, and also in India the Greater,
never shed their leaves till the new ones come.[88]
13. To write about the other trees would be too long a
business, and tedious beyond measure; seeing that they are
many and divers, and beyond the comprehension of man.
14. But about wild beasts of the forest I say this: there
be lions, leopards, ounces, and another kind something like
a greyhound, having only the ears black and the whole
body perfectly white, which among those people is called
Siagois.[89] This animal, whatever it catches, never lets go,
even to death. There is also another animal, which is called
Rhinoceros,[90] as big as a horse, having one horn long and
twisted; but it is not the unicorn.
15. There be also venomous animals, such as many serpents,
big beyond bounds, and of divers colours, black, red,
white, and green, and parti-coloured; two-headed also, three-headed,
and five-headed. Admirable marvels![91]
16. There be also coquodriles, which are vulgarly called
Calcatix;[92] some of them be so big that they be bigger than
the biggest horse. These animals be like lizards, and have
a tail stretched over all, like unto a lizard’s; and have a
head like unto a swine’s, and rows of teeth so powerful and
horrible that no animal can escape their force, particularly
in the water. This animal has, as it were, a coat of mail;
and there is no sword, nor lance, nor arrow, which can anyhow
hurt him, on account of the hardness of his scales. In
the water, in short, there is nothing so strong, nothing so
evil, as this wonderful animal. There be also many other
reptiles, whose names, to speak plainly, I know not.
17. As for birds, I say plainly that they are of quite different
kinds from what are found on this side of the world;
except, indeed, crows and sparrows;[93] for there be parrots
and popinjays in very great numbers, so that a thousand or
more may be seen in a flock. These birds, when tamed and
kept in cages, speak so that you would take them for rational
beings. There be also bats really and truly as big as kites.
These birds fly nowhither by day, but only when the sun
sets. Wonderful! By day they hang themselves up on
trees by the feet, with their bodies downwards, and in the
daytime they look just like big fruit on the tree.[94]
18. There are also other birds, such as peacocks, quails,
Indian fowls,[95] and others, divers in kind; some white as
white can be, some green as green can be, some parti-coloured,
of such beauty as is past telling.
19. In this India, when men go to the wars, and when
they act as guards to their lords, they go naked, with a
round target,—a frail and paltry affair,—and holding a kind
of a spit[96] in their hands; and, truly, their fighting seems
like child’s play.
20. In this India are many and divers precious stones,
among which are the best diamonds under heaven. These
stones never can be dressed or shaped by any art, except
what nature has given. But I omit the properties of these
stones, not to be prolix.
21. In this India are many other precious stones, endowed
with excellent virtues, which may be gathered by
anybody; nor is anyone hindered.
22. In this India, on the death of a noble, or of any
people of substance, their bodies are burned: and eke their
wives follow them alive to the fire, and, for the sake of
worldly glory, and for the love of their husbands, and for
eternal life, burn along with them, with as much joy as if
they were going to be wedded; and those who do this have
the higher repute for virtue and perfection among the rest.
Wonderful! I have sometimes seen, for one dead man who
was burnt, five living women take their places on the fire
with him, and die with their dead.
23. There be also other pagan-folk in this India who
worship fire; they bury not their dead, neither do they
burn them, but cast them into the midst of a certain roofless
tower, and there expose them totally uncovered to the fowls
of heaven. These believe in two First Principles, to wit, of
Evil and of Good, of Darkness and of Light, matters which
at present I do not purpose to discuss.[97]
24. There be also certain others which be called Dumbri,
who eat carrion and carcases; who have absolutely no object
of worship; and who have to do the drudgeries of other
people, and carry loads.[98]
25. In this India there is green ginger, and it grows
there in great abundance.[99]
There be also sugar-canes in quantities; carobs also, of
such size and bigness that it is something stupendous.[100] I
could tell very wonderful things of this India; but I am not
able to detail them for lack of time. Cassia fistula is in
some parts of this India extremely abundant.[101]
26. The people of this India are very clean in their feeding;
true in speech, and eminent in justice, maintaining
carefully the privileges of every man according to his degree,
as they have come down from old times.[102]
27. The heat there is perfectly horrible, and more intolerable
to strangers than it is possible to say.[103]
28. In this India there exists not, nor is found, any metal
but what comes from abroad, except gold, iron, and electrum.
There is no pepper there, nor any kind of spice except
ginger.
29. In this India the greater part of the people worship
idols, although a great share of the sovereignty is in the
hands of the Turkish Saracens, who came forth from Multán,
and conquered and usurped dominion to themselves not long
since, and destroyed an infinity of idol temples, and likewise
many churches, of which they made mosques for
Mahomet, taking possession of their endowments and property.
’Tis grief to hear, and woe to see![104]
30. The Pagans of this India have prophecies of their
own that we Latins are to subjugate the whole world.[105]
31. In this India there is a scattered people, one here,
another there, who call themselves Christians, but are not
so, nor have they baptism, nor do they know anything else
about the faith. Nay, they believe St. Thomas the Great
to be Christ!
32. There, in the India I speak of, I baptized and brought
into the faith about three hundred souls, of whom many
were idolaters and Saracens.[106]
33. And let me tell you that among the idolaters a man
may with safety expound the Word of the Lord; nor is anyone
from among the idolaters hindered from being baptized
throughout all the East, whether they be Tartars, or Indians,
or what not.
34. These idolaters sacrifice to their gods in this manner;
to wit, there is one man who is priest to the idol, and he
wears a long shirt, down to the ground almost, and above
this a white surplice[107] in our fashion; and he has a clerk
with a shirt who goes after him, and carries a hassock,
which he sets before the priest. And upon this the priest
kneels, and so begins to advance from a distance, like one
performing his stations; and he carries upon his bent arms
a tray of two cubits [long], all full of eatables of different
sorts, with lighted tapers at top; and thus praying he comes
up to the altar where the idol is, and deposits the offering
before it after their manner; and he pours a libation, and
places part [of the offering] in the hands of the idol, and
then divides the residue, and himself eats a part of it.
35. They make idols after the likeness of almost all living
things of the idolaters; and they have besides their god
according to his likeness.[108] It is true that over all gods they
place One God, the Almighty Creator of all those.[109] They
hold also that the world has existed now xxviii thousand
years.[110]
The Indians, both of this India and of the other Indies,
never kill an ox, but rather honour him like a father; and
some, even perhaps the majority, worship him. They will
more readily spare him who has slain five men than him
who has slain one ox, saying that it is no more lawful to
kill an ox than to kill one’s father. This is because oxen do
all their services, and moreover furnish them with milk and
butter, and all sorts of good things.[111] The great lords
among the idolaters, every morning when they rise, and
before they go anywhither, make the fattest cows come
before them, and lay their hands upon them, and then rub
their own faces, believing that after this they can have no
ailment.
36. Let this be enough about Lesser India; for were I
to set forth particulars of everything down to worms and
the like, a year would not suffice for the description.
37. But [I may say in conclusion] as for the women and
men, the blacker they be, the more beautiful they be
[held.][112]
V. HERE FOLLOWETH CONCERNING INDIA THE GREATER.
1. Of India the Greater I say this; that it is like unto
Lesser India as regards all the folk being black. The
animals also are all similar, neither more nor less [in number],
except elephants, which they have [in the former] in
very great plenty. These animals are marvellous; for they
exceed in size and bulk and strength, and also in understanding,
all the animals of the world. This animal hath a
big head; small eyes, smaller than a horse’s; ears like the
wings of owls or bats; a nose reaching quite to the ground,
extending right down from the top of his head; and two
tusks standing out of remarkable magnitude [both in] bulk
and length, which are [in fact] teeth rooted in the upper
jaw. This animal doth everything by word of command;
so that his driver hath nothing to do but say once, “Do this,”
and he doeth it; nor doth he seem in other respects a brute,
but rather a rational creature. They have very big feet,
with six hoofs like those of an ox, or rather of a camel.[113]
This animal carrieth easily upon him, with a certain structure
of timber, more than thirty men; and he is a most
gentle beast,[114] and trained for war, so that a single animal
counteth by himself equal in war to 1,500 men and more;
for they bind to his tusks blades or maces of iron wherewith
he smiteth. Most horrible are the powers of this beast, and
specially in war.
2. Two things there be which cannot be withstood by
arms: one is the bolt of heaven; the second is a stone from
an artillery engine; this is a third! For there is nothing
that either can or dare stand against the assault of an elephant
in any manner. A marvellous thing! He kneeleth,
lieth, sitteth, goeth and cometh, merely at his master’s
word. In short, it is impossible to write in words the peculiarities
of this animal.
3. In this India there are pepper and ginger, cinnamon,
brazil,[115] and all other spices.
4. Ginger is the root of a plant which hath leaves like a
reed. Pepper is the fruit of a plant something like ivy,
which climbs trees, and forms grape-like fruit like that of
the wild vine.[116] This fruit is at first green, then when it
comes to maturity it becomes all black and corrugated as
you see it. ’Tis thus that long pepper is produced, nor are
you to believe that fire is placed under the pepper, nor that
it is roasted, as some will lyingly maintain.[117] Cinnamon is
the bark of a large tree which has fruit and flowers like
cloves.[118]
5. In this India be many islands, and more than 10,000
of them inhabited, as I have heard; wherein are many world’s
wonders.[119] For there is one called Silem, where are found
the best precious stones in the whole world, and in the
greatest quantity and number, and of all kinds.[120]
6. Between that island and the main are taken pearls or
marguerites, in such quantity as to be quite wonderful. So
indeed that there are sometimes more than 8,000 boats or
vessels, for three months continuously, [engaged in this
fishery]. It is astounding, and almost incredible, to those
who have not seen it, how many are taken.
7. Of birds I say this: that there be many different from
those of Lesser India, and of different colours; for there be
some white all over as snow; some red as scarlet of the
grain; some green as grass; some parti-coloured; in such
quantity and delectability as cannot be uttered. Parrots
also, or popinjays, after their kind, of every possible colour
except black, for black ones are never found; but white all
over, and green, and red, and also of mixed colours. The
birds of this India seem really like creatures of Paradise.[121]
8. There is also told a marvellous thing of the islands
aforesaid, to wit that there is one of them in which there is
a water, and a certain tree in the middle of it. Every metal
which is washed with that water becomes gold; every wound
on which are placed the bruised leaves of that tree is incontinently
healed.
9. In this India, whilst I was at Columbum, were found
two cats having wings like the wings of bats;[122] and in Lesser
India there be some rats as big as foxes, and venomous exceedingly.[123]
10. In this India are certain trees which have leaves so
big that five or six men can very well stand under the shade
of one of them.[124]
11. In the aforesaid island of Sylen is a very potent king,
who hath precious stones of every kind under heaven, in
such quantity as to be almost incredible. Among these he
hath two rubies, of which he weareth one hung round his
neck, and the other on the hand wherewith he wipeth his
lips and his beard; and [each] is of greater length than the
breadth of four fingers, and when held in the hand it standeth
out visibly on either side to the breadth of a finger. I do not
believe that the universal world hath two stones like these,
or of so great a price, of the same species.[125]
12. There is also another island where all the men and
women go absolutely naked, and have in place of money
comminuted gold like fine sand. They make of the cloth
which they buy walls like curtains;[126] nor do they cover themselves
or their shame at any time in the world.
13. There is also another exceeding great island, which
is called Jaua,[127] which is in circuit more than seven [thousand?]
miles as I have heard,[128] and where are many world’s
wonders. Among which, besides the finest aromatic spices,
this is one, to wit, that there be found pygmy men, of the
size of a boy of three or four years old, all shaggy like a
he goat. They dwell in the woods, and few are found.[129]
14. In this island also are white mice, exceeding beautiful.
There also are trees producing cloves, which, when
they are in flower, emit an odour so pungent that they kill
every man who cometh among them, unless he shut his
mouth and nostrils.[130]
15. There too are produced cubebs, and nutmegs, and
mace, and all the other finest spices except pepper.[131]
16. In a certain part of that island they delight to eat
white and fat men when they can get them.[132]
17. In the Greater India, and in the islands, all the people
be black, and go naked from the loins upwards, and from
the knee downwards, and without shoes.
18. But the kings have this distinction from others, that
they wear upon their arms gold and silver rings, and on the
neck a gold collar with a great abundance of gems.[133]
19. In this India never do [even] the legitimate sons of
great kings, or princes, or barons, inherit the goods of their
parents, but only the sons of their sisters; for they say that
they have no surety that those are their own sons, because
wives and mistresses may conceive and generate by some
one else; but ’tis not so with the sister, for whatever man
may be the father they are certain that the offspring is from
the womb of their sister, and is consequently thus truly of
their blood.[134]
20. In this Greater India many sacrifice themselves to
idols in this way. When they are sick, or involved in any
grave mischance, they vow themselves to the idol if they
should happen to be delivered. Then, when they have recovered,
they fatten themselves for one or two years continually,
eating and drinking fat things, etc. And when another
festival comes round, they cover themselves with flowers
and perfumes, and crown themselves with white garlands,
and go with singing and playing before the idol when it is
carried through the land (like the image of the Virgin Mary
here among us at the Rogation tides); and those men who
are sacrificing themselves to the idol carry a sword with two
handles, like those [knives] which are used in currying leather;
and, after they have shown off a great deal, they put
the sword to the back of the neck, cutting strongly with a
vigorous exertion of both hands, and so cut off their own
heads before the idol.[135]
21. In this Greater India, in the place where I was, the
nights and days are almost equal, nor does one exceed the
other in length at any season by so much as a full hour.
22. In this India the sun keeps to the south for six
months continuously, casting the shadows to the north; and
for the other six months keeps to the north, casting the
shadow to the south.[136]
23. In this India the Pole-star is seen very low, insomuch
that I was at one place where it did not show above the
earth or the sea more than two fingers’ breadth.[137]
24. There the nights, when the weather is fine and there
is no moon, are, if I err not, four times as clear as in our
part of the world.
25. There also, if I err not, between evening and morning,
often all the planets may be seen; there are seen their
influences [as it were] eye to eye, so that ’tis a delightful
thing there to look out at night![138]
26. From the place aforesaid is seen continually between
the south and the east a star of great size and ruddy splendour,
which is called Canopus, and which from these parts
of the world is never visible.
27. There are many marvellous things in the cycle of
those [heavenly bodies] to delight a good astronomer.[139]
28. In this India, and in India the Less, men who dwell
a long way from the sea, under the ground and in woody
tracts, seem altogether infernal; neither eating, drinking,
nor clothing themselves like the others who dwell by the
sea.[140]
29. There serpents too be numerous, and very big, of all
colours in the world; and it is a great marvel that they be
seldom or never found to hurt anybody unless first attacked.
30. There is there also a certain kind of wasps, which
make it their business to kill very big spiders whenever they
find them, and afterwards to bury them in the sand, in a
deep hole which they make, and so to cover them up that
there is no man in the world who can turn them up, or find
the place.[141]
31. There is also a kind of very small ants, white as wool,
which have such hard teeth that they gnaw through even
timbers and the joints of stones,[142] and, in short, whatever dry
thing they find on the face of the earth, and mutilate woollen
and cotton clothes. And they build out of the finest sand a
crust like a wall, so that the sun cannot reach them, and so
they remain covered. But if that crust happens to get
broken, so that the sun reaches them, they incontinently
die.[143]
32. As regards insects, there be wonders, so many, great,
and marvellous, that they cannot be told.
33. There is also in this India a certain bird, big like a
kite, having a white head and belly, but all red above, which
boldly snatches fish out of the hands of fishermen and other
people, and indeed [these birds] go on just like dogs.[144]
34. There is also another big bird, not like a kite, which
flies only at night, and utters a voice in the night season like
the voice of a man wailing from the deep.[145]
35. What shall I say then? Even the Devil too there
speaketh to men, many a time and oft, in the night season,
as I have heard.[146]
36. Every thing indeed is a marvel in this India! Verily
it is quite another world!
37. There is also a certain part of that India which is
called Champa. There, in place of horses, mules and asses,
and camels, they make use of elephants for all their work.[147]
38. ’Tis a wonderful thing about these animals, that when
they are in a wild state they challenge each other to war,
and form troops [for the purpose]; so that there will be
sometimes a hundred against a hundred, more or less; and
they put the strongest and biggest and boldest at the head,
and thus attack each other in turn, so that within a short time
there will remain in one place XL or L killed and wounded,
more or less. And ’tis a notable thing that the vanquished,
it is said, never again appear in war or in the field.
39. These animals, on account of their ivory, are worth as
much dead as alive, nor are they ever taken when little, but
only when big and full grown.
40. And the mode of taking them is wonderful. Enclosures
are made, very strong, and of four sides, wherein
be many gateways, and raised gates, formed of very big and
strong timbers. And there is one trained female elephant
which is taken near the place where the elephants come to
feed. The one which they desire to catch is pointed out to
her, and she is told to manage so as to bring him home. She
goeth about him and about him, and so contriveth by stroking
him and licking him, as to induce him to follow her, and to
enter along with her the outer gate, which the keepers
incontinently let fall. Then, when the wild elephant
turneth about, the female entereth the second gate, which is
instantly shut like the first, and so the [wild] elephant remaineth
caught between the two gates. Then cometh a man,
clothed in black or red, with his face covered, who cruelly
thrasheth him from above, and crieth out abusively against
him as against a thief; and this goeth on for five or six days,
without his getting anything to eat or drink. Then cometh
another fellow, with his face bare, and clad in another
colour, who feigneth to smite the first man, and to drive and
thrust him away; then he cometh to the elephant and
talketh to him, and with a long spear he scratcheth him, and
he kisseth him, and giveth him food; and this goeth on for ten
or fifteen days, and so by degrees he ventureth down beside
him, and bindeth him to another elephant. And thus, after
about twenty days, he may be taken out to be taught and
broken in.[148]
41. In this Greater India are twelve idolatrous kings, and
more.[149] For there is one very powerful king in the country
where pepper grows, and his kingdom is called Molebar.
There is also the king of Singuyli and the king of Columbum,
the king of which is called Lingua, but his kingdom Mohebar.
There is also the king of Molephatam, whose kingdom is
called Molepoor, where pearls are taken in infinite quantities.
There is also another king in the island of Sylen, where are
found precious stones and good elephants. There be also
three or four kings on the island of Java, where the good
spices grow. There be also other kings, as the king of
Telenc, who is very potent and great. The kingdom of
Telenc abounds in corn, rice, sugar, wax, honey and honeycomb,
pulse, eggs, goats, buffalos, beeves, milk, butter, and
in oils of divers kinds, and in many excellent fruits, more
than any other part of the Indies. There is also the kingdom
of Maratha which is very great; and there is the king
of Batigala, but he is of the Saracens. There be also many
kings in Chopa.
42. What shall I say? The greatness of this India is
beyond description. But let this much suffice concerning
India the Greater and the Less.
