Japan was then, for more than a century (A.D. 1205-1333), governed really
in the name of the descendants
Of Yoritomo, who proved unworthy of their
great ancestor "by the so-called 'Regents' of the Hojo family, while their
liege lords, the Shoguns, though keeping a nominal court at Kamakura, were
for all that period little better than empty names. So completely were the
Hojos masters of the whole country, that they actually had their deputy
governors at Kyoto and in Kyushu in the south-west, and thought nothing of
banishing Mikados to distant islands. Their rule was made memorable by the
repulse of the Mongol fleet sent by Kublai Khan with the purpose of adding
Japan to his gigantic dominions. This was at the end of the 13th century,
since which time Japan has never been attacked from without." (B. H.
Chamberlain, Things Japanese, 3rd ed., 1898, pp. 208-209.)
The sovereigns (Mikado, Tenno) of Japan during this period were:
Kameyama-Tenno (1260; abdicated 1274; repulse of the Mongols);
Go-Uda-Tenno (1275; abdicated 1287); Fushimi-Tenno (1288; abdicated
1298); and Go-Fushimi Tenno. The shikken (prime ministers) were Hojo
Tokiyori (1246); Hojo Tokimune (1261); Hojo Sadatoki (1284). In 1266
Prince Kore-yasu and in 1289 Hisa-akira, were appointed shogun.
- H.C.]
NOTE 2. - Ram. says he was sent to a certain island called Zorza
(Chorcha?), where men who have failed in duty are put to death in this
manner: They wrap the arms of the victim in the hide of a newly flayed
buffalo, and sew it tight. As this dries it compresses him so terribly
that he cannot move, and so, finding no help, his life ends in misery. The
same kind of torture is reported of different countries in the East:
e.g. see Makrizi, Pt. III. p. 108, and Pottinger, as quoted by Marsden
in loco. It also appears among the tortures of a Buddhist hell as
represented in a temple at Canton. (Oliphant's Narrative, I. 168.)
NOTE 3. - Like devices to procure invulnerability are common in the
Indo-Chinese countries. The Burmese sometimes insert pellets of gold under
the skin with this view. At a meeting of the Asiatic Society of Bengal in
1868, gold and silver coins were shown, which had been extracted from under
the skin of a Burmese convict who had been executed at the Andaman Islands.
Friar Odoric speaks of the practice in one of the Indian Islands
(apparently Borneo); and the stones possessing such virtue were, according
to him, found in the bamboo, presumably the siliceous concretions called
Tabashir. Conti also describes the practice in Java of inserting such
amulets under the skin. The Malays of Sumatra, too, have great faith in the
efficacy of certain "stones, which they pretend are extracted from
reptiles, birds, animals, etc., in preventing them from being wounded."
(See Mission to Ava, p. 208; Cathay, 94; Conti, p. 32; Proc. As.
Soc. Beng. 1868, p. 116; Andarson's Mission to Sumatra, p. 323.)
[1] These names in parentheses are the Chinese forms; the others, the
Japanese modes of reading them.
CHAPTER IV.
CONCERNING THE FASHION OF THE IDOLS.
Now you must know that the Idols of Cathay, and of Manzi, and of this
Island, are all of the same class. And in this Island as well as
elsewhere, there be some of the Idols that have the head of an ox, some
that have the head of a pig, some of a dog, some of a sheep, and some of
divers other kinds. And some of them have four heads, whilst some have
three, one growing out of either shoulder. There are also some that have
four hands, some ten, some a thousand! And they do put more faith in those
Idols that have a thousand hands than in any of the others.[NOTE 1] And
when any Christian asks them why they make their Idols in so many
different guises, and not all alike, they reply that just so their
forefathers were wont to have them made, and just so they will leave them
to their children, and these to the after generations. And so they will be
handed down for ever. And you must understand that the deeds ascribed to
these Idols are such a parcel of devilries as it is best not to tell. So
let us have done with the Idols, and speak of other things.
But I must tell you one thing still concerning that Island (and 'tis the
same with the other Indian Islands), that if the natives take prisoner an
enemy who cannot pay a ransom, he who hath the prisoner summons all his
friends and relations, and they put the prisoner to death, and then they
cook him and eat him, and they say there is no meat in the world so
good! - But now we will have done with that Island and speak of
something else.
You must know the Sea in which lie the Islands of those parts is called
the SEA OF CHIN, which is as much as to say "The Sea over against Manzi."
For, in the language of those Isles, when they say Chin, 'tis Manzi
they mean. And I tell you with regard to that Eastern Sea of Chin,
according to what is said by the experienced pilots and mariners of those
parts, there be 7459 Islands in the waters frequented by the said
mariners; and that is how they know the fact, for their whole life is
spent in navigating that sea. And there is not one of those Islands but
produces valuable and odorous woods like the lignaloe, aye and better too;
and they produce also a great variety of spices. For example in those
Islands grows pepper as white as snow, as well as the black in great
quantities. In fact the riches of those Islands is something wonderful,
whether in gold or precious stones, or in all manner of spicery; but they
lie so far off from the main land that it is hard to get to them.
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