When You Quit The Kingdom Of Ferlec You Enter Upon That Of Basma.
This
also is an independent kingdom, and the people have a language of their
own; but they are just like beasts without laws or religion.
They call
themselves subjects of the Great Kaan, but they pay him no tribute; indeed
they are so far away that his men could not go thither. Still all these
Islanders declare themselves to be his subjects, and sometimes they send
him curiosities as presents.[NOTE 4] There are wild elephants in the
country, and numerous unicorns, which are very nearly as big. They have
hair like that of a buffalo, feet like those of an elephant, and a horn in
the middle of the forehead, which is black and very thick. They do no
mischief, however, with the horn, but with the tongue alone; for this is
covered all over with long and strong prickles [and when savage with any
one they crush him under their knees and then rasp him with their tongue].
The head resembles that of a wild boar, and they carry it ever bent
towards the ground. They delight much to abide in mire and mud. 'Tis a
passing ugly beast to look upon, and is not in the least like that which
our stories tell of as being caught in the lap of a virgin; in fact, 'tis
altogether different from what we fancied.[NOTE 5] There are also monkeys
here in great numbers and of sundry kinds; and goshawks as black as crows.
These are very large birds and capital for fowling.[NOTE 6]
I may tell you moreover that when people bring home pygmies which they
allege to come from India, 'tis all a lie and a cheat. For those little
men, as they call them, are manufactured on this Island, and I will tell
you how. You see there is on the Island a kind of monkey which is very
small, and has a face just like a man's. They take these, and pluck out
all the hair except the hair of the beard and on the breast, and then they
dry them and stuff them and daub them with saffron and other things until
they look like men. But you see it is all a cheat; for nowhere in India
nor anywhere else in the world were there ever men seen so small as these
pretended pygmies.
Now I will say no more of the kingdom of Basma, but tell you of the others
in succession.
NOTE 1. - Java the Less is the Island of SUMATRA. Here there is no
exaggeration in the dimension assigned to its circuit, which is about 2300
miles. The old Arabs of the 9th century give it a circuit of 800
parasangs, or say 2800 miles, and Barbosa reports the estimate of the
Mahomedan seamen as 2100 miles. Compare the more reasonable accuracy of
these estimates of Sumatra, which the navigators knew in its entire
compass, with the wild estimates of Java Proper, of which they knew but
the northern coast.
Polo by no means stands alone in giving the name of Java to the island now
called Sumatra. The terms Jawa, Jawi, were applied by the Arabs to the
islands and productions of the Archipelago generally (e.g., Luban
jawi, "Java frankincense," whence by corruption Benzoin), but also
specifically to Sumatra. Thus Sumatra is the Jawah both of Abulfeda and
of Ibn Batuta, the latter of whom spent some time on the island, both in
going to China and on his return. The Java also of the Catalan Map appears
to be Sumatra. Javaku again is the name applied in the Singalese
chronicles to the Malays in general. Jau and Dawa are the names still
applied by the Battaks and the people of Nias respectively to the Malays,
showing probably that these were looked on as Javanese by those tribes who
did not partake of the civilisation diffused from Java. In Siamese also
the Malay language is called Chawa; and even on the Malay peninsula, the
traditional slang for a half-breed born from a Kling (or Coromandel)
father and a Malay mother is Jawi Pakan, "a Jawi (i.e. Malay) of the
market." De Barros says that all the people of Sumatra called themselves
by the common name of Jauijs. (Dec. III. liv. v. cap. 1.)
There is some reason to believe that the application of the name Java to
Sumatra is of very old date. For the oldest inscription of ascertained
date in the Archipelago which has yet been read, a Sanskrit one from
Pagaroyang, the capital of the ancient Malay state of Menang-kabau in the
heart of Sumatra, bearing a date equivalent to A.D. 656, entitles the
monarch whom it commemorates, Adityadharma by name, the king of "the First
Java" (or rather Yava). This Mr. Friedrich interprets to mean Sumatra. It
is by no means impossible that the Iabadiu, or Yavadvipa of Ptolemy may
be Sumatra rather than Java.
An accomplished Dutch Orientalist suggests that the Arabs originally
applied the terms Great Java and Little Java to Java and Sumatra
respectively, not because of their imagined relation in size, but as
indicating the former to be Java Proper. Thus also, he says, there is a
Great Acheh (Achin) which does not imply that the place so called is
greater than the well-known state of Achin (of which it is in fact a
part), but because it is Acheh Proper. A like feeling may have suggested
the Great Bulgaria, Great Hungary, Great Turkey of the mediaeval
travellers. These were, or were supposed to be, the original seats of the
Bulgarians, Hungarians, and Turks. The Great Horde of the Kirghiz Kazaks
is, as regards numbers, not the greatest, but the smallest of the three.
But the others look upon it as the most ancient. The Burmese are alleged
to call the Rakhain or people of Arakan Mranma Gyi or Great Burmese,
and to consider their dialect the most ancient form of the language.
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