- The Saggio, here as elsewhere, probably stands for the
Miskal.
NOTE 5. - This is stated also by Abu Zaid, in the beginning of the 10th
century. And Reinaud in his note refers to Mas'udi, who has a like passage
in which he gives a name to these companions exactly corresponding to
Polo's Feoilz or Trusty Lieges: "When a King in India dies, many persons
voluntarily burn themselves with him. These are called Balanjariyah
(sing. Balanjar), as if you should say 'Faithful Friends' of the
deceased, whose life was life to them, and whose death was death to them."
(Anc. Rel. I. 121 and note; Mas. II. 85.)
On the murder of Ajit Singh of Marwar, by two of his sons, there were 84
satis, and "so much was he beloved," says Tod, "that even men devoted
themselves on his pyre" (I. 744). The same thing occurred at the death of
the Sikh Guru Hargovind in 1645. (H. of Sikhs, p. 62.)
Barbosa briefly notices an institution like that described by Polo, in
reference to the King of Narsinga, i.e. Vijayanagar. (Ram. I. f. 302.)
Another form of the same bond seems to be that mentioned by other
travellers as prevalent in Malabar, where certain of the Nairs bore the
name of Amuki, and were bound not only to defend the King's life with
their own, but, if he fell, to sacrifice themselves by dashing among the
enemy and slaying until slain. Even Christian churches in Malabar had such
hereditary Amuki. (See P. Vinc. Maria, Bk. IV. ch. vii., and Cesare
Federici in Ram. III. 390, also Faria y Sousa, by Stevens, I. 348.)
There can be little doubt that this is the Malay Amuk, which would
therefore appear to be of Indian origin, both in name and practice. I see
that De Gubernatis, without noticing the Malay phrase, traces the term
applied to the Malabar champions to the Sanskrit Amokhya,
"indissoluble," and Amukta, "not free, bound." (Picc. Encic. Ind. I,
88.) The same practice, by which the followers of a defeated prince devote
themselves in amuk (vulgo running a-muck),[4] is called in the
island of Bali Bela, a term applied also to one kind of female Sati,
probably from S. Bali, "a sacrifice." (See Friedrich in Batavian
Trans. XXIII.) In the first syllable of the Balanjar of Mas'udi we have
probably the same word. A similar institution is mentioned by Caesar among
the Sotiates, a tribe of Aquitania. The Feoilz of the chief were 600 in
number and were called Soldurii; they shared all his good things in
life, and were bound to share with him in death also. Such also was a
custom among the Spanish Iberians, and the name of these Amuki signified
"sprinkled for sacrifice." Other generals, says Plutarch, might find a few
such among their personal staff and dependents, but Sertorius was followed
by many myriads who had thus devoted themselves. Procopius relates of the
White Huns that the richer among them used to entertain a circle of
friends, some score or more, as perpetual guests and partners of their
wealth. But, when the chief died, the whole company were expected to go
down alive into the tomb with him. The King of the Russians, in the tenth
century, according to Ibn Fozlan, was attended by 400 followers bound by
like vows. And according to some writers the same practice was common in
Japan, where the friends and vassals who were under the vow committed
hara kiri at the death of their patron. The Likamankwas of the
Abyssinian kings, who in battle wear the same dress with their master to
mislead the enemy - "Six Richmonds in the field" - form apparently a kindred
institution. (Bell. Gall. iii. c. 22; Plutarch, in Vit. Sertorii;
Procop. De B. Pers. I. 3: Ibn Fozlan by Fraehn, p. 22; Sonnerat, I.
97.)
NOTE 6. - However frequent may have been wars between adjoining states, the
south of the peninsula appears to have been for ages free from foreign
invasion until the Delhi expeditions, which occurred a few years later
than our traveller's visit; and there are many testimonies to the enormous
accumulations of treasure. Gold, according to the Masalak-al-Absar, had
been flowing into India for 3000 years, and had never been exported.
Firishta speaks of the enormous spoils carried off by Malik Kafur, every
soldier's share amounting to 25 Lbs. of gold! Some years later Mahomed
Tughlak loads 200 elephants and several thousand bullocks with the
precious spoil of a single temple. We have quoted a like statement from
Wassaf as to the wealth found in the treasury of this very Sundara Pandi
Dewar, but the same author goes far beyond this when he tells that Kales
Dewar, Raja of Ma'bar about 1309, had accumulated 1200 crores of gold,
i.e. 12,000 millions of dinars, enough to girdle the earth with a
four-fold belt of bezants! (N. and E. XIII. 218, 220-221, Brigg's
Firishta, I. 373-374; Hammer's Ilkhans, II. 205.)
NOTE 7. - Of the ports mentioned as exporting horses to India we have
already made acquaintance with KAIS and HORMUZ; of DOFAR and ADEN we
shall hear further on; Soer is SOHAR the former capital of Oman, and
still a place of some little trade. Edrisi calls it "one of the oldest
cities of Oman, and of the richest. Anciently it was frequented by
merchants from all parts of the world; and voyages to China used to be
made from it." (I. 152.)
Rashiduddin and Wassaf have identical statements about the horse trade,
and so similar to Polo's in this chapter that one almost suspects that he
must have been their authority. Wassaf says: "It was a matter of agreement
that Malik-ul-Islam Jamaluddin and the merchants should embark every year
from the island of KAIS and land at MA'BAR 1400 horses of his own
breed.... It was also agreed that he should embark as many as he could
procure from all the isles of Persia, such as Katif, Lahsa, Bahrein,
Hurmuz, and Kalhatu.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 177 of 360
Words from 179843 to 180856
of 370046
