Arrian says no Indian was ever accused of falsehood. Hiuen
Tsang ascribes to the people of India eminent uprightness, honesty, and
disinterestedness. Friar Jordanus (circa 1330) says the people of Lesser
India (Sind and Western India) were true in speech and eminent in justice;
and we may also refer to the high character given to the Hindus by Abul
Fazl. After 150 years of European trade indeed we find a sad
deterioration. Padre Vincenzo (1672) speaks of fraud as greatly prevalent
among the Hindu traders. It was then commonly said at Surat that it took
three Jews to make a Chinaman, and three Chinamen to make a Banyan. Yet
Pallas, in the last century, noticing the Banyan colony at Astrakhan, says
its members were notable for an upright dealing that made them greatly
preferable to Armenians. And that wise and admirable public servant, the
late Sir William Sleeman, in our own time, has said that he knew no class
of men in the world more strictly honourable than the mercantile classes
of India.
We know too well that there is a very different aspect of the matter. All
extensive intercourse between two races far asunder in habits and ideas,
seems to be demoralising in some degrees to both parties, especially to
the weaker. But can we say that deterioration has been all on one side? In
these days of lying labels and plastered shirtings does the character of
English trade and English goods stand as high in Asia as it did half a
century ago! (Pel. Boudd. II. 83; Jordanus, p. 22; Ayeen Akb. III.
8; P. Vincenzo, p. 114; Pallas, Beytraege, III. 85; Rambles and
Recns. II. 143.)
NOTE 2. - The kingdom of Maabar called Soli is CHOLA or SOLADESAM, of
which Kanchi (Conjeveram) was the ancient capital.[1] In the Ceylon
Annals the continental invaders are frequently termed Solli. The high
terms of praise applied to it as "the best and noblest province of India,"
seem to point to the well-watered fertility of Tanjore; but what is said
of the pearls would extend the territory included to the shores of the
Gulf of Manar.
NOTE 3. - Abraham Roger gives from the Calendar of the Coromandel Brahmans
the character, lucky or unlucky, of every hour of every day of the week;
and there is also a chapter on the subject in Sonnerat (I. 304 seqq.).
For a happy explanation of the term Choiach I am indebted to Dr.
Caldwell: "This apparently difficult word can be identified much more
easily than most others. Hindu astrologers teach that there is an unlucky
hour every day in the month, i.e. during the period of the moon's abode
in every nakshatra, or lunar mansion, throughout the lunation. This
inauspicious period is called Tyajya, 'rejected.' Its mean length is one
hour and thirty-six minutes, European time. The precise moment when this
period commences differs in each nakshatra, or (which comes to the same
thing) in every day in the lunar month. It sometimes occurs in the daytime
and sometimes at night; - see Colonel Warren's Kala Sankatila, Madras,
1825, p. 388. The Tamil pronunciation of the word is tiyacham, and when
the nominative case-termination of the word is rejected, as all the Tamil
case-terminations were by the Mahomedans, who were probably Marco Polo's
informants, it becomes tiyach, to which form of the word Marco's
Choiach is as near as could be expected." (MS. Note.)[2]
The phrases used in the passage from Ramusio to express the time of day
are taken from the canonical hours of prayer. The following passage from
Robert de Borron's Romance of Merlin illustrates these terms: Gauvain
"quand il se levoit le matin, avoit la force al millor chevalier del
monde; et quant vint a heure de prime si li doubloit, et a heure de tierce
aussi; et quant il vint a eure de midi si revenoit a sa premiere force ou
il avoit este le matin; et quant vint a eure de nonne et a toutes les
seures de la nuit estoit-il toudis en sa premiere force." (Quoted in
introd. to Messir Gauvain, etc., edited by C. Hippeau, Paris, 1862,
pp. xii.-xiii.) The term Half Tierce is frequent in mediaeval Italian,
e.g. in Dante: -
"Levati sut disse'l Maestro, in piede:
La via e lunga, e'l cammino e malvagio:
E gia il Sole a mezza terza riede." (Inf. xxxiv,)
Half-prime we have in Chaucer: -
"Say forth thy tale and tary not the time
Lo Depeford, and it is half way prime."
- (Reeve's Prologue.)
Definitions of these terms as given by Sir H. Nicolas and Mr. Thomas
Wright (Chron. of Hist. p. 195, and Marco Polo, p. 392) do not agree
with those of Italian authorities; perhaps in the north they were applied
with variation. Dante dwells on the matter in two passages of his
Convito (Tratt. III. cap. 6, and Tratt. IV. cap. 23); and the following
diagram elucidates the terms in accordance with his words, and with other
Italian authority, oral and literary: -
"Te lucis ante terminum."
X 12 6
.
Compieta. .
.
* 11 5
.
Mezza-Vespro. .
.
* 10 4
.
.
.
Vespro. X 9 3
.
. E
. c
* 8 c 2 P.M.
. l
Mezza-Nona. . e C
. s i
* 7 i 1 v
. a i
Nona. . s l
. t
# 6 i 12
. c H
Sesta. . a o
. l u
* 5 11 r
. H s
. o
. u A.M.
* 4 r 10
. s
Terza. .
.
X 3 9
.
.
.
* 2 8
.
Mezza-Terza. .
.
* 1 7
.
Prima. .
.
X 12 6
"Jam Lucis orto Sidere."
NOTE 4. - Valentyn mentions among what the Coromandel Hindus reckon unlucky
rencounters which will induce a man to turn back on the road:
