(Vol. ii. pp. 255 and 261.)
Dr. G. Schlegel writes, in the T'oung Pao (May, 1898, p. 153): "Abakan
or Abachan ought to be written Alahan. His name is written by the
Chinese Ats'zehan and by the Japanese Asikan; but this is because they
have both confounded the character lah with the character ts'ze; the
old sound of [the last] character [of the name] was kan and is always
used by the Chinese when wanting to transcribe the title Khan or Chan.
Marco Polo's Abacan is a clerical error for Alacan."
10. - CHAMPA. (Vol. ii. p. 268.)
In Ma Huan's account of the Kingdom of Siam, transl. by Mr. Phillips
(Jour. China B.R.A.S., XXI. 1886, pp. 35-36) we read: "Their marriage
ceremonies are as follows: - They first invite the priest to conduct the
bridegroom to the bride's house, and on arrival there the priest exacts
the 'droit seigneurial,' and then she is introduced to the bridegroom."
11. - RUCK QUILLS. (Vol. ii. p. 421.)
Regarding Ruck Quills, Sir H. Yule wrote in the Academy, 22nd March,
1884, pp. 204-405: -
"I suggested that this might possibly have been some vegetable production,
such as a great frond of the Ravenala (Urania speciosa) cooked to pass
as a ruc's quill. (Marco Polo, first edition, ii. 354; second edition,
ii. 414.) Mr. Sibree, in his excellent book on Madagascar (The Great
African Island, 1880) noticed this, but said:
"'It is much more likely that they [the ruc's quills] were the immensely
long midribs of the leaves of the rofia palm. These are from twenty to
thirty feet long, and are not at all unlike an enormous quill stripped of
the feathering portion'" (p. 55).
In another passage he describes the palm, Sagus ruffia (? raphia):
"The rofia has a trunk of from thirty to fifty feet in height, and at
the head divides into seven or eight immensely long leaves. The midrib of
these leaves is a very strong, but extremely light and straight pole....
These poles are often twenty feet or more in length, and the leaves proper
consist of a great number of fine and long pinnate leaflets, set at right
angles to the midrib, from eighteen to twenty inches long, and about one
and a half broad," etc. (pp. 74, 75).
When Sir John Kirk came home in 1881-1882, I spoke to him on the subject,
and he felt confident that the rofia or raphia palm-fronds were the
original of the ruc's quills. He also kindly volunteered to send me a
specimen on his return to Zanzibar. This he did not forget, and some time
ago there arrived at the India Office not one, but four of these ruc's
quills. In the letter which announced this despatch Sir John says: -
"I send to-day per s.s. Arcot ... four fronds of the Raphia palm, called
here 'Moale.' They are just as sold and shipped up and down the coast. No
doubt they were sent in Marco Polo's time in exactly the same state,
i.e. stripped of their leaflets, and with the tip broken off. They are
used for making stages and ladders, and last long if kept dry. They are
also made into doors, by being cut into lengths, and pinned through. The
stages are made of three, like tripods, and used for picking cloves from
the higher branches."
The largest of the four midribs sent (they do not differ much) is 25 feet
4 inches long, measuring 12 inches in girth at the butt, and 5 inches at
the upper end. I calculate that if it originally came to a point the whole
length would be 45 feet, but, as this would not be so, we may estimate it
at 35 to 40 feet. The thick part is deeply hollowed on the upper (?) side,
leaving the section of the solid butt in form a thick crescent. The
leaflets are all gone, but when entire, the object must have strongly
resembled a Brobdingnagian feather. Compare this description with that of
Padre Bolivar in Ludolf, referred to above.
"In aliquibus ... regionibus vidi pennas alae istius avis prodigiosae,
licet avem non viderim, Penna illa, prout ex forma colligebatur, erat ex
mediocribus, longitudine 28 palmorum, latitudine trium. Calamus vero a
radice usque ad extremitatem longitudine quinque palmorum, densitatis
instar brachii moderati, robustissimus erat et durus. Pennulae inter se
aequales et bene compositae, ut vix ab invicem nisi cum violentia
divellerentur. Colore erant valde nigro, calamus colore albo." (Ludolfi,
ad suam Hist. Aethiop., Comment., p. 164.)
The last particular, as to colour, I am not able to explain: the others
correspond well. The palmus in this passage may be anything from 9 to 10
inches.
I see this tree is mentioned by Captain R.F. Burton in his volume on the
Lake Regions (vol. xxix. of the Journal of the Royal Geographical
Society, p. 34),[1] and probably by many other travellers.
I ought to mention here that some other object has been shown at Zanzibar
as part of the wings of a great bird. Sir John Kirk writes that this
(which he does not describe particularly) was in the possession of the
Roman Catholic priests at Bagamoyo, to whom it had been given by natives
of the interior, who declared that they had brought it from Tanganyika,
and that it was part of the wing of a gigantic bird. On another occasion
they repeated this statement, alleging that this bird was known in the
Udoe (?) country near the coast. These priests were able to communicate
directly with their informants, and certainly believed the story. Dr.
Hildebrand, also, a competent German naturalist, believed in it. But Sir
John Kirk himself says that "what the priests had to show was most
undoubtedly the whalebone of a comparatively small whale."
12. - A SPANISH EDITION OF MARCO POLO.
