[1] It was a mistake to suppose the name had disappeared, for it is
applied, in the form Pulo Gaimr, to the small island above indicated,
in Colonel Versteeg's map to Veth's Atchin (1873). In a map chiefly
borrowed from that, in Ocean Highways, August, 1873, I have ventured
to restore the name as Pulo Gomus. The name is perhaps (Mal.)
Gamas, "hard, rough."
[2] Kurz's Vegetation of the Andaman Islands gives four myristicae
(nutmegs); but no sandal-wood nor camphor-laurel. Nor do I find
sappan-wood, though there is another Caesalpinia (C. Nuga).
CHAPTER XIII.
CONCERNING THE ISLAND OF ANGAMANAIN.
Angamanain is a very large Island. The people are without a king and are
Idolaters, and no better than wild beasts. And I assure you all the men of
this Island of Angamanain have heads like dogs, and teeth and eyes
likewise; in fact, in the face they are all just like big mastiff dogs!
They have a quantity of spices; but they are a most cruel generation, and
eat everybody that they can catch, if not of their own race.[NOTE 1] They
live on flesh and rice and milk, and have fruits different from any of
ours.
Now that I have told you about this race of people, as indeed it was
highly proper to do in this our book, I will go on to tell you about an
Island called Seilan, as you shall hear.
NOTE 1. - Here Marco speaks of the remarkable population of the Andaman
Islands - Oriental negroes in the lowest state of barbarism - who have
remained in their isolated and degraded condition, so near the shores of
great civilised countries, for so many ages. "Rice and milk" they have
not, and their fruits are only wild ones.
[From the Sing-ch'a Sheng-lan quoted by Professor Schlegel (Geog.
Notes, I. p. 8) we learn that these islanders have neither "rice or corn,
but only descend into the sea and catch fish and shrimps in their nets;
they also plant Banians and Cocoa-trees for their food." - H.C.]
I imagine our traveller's form Angamanain to be an Arabic (oblique)
dual - "The two ANDAMANS," viz. The Great and The Little, the former being
in truth a chain of three islands, but so close and nearly continuous as
to form apparently one, and to be named as such.
[Illustration: The Borus. (From a Manuscript.)]
[Professor Schlegel writes (Geog. Notes. I. p. 12): "This etymology is
to be rejected because the old Chinese transcription gives So - (or
Sun) daman.... The Pien-i-tien (ch. 107, I. fol. 30) gives a
description of Andaman, here called An-to-man kwoh, quoted from the
San-tsai Tu-hwui." - H.C.]
The origin of the name seems to be unknown. The only person to my
knowledge who has given a meaning to it is Nicolo Conti, who says it means
"Island of Gold"; probably a mere sailor's yarn.
![The Travels Of Marco Polo - Volume 2 Of 2 By Marco Polo And Rustichello Of Pisa
- Notes, XVI., The Old States in the Island of Sumatra. - H.C.]
[1] It was a mistake to suppose the - Page 308](../images/travel.jpg)
