"On Vient De Voir Que Ibn-Al-Baytar A Emprunte Ce Nom A Avicenne (980-1037) Qui Ecrivit Son Canon De La Medecine Dans Les Premieres Annees Du XI'e Siecle.

Lawak ou Lowak nous est donc atteste sous le forme Lawaki ou Lowaki des le X'e siecle, puis qu'il est mentionne, au debut du XI'e, par Avicenne qui residait alors a Djurdjan, sur la Caspienne."

VIII., pp. 280-3.

OF THE ISLAND CALLED PENTAM, AND THE CITY MALAIUR.

The late Col. G.E. Gerini published in the J.R.A.S., July, 1905, pp. 485-511, a paper on the Nagarakretagama, a Javanese poem composed by a native bard named Prapanca, in honour of his sovereign Hayam Wuruk (1350-1389), the greatest ruler of Majapahit. He upsets all the theories accepted hitherto regarding Panten. The southernmost portion of the Malay Peninsula is known as the Malaya or Malayu country (Tanah-Malayu) = Chinese Ma-li-yue-erh = Malayur = Maluir of Marco Polo, witness the river Malayu (Sungei Malayu) still so called, and the village Bentan, both lying there (ignored by all Col. Gerini's predecessors) on the northern shore of the Old Singapore Strait. Col. Gerini writes (p. 509): "There exists to this day a village Bentam on the mainland side of Singapore Strait, right opposite the mouth of the Sungei Selitar, on the northern shore of Singapore Island, it is not likely that both travellers [Polo and Odoric] mistook the coast of the Malay Peninsula for an island. The island of Pentam, Paten, or Pantem must therefore be the Be-Tumah (Island) of the Arab Navigators, the Tamasak Island of the Malays; and, in short, the Singapore Island of our day." He adds: "The island of Pentam cannot be either Batang or Bitang, the latter of which is likewise mentioned by Marco Polo under the same name of Pentam, but 60 + 30 = 90 miles before reaching the former. Batang, girt all round by dangerous reefs, is inaccessible except to small boats. So is Bintang, with the exception of its south-western side, where is now Riau, and where, a little further towards the north, was the settlement at which the chief of the island resided in the fourteenth century. There was no reason for Marco Polo's junk to take that roundabout way in order to call at such, doubtlessly insignificant place. And the channel (i.e. Rhio Strait) has far more than four paces' depth of water, whereas there are no more than two fathoms at the western entrance to the Old Singapore Strait."

Marco Polo says (II., p. 280): "Throughout this distance [from Pentam] there is but four paces' depth of water, so that great ships in passing this channel have to lift their rudders, for they draw nearly as much water as that." Gerini remarks that it is unmistakably the Old Singapore Strait, and that there is no channel so shallow throughout all those parts except among reefs. "The Old Strait or Selat Tebrau, says N.B. Dennys, Descriptive Dict. of British Malaya, separating Singapore from Johore. Before the settlement of the former, this was the only known route to China; it is generally about a mile broad, but in some parts little more than three furlongs. Crawford went through it in a ship of 400 tons, and found the passage tedious but safe." Most of Sinologists, Beal, Chavannes, Pelliot, Bul. Ecole Ext. Orient., IV., 1904, pp. 321-2, 323-4, 332-3, 341, 347, place the Malaiur of Marco Polo at Palembang in Sumatra.

VIII., pp. 281, n. 283 n.

TANA-MALAYU.

"On a traduit Tanah Malayu par 'Pays des Malais,' mais cette traduction n'est pas rigoureusement exacte. Pour prendre une expression parallele, Tanah Djawa signifie 'Pays de Java,' mais non 'Pays des Javanais.'

"En realite, tanah 'terre, sol, pays, contree' s'emploie seulement avec un toponyme qui doit etre rendu par un toponyme equivalent. Le nom des habitants du pays s'exprime, en malais, en ajoutant oran 'homme, personne, gens, numeral des etres humains' au nom du pays: 'oran Malayu' Malais, litt. 'gens de Malayu'; oran Djawa Javanais, litt. 'gens de Java.' Tanah Malayu a done tres nettement le sens de 'pays de Malayu'; cf. l'expression kawi correspondante dans le Nagarakretugama: tanah ri Malayu 'pays de Malayu' ou chaque mot francais recouvre exactement le substantif, la preposition et le toponyme de l'expression kawi. Le tana Malayo de Barros s'applique donc a un pays determine du nom de Malayu qui, d'apres l'auteur des Decades, etait situe entre Djambi et Palemban. Nous savons, d'autre part, que le pays en question avait sa capitale dans l'interieur de l'ile, mais qu'il s'etendait dans l'Est jusqu'a la mer et que la cote orientale a ete designee par les textes chinois du VII'e siecle sous le nom de Mo-lo-yeou, Mo-lo-yu = Malayu, c'est-a-dire par le nom de l'Etat ou royaume dont elle faisait partie." (G. FERRAND, J. As., July-Aug., 1918, pp. 72-73.)

VIII., p. 282.

MALACCA.

See G. FERRAND, Malaka, le Malayu et Malayur, J.As., 1918. Besides Malayu of Sumatra, there was a city of Malayur which M. Ferrand thinks is Malacca.

VIII., p. 282 n. "This informs us that Malacca first acknowledged itself as tributary to the Empire in 1405, the king being Sili-ju-eul-sula(?)."

In this name Si-li-ju-eul-su-la, one must read [Chinese] pa, instead of [Chinese], and read Si-li-pa-eul-su-la = Siri Paramisura (Cri Paramacvara). (PELLIOT, Bul. Ecole franc. Ext. Orient, IV., July-Sept., 1904, p. 772.)

IX., p. 285. "They [the rhinoceros] 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]."

"Its tongue is like the burr of a chestnut." (CHAU JU-KWA, P. 233.)

IX., p. 289.

SUMATRA.

In 1017, an embassy was sent to the Court of China by Haji Sumutrabhumi, "the king of the land of Sumutra" (Sumatra). The envoys had a letter in golden characters and tribute in the shape of pearls, ivory, Sanscrit, books folded between boards, and slaves; by an imperial edict they were permitted to see the emperor and to visit some of the imperial buildings. When they went back an edict was issued addressed to their king, accompanied by various presents, calculated to please them.

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