(GROENEVELT,
Notes On The Malay Archipelago, P. 65.) G. Ferrand Writes (J. As.,
Mars-Avril, 1917, P. 335) That According
To the texts quoted by him in his
article the island of Sumatra was known to the Chinese under the
Name
Sumuta = Sumutra, during the first years of the eleventh century, nearly
300 years before Marco Polo's voyage; and under the name of Sumutra, by
the Arab sailors, previously to the first voyage of the Portuguese in
Indonesia.
IX., p. 287.
FERLEC.
Prof. Pelliot writes to me that the Ferlec of Marco Polo is to be found
several times in the Yuan Shi, year 1282 and following, under the forms
Fa-li-lang (Chap. 12, fol. 4 v.), Fa-li-la (Chap. 13, fol. 2 v.),
Pie-li-la (Chap. 13, fol. 4 v.), Fa-eul-la (Chap. 18, fol. 8 v.); in
the first case, it is quoted near A-lu (Aru) and Kan-pai (Kampei).
- Cf. FERRAND, Textes, II., p. 670.
XI., pp. 304-5.
SAGO TREE.
Sago Palm = Sagus Rumphianus and S. Laevis (DENNYS). - "From Malay
sagu. The farinaceous pith taken out of the stem of several species of a
particular genus of palm, especially Metroxylon laeve, Mart., and M.
Rumphii, Willd., found in every part of the Indian Archipelago, including
the Philippines, wherever there is proper soil." (Hobson-Jobson.)
XII., p. 306. "In this island [Necuveran] they have no king nor chief, but
live like beasts. And I tell you they go all naked, both men and women,
and do not use the slightest covering of any kind."
We have seen (Marco Polo, II., p. 308) that Mr. G. Phillips writes
(J.R.A.S., July, 1895, p. 529) that the name Tsui-lan given to the
Nicobars by the Chinese is, he has but little doubt, "a corruption of
Nocueran, the name given by Marco Polo to the group. The characters
Tsui-lan are pronounced Ch'ui lan in Amoy, out of which it is easy to make
Cueran. The Chinese omitted the initial syllable and called them the Cueran
Islands, while Marco Polo called them the Nocueran Islands." Schlegel,
T'oung Pao, IX., p. 182-190, thinks that the Andaman Islands are alone
represented by Ts'ui-lan; the Nicobar being the old country of the Lo-ch'a,
and in modern time, Mao shan, "Hat Island." Pelliot, Bul. Ecole Ext.
Orient, IV., 1904, pp. 354-5, is inclined to accept Phillip's opinion. He
says that Mao-shan is one island, not a group of islands; it is not proved
that the country of the Lo ch'a is the Nicobar Islands; the name of
Lo-hing-man, Naked Barbarians, is, contrary to Schlegel's opinion, given
to the Nicobar as well as to the Andaman people; the name of Andaman
appears in Chinese for the first time during the thirteenth century in Chao
Ju-kwa under the form Yen-t'o-man; Chao Ju-kwa specifies that going from
Lambri (Sumatra) to Ceylon, it is an unfavourable wind which makes ships
drift towards these islands; on the other hand, texts show that the
Ts'ui-lan islands were on the usual route from Sumatra to Ceylon. - Gerini,
Researches, p. 396, considers that Ts'ui-lan shan is but the phonetic
transcript of Tilan-chong Island, the north-easternmost of the
Nicobars. - See Hirth and Rockhill's Chau Ju-kwa, p. 12n. - Sansk.
narikera, "cocoanuts," is found in Necuveram.
XIII., p. 309.
ANGAMANAIN.
"When sailing from Lan-wu-li to Si-lan, if the wind is not fair, ships may
be driven to a place called Yen-t'o-man [in Cantonese, An-t'o-man]. This
is a group of two islands in the middle of the sea, one of them being
large, the other small; the latter is quite uninhabited. The large one
measures seventy li in circuit. The natives on it are of a colour
resembling black lacquer; they eat men alive, so that sailors dare not
anchor on this coast.
"This island does not contain so much as an inch of iron, for which reason
the natives use (bits of) conch-shell (ch'oe-k'ue) with ground edges
instead of knives. On this island is a sacred relic, (the so-called)
'Corpse on a bed of rolling gold....'" (CHAU JU-KWA, p. 147.)
XIII., p. 311.
DOG-HEADED BARBARIANS.
Rockhill in a note to Carpini (Rubruck, p. 36) mentions "the Chinese
annals of the sixth century (Liang Shu, bk. 54; Nan shih, bk. 79)
which tell of a kingdom of dogs (Kou kuo) in some remote corner of
north-eastern Asia. The men had human bodies but dogs' heads, and their
speech sounded like barking. The women were like the rest of their sex in
other parts of the world."
Dr. Laufer writes to me: "A clear distinction must be made between
dog-headed people and the motive of descent from a dog-ancestor, - two
entirely different conceptions. The best exposition of the subject of the
cynocephali according to the traditions of the Ancients is now presented by
J. MARQUART (Benin-Sammlung des Reichsmuseums in Leiden, pp. cc-ccxix).
It is essential to recognize that the mediaeval European, Arabic, and
Chinese fables about the country of the dog-heads are all derived from one
common source, which is traceable to the Greek Romance of Alexander; that
is an Oriental-Hellenistic cycle. In a wider sense, the dog-heads belong to
the cycle of wondrous peoples, which assumed shape among the Greek mariners
under the influence of Indian and West-Asiatic ideas. The tradition of the
Nan shi (Ch. 79, p. 4), in which the motive of the dog-heads, the women,
however, being of human shape, meets its striking parallel in Adam of
Bremen (Gesta Hamburg, ecclesiae pontificum, 4, 19), who thus reports on
the Terra Feminarum beyond the Baltic Sea: 'Cumque pervenerint ad partum,
si quid masculini generis est, fiunt cynocephali, si quid femini,
speciosissimae mulieres.' See further KLAPROTH, J. As., XII., 1833, p.
287; DULAURIER, J. As., 1858, p. 472; ROCKHILL, Rubruck, p. 36."
In an interesting paper on Walrus and Narwhal Ivory, Dr. Laufer (T'oung
Pao, July, 1916, p. 357) refers to dog-headed men with women of human
shape, from a report from the Mongols received by King Hethum of Armenia.
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