But, When The Chief Died, The Whole Company Were Expected To Go
Down Alive Into The Tomb With Him.
The King of the Russians, in the tenth
century, according to Ibn Fozlan, was attended by 400 followers bound by
like vows.
And according to some writers the same practice was common in
Japan, where the friends and vassals who were under the vow committed
hara kiri at the death of their patron. The Likamankwas of the
Abyssinian kings, who in battle wear the same dress with their master to
mislead the enemy - "Six Richmonds in the field" - form apparently a kindred
institution. (Bell. Gall. iii. c. 22; Plutarch, in Vit. Sertorii;
Procop. De B. Pers. I. 3: Ibn Fozlan by Fraehn, p. 22; Sonnerat, I.
97.)
NOTE 6. - However frequent may have been wars between adjoining states, the
south of the peninsula appears to have been for ages free from foreign
invasion until the Delhi expeditions, which occurred a few years later
than our traveller's visit; and there are many testimonies to the enormous
accumulations of treasure. Gold, according to the Masalak-al-Absar, had
been flowing into India for 3000 years, and had never been exported.
Firishta speaks of the enormous spoils carried off by Malik Kafur, every
soldier's share amounting to 25 Lbs. of gold! Some years later Mahomed
Tughlak loads 200 elephants and several thousand bullocks with the
precious spoil of a single temple. We have quoted a like statement from
Wassaf as to the wealth found in the treasury of this very Sundara Pandi
Dewar, but the same author goes far beyond this when he tells that Kales
Dewar, Raja of Ma'bar about 1309, had accumulated 1200 crores of gold,
i.e. 12,000 millions of dinars, enough to girdle the earth with a
four-fold belt of bezants! (N. and E. XIII. 218, 220-221, Brigg's
Firishta, I. 373-374; Hammer's Ilkhans, II. 205.)
NOTE 7. - Of the ports mentioned as exporting horses to India we have
already made acquaintance with KAIS and HORMUZ; of DOFAR and ADEN we
shall hear further on; Soer is SOHAR the former capital of Oman, and
still a place of some little trade. Edrisi calls it "one of the oldest
cities of Oman, and of the richest. Anciently it was frequented by
merchants from all parts of the world; and voyages to China used to be
made from it." (I. 152.)
Rashiduddin and Wassaf have identical statements about the horse trade,
and so similar to Polo's in this chapter that one almost suspects that he
must have been their authority. Wassaf says: "It was a matter of agreement
that Malik-ul-Islam Jamaluddin and the merchants should embark every year
from the island of KAIS and land at MA'BAR 1400 horses of his own
breed.... It was also agreed that he should embark as many as he could
procure from all the isles of Persia, such as Katif, Lahsa, Bahrein,
Hurmuz, and Kalhatu. The price of each horse was fixed from of old at 220
dinars of red gold, on this condition, that if any horses should happen to
die, the value of them should be paid from the royal treasury.
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