And other folk keep elephants there just as commonly as
we keep oxen here" (pp. 95-96). The latter point illustrates what Polo says
of elephants, and is scarcely an exaggeration in regard to all the southern
Indo-Chinese States. (See note to Odoric u.s.)
NOTE 3. - Champa Proper and the adjoining territories have been from time
immemorial the chief seat of the production of lign-aloes or eagle-wood.
Both names are misleading, for the thing has nought to do either with
aloes or eagles; though good Bishop Pallegoix derives the latter name from
the wood being speckled like an eagle's plumage. It is in fact through
Aquila, Agila, from Aguru, one of the Sanskrit names of the article,
whilst that is possibly from the Malay Kayu (wood)-gahru, though the
course of the etymology is more likely to be the other way; and [Greek:
Aloae] is perhaps a corruption of the term which the Arabs apply to it,
viz. Al-'Ud, "The Wood."
[It is probable that the first Portuguese who had to do with eagle-wood
called it by its Arabic name, aghaluhy, or malayalam, agila; whence
pao de' aguila "aguila wood." It was translated into Latin as lignum
aquilae, and after into modern languages, as bois d'aigle,
eagle-wood, adlerholz, etc.