A Curious
Passage From The Arab Geographer Ibn Said Pays An Ambiguous Compliment To
The Forefathers Of Moltke And Von Roon:
"The Borus (Prussians) are a
miserable people, and still more savage than the Russians.....
One reads
in some books that the Borus have dogs' faces; it is a way of saying
that they are very brave" Ibn Batuta describes an Indo-Chinese tribe on
the coast of Arakan or Pegu as having dogs' mouths, but says the women
were beautiful. Friar Jordanus had heard the same of the dog-headed
islanders. And one odd form of the story, found, strange to say, both in
China and diffused over Ethiopia, represents the males as actual dogs
whilst the females are women. Oddly, too, Pere Barbe tells us that a
tradition of the Nicobar people themselves represent them as of canine
descent, but on the female side! The like tale in early Portuguese days
was told of the Peguans, viz. that they sprang from a dog and a Chinese
woman. It is mentioned by Camoens (X. 122). Note, however, that in Colonel
Man's notice of the wilder part of the Nicobar people the projecting
canine teeth are spoken of.
Abraham Roger tells us that the Coromandel Brahmans used to say that the
Rakshasas or Demons had their abode "on the Island of Andaman lying on
the route from Pulicat to Pegu," and also that they were man-eaters. This
would be very curious if it were a genuine old Brahmanical Saga; but I
fear it may have been gathered from the Arab seamen.
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