Marco Polo

by Robin Brown

  Still sailing to the south-east for about 100 miles you arrive at the island of Lesser Java [Sumatra]. Small by comparison with Java Major, it is still 2,000 miles in circumference. It is divided into eight kingdoms, each with its own distinctive language. The people, all idolaters, engage in a brisk trade in all manner of spices, lignumaloes, various kinds of medicinal plants and sappan wood used for dyeing. This produce finds its way to Cathay and Manji but rarely to Europe because of the long and dangerous voyage involved.

  One observation of interest: these islands lie so far to the south that the North Star is no longer visible.

  I personally visited six of the eight kingdoms and had some strange experiences. First there is the Kingdom of Felech of which not much can be said, especially of the natives, who live like beasts in the mountains eating human flesh and all other forms of flesh, clean or unclean. They have a peculiar form of worship, each individual revering the first thing he sees upon rising in the morning. The people who live in the seaside towns are mostly idolaters but a good number of them have been converted to follow Mahomet by the Saracens who come here all the time.

  Next is Basman which is independent of all the other kingdoms and has its own language. The people profess obedience to the Grand Khan but render no tribute, as it is too far for him to send an army to enforce payment. Ships that pass this way often bring him rare and curious gifts such as a particular breed of falcon.

  There are many elephants and a type of monster beast called a rhinoceros which is smaller than an elephant but has similar feet. Their hide is like that of the buffalo and in the middle of the forehead they have a single horn. They do not, however, use this to attack, relying instead on the tongue, which is armed with long sharp spikes. They also use their knees and feet. They have heads like wild boars, which they carry low to the ground, and they are filthy in their habits, mostly frequenting muddy pools. (I should point out that these are not unicorns which can be tamed by a virgin standing close to one and clasping its head to her bosom.) You also find a lot of monkeys in this district and large, savage vultures black as crows.

  I should also correct the myth that this is where you get the dried bodies of diminutive humans, or pygmies, which one often sees for sale in India. It’s an idle tale, in fact they are fashioned from a monkey of some size with features resembling those of a human. They shave off the hair other than on the chin and the genital areas then dry and preserve the body with camphor and other preparations. Having thus ensured that they have the appearance of little old men, they put them in boxes and sell them as curios to traders who carry them to all parts of the world.

  My next move was to Samara, indeed I was obliged to spend some five months there because of unfavourable and contrary winds. Here, where neither the North Star nor the Great Bear can be seen, the king is a vassal of the Grand Khan and I soon became established ashore, admittedly with a party of some 2,000 men to guard me from the savage natives who will happily kill and eat unwary strangers.

  I arranged for a deep, wide moat to be dug round our encampment on the land side, the arms of which led round the port in which our ships were moored. The ditch was guarded from a number of wooden redoubts constructed of the abundant local wood and behind this fortification our party lived securely for some five months. In fact, we got on so well with the natives there was no difficulty obtaining food and other necessities.

  The finest fish in the world are to be found here and while the people do not grow wheat there is plenty of rice. Nor do they make proper wine but produce an excellent beverage from the sap of a tree that resembles the date palm. They cut off a branch and under the cut place a bowl which fills in about a day and a night. So wholesome is this liquor it gives relief from such complaints as the dropsy as well as those of the lungs and spleen. When the flow of sap ceases they bring water from the river via channels or pipes and after copious watering the flow comes from the trees again. Some trees yield a reddish sap, others a paler colour.

  You also get Indian nuts [coconuts] here the size of a man’s head with an edible flesh that is as sweet and pleasant and white as milk. In the cavity of the nut is a liquor as cool as water, cooler and better flavoured than any kind of wine or any other drink you can find anywhere. That said, the natives feed upon flesh of every kind, good or bad, without distinction.

  The fourth kingdom has a ruler who recognises the authority of the Grand Khan but the inhabitants are uncivilised and they all worship idols. They have one particularly repugnant custom. When a person falls sick the relatives send for sorcerers to establish whether he will recover or not. If it is decided that he won’t, they call in another team who with great dexterity, being very experienced, stop up the mouth of the poor victim until he suffocates. The body is then cut into pieces, cooked to make it more appetising, then eaten by all the relatives in an atmosphere of great conviviality. They eat everything, right down to the marrow of the bones!

  I asked about this custom and got the reply that if any part of the body were left over vermin would breed on it and when the vermin died they would wreak grievous punishment on the soul of the departed. Afterwards, however, the bones are collected, deposited in a small neat box and carried to a cavern in the mountains where they will be safe from disturbance by wild animals.

  There is a lot of eating of people going on around here. In a nearby district they eat people who are captured and cannot pay ransom.

  The fifth kingdom is called Lambri and like the others its inhabitants acknowledge the Grand Khan, worship idols and speak their own distinctive language. It was on Lambri, where they grow sappan wood in great quantities, that I obtained the seed of a vegetable which resembles the sappan. When the plant throws roots they transplant it to another spot and leave it for three years. I took the seeds home with me to Venice and sowed them but they didn’t find the climate sufficiently warm and none of them came up.

  In the mountains, well away from the towns, you find men with tails a metre long like those of a dog but without hair [orangutans – the name translates as ‘wild man’]. There are lots of them!

  The sixth kingdom, Fanfur, is likewise ruled by a king who pays allegiance to the Grand Khan and the people worship idols. They grow a type of camphor wood here much superior to all others. It actually sells for its equivalent weight in gold.

  They also have a tree from which they produce a kind of meal [sago]. It has a large, thick stem – two men could only just span it – and a skin about 3 inches thick. Inside is the pith which yields a flour similar to that from acorns. The pith is put in pots of water and stirred with a stick causing the fibres and other impurities to rise to the top while the farinaceous meal sinks to the bottom. The water is poured off and the resulting flour made into all kinds of cakes and pastries. The bread made from it resembles barley bread in appearance and flavour. I ate a good deal of this bread and brought some of it home to Venice.

  The outside bark of the tree which, as I said, is first stripped back, is as hard as iron and when thrown into water immediately sinks. It can be split like a bamboo cane and of this the natives make short lances (larger ones would be too heavy) sharpened at one end and, after being hardened in a fire, capable of piercing any kind of armour. In many respects they are superior to iron weapons.

  I left Java Minor and the kingdom of Lambri and sailed 150 miles to two islands, Nocuern and Angaman [the Nicobar and Andaman Islands]. The people here, who admittedly have a king, all worship idols yet are only one step removed from beasts. Males and females all go naked. But their woods abound with splendid, very valuable trees such as white and red sandalwood, Indian nut, clove, sappan and a variety of medicinal plants.

  The other island, Angaman, is very large, has no king and the people are a primitive, bestial race having heads, eyes and teeth resembling those of dogs or wolves. They live off the land, eating rice, milk and flesh of every description, including, it has to be said, any person not of their own tribe whom they can lay their hands on. The isla
nd has many plants unknown in the West, including medicinal plants and Apples of Paradise.

  Our next landfall was the island of Zeilan [Ceylon/Sri Lanka] just a little south of west. It is said that Zeilan, which has a circumference of about 2,400 miles, was in ancient times much larger, in fact the largest island in the world. The Mappa Mundi [map of the world] records it as being 3,600 miles in circumference but the northern gales, which are prodigiously violent, have eroded the mountains and caused them in places to fall away and sink into the sea, greatly reducing the island’s original size.

  Zeilan is ruled by a king called Sender-Naz who answers to no one. These people worship idols and, apart from a cloth wrapped round their waists, go about naked. There is no grain here apart from rice, and sesame from which they make oil. The people subsist on milk, rice and meat and a wine made from the date palm-like tree I described earlier. The best sappan wood of all is found here and the island also produces the most beautiful and valuable rubies in the world; likewise sapphires, topazes, amethysts, garnets and many other precious stones.

  I was told that the king possesses a grand ruby, the largest ever seen, thick as a man’s arm and a hand-span in length. In appearance it is like a glowing fire and, in truth, it is priceless. The Grand Khan heard about this gem and he sent ambassadors to the king offering to trade wealth equivalent to a city for it! The king replied that he would not sell it for all the treasure in the universe and, as it had been bequeathed him by his ancestors, he would never allow it to leave his kingdom. So Kublai failed this time to get his way, this in spite of the fact that the people of Zeilan are of a very timid disposition and not at all inclined to fight. If they ever have a need for soldiers they hire mercenaries from Muslim countries.

  Our next port of call was Columbo in the province of Maabar, 60 miles to the west of the continent of India which, as I have already said, is the noblest and richest country in the world. It is governed by four kings of whom the principal is Sender-Bandi.

  In the gulf between Zeilan and Maabar, where the water is no more than 10 to 12 feet deep, there is a pearl fishery. The trade operates as follows. A number of merchants form independent companies and hire a good number of boats large and small which are securely anchored over the fishing grounds. Skilled divers work off the boats bringing up in bags or nets tied to their bodies the oysters in which the pearls are enclosed. They dive until they are out of breath then return to the surface and, after a short interval, dive again. They keep this up all day. In the course of a season they bring up enough pearls to supply the demands of all the countries of the world.

  The pearls taken from this fishery are round and of a good colour. The oysters are processed at Betala on the mainland. From there the pearl fishery extends some 60 miles to the south.

  Because the gulf is infested with a kind of large fish [sharks] that often take divers, they employ magicians of a class of Brahmins so skilled in the diabolic arts that they are able to repel and stupefy these hunting fish and thus prevent them from doing mischief. And here’s an interesting twist: legal pearl fishing only goes on in the day time, so the magicians call off their magic in the evenings, leaving the ravaging fish to guard the beds from any diver attempting to steal oysters by night. These magicians are also adept at enchanting all manner of other birds and beasts.

  Pearl fishing goes on from April to the middle of May and the privilege of working the beds is in the gift of the king who gets a tenth of the returns. The magicians receive a twentieth part but that still leaves a considerable profit for the merchants.

  When the Betala oyster beds have been exhausted the fleet moves on some 300 miles and there they fish from September and through October. As well as having his tenth share of all the crop the king reserves the right to choose all the large and well-shaped pearls. He pays liberally for them, however, so the merchants are quite happy with the arrangement.

  This king wears hardly any more clothes than the rest of the population except that he is distinguished by various ornaments such as a collar set with jewels: sapphires, emeralds and rubies of immense value. Round his neck on a fine silken string he wears a necklace of a hundred and four very large and handsome rubies. He wears this necklace because every day his religion requires him to repeat a prayer in honour of his gods a hundred and four times. (The prayer actually consists of repeating the words ‘pacauca, pacauca, pacauca’ exactly that number of times.)

  On each arm the king wears three gold bracelets adorned with pearls and jewels, and on three different parts of his legs are golden bands ornamented in the same manner. His fingers and the toes of his feet bear rings of inestimable value. To this king it is an everyday affair to wear such riches, especially as the precious stones and pearls are all the produce of his dominions.

  And the king has at least one thousand wives and concubines. If he sees a young woman he fancies he has only to indicate that he wants to possess her – indeed, this was all that was required for him to have the wife of his brother. Discretion being the better part of valour the brother decided not to have a row about it, but I’ve heard that he repeatedly contemplated taking up arms against his brother. Their mother intervened, reportedly baring her breasts and warning: ‘If you my children disgrace yourselves with acts of hostility towards each other I shall immediately sever from this body the breasts from which you drew nourishment.’ In the face of this threat the row subsided.

  The king is closely attended by many knights who go by the title ‘Devoted Servant of his Majesty in this Life and the Next’. They attend him at court and on all other occasions and ride at his side in processions. They exercise considerable influence in every part of the realm – but this has its price. When the king dies and the ceremony of burning his body takes place, they all throw themselves in the same fire to be consumed with the royal corpse and thus accompany the king into the next life.

  The following intriguing custom also applies here. When the king dies his heir does not meddle with his treasure as this is judged to have been amassed by another. The son and heir is expected, on pain of being judged unable to govern, to show himself as capable of enriching the country as his father was. As a result of this tradition it’s rumoured that vast wealth has been accumulated by successive generations.

  No horses are bred in this country so the king and his three royal brothers import them annually from merchants in the Middle East at huge cost. The merchants bring in about five thousand a year and charge 500 saggi of gold per animal and they thus get very rich from the trade. In reality there is no one here vaguely qualified to look after them properly (administer medicines and the like) so no more than three hundred live the year out and they have to be replaced annually.

  I think the climate here really does not suit the Arabian horse hence the problems of breeding and keeping them alive. Also they feed them on prepared meats and rice as there is no wheat grown here. I saw a large mare which had been well covered by a handsome stallion but her foal was small and sickly with distorted legs and completely unfit to be trained for riding.

  Let me tell you about a custom they have here when a man has been tried for a crime and condemned to death. The condemned man has the right to declare that he will sacrifice himself to his idol! His relatives and friends gather round, place him in chains and hand him twelve strong, sharp knives. He is then carried into the city while the relatives proclaim loudly that here is a brave man about to die voluntarily for the love and devotion he bears his idol. When they arrive at the place where he would have been executed the condemned man cries out: ‘I devote myself to death’ (for such and such an idol) and quickly thrusts home the knives; one in each thigh, one into each of his arms, two in the stomach and two into the chest and the last into his heart which of course kills him. Thereafter, and with a great deal of rejoicing, his relatives burn the body and as a gesture of love for her husband a wife will throw herself on the fire and be consumed with him. Women who go through with this are much applauded by the community wher
eas women who shrink from it are despised and reviled.

  Most people never kill oxen and no one will eat the meat. A particular caste of people, called gaui, do eat the meat but won’t kill the animal. They seek out carcasses of animals that have died of natural or other causes. All the houses are daubed with cowdung.

  It’s the tradition to sit on the floor on carpets, the people believing that to sit on the ground is honourable as that’s where we all come from and whither we will return. The gaui are the descendants of the tribe that slew St Thomas the Apostle and as a result no gaui may enter the building where his blessed body rests. Even if ten men were to use their strength to attempt to carry one of them there, the supernatural powers of the holy corpse would repel them.

  These people are a very unwarlike race. They fight naked carrying only lances and shields. When they desire to eat the meat of sheep, other beasts and birds they get Saracens, who are not bound by the same religious laws, to do the killing for them.

  Both men and women wash their whole bodies twice a day, in the morning and evening, and they do not eat or drink until they have performed their ablutions. To do so would be regarded as heresy.

  I also observed that only the right hand is used for eating, the other being reserved for the more basic bodily functions. They each have their own cup and would never think of using someone else’s. This cup is held above the head and the liquid poured into the mouth to ensure that on no account does the cup touch the lips. If they give a drink to a stranger it is never from their cup, instead they pour the wine or other beverage into his hands and he drinks that way.

  Any offence in this country is punished with strict and exemplary justice, and they have an interesting law for dealing with debtors. Should a man renege on his debts by lying and evasion, the creditor may attach his person by drawing a ring round him. From this he dare not escape until he has paid off his debt or offered adequate security. Escape the ring and you are liable to the death penalty!