FOOTNOTES

FOOTNOTES[41]Admiral Smyth says that the currents in the Faro are so numerous and varied, that it is difficult to ascertain anything precise about them. In settled seasons a central stream runs north and south, at the rate of two to five miles an hour. On each shore there is arefluo, or counter-set, often forming eddies to the central current. When the main current runs to the north it is calledRema montante, or flood; when it runs south,Rema scendente, or ebb; and this has obtained, perhaps, even from the days of Eratosthenes. He considers that thespecialdanger from the Faro currents is insignificant. There are dangeroussquallsfrom the ravines or river-beds on the high Calabrian coast.He admits some little more of reality in the celebrated vortex of Charybdis, which must have been formidable to the undecked vessels of the ancients; for in the present day small craft are sometimes endangered, and he has seen even a seventy-four whirled round on its surface. The “Galofaro” appears to be an agitated water of from seventy to ninety fathoms in depth, circling in quick eddies, but rather an incessant undulation than a whirlpool, and the cases are only extreme when any vortiginous ripples threaten danger to laden boats. “It is owing probably to the meeting of the harbour and lateral currents with the main one, the latter being forced over in this direction by the opposite point of Pezzo. This agrees in some measure with the relation of Thucydides, who calls it a violent reciprocation of the Tyrrhene and Sicilian seas, and he is the only writer of remote antiquity I remember to have read who has assigned this danger its true situation, and not exaggerated its effects.” (Abridged fromSmyth’sMediterranean, pp. 180-1). Our author seems to mix up the two phenomena in his exaggerated account. Theupward and downward currentsuggest that he had heard the local terms quoted by Admiral Smyth.[42]“The breadth of the Euripus is diminished by a rock in mid-channel, on which a fort is built, dividing it into two channels: that towards the main, though rather the broader, is only practicable for small boats, as there is not more than three feet water at any time. Between the rock and the walls of Egripos is a distance of 33 feet, and the least depth at the highest water is 7 feet. It is here that the extraordinary tides take place for which the Euripus was formerly so noted; at times the water runs as much as eight miles an hour, with a fall under the bridge of 1½ foot; but what is most singular is, that vessels lying 150 yards from the bridge are not the least affected by this rapid. It remains but a short time in a quiescent state, changing its direction in a few minutes, and almost immediately resuming its velocity, which is generally from four to five miles an hour either way, its greatest rapidity being, however, always to the southward. The results of three months’ observation, in which the above phenomena were noted, afforded no sufficient data for reducing them to any regularity.”—Penny Cyclop., ArticleEubœa. See alsoLeake(Tr. in Northern Greece, ii. p. 257), who quotes Wheler and Spon.[43]Greece generally is subject to earthquakes, but I cannot find evidence that Thebes is particularly so.[44]The first ascent of Ararat is well known to have been made by Professor Parrot, of Dorpat, 9th October, 1829, whose account of his journey has been translated by Mr. Cooley.“From the summit downwards, for nearly two-thirds of a mile perpendicular, or nearly three miles in an oblique direction, it is covered with a crown of eternal snow and ice” (Parrot’s Journey, p. 133). As to the clouds, the same author remarks with regard to a drawing of Ararat: “The belt of clouds about the mountain is characteristic” (p. 137). And Smith and Dwight (Researches in Armenia, p. 266) say that they were prevented by clouds from seeing it for three weeks. It is believed in the country that the Ark still exists on the mountain, access to which has been forbidden by Divine decree since Noah’s time. A holy monk called Jacob resolved to convince himself by inspection. But in his ascent of the mountain he three times was overtaken by sleep, and each time found that he had unconsciously lost the ground that he had gained when awake. At last an angel came to him when again asleep, and told him that his zeal was fruitless, but was to be rewarded by a fragment of the wood of the Ark, a sacred relic still preserved in the Cathedral of Echmiazin. (Parrot, andSmith and Dwight); see also the narrative ofGuillaume de Rubruk(Rubruquis), inRec. de Voyages, iv. p. 387.[45]Stories of serpents seem to be rife in Armenia. On the Araxes, south of Nakhcheván (see note below), is a mountain called the Serpent Mountain, where serpents are said to collect in such numbers at certain times, that no man or beast dare approach. (SeeHaxthausen’s Transcaucasia, pp. 144, 181, 353, etc.)[46]The name of the province and town of Nakhcheván, east of Ararat, signifies “first place of descent, or of lodging.” The antiquity of the tradition is proved by the fact, that Josephus affirms that the Armenians call the place where the Ark rested “the place of descent;” whilst Ptolemy supplies the name of Naxuana. (Smith and Dwight, p. 255.)The place alluded to by Jordanus appears to be Arguri, the only village upon Ararat. Here Noah is said to have built his altar on the exact spot now occupied by the church, and it is of the vineyards of Arguri that the Scripture is believed to speak when it is said that “Noah began to be an husbandman, and planted a vineyard.” The church is of unascertained but remote date; and the name of the place signifies (Argh-urri) “He planted the vine.” (Parrot, p. 122.) At Nakhcheván “the grapes were almost unequalled in excellence, and seemed to deserve the honour of growing on the spot.” (Smith and Dwight, p. 256.) Arguri was buried by an earthquake, accompanied by volcanic indications, July 2nd, 1840. (Smith’s Dict. of the Bible, Art. Ararat.)[47]The Armenian belief is, that Thaddeus, one of the Seventy, was, after the Ascension, sent by St. Thomas, according to commands given him by the Lord, to Abgarus of Edessa, who had written the celebrated letter. Thaddeus, and Bartholomew who followed him, were successively put to death by Sanatruk, the heathen nephew of Abgarus. Jude also came to preach in Armenia, and was put to death in Ormi (Urumia). The mission of Simon I do not find mentioned, but Chardin states that his body was said to be preserved in one of the churches. (SeeAvdall’sTr. ofChamich’s Hist. of Armenia. Calcutta, 1827, pp. 107-111, andSmith and Dwight.)[48]The virgin must beRhipsime, said to have been of the house of Claudius Cæsar, who, with Kayane and thirty-seven other holy virgins, were put to death in the time of Dioclesian. There are churches dedicated to R. and K. at Echmiazin. (Smith and Dwight.)[49]Tertal is Tiridates, in Armenian Dertad = Theodosius. (Smith and Dwight.)[50]St. Gregory, called The Illuminator, bornA.D.257, consecrated Archbishop of Armenia 302. He is said to have revived (probablyintroduced) Christianity in Armenia, and, after suffering persecution at the hands of King Tiridates, converted him and his whole people. The place alluded to by Jordanus is at the convent of Khor-virab (“Deep pit”), on the Araxes, under Ararat. Here Gregory is believed to have been confined in a cave with serpents, and in the endurance of manifold torments, for fourteen years. (Smith and Dwight, p. 273. See alsoChardin, p. 251.Curzon’s Armeniahas a concise account of the Armenian church.)[51]“The ancient and extensive Dominican mission, which once had its seat in this province, (Nakhcheván) is now no more. It was commenced about 1320 by an Italian papal monk of the Dominican order. Such success attended it that soon nearly thirty Armenian villages embraced the faith of Rome, and acknowledged subjection to a papal bishop, who after being consecrated at Rome resided in the village of Aburan, with the title of Archbishop of Nakhcheván.” (Smith and Dwight, p. 257.)[52]At this time a Tartar successor of Hulaku.[53]This Dead Sea is doubtless the Lake of Urumia, the waters of which are salter than sea water. It appears to be about ninety miles in length from north to south. There are no fish in it. It contains several islands, or peninsulas which are occasionally islands, two of which have been used as fortresses. In one of these Hulaku the Tartar conqueror of Baghdad was said to have stored his treasures. Another is said to be “as old as the days of Zoroaster,” who is believed to have been born in the vicinity. I do not find tombs mentioned. (Penny Cyc.in v.Azerbijan, alsoMonteithinJour. Geog. Soc.iii. 55, andSmith and Dwight, 348.)[54]“Thaurisium.”[55]Sebast is doubtless Sivas, called by Marco Polo Sebastos, anciently Sebasteia (Smith’s Dict. of Gr. and Rom. Geo.) south of Tokat, and giving name to a pachalik. The Barcarian mountains appear asBarchal Daghrunning parallel to the Black Sea between Trebizond and Kars. (Stieler’s Hand-Atlas, 43a.) Mogan isOroganin the original, but, as we shall see below, this is an error of transcription. ThePlainof Mogan is the great plain extending from the eastern foot of Caucasus along the Caspian, and stretching to the south of the Cyrus and Araxes. Here Pompey’s career eastward is said to have been arrested by the venomous serpents with which the long grass of the plain is infested. The dread of these serpents still exists. “Their hissing is heard from afar, and they seem to rise from the grass like fish from the sea”, Kinneir was told. Here the camp of Heraclius was pitched, as was that of the Tartar hosts for many months during their invasion of Armenia in the thirteenth century, and that of Nadir Shah when he placed the crown upon his head. (Macd. Kinneir’s Mem. of Persia, 153;Avdall’s Hist. of Armenia.)[56]The Lake appears to be Gokchai or Sevan, north-east of Erivan. There is a small island with a monastery upon it. There are many traditions attached to the monasteries in this vicinity, but I cannot find this one.[57]Perhaps Erivan, but I cannot trace the name.[58]Sir John Chardin (356) says he may “truly reck’n” the population of Tauris to be 550,000 persons, and that several in the city would have it to be double that number! yet he had said just before that it contained 15,000 houses and 15,000 shops, so that 150,000 souls would be a liberal estimate. It appears now to contain from 30,000 to 50,000. Kinneir calls it one of the most wretched cities in Persia. Such estimates of city population are common enough still. Many books and many gentlemen in India will still tell us that Benares contains half a million, and that Lucknow before 1857 contained 700,000; the fact being, as regards Benares, that bycensusand including its suburbs it contains 171,668; whilst the estimate for Lucknow was probably five or six times the truth. I suspect the usual estimate of 900,000 in the city of Madras to be of equal value.[59]At Tabriz “dew is entirely unknown, and not more than two or three showers fall between March and December. The plain around is very fertile where irrigated.” (Penny Cyc.)[60]The only manna I have known in India was exuded by a tamarisk; but it appears to be produced on various shrubs in Persia and the adjoining countries, camelthorns, tamarisks, and others. And one kind calledBed-kishtis produced on a species of willow. (Bedsignifies awillow.) Some kinds of manna are used as sugar. (SeePen. Cyc.in v.Manna.) This authority does not seem to recognize the agency of any insect in its production. But Macdonald Kinneir (in hisMemoir of the Persian Empire, p. 329) has the following note. “Manna is exported from Moosh, on the Euphrates [west of Lake Van] in considerable quantities. It is termedguzby the Persians, and found in great quantities in Louristan, and in the district of Khonsar in Irak. It is taken from a small shrub, in appearance not unlike a funnel, about four feet in height and three in diameter at the top. Theguzis said to be produced by small insects, which are seen to move in vast numbers under the small and narrow leaves of the shrub.—These were always in motion, and continued to crawl between the bark and the leaves. Theguzis collected during the months of August and September in the following manner. A vessel of an oval form being placed under the bush as a receptacle, the leaves are beat every third day with a crooked stick covered with leather. The manna when first gathered has the tenacity and appearance of gum, but, when exposed to the heat of 90° of Fahrenheit’s thermometer, it dissolves into a liquid resembling honey. When mixed with sweetmeat its tenacity resists the application of the knife, but when suddenly struck it shivers into pieces.”[61]There is a town called in the mapsAhar, about fifty miles north-east of Tabriz, but I cannot find that this was ever considered to be Ur of the Chaldees. Urfa, which is generally supposed to be Ur, is in quite another region, more than four hundred miles from Tabriz.[62]Wild asses are found in the dry regions from the frontiers of Syria to the Runn of Cutch, and north to 48° lat. Ferrier mentions herds of hundreds between Mushid and Herat, and on the banks of the Khashrood, south of Herat. “They are fleet as deer,” he says. Their flesh is more delicate than Persian beef, and the Afghans consider it a great delicacy, as did the old Roman epicures. This species, as I learn from a note with which Mr. Moore, of the India Museum, has kindly favoured me, isAsinus Onager, theKulanorGhor-kharof the Persians. That of Syria and Northern Arabia is theAsinus Hemippus, the Hemionus of the ancients; whilst theKyangorJiggetai(Equus Hemionusof Pallas,E. Polyodonof Hodgson) inhabits Tibet and thence northward to southern Siberia; and the true wild ass (E. asinus) is indigenous to north-eastern Africa, and perhaps to south Arabia and the island of Socotra.[63]“Lapis azurii,” hod.lapis lazuli. Quantities of this are found in Badakshan. (Burnes,Bokhara, ii. 205. 8vo ed.)[64]Sic.ProbablyL, orLVis intended.[65]“Ferculum et carnem.”[66]“Tobalia.”[67]The Afghans exceed the practices here graphically described; for they, I believe, often expectorate in the hairy sleeve of thepostin, which in winter they wear after the fashion of Brian O’Linn, “with the leather side out and the woolly side in.” Scott Waring (Tour to Shiraz, p. 103) notices the dirty table habits of the Persians.[68]The friar’s remarks seem to shew that forks were common in Europe earlier than is generally represented to be the case.[69]No doubt it should bekīr, which is bituminous pitch in Persian. What the parenthesis means I cannot make out.Peguacan scarcely be a reference to the petroleum of Pegu at this early date?[70]Burnes describes the vast fields of soft sand, formed into ridges, between Bokhara and the Oxus. Their uniformity is remarkable, all having the shape of a horse-shoe, convex towards the north, from which the prevailing wind blows. On this side they slope, inside they are precipitous. The height is from fifteen to twenty feet. “The particles of sand, moving from one mound to another, wheeling in the eddy or interior of the semicircle, and having now and then, particularly under the rays of the sun, much the look of water, an appearance, I imagine, which has given rise to the opinion of moving sands in the desert.” (Bokhara, ii. pp. 1, 2.)Our author may possibly have heard of theReg-rawán, or “flowing sand,” of the Koh Daman, near Istalif. (SeeWood’s Oxus, p. 181.)[71]It may be gathered from what follows, that Lesser India embraces Sindh, and probably Mekrán, and India along the coast as far as some point immediately north of Malabar. Greater India extends from Malabar very indefinitely to the eastward, for he makes it include Champa (Cambodia). India Tertia is the east of Africa.According to the old Portuguese geographer, whose “Summary of Kingdoms,” etc., is given by Ramusio,First India(see text, next page), ends at Mangalore,Second Indiaat the Ganges.Marco Polo reverses the titles given by our author. He makes Greater India extend from Maabar (south part of the Coromandel coast) to Kesmacoran (Kidj-mekrán or Mekrán), whilst Lesser India stretches from the Coromandel to Champa. Abyssinia, Marco callsMiddle India. (SeeMurray’s Polo, pt. ii. ch. xxxvi.) Benjamin of Tudela speaks of “Middle India which is called Aden.” Conti says all India is divided into three parts, the first extending from Persia (Ormus?) to the Indus, the second from the Indus to the Ganges, the third all beyond.It is worth noting that Pliny says it was disputed whether Gedrosia (Mekrán), etc., belonged to India or to Ariana. (vi. p. 23.)[72]I believe this is substantially correct. Sindh is the only province in India that produces edible dates. A date-palm is found all over India, but the fruit is worthless.[73]Till half-past nine o’clock. “Quod usque ad mediam tertiam per solis radios ullâtenus possit desiccari.” “The dews” in Lower Sindh, says Burnes, “are very heavy and dangerous.” (iii. p. 254.) The fertility of the country is, however, confined to the tracts inundated or irrigated from the Indus and its branches. As to the absence of rain, Dr. Lord says, that “the rainfall registered by Lt. Wood during one year at Hyderabad was only 2·55 inches, whilst at Larkhana, further north, a shower of rain which fell after the arrival of Burnes’s party was universally ascribed to the good fortune of the Firingis, as for three years, the natives said, rain had scarcely been known.” (Reports and Papers on Sindh, etc.—Calcutta, 1839, p. 61.)[74]“Risis autem comeditur atque sagina in aquâ tantummodo cocta.”[75]He is wrong about the non-existence of horses and camels in what he calls India the Less.[76]Five persons toeat, that is. But an English gentleman, who is a coffee planter in the middle of Java, told me that he once cut a jack (the fruit intended by the bishop), which it tookthreemen tocarry. That they grow in Ceylon to 50 lbs. weight at least is testified by Cordiner and Sir Emerson Tennent. The former says they grow there to two feet in length, and to the same circumference, which is bigger than I ever saw them in Bengal. The manner of growing is accurately described in the next paragraph of the text.The jack is, no doubt, the Indian fruit described by Pliny, Book xii. ch. 12, as putting forth its fruit from the bark, and as being remarkable for the sweetness of its juice, a single one containing enough to satisfy four persons. The name of the tree, he says, ispala, and of the fruitAriena. The former is possibly the Tamul name,Pila, which is also one of the Malabar names. If, however, Pliny derived the whole of his information on this fruit, as he appears to derive part of it, from the historians of the Alexandrian invasion, the name may be merely the Sanskritphala, a fruit, and it would be a comical illustration of the persistency of Indian habits of mind. For a stranger in India asking the question, “What is that?” would almost certainly at this day receive for reply, “P’hal hai, khudáwand!” “It is afruit, my lord!”The namejack, which we give to the tree and its fruits, is one of that large class of words which are neither English nor Hindustani, butAnglo-Indian, and the origin of which is often very difficult to trace. Drury givesPilavooas the Malayalim name, but I find that Rheede (Hortus Malabaricus, vol. iii.) gives alsoTsjaka; and Linschoten, too, says that the jack is in Malabar called Iaca: so here we have doubtless the original.I was long puzzled by the two species of our author,ChaquiandBloqui. There are, indeed, two well-known species of artocarpus giving fruits which are both edible, and have a strong external resemblance, the jack and the breadfruit. But the breadfruit isnotas big,notas sweet, and doesnotbear its fruit from the trunk and roots, but from twigs. Nor is it grown in Malabar, though sometimes, Ainslie says (Materia Medica), imported from Ceylon for sale. Nomodernauthors that I can find make a clear distinction of kinds of jack. But, on referring back, we find that all the old authors, who really seem to have gone into these practical matters with more freshness and sympathy in native tastes, do so. Thus Linschoten says, “There are two sorts of them: the best are calledGirasal, and the common or least esteemedChambasal, though in fashion and trees there is no difference, save that the Girasals have a sweeter taste;” and his old commentator, “the learned Doctor Paludanus, of Enckhuysen,” says, also, there are “two sorts, and the best is calledBarca, the otherPapa, which is not so good, and yet in handling is soft like the other.” Nearly three hundred years earlier Ibn Batuta had said, that of the fruits of India “are those termedShakiandBarki, ... the fruit grows out from the bottom of the tree, and that which grows nearest to the earth is called the Barki; it is extremely sweet and well-flavoured in taste; what grows above this is called the Shaki,” etc. Lastly, we have Rheede, speaking with authority, “Ceterum arboris hujus ultra triginta numerantur species ratione fructuum distinctæ,quæ tamen omnes ad duo referentur genera; quorum alterius fructus qui carne succulentâ, gratissimi, mellinique saporis turgent,varaka; at alterius, qui carne flaccidâ, molliori et minus sapidâ referti sunt,Tsjakapanuncupantur.” (iii. p. 19.) Drury, indeed, says, “There are several varieties, but what is called the Honeyjack is by far the sweetest and best.”To conclude this long discourse on a short text, it seems certain that theBloquiof our author is theBarkiof Ibn Batuta, theBarkaof Paludanus, theVaraka“mellini saporis” of Rheede, and the Honeyjack of Drury. “He that desireth to see more hereof let him readeLodouicus Romanus, in his fifth Booke and fifteene Chapter of his Nauigatiouns, andChristopherus a Costain his Cap. ofIaca, andGracia ab Horto, in the second Booke and fourth Chapter,” saith the learned Paludanus,—and so say I, by all means![77]Amba(Pers.), the Mango. Ibn Batuta writes it’anbâwith an’ain, as appears from Lee’s note (p. 104), and the latter translates it “grape,” which is the meaning of that word I believe inArabic. Our author’s just description of the flavour of the mango is applicable, however, only to the finer stocks, and seems to show that the “Bombay mango” already existed in the thirteenth century. The mango is commonly believed in Anglo-India to produce boils, which I see was also the belief in Linschoten’s day. But I agree with his commentator, that, at the time when the fruit is ripe, “by reason of the great heate and season of the yeare—many doe fall into the forenamed diseases, although they eate none of this fruite.”[78]This would seem to imply that the orange was not known in Southern Europe in the author’s time; though there are such things as sweet lemons.[79]The Persian name for the coco-nut, and coco-palm.[80]So Ibn Batuta—“Of this sort of trees the palm will produce fruit twelve times in the year, each month supplying a fresh crop: so that you will see upon the trees the fruit of some large, of others small, of others dry, and of others green. And this is the case always.” (See p. 176.)The account of the coco-palm, though slightly mythicized, is substantially correct. In the third year of the palm’s growth the fronds begin to fall, a new frond appearing at the end of every month. Of these there are twenty-eight, more or less, on a full-grown tree. On a single tree there are about twelve branches, or spadices, of nuts. Most of the young fruit falls off, only a few coming to perfection; but as from ten to fifteen nutson an averageare produced on one branch, a single tree may produce eighty to one hundred nuts every year. (Drury’s Useful Plants of India.)[81]This is thejaggeri, or palm-sugar, used extensively in southern India. It is made by boiling down the fresh toddy over a slow fire. The description of the extraction of the toddy, etc., is substantially correct.[82]“Omni tempore mundi, et hoc sicut venit.”[83]“The leaves are employed for thatching houses, especially in Malabar.” (Drury, p. 152.)[84]The well knowncoir. The native practice is to steep the husk in salt water for eighteen months or two years before beating out thecoir; but this has been proved to be injurious. The virtues ofcoirare strength, lightness, elasticity, durability, power of standing sea-water. It is now largely used in England for brushes, mats, carpets, etc. (Drury.)[85]PersianTár.Tádíis the Teloogoo name, according to Drury; in Hindustani,tárandtál. It is the palmyra (Borassus flabelliformis), a tree found from Malabar along the coast to Bengal, and thence down the transgangetic coast through Burma and the great islands, and also up the Ganges to Cawnpore, a little above which it ceases. The fruit is of no value. The wood is much used for rafters, etc., and it is better than that of any other Indian palm; but the tree is chiefly used for the derivation of the liquor to which, as taken from this and other palms, we give the slightly corrupted name oftoddy, a name which in Scotland has received a new application. It is the tree from which palm-sugar is most generally made. The leaves are used for making fans (the typical fan being evidently a copy of this leaf), for writing on, and in some places for thatching, etc.[86]BelluriI conceive to be theCaryota urens, which, according to Rheede (Hortus Malabar., i.), is called by the Brahmans in Malabarbirala. Most of our author’s names seem to be Persian in form; but there is probably no Persian name for this palm. Richardson, however, has “barhal, name of a tree and its fruit.” This tree yields more toddy than any other palm, as much as a hundred pints in twenty-four hours. Much sugar is made from it, especially in Ceylon. It also affords a sago, and a fibre for fishing lines, known in England as “Indian gut.” A woolly stuff found at the springing of the fronds, is said by Drury to be used for caulking. I may add that it makes an excellentamadoufor smokers; but the specific name does not come from this fact, as I have heard suggested, but from the burning acridity of the fruit when applied to the tongue. Thecaryota, with its enormous jagged fronds, and huge pendulous bunches of little bead-like berries, is a very beautiful object. The fruit is actually used for beads by the Mahomedans. Buchanan (Mysore, etc., ii, 454) says its leaves are the favourite food of the elephant, and that its sugar is superior to that of the palmyra, but inferior to that of the cocoa nut.[87]The banyan:“Such as at this day, to Indians knownIn Malabar or Decan, spreads her armsBranching so broad and long, that in the groundThe bended twigs take root, and daughters growAbout the mother-tree, a pillared shadeHigh over-arched, and echoing walks between:There oft the Indian herdsman, shunning heat,Shelters in cool, and tends his pasturing herdsAt loopholes cut through thicket shade.”(Paradise Lost, b. ix.)Which noble lines are almost an exact versification of Pliny’s description (xii, 11). Drury quotes Roxburgh as mentioning banyans, the vertical shadow of which had a circumference of five hundred yards. Just about half this size is the largest I have seen, near Hushyárpúr in the Northern Punjab. It is remarkable in some of the largest of these trees, that you cannot tell which has been the original and “mother-tree,” that having probably decayed and disappeared. The age of these trees is sometimes by no means so great as first impressions suggest. There is a very fine one in the Botanic Garden at Calcutta, (its exact size I do not remember, but the shade is not less than a hundred and eighty to two hundred feet across), whereof the garden tradition runs, that it originated in Roxburgh’s time,i.e., eighty or ninety years ago. It has, however, been carefully tended andextended, the vertical fibres being protected by bamboo tubes when young. It is said to have grown originally in the crown of a date tree, as often happens.[88]True in a general way, but with exceptions, specific and local.[89]Siya-gosh(black-ear), the Persian name of the lynx. I have not been able to hear of awhitelynx. The lynx of the Dekkan, which is probably meant (felis caracal), has only the under part white, the back being a pale reddish brown. Its tenacity is a noted feature.[90]“Quod vocatur rinocerunta”! The rhinoceros is not now, I believe, found in any part of India south (or west) of the Ganges; but it has become extinct in my own time in the forests of Rajmahl, on the right bank of that river; and very possibly extended at one time much further west, though our author’s statement is too vague to build upon, and scarcely indicates personal knowledge of the animal.[91]Two-headed and even three-headed serpents might be suggested by the portentous appearance of a cobra with dilated hood and spectacles, especially if the spectator were (as probably would be the case) in a great fright. But forfiveheads I can make no apology.[92]This has puzzled me sorely, and I sought it vainly among Tamul and Malayalim synonyms. At the last moment the light breaks in upon me. It is, Fr.,cocatrix; Ital.,calcatrice; Anglicè, acockatrice![93]Polo says: “Here and throughout all India the birds and beasts are different from ours, except one bird, which is the quail.” (iii, 20.)[94]A literally accurate description of the great Indian bat, or flying fox. They generally cluster on some great banyan tree. These, I presume, are what Marco Polo quaintly calls “bald owls which fly in the night: they have neither wings (?) nor feathers, and are as large as an eagle.” (iii, 20.) There is a good account of the flying fox, and an excellent cut, in Tennent’sNat. History of Ceylon. On the Indiarubber trees at the Botanic Gardens near Kandy, they “hang in such prodigious numbers that frequently large branches give way beneath their accumulated weight.” (p. 16.) Shall I be thought to be rivalling my author in the recital of marvels, if I say that in 1845 I saw, near Delhi, large branches which had been broken off by the accumulated weight—oflocustsa few days before? So all the peasantry testified.[95]Probably some kind of jungle-fowl, such asGallus Sonneratii. Pheasants are not found in southern India.[96]Spatham, a straight sword (?); but a contemptuous expression is evidently intended. Polo says: “The people go to battle with lance and shield, entirely naked; yet are they not valiant and courageous, but mean and cowardly.”[97]Is not this short and accurate statement the first account of the Parsis in India, and of their strange disposal of the dead?[98]TheDomraorDóm, one of the lowest Indian castes, and supposed to represent one of the aboriginal races. They are to this day, in Upper India, the persons generally employed to remove carcases, and to do the like jobs; sometimes also as hangmen. In the Dekkan they seem, according to Dubois (p. 468), who calls themDumbars, to be often tumblers, conjurors, and the like.[99]Ginger is cultivated in all parts of India. That of Malabar is best. (Drury.)[100]Carrobiæ,—referring, I presume, to the carob of the Mediterranean (Ceratonia siliqua). I do not know what he means unless it be tamarinds, which are leguminous pods with some analogy to the carobs of the Mediterranean. Thetreesmay often be called stupendous; but this seems scarcely to be his meaning. The European name is Arabic,támar-ul-Hind(date of India), as Linschoten long ago pointed out.[101]Cassia fistulaof Linnæus, if that be what is meant, is found in the Travancore forests, and probably all over India. Its beautiful, pendulous racemes of yellow flowers, shewing something like a Brobdignag laburnum, make it a favourite in the gardens of Upper India. It affords a laxative medicine, and is given by Milburn among the exports of western India. The long, cylindrical pods, sometimes two feet long, probably give the specific name. It is possible, however, that the bishop did not meanC. fistula, butcassia lignea, an inferior cinnamon, which grows in Malabar forests, and was at one time largely exported from Calicut and the other ports. Barbosa mentions it ascanella selvatica. Linschoten says that it was worth only about one-fifth of the Ceylon cinnamon. It is perhaps the cassia of Pliny. It is remarkable however that he says the choice cassia was called by the barbarians by the name oflada; andladais the generic name which the Malays give to all the species of pepper, the word signifyingpungent. (SeeDrury;Crawfurd’s Malay Dict.; andBohn’s Pliny, xii, 43.)[102]This is a remarkable testimony to the character of the Hindus when yet uninjured by foreign domination or much foreign intercourse. M. Polo says the Abraiamain (Brahmans) “are the best and most honest of all merchants, and would not on any account tell a lie” (p. 304). Rabbi Benjamin says also, “This nation is very trustworthy in matters of trade, and whenever foreign merchants enter their port, three secretaries of the king immediately repair on board their vessels, write down their names, and report them to him. The king thereupon grants them security for their property, which they may even leave in the open fields without any guard” (Asher’s Itineraryof R. Benj. of Tud., p. 138et seq.). There are many other passages, both in ancient and mediæval writers, giving an extravagantly high character for integrity and veracity to the Hindus, a character not very often deserved by them, and never ascribed to them, now-a-days. See some remarks on this subject inElphinstone’s History, book iii. ch. xi.It is curious, however, that, with reference to the very district of Travancore, which now includes Quilon, where the bishop’s experience must have chiefly lain, two English Residents have borne testimony lamentably opposed to his account of the character of the people in former times. One of these declares that “he never knew a people so destitute of truth and honesty, or so abandoned to vice and corruption”; the other asserts that “in no part of the world are men to be found to whose habits and affections the practice of vice is so familiar” (Hamilton’s Desc. Hindost., ii. 315).[103]Says Marco, “The heat of the sun can scarcely be endured; if you put an egg into any river, it will be boiled before you have gone any great distance.” (iii. 25.)[104]The reason of the reference to Multán is obscure. The allusion would seem to be to the conquest of the Carnatic and Malabar by the generals of the Khilji sovereigns of Delhi, Alá-ud-din and Mubárik (A.D.1310-1319). The Khiljis were Turks by descent. Mooltan was at this time subject to Delhi (Elphinstone’s History, pp. 343, 348, andBriggs’s Ferishta). But, perhaps, the “not long since” has a wider import, and refers to the conquests and iconoclasms of the great Mahmúd of Ghazni, 300 years before. Indeed, he is here speaking of the Lesser India,i.e.of Sindh, Gujerat, and the Konkan, the scene of some of Mahmúd’s most memorable expeditions. Mahmúd coming from Ghazni would comethroughMultán, and indeed he took that city several times.

FOOTNOTES

[41]Admiral Smyth says that the currents in the Faro are so numerous and varied, that it is difficult to ascertain anything precise about them. In settled seasons a central stream runs north and south, at the rate of two to five miles an hour. On each shore there is arefluo, or counter-set, often forming eddies to the central current. When the main current runs to the north it is calledRema montante, or flood; when it runs south,Rema scendente, or ebb; and this has obtained, perhaps, even from the days of Eratosthenes. He considers that thespecialdanger from the Faro currents is insignificant. There are dangeroussquallsfrom the ravines or river-beds on the high Calabrian coast.He admits some little more of reality in the celebrated vortex of Charybdis, which must have been formidable to the undecked vessels of the ancients; for in the present day small craft are sometimes endangered, and he has seen even a seventy-four whirled round on its surface. The “Galofaro” appears to be an agitated water of from seventy to ninety fathoms in depth, circling in quick eddies, but rather an incessant undulation than a whirlpool, and the cases are only extreme when any vortiginous ripples threaten danger to laden boats. “It is owing probably to the meeting of the harbour and lateral currents with the main one, the latter being forced over in this direction by the opposite point of Pezzo. This agrees in some measure with the relation of Thucydides, who calls it a violent reciprocation of the Tyrrhene and Sicilian seas, and he is the only writer of remote antiquity I remember to have read who has assigned this danger its true situation, and not exaggerated its effects.” (Abridged fromSmyth’sMediterranean, pp. 180-1). Our author seems to mix up the two phenomena in his exaggerated account. Theupward and downward currentsuggest that he had heard the local terms quoted by Admiral Smyth.

He admits some little more of reality in the celebrated vortex of Charybdis, which must have been formidable to the undecked vessels of the ancients; for in the present day small craft are sometimes endangered, and he has seen even a seventy-four whirled round on its surface. The “Galofaro” appears to be an agitated water of from seventy to ninety fathoms in depth, circling in quick eddies, but rather an incessant undulation than a whirlpool, and the cases are only extreme when any vortiginous ripples threaten danger to laden boats. “It is owing probably to the meeting of the harbour and lateral currents with the main one, the latter being forced over in this direction by the opposite point of Pezzo. This agrees in some measure with the relation of Thucydides, who calls it a violent reciprocation of the Tyrrhene and Sicilian seas, and he is the only writer of remote antiquity I remember to have read who has assigned this danger its true situation, and not exaggerated its effects.” (Abridged fromSmyth’sMediterranean, pp. 180-1). Our author seems to mix up the two phenomena in his exaggerated account. Theupward and downward currentsuggest that he had heard the local terms quoted by Admiral Smyth.

[42]“The breadth of the Euripus is diminished by a rock in mid-channel, on which a fort is built, dividing it into two channels: that towards the main, though rather the broader, is only practicable for small boats, as there is not more than three feet water at any time. Between the rock and the walls of Egripos is a distance of 33 feet, and the least depth at the highest water is 7 feet. It is here that the extraordinary tides take place for which the Euripus was formerly so noted; at times the water runs as much as eight miles an hour, with a fall under the bridge of 1½ foot; but what is most singular is, that vessels lying 150 yards from the bridge are not the least affected by this rapid. It remains but a short time in a quiescent state, changing its direction in a few minutes, and almost immediately resuming its velocity, which is generally from four to five miles an hour either way, its greatest rapidity being, however, always to the southward. The results of three months’ observation, in which the above phenomena were noted, afforded no sufficient data for reducing them to any regularity.”—Penny Cyclop., ArticleEubœa. See alsoLeake(Tr. in Northern Greece, ii. p. 257), who quotes Wheler and Spon.

[43]Greece generally is subject to earthquakes, but I cannot find evidence that Thebes is particularly so.

[44]The first ascent of Ararat is well known to have been made by Professor Parrot, of Dorpat, 9th October, 1829, whose account of his journey has been translated by Mr. Cooley.“From the summit downwards, for nearly two-thirds of a mile perpendicular, or nearly three miles in an oblique direction, it is covered with a crown of eternal snow and ice” (Parrot’s Journey, p. 133). As to the clouds, the same author remarks with regard to a drawing of Ararat: “The belt of clouds about the mountain is characteristic” (p. 137). And Smith and Dwight (Researches in Armenia, p. 266) say that they were prevented by clouds from seeing it for three weeks. It is believed in the country that the Ark still exists on the mountain, access to which has been forbidden by Divine decree since Noah’s time. A holy monk called Jacob resolved to convince himself by inspection. But in his ascent of the mountain he three times was overtaken by sleep, and each time found that he had unconsciously lost the ground that he had gained when awake. At last an angel came to him when again asleep, and told him that his zeal was fruitless, but was to be rewarded by a fragment of the wood of the Ark, a sacred relic still preserved in the Cathedral of Echmiazin. (Parrot, andSmith and Dwight); see also the narrative ofGuillaume de Rubruk(Rubruquis), inRec. de Voyages, iv. p. 387.

[44]The first ascent of Ararat is well known to have been made by Professor Parrot, of Dorpat, 9th October, 1829, whose account of his journey has been translated by Mr. Cooley.

“From the summit downwards, for nearly two-thirds of a mile perpendicular, or nearly three miles in an oblique direction, it is covered with a crown of eternal snow and ice” (Parrot’s Journey, p. 133). As to the clouds, the same author remarks with regard to a drawing of Ararat: “The belt of clouds about the mountain is characteristic” (p. 137). And Smith and Dwight (Researches in Armenia, p. 266) say that they were prevented by clouds from seeing it for three weeks. It is believed in the country that the Ark still exists on the mountain, access to which has been forbidden by Divine decree since Noah’s time. A holy monk called Jacob resolved to convince himself by inspection. But in his ascent of the mountain he three times was overtaken by sleep, and each time found that he had unconsciously lost the ground that he had gained when awake. At last an angel came to him when again asleep, and told him that his zeal was fruitless, but was to be rewarded by a fragment of the wood of the Ark, a sacred relic still preserved in the Cathedral of Echmiazin. (Parrot, andSmith and Dwight); see also the narrative ofGuillaume de Rubruk(Rubruquis), inRec. de Voyages, iv. p. 387.

[45]Stories of serpents seem to be rife in Armenia. On the Araxes, south of Nakhcheván (see note below), is a mountain called the Serpent Mountain, where serpents are said to collect in such numbers at certain times, that no man or beast dare approach. (SeeHaxthausen’s Transcaucasia, pp. 144, 181, 353, etc.)

[46]The name of the province and town of Nakhcheván, east of Ararat, signifies “first place of descent, or of lodging.” The antiquity of the tradition is proved by the fact, that Josephus affirms that the Armenians call the place where the Ark rested “the place of descent;” whilst Ptolemy supplies the name of Naxuana. (Smith and Dwight, p. 255.)The place alluded to by Jordanus appears to be Arguri, the only village upon Ararat. Here Noah is said to have built his altar on the exact spot now occupied by the church, and it is of the vineyards of Arguri that the Scripture is believed to speak when it is said that “Noah began to be an husbandman, and planted a vineyard.” The church is of unascertained but remote date; and the name of the place signifies (Argh-urri) “He planted the vine.” (Parrot, p. 122.) At Nakhcheván “the grapes were almost unequalled in excellence, and seemed to deserve the honour of growing on the spot.” (Smith and Dwight, p. 256.) Arguri was buried by an earthquake, accompanied by volcanic indications, July 2nd, 1840. (Smith’s Dict. of the Bible, Art. Ararat.)

The place alluded to by Jordanus appears to be Arguri, the only village upon Ararat. Here Noah is said to have built his altar on the exact spot now occupied by the church, and it is of the vineyards of Arguri that the Scripture is believed to speak when it is said that “Noah began to be an husbandman, and planted a vineyard.” The church is of unascertained but remote date; and the name of the place signifies (Argh-urri) “He planted the vine.” (Parrot, p. 122.) At Nakhcheván “the grapes were almost unequalled in excellence, and seemed to deserve the honour of growing on the spot.” (Smith and Dwight, p. 256.) Arguri was buried by an earthquake, accompanied by volcanic indications, July 2nd, 1840. (Smith’s Dict. of the Bible, Art. Ararat.)

[47]The Armenian belief is, that Thaddeus, one of the Seventy, was, after the Ascension, sent by St. Thomas, according to commands given him by the Lord, to Abgarus of Edessa, who had written the celebrated letter. Thaddeus, and Bartholomew who followed him, were successively put to death by Sanatruk, the heathen nephew of Abgarus. Jude also came to preach in Armenia, and was put to death in Ormi (Urumia). The mission of Simon I do not find mentioned, but Chardin states that his body was said to be preserved in one of the churches. (SeeAvdall’sTr. ofChamich’s Hist. of Armenia. Calcutta, 1827, pp. 107-111, andSmith and Dwight.)

[48]The virgin must beRhipsime, said to have been of the house of Claudius Cæsar, who, with Kayane and thirty-seven other holy virgins, were put to death in the time of Dioclesian. There are churches dedicated to R. and K. at Echmiazin. (Smith and Dwight.)

[49]Tertal is Tiridates, in Armenian Dertad = Theodosius. (Smith and Dwight.)

[50]St. Gregory, called The Illuminator, bornA.D.257, consecrated Archbishop of Armenia 302. He is said to have revived (probablyintroduced) Christianity in Armenia, and, after suffering persecution at the hands of King Tiridates, converted him and his whole people. The place alluded to by Jordanus is at the convent of Khor-virab (“Deep pit”), on the Araxes, under Ararat. Here Gregory is believed to have been confined in a cave with serpents, and in the endurance of manifold torments, for fourteen years. (Smith and Dwight, p. 273. See alsoChardin, p. 251.Curzon’s Armeniahas a concise account of the Armenian church.)

[51]“The ancient and extensive Dominican mission, which once had its seat in this province, (Nakhcheván) is now no more. It was commenced about 1320 by an Italian papal monk of the Dominican order. Such success attended it that soon nearly thirty Armenian villages embraced the faith of Rome, and acknowledged subjection to a papal bishop, who after being consecrated at Rome resided in the village of Aburan, with the title of Archbishop of Nakhcheván.” (Smith and Dwight, p. 257.)

[52]At this time a Tartar successor of Hulaku.

[53]This Dead Sea is doubtless the Lake of Urumia, the waters of which are salter than sea water. It appears to be about ninety miles in length from north to south. There are no fish in it. It contains several islands, or peninsulas which are occasionally islands, two of which have been used as fortresses. In one of these Hulaku the Tartar conqueror of Baghdad was said to have stored his treasures. Another is said to be “as old as the days of Zoroaster,” who is believed to have been born in the vicinity. I do not find tombs mentioned. (Penny Cyc.in v.Azerbijan, alsoMonteithinJour. Geog. Soc.iii. 55, andSmith and Dwight, 348.)

[54]“Thaurisium.”

[55]Sebast is doubtless Sivas, called by Marco Polo Sebastos, anciently Sebasteia (Smith’s Dict. of Gr. and Rom. Geo.) south of Tokat, and giving name to a pachalik. The Barcarian mountains appear asBarchal Daghrunning parallel to the Black Sea between Trebizond and Kars. (Stieler’s Hand-Atlas, 43a.) Mogan isOroganin the original, but, as we shall see below, this is an error of transcription. ThePlainof Mogan is the great plain extending from the eastern foot of Caucasus along the Caspian, and stretching to the south of the Cyrus and Araxes. Here Pompey’s career eastward is said to have been arrested by the venomous serpents with which the long grass of the plain is infested. The dread of these serpents still exists. “Their hissing is heard from afar, and they seem to rise from the grass like fish from the sea”, Kinneir was told. Here the camp of Heraclius was pitched, as was that of the Tartar hosts for many months during their invasion of Armenia in the thirteenth century, and that of Nadir Shah when he placed the crown upon his head. (Macd. Kinneir’s Mem. of Persia, 153;Avdall’s Hist. of Armenia.)

[56]The Lake appears to be Gokchai or Sevan, north-east of Erivan. There is a small island with a monastery upon it. There are many traditions attached to the monasteries in this vicinity, but I cannot find this one.

[57]Perhaps Erivan, but I cannot trace the name.

[58]Sir John Chardin (356) says he may “truly reck’n” the population of Tauris to be 550,000 persons, and that several in the city would have it to be double that number! yet he had said just before that it contained 15,000 houses and 15,000 shops, so that 150,000 souls would be a liberal estimate. It appears now to contain from 30,000 to 50,000. Kinneir calls it one of the most wretched cities in Persia. Such estimates of city population are common enough still. Many books and many gentlemen in India will still tell us that Benares contains half a million, and that Lucknow before 1857 contained 700,000; the fact being, as regards Benares, that bycensusand including its suburbs it contains 171,668; whilst the estimate for Lucknow was probably five or six times the truth. I suspect the usual estimate of 900,000 in the city of Madras to be of equal value.

[59]At Tabriz “dew is entirely unknown, and not more than two or three showers fall between March and December. The plain around is very fertile where irrigated.” (Penny Cyc.)

[60]The only manna I have known in India was exuded by a tamarisk; but it appears to be produced on various shrubs in Persia and the adjoining countries, camelthorns, tamarisks, and others. And one kind calledBed-kishtis produced on a species of willow. (Bedsignifies awillow.) Some kinds of manna are used as sugar. (SeePen. Cyc.in v.Manna.) This authority does not seem to recognize the agency of any insect in its production. But Macdonald Kinneir (in hisMemoir of the Persian Empire, p. 329) has the following note. “Manna is exported from Moosh, on the Euphrates [west of Lake Van] in considerable quantities. It is termedguzby the Persians, and found in great quantities in Louristan, and in the district of Khonsar in Irak. It is taken from a small shrub, in appearance not unlike a funnel, about four feet in height and three in diameter at the top. Theguzis said to be produced by small insects, which are seen to move in vast numbers under the small and narrow leaves of the shrub.—These were always in motion, and continued to crawl between the bark and the leaves. Theguzis collected during the months of August and September in the following manner. A vessel of an oval form being placed under the bush as a receptacle, the leaves are beat every third day with a crooked stick covered with leather. The manna when first gathered has the tenacity and appearance of gum, but, when exposed to the heat of 90° of Fahrenheit’s thermometer, it dissolves into a liquid resembling honey. When mixed with sweetmeat its tenacity resists the application of the knife, but when suddenly struck it shivers into pieces.”

[61]There is a town called in the mapsAhar, about fifty miles north-east of Tabriz, but I cannot find that this was ever considered to be Ur of the Chaldees. Urfa, which is generally supposed to be Ur, is in quite another region, more than four hundred miles from Tabriz.

[62]Wild asses are found in the dry regions from the frontiers of Syria to the Runn of Cutch, and north to 48° lat. Ferrier mentions herds of hundreds between Mushid and Herat, and on the banks of the Khashrood, south of Herat. “They are fleet as deer,” he says. Their flesh is more delicate than Persian beef, and the Afghans consider it a great delicacy, as did the old Roman epicures. This species, as I learn from a note with which Mr. Moore, of the India Museum, has kindly favoured me, isAsinus Onager, theKulanorGhor-kharof the Persians. That of Syria and Northern Arabia is theAsinus Hemippus, the Hemionus of the ancients; whilst theKyangorJiggetai(Equus Hemionusof Pallas,E. Polyodonof Hodgson) inhabits Tibet and thence northward to southern Siberia; and the true wild ass (E. asinus) is indigenous to north-eastern Africa, and perhaps to south Arabia and the island of Socotra.

[63]“Lapis azurii,” hod.lapis lazuli. Quantities of this are found in Badakshan. (Burnes,Bokhara, ii. 205. 8vo ed.)

[64]Sic.ProbablyL, orLVis intended.

[65]“Ferculum et carnem.”

[66]“Tobalia.”

[67]The Afghans exceed the practices here graphically described; for they, I believe, often expectorate in the hairy sleeve of thepostin, which in winter they wear after the fashion of Brian O’Linn, “with the leather side out and the woolly side in.” Scott Waring (Tour to Shiraz, p. 103) notices the dirty table habits of the Persians.

[68]The friar’s remarks seem to shew that forks were common in Europe earlier than is generally represented to be the case.

[69]No doubt it should bekīr, which is bituminous pitch in Persian. What the parenthesis means I cannot make out.Peguacan scarcely be a reference to the petroleum of Pegu at this early date?

[70]Burnes describes the vast fields of soft sand, formed into ridges, between Bokhara and the Oxus. Their uniformity is remarkable, all having the shape of a horse-shoe, convex towards the north, from which the prevailing wind blows. On this side they slope, inside they are precipitous. The height is from fifteen to twenty feet. “The particles of sand, moving from one mound to another, wheeling in the eddy or interior of the semicircle, and having now and then, particularly under the rays of the sun, much the look of water, an appearance, I imagine, which has given rise to the opinion of moving sands in the desert.” (Bokhara, ii. pp. 1, 2.)Our author may possibly have heard of theReg-rawán, or “flowing sand,” of the Koh Daman, near Istalif. (SeeWood’s Oxus, p. 181.)

Our author may possibly have heard of theReg-rawán, or “flowing sand,” of the Koh Daman, near Istalif. (SeeWood’s Oxus, p. 181.)

[71]It may be gathered from what follows, that Lesser India embraces Sindh, and probably Mekrán, and India along the coast as far as some point immediately north of Malabar. Greater India extends from Malabar very indefinitely to the eastward, for he makes it include Champa (Cambodia). India Tertia is the east of Africa.According to the old Portuguese geographer, whose “Summary of Kingdoms,” etc., is given by Ramusio,First India(see text, next page), ends at Mangalore,Second Indiaat the Ganges.Marco Polo reverses the titles given by our author. He makes Greater India extend from Maabar (south part of the Coromandel coast) to Kesmacoran (Kidj-mekrán or Mekrán), whilst Lesser India stretches from the Coromandel to Champa. Abyssinia, Marco callsMiddle India. (SeeMurray’s Polo, pt. ii. ch. xxxvi.) Benjamin of Tudela speaks of “Middle India which is called Aden.” Conti says all India is divided into three parts, the first extending from Persia (Ormus?) to the Indus, the second from the Indus to the Ganges, the third all beyond.It is worth noting that Pliny says it was disputed whether Gedrosia (Mekrán), etc., belonged to India or to Ariana. (vi. p. 23.)

According to the old Portuguese geographer, whose “Summary of Kingdoms,” etc., is given by Ramusio,First India(see text, next page), ends at Mangalore,Second Indiaat the Ganges.

Marco Polo reverses the titles given by our author. He makes Greater India extend from Maabar (south part of the Coromandel coast) to Kesmacoran (Kidj-mekrán or Mekrán), whilst Lesser India stretches from the Coromandel to Champa. Abyssinia, Marco callsMiddle India. (SeeMurray’s Polo, pt. ii. ch. xxxvi.) Benjamin of Tudela speaks of “Middle India which is called Aden.” Conti says all India is divided into three parts, the first extending from Persia (Ormus?) to the Indus, the second from the Indus to the Ganges, the third all beyond.

It is worth noting that Pliny says it was disputed whether Gedrosia (Mekrán), etc., belonged to India or to Ariana. (vi. p. 23.)

[72]I believe this is substantially correct. Sindh is the only province in India that produces edible dates. A date-palm is found all over India, but the fruit is worthless.

[73]Till half-past nine o’clock. “Quod usque ad mediam tertiam per solis radios ullâtenus possit desiccari.” “The dews” in Lower Sindh, says Burnes, “are very heavy and dangerous.” (iii. p. 254.) The fertility of the country is, however, confined to the tracts inundated or irrigated from the Indus and its branches. As to the absence of rain, Dr. Lord says, that “the rainfall registered by Lt. Wood during one year at Hyderabad was only 2·55 inches, whilst at Larkhana, further north, a shower of rain which fell after the arrival of Burnes’s party was universally ascribed to the good fortune of the Firingis, as for three years, the natives said, rain had scarcely been known.” (Reports and Papers on Sindh, etc.—Calcutta, 1839, p. 61.)

[74]“Risis autem comeditur atque sagina in aquâ tantummodo cocta.”

[75]He is wrong about the non-existence of horses and camels in what he calls India the Less.

[76]Five persons toeat, that is. But an English gentleman, who is a coffee planter in the middle of Java, told me that he once cut a jack (the fruit intended by the bishop), which it tookthreemen tocarry. That they grow in Ceylon to 50 lbs. weight at least is testified by Cordiner and Sir Emerson Tennent. The former says they grow there to two feet in length, and to the same circumference, which is bigger than I ever saw them in Bengal. The manner of growing is accurately described in the next paragraph of the text.The jack is, no doubt, the Indian fruit described by Pliny, Book xii. ch. 12, as putting forth its fruit from the bark, and as being remarkable for the sweetness of its juice, a single one containing enough to satisfy four persons. The name of the tree, he says, ispala, and of the fruitAriena. The former is possibly the Tamul name,Pila, which is also one of the Malabar names. If, however, Pliny derived the whole of his information on this fruit, as he appears to derive part of it, from the historians of the Alexandrian invasion, the name may be merely the Sanskritphala, a fruit, and it would be a comical illustration of the persistency of Indian habits of mind. For a stranger in India asking the question, “What is that?” would almost certainly at this day receive for reply, “P’hal hai, khudáwand!” “It is afruit, my lord!”The namejack, which we give to the tree and its fruits, is one of that large class of words which are neither English nor Hindustani, butAnglo-Indian, and the origin of which is often very difficult to trace. Drury givesPilavooas the Malayalim name, but I find that Rheede (Hortus Malabaricus, vol. iii.) gives alsoTsjaka; and Linschoten, too, says that the jack is in Malabar called Iaca: so here we have doubtless the original.I was long puzzled by the two species of our author,ChaquiandBloqui. There are, indeed, two well-known species of artocarpus giving fruits which are both edible, and have a strong external resemblance, the jack and the breadfruit. But the breadfruit isnotas big,notas sweet, and doesnotbear its fruit from the trunk and roots, but from twigs. Nor is it grown in Malabar, though sometimes, Ainslie says (Materia Medica), imported from Ceylon for sale. Nomodernauthors that I can find make a clear distinction of kinds of jack. But, on referring back, we find that all the old authors, who really seem to have gone into these practical matters with more freshness and sympathy in native tastes, do so. Thus Linschoten says, “There are two sorts of them: the best are calledGirasal, and the common or least esteemedChambasal, though in fashion and trees there is no difference, save that the Girasals have a sweeter taste;” and his old commentator, “the learned Doctor Paludanus, of Enckhuysen,” says, also, there are “two sorts, and the best is calledBarca, the otherPapa, which is not so good, and yet in handling is soft like the other.” Nearly three hundred years earlier Ibn Batuta had said, that of the fruits of India “are those termedShakiandBarki, ... the fruit grows out from the bottom of the tree, and that which grows nearest to the earth is called the Barki; it is extremely sweet and well-flavoured in taste; what grows above this is called the Shaki,” etc. Lastly, we have Rheede, speaking with authority, “Ceterum arboris hujus ultra triginta numerantur species ratione fructuum distinctæ,quæ tamen omnes ad duo referentur genera; quorum alterius fructus qui carne succulentâ, gratissimi, mellinique saporis turgent,varaka; at alterius, qui carne flaccidâ, molliori et minus sapidâ referti sunt,Tsjakapanuncupantur.” (iii. p. 19.) Drury, indeed, says, “There are several varieties, but what is called the Honeyjack is by far the sweetest and best.”To conclude this long discourse on a short text, it seems certain that theBloquiof our author is theBarkiof Ibn Batuta, theBarkaof Paludanus, theVaraka“mellini saporis” of Rheede, and the Honeyjack of Drury. “He that desireth to see more hereof let him readeLodouicus Romanus, in his fifth Booke and fifteene Chapter of his Nauigatiouns, andChristopherus a Costain his Cap. ofIaca, andGracia ab Horto, in the second Booke and fourth Chapter,” saith the learned Paludanus,—and so say I, by all means!

The jack is, no doubt, the Indian fruit described by Pliny, Book xii. ch. 12, as putting forth its fruit from the bark, and as being remarkable for the sweetness of its juice, a single one containing enough to satisfy four persons. The name of the tree, he says, ispala, and of the fruitAriena. The former is possibly the Tamul name,Pila, which is also one of the Malabar names. If, however, Pliny derived the whole of his information on this fruit, as he appears to derive part of it, from the historians of the Alexandrian invasion, the name may be merely the Sanskritphala, a fruit, and it would be a comical illustration of the persistency of Indian habits of mind. For a stranger in India asking the question, “What is that?” would almost certainly at this day receive for reply, “P’hal hai, khudáwand!” “It is afruit, my lord!”

The namejack, which we give to the tree and its fruits, is one of that large class of words which are neither English nor Hindustani, butAnglo-Indian, and the origin of which is often very difficult to trace. Drury givesPilavooas the Malayalim name, but I find that Rheede (Hortus Malabaricus, vol. iii.) gives alsoTsjaka; and Linschoten, too, says that the jack is in Malabar called Iaca: so here we have doubtless the original.

I was long puzzled by the two species of our author,ChaquiandBloqui. There are, indeed, two well-known species of artocarpus giving fruits which are both edible, and have a strong external resemblance, the jack and the breadfruit. But the breadfruit isnotas big,notas sweet, and doesnotbear its fruit from the trunk and roots, but from twigs. Nor is it grown in Malabar, though sometimes, Ainslie says (Materia Medica), imported from Ceylon for sale. Nomodernauthors that I can find make a clear distinction of kinds of jack. But, on referring back, we find that all the old authors, who really seem to have gone into these practical matters with more freshness and sympathy in native tastes, do so. Thus Linschoten says, “There are two sorts of them: the best are calledGirasal, and the common or least esteemedChambasal, though in fashion and trees there is no difference, save that the Girasals have a sweeter taste;” and his old commentator, “the learned Doctor Paludanus, of Enckhuysen,” says, also, there are “two sorts, and the best is calledBarca, the otherPapa, which is not so good, and yet in handling is soft like the other.” Nearly three hundred years earlier Ibn Batuta had said, that of the fruits of India “are those termedShakiandBarki, ... the fruit grows out from the bottom of the tree, and that which grows nearest to the earth is called the Barki; it is extremely sweet and well-flavoured in taste; what grows above this is called the Shaki,” etc. Lastly, we have Rheede, speaking with authority, “Ceterum arboris hujus ultra triginta numerantur species ratione fructuum distinctæ,quæ tamen omnes ad duo referentur genera; quorum alterius fructus qui carne succulentâ, gratissimi, mellinique saporis turgent,varaka; at alterius, qui carne flaccidâ, molliori et minus sapidâ referti sunt,Tsjakapanuncupantur.” (iii. p. 19.) Drury, indeed, says, “There are several varieties, but what is called the Honeyjack is by far the sweetest and best.”

To conclude this long discourse on a short text, it seems certain that theBloquiof our author is theBarkiof Ibn Batuta, theBarkaof Paludanus, theVaraka“mellini saporis” of Rheede, and the Honeyjack of Drury. “He that desireth to see more hereof let him readeLodouicus Romanus, in his fifth Booke and fifteene Chapter of his Nauigatiouns, andChristopherus a Costain his Cap. ofIaca, andGracia ab Horto, in the second Booke and fourth Chapter,” saith the learned Paludanus,—and so say I, by all means!

[77]Amba(Pers.), the Mango. Ibn Batuta writes it’anbâwith an’ain, as appears from Lee’s note (p. 104), and the latter translates it “grape,” which is the meaning of that word I believe inArabic. Our author’s just description of the flavour of the mango is applicable, however, only to the finer stocks, and seems to show that the “Bombay mango” already existed in the thirteenth century. The mango is commonly believed in Anglo-India to produce boils, which I see was also the belief in Linschoten’s day. But I agree with his commentator, that, at the time when the fruit is ripe, “by reason of the great heate and season of the yeare—many doe fall into the forenamed diseases, although they eate none of this fruite.”

[78]This would seem to imply that the orange was not known in Southern Europe in the author’s time; though there are such things as sweet lemons.

[79]The Persian name for the coco-nut, and coco-palm.

[80]So Ibn Batuta—“Of this sort of trees the palm will produce fruit twelve times in the year, each month supplying a fresh crop: so that you will see upon the trees the fruit of some large, of others small, of others dry, and of others green. And this is the case always.” (See p. 176.)The account of the coco-palm, though slightly mythicized, is substantially correct. In the third year of the palm’s growth the fronds begin to fall, a new frond appearing at the end of every month. Of these there are twenty-eight, more or less, on a full-grown tree. On a single tree there are about twelve branches, or spadices, of nuts. Most of the young fruit falls off, only a few coming to perfection; but as from ten to fifteen nutson an averageare produced on one branch, a single tree may produce eighty to one hundred nuts every year. (Drury’s Useful Plants of India.)

The account of the coco-palm, though slightly mythicized, is substantially correct. In the third year of the palm’s growth the fronds begin to fall, a new frond appearing at the end of every month. Of these there are twenty-eight, more or less, on a full-grown tree. On a single tree there are about twelve branches, or spadices, of nuts. Most of the young fruit falls off, only a few coming to perfection; but as from ten to fifteen nutson an averageare produced on one branch, a single tree may produce eighty to one hundred nuts every year. (Drury’s Useful Plants of India.)

[81]This is thejaggeri, or palm-sugar, used extensively in southern India. It is made by boiling down the fresh toddy over a slow fire. The description of the extraction of the toddy, etc., is substantially correct.

[82]“Omni tempore mundi, et hoc sicut venit.”

[83]“The leaves are employed for thatching houses, especially in Malabar.” (Drury, p. 152.)

[84]The well knowncoir. The native practice is to steep the husk in salt water for eighteen months or two years before beating out thecoir; but this has been proved to be injurious. The virtues ofcoirare strength, lightness, elasticity, durability, power of standing sea-water. It is now largely used in England for brushes, mats, carpets, etc. (Drury.)

[85]PersianTár.Tádíis the Teloogoo name, according to Drury; in Hindustani,tárandtál. It is the palmyra (Borassus flabelliformis), a tree found from Malabar along the coast to Bengal, and thence down the transgangetic coast through Burma and the great islands, and also up the Ganges to Cawnpore, a little above which it ceases. The fruit is of no value. The wood is much used for rafters, etc., and it is better than that of any other Indian palm; but the tree is chiefly used for the derivation of the liquor to which, as taken from this and other palms, we give the slightly corrupted name oftoddy, a name which in Scotland has received a new application. It is the tree from which palm-sugar is most generally made. The leaves are used for making fans (the typical fan being evidently a copy of this leaf), for writing on, and in some places for thatching, etc.

[86]BelluriI conceive to be theCaryota urens, which, according to Rheede (Hortus Malabar., i.), is called by the Brahmans in Malabarbirala. Most of our author’s names seem to be Persian in form; but there is probably no Persian name for this palm. Richardson, however, has “barhal, name of a tree and its fruit.” This tree yields more toddy than any other palm, as much as a hundred pints in twenty-four hours. Much sugar is made from it, especially in Ceylon. It also affords a sago, and a fibre for fishing lines, known in England as “Indian gut.” A woolly stuff found at the springing of the fronds, is said by Drury to be used for caulking. I may add that it makes an excellentamadoufor smokers; but the specific name does not come from this fact, as I have heard suggested, but from the burning acridity of the fruit when applied to the tongue. Thecaryota, with its enormous jagged fronds, and huge pendulous bunches of little bead-like berries, is a very beautiful object. The fruit is actually used for beads by the Mahomedans. Buchanan (Mysore, etc., ii, 454) says its leaves are the favourite food of the elephant, and that its sugar is superior to that of the palmyra, but inferior to that of the cocoa nut.

[87]The banyan:“Such as at this day, to Indians knownIn Malabar or Decan, spreads her armsBranching so broad and long, that in the groundThe bended twigs take root, and daughters growAbout the mother-tree, a pillared shadeHigh over-arched, and echoing walks between:There oft the Indian herdsman, shunning heat,Shelters in cool, and tends his pasturing herdsAt loopholes cut through thicket shade.”(Paradise Lost, b. ix.)Which noble lines are almost an exact versification of Pliny’s description (xii, 11). Drury quotes Roxburgh as mentioning banyans, the vertical shadow of which had a circumference of five hundred yards. Just about half this size is the largest I have seen, near Hushyárpúr in the Northern Punjab. It is remarkable in some of the largest of these trees, that you cannot tell which has been the original and “mother-tree,” that having probably decayed and disappeared. The age of these trees is sometimes by no means so great as first impressions suggest. There is a very fine one in the Botanic Garden at Calcutta, (its exact size I do not remember, but the shade is not less than a hundred and eighty to two hundred feet across), whereof the garden tradition runs, that it originated in Roxburgh’s time,i.e., eighty or ninety years ago. It has, however, been carefully tended andextended, the vertical fibres being protected by bamboo tubes when young. It is said to have grown originally in the crown of a date tree, as often happens.

[87]The banyan:

“Such as at this day, to Indians knownIn Malabar or Decan, spreads her armsBranching so broad and long, that in the groundThe bended twigs take root, and daughters growAbout the mother-tree, a pillared shadeHigh over-arched, and echoing walks between:There oft the Indian herdsman, shunning heat,Shelters in cool, and tends his pasturing herdsAt loopholes cut through thicket shade.”(Paradise Lost, b. ix.)

“Such as at this day, to Indians known

In Malabar or Decan, spreads her arms

Branching so broad and long, that in the ground

The bended twigs take root, and daughters grow

About the mother-tree, a pillared shade

High over-arched, and echoing walks between:

There oft the Indian herdsman, shunning heat,

Shelters in cool, and tends his pasturing herds

At loopholes cut through thicket shade.”

(Paradise Lost, b. ix.)

Which noble lines are almost an exact versification of Pliny’s description (xii, 11). Drury quotes Roxburgh as mentioning banyans, the vertical shadow of which had a circumference of five hundred yards. Just about half this size is the largest I have seen, near Hushyárpúr in the Northern Punjab. It is remarkable in some of the largest of these trees, that you cannot tell which has been the original and “mother-tree,” that having probably decayed and disappeared. The age of these trees is sometimes by no means so great as first impressions suggest. There is a very fine one in the Botanic Garden at Calcutta, (its exact size I do not remember, but the shade is not less than a hundred and eighty to two hundred feet across), whereof the garden tradition runs, that it originated in Roxburgh’s time,i.e., eighty or ninety years ago. It has, however, been carefully tended andextended, the vertical fibres being protected by bamboo tubes when young. It is said to have grown originally in the crown of a date tree, as often happens.

[88]True in a general way, but with exceptions, specific and local.

[89]Siya-gosh(black-ear), the Persian name of the lynx. I have not been able to hear of awhitelynx. The lynx of the Dekkan, which is probably meant (felis caracal), has only the under part white, the back being a pale reddish brown. Its tenacity is a noted feature.

[90]“Quod vocatur rinocerunta”! The rhinoceros is not now, I believe, found in any part of India south (or west) of the Ganges; but it has become extinct in my own time in the forests of Rajmahl, on the right bank of that river; and very possibly extended at one time much further west, though our author’s statement is too vague to build upon, and scarcely indicates personal knowledge of the animal.

[91]Two-headed and even three-headed serpents might be suggested by the portentous appearance of a cobra with dilated hood and spectacles, especially if the spectator were (as probably would be the case) in a great fright. But forfiveheads I can make no apology.

[92]This has puzzled me sorely, and I sought it vainly among Tamul and Malayalim synonyms. At the last moment the light breaks in upon me. It is, Fr.,cocatrix; Ital.,calcatrice; Anglicè, acockatrice!

[93]Polo says: “Here and throughout all India the birds and beasts are different from ours, except one bird, which is the quail.” (iii, 20.)

[94]A literally accurate description of the great Indian bat, or flying fox. They generally cluster on some great banyan tree. These, I presume, are what Marco Polo quaintly calls “bald owls which fly in the night: they have neither wings (?) nor feathers, and are as large as an eagle.” (iii, 20.) There is a good account of the flying fox, and an excellent cut, in Tennent’sNat. History of Ceylon. On the Indiarubber trees at the Botanic Gardens near Kandy, they “hang in such prodigious numbers that frequently large branches give way beneath their accumulated weight.” (p. 16.) Shall I be thought to be rivalling my author in the recital of marvels, if I say that in 1845 I saw, near Delhi, large branches which had been broken off by the accumulated weight—oflocustsa few days before? So all the peasantry testified.

[95]Probably some kind of jungle-fowl, such asGallus Sonneratii. Pheasants are not found in southern India.

[96]Spatham, a straight sword (?); but a contemptuous expression is evidently intended. Polo says: “The people go to battle with lance and shield, entirely naked; yet are they not valiant and courageous, but mean and cowardly.”

[97]Is not this short and accurate statement the first account of the Parsis in India, and of their strange disposal of the dead?

[98]TheDomraorDóm, one of the lowest Indian castes, and supposed to represent one of the aboriginal races. They are to this day, in Upper India, the persons generally employed to remove carcases, and to do the like jobs; sometimes also as hangmen. In the Dekkan they seem, according to Dubois (p. 468), who calls themDumbars, to be often tumblers, conjurors, and the like.

[99]Ginger is cultivated in all parts of India. That of Malabar is best. (Drury.)

[100]Carrobiæ,—referring, I presume, to the carob of the Mediterranean (Ceratonia siliqua). I do not know what he means unless it be tamarinds, which are leguminous pods with some analogy to the carobs of the Mediterranean. Thetreesmay often be called stupendous; but this seems scarcely to be his meaning. The European name is Arabic,támar-ul-Hind(date of India), as Linschoten long ago pointed out.

[101]Cassia fistulaof Linnæus, if that be what is meant, is found in the Travancore forests, and probably all over India. Its beautiful, pendulous racemes of yellow flowers, shewing something like a Brobdignag laburnum, make it a favourite in the gardens of Upper India. It affords a laxative medicine, and is given by Milburn among the exports of western India. The long, cylindrical pods, sometimes two feet long, probably give the specific name. It is possible, however, that the bishop did not meanC. fistula, butcassia lignea, an inferior cinnamon, which grows in Malabar forests, and was at one time largely exported from Calicut and the other ports. Barbosa mentions it ascanella selvatica. Linschoten says that it was worth only about one-fifth of the Ceylon cinnamon. It is perhaps the cassia of Pliny. It is remarkable however that he says the choice cassia was called by the barbarians by the name oflada; andladais the generic name which the Malays give to all the species of pepper, the word signifyingpungent. (SeeDrury;Crawfurd’s Malay Dict.; andBohn’s Pliny, xii, 43.)

[102]This is a remarkable testimony to the character of the Hindus when yet uninjured by foreign domination or much foreign intercourse. M. Polo says the Abraiamain (Brahmans) “are the best and most honest of all merchants, and would not on any account tell a lie” (p. 304). Rabbi Benjamin says also, “This nation is very trustworthy in matters of trade, and whenever foreign merchants enter their port, three secretaries of the king immediately repair on board their vessels, write down their names, and report them to him. The king thereupon grants them security for their property, which they may even leave in the open fields without any guard” (Asher’s Itineraryof R. Benj. of Tud., p. 138et seq.). There are many other passages, both in ancient and mediæval writers, giving an extravagantly high character for integrity and veracity to the Hindus, a character not very often deserved by them, and never ascribed to them, now-a-days. See some remarks on this subject inElphinstone’s History, book iii. ch. xi.It is curious, however, that, with reference to the very district of Travancore, which now includes Quilon, where the bishop’s experience must have chiefly lain, two English Residents have borne testimony lamentably opposed to his account of the character of the people in former times. One of these declares that “he never knew a people so destitute of truth and honesty, or so abandoned to vice and corruption”; the other asserts that “in no part of the world are men to be found to whose habits and affections the practice of vice is so familiar” (Hamilton’s Desc. Hindost., ii. 315).

It is curious, however, that, with reference to the very district of Travancore, which now includes Quilon, where the bishop’s experience must have chiefly lain, two English Residents have borne testimony lamentably opposed to his account of the character of the people in former times. One of these declares that “he never knew a people so destitute of truth and honesty, or so abandoned to vice and corruption”; the other asserts that “in no part of the world are men to be found to whose habits and affections the practice of vice is so familiar” (Hamilton’s Desc. Hindost., ii. 315).

[103]Says Marco, “The heat of the sun can scarcely be endured; if you put an egg into any river, it will be boiled before you have gone any great distance.” (iii. 25.)

[104]The reason of the reference to Multán is obscure. The allusion would seem to be to the conquest of the Carnatic and Malabar by the generals of the Khilji sovereigns of Delhi, Alá-ud-din and Mubárik (A.D.1310-1319). The Khiljis were Turks by descent. Mooltan was at this time subject to Delhi (Elphinstone’s History, pp. 343, 348, andBriggs’s Ferishta). But, perhaps, the “not long since” has a wider import, and refers to the conquests and iconoclasms of the great Mahmúd of Ghazni, 300 years before. Indeed, he is here speaking of the Lesser India,i.e.of Sindh, Gujerat, and the Konkan, the scene of some of Mahmúd’s most memorable expeditions. Mahmúd coming from Ghazni would comethroughMultán, and indeed he took that city several times.

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