The Journal of the Siam Society Vol. LXIV, Part 1-2, 1976 - Khamkoo

REVIEW ARTICLES 257
stop at Mueng Tern in Lam pang Province. Another fill-up and the bus then
runs through Lampang and Lamphun Provinces to Chiengmai.
Our
tourist, if be had listened to the chatter of the tour hostess as she made
explanations of the places passed, might have remembered some of the
actual names; in fact, he might have taken some notes even if he had no
idea of writing a book about his trip afterwar~s.
have done the same.)
(Marco Polo might
Then a year or so later, when asked about his
trip, our tourist could give a fair description of the two places where
his bus stopped, but be might forget the names Nakorn Sa wan and Tern,
and say that the first stop was made at Bong-Bang (meaning Larnpang),
and the second at Hoo Flung Yoo Hi (meaning Lamphun, the old name
of which was Haripunchai). But he would have got the names Bangkok
and Chiengmai correct.
The case of Marco Polo is the same.
When be dictated his story
about the City States of Malaya, or what he called Java Minor, Polo
lost his list if he had one, or be had two lists and got them mixed up, or
he never had a list in the first place and simply made up some of the
names himself. Whatever happened, the descriptions were not of places
in Sumatra because that would be against the evidence of Marco Polo
himself.
So the second supposition is that Polo's City States of Java
Minor were on the Malay Peninsula, even if he got the names cock-eyed.
The third supposition is that he visited the six states in the order
he described them.
That is, Ferlac, the first state mentioned, was the
northernmost on the east coast of Java Minor ; from there he coasted
down south to the second state, etc., round the Peninsula and up the
west coast to Fansur, the sixth and last state named, which was the
northernmost location on the west coast.
the open seas to Ceylon.
ancient times.
visited any inland state.
states were Naksat Cities.
From there he sailed across
This was the route used by mariners from
Also included in this supposition is that Polo never
And the fourth supposition is that all these