Chau Ju-Kua - University of Oregon Libraries

iQO MALiBAK. Ijl6
are rioUy attired, wear on their feet aud wrists rings of gold and silver, their hair is done in
tresses. They play at games and at sham fights while the king precedes them .... He owns many
elephants and in this consists the principal force of his army».
4) Pu-tai Mm, lit. « Cotton-cloth-bag sedan-chair». On the S. W. coast of India this form
of palanquin is called manjil; it is a hammock-litter. Yule & Burnell, Glossary, 456, sub voce 5
Muncheel. Ralph Fitch when in Pegu (1583—1591) travelled in Delingeges «which are a kind of
coches made of cords and cloth quilted, & caried upon a stang betweene 3 or 4men». Hakluyt,
Princ. Navigations, V, 486 (Mac Lehose's edit), see also supra, p. 47.
5) Here, as in speaking of Hu-ch'a-la (Guzerat) and various other countries of India, Chau
uses the word Fo (Buddha) in the sense of can image of a god», not in its literal sense. In 10
speaking of Ta-ts'in (Baghdad) he says the sovereign aworships Buddha, does reverence to
Buddha». In another passage he calls Mohammed a Buddha, and in another Brahma Fo. In
Chapter XL on Ma-i (the Philippines) he calls the stone images of gods «Buddhas». There is
some excuse for his confounding Hindu with Buddhist worship, as he does several times. Ma
Huan in the 15ti> century makes the same blunder, he says the king of Cochin was a devout 15
Buddhist. J. R. A. S. 1896, 342.
6) This cotton-cloth is probably «the buckram which looks like tissue of spider's web» of
which Polo speaks, and which Yule says was the famous muslin ofMasulipatam. Yule, Marco
Polo, II, 348. Conf. infi-a, Pt. II, Ch. XXIII.
7) It may be more correct to translate the first line of this paragraph: «There is in this 20
country a river of brackish waters or what is called a tidal-river. Cat's-eyes were procured in
Ceylon (supra, p. 73. Cf. infra, Pt. II. Ch. XXXII). It may be that the river referred to was in
Ceylon — a dependency of Nan-p'i. Conf Reinaud, Relation, I, 127.
The P'ing-ch6u-k'o-t'an, 2,4, speaking of the customs of the foreigners who frequented
Canton says: «The men wear on a finger of the hand precious stones «set in gold or tin, according 25
as the wearer is rich or poor. These they call «flnger-rings» (:^ ^g "j )•
'^^^ people of
Kiau-chi place particular value on this habit, one ring being worth as much as a hundred pieces of
gold. The finest (precious stone) is called «cat's-eye», and it is a jade stone (or «of jade colour»?
yh ^^ ^^ "Wi)- ^^ ^^ ^° brilliant and flashing that it seems alive, and (close) examination
does not disclose the reason of this. There is also the mo-so stone (^S ^K ^ bezoar stone) 30
which is an antidote for the poison of reptiles. Worn in a finger-ring, if one is poisoned and licks
it, one is at once cured; so it may well be considered a life preserver)! ('^^ A^ ).
8) Ku-lin, in Cantonese Ko-lam is Quilon, see supra, p. 12 and infra, p. 91. n. 17. Hu-ch'a-la,
in Cantonese Hu-ch'a-lat is Guzerat, see infra p. 92. Kan-pa-i, in Cantonese Kom-p'a-yat is the city
of Cambay, the Kambayat of the Arabs. Pa-li-sha is probably Bharoch. Edrisi (I, 175. Jaubert's 35
transl.) says that Bharoch (Baruh i. e. ^^yf) was a station for ships coming from China. Ma-lo-hua
in Cantonese Ma-lo-wa is Malwa. Fong-ya-lo, in Amoy dialect Bang-ga-lo is probably Mangalore. Ma-
li-mo, in Amoy dialect Ma-li-bwat is probably Malabar. See supra, p. 89, n. 2. Tu-no-ho may be the
Tana or Tannah of Arab geographers and of Marco Polo, on the islandofSalsette near Bombay.
A-li-jo may be theRasHailiof Abulfeda, the country of Hili of Rashideddin and Ibn Batuta 40
between Mangalore and Fandarsina (i. e., Pandarani, 10 miles N. of Calicut), the kingdom of Eli
of Polo. Ao (or !N'gao)-lo-lo-ni may be Cannanore or Nellore — the Nilawar of Was saf which
divided Malabar from MAbar, and whichMaHuan in the 15ti» century calls Hon-nn-ir (^S "^7
^). Phillips, J. R. A. S. 1896, 345. See also Yule, Marco Polo, II, 315, 374—376.
9) Two paragraphs farther on he tells us that Nan-p'i is five days sailing nearer the 45
N. W. coast of Sumatra (Lan-wu-li) than Quilon. It may well be that it was not frequently visited
by ships engaged in the China trade, for their principal port of call was Quilon. The name of the
two Nairs living in Ts'flan-ch6u in Chau's time may have been Shi-lo-pa and Chi-li-kan, there is
nothing in the text to indicate how these six characters should be read. Ma Tuan-lin, op. sup.^
eit., II, 587, after quoting this paragraph adds: «sincB then (the arrival of these two Malabars in 50
China) inany ships (of China?) have visited that country)). On the Malabar coast and its trade in
the middle ages, see Heyd, Hist, du Commerce, II, 146—149.
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