Marco Polo

by Robin Brown

  On my homeward journey I happened to witness a remarkable application of the law. The king owed some money to a foreign merchant who asked for payment repeatedly but for a long time was given nothing but vain assurances. One day when the king was out on horseback the merchant drew a ring around him and his horse. As soon as he realised what had happened the king stopped and did not dare leave the circle until the merchant had been paid what he was owed. The bystanders much admired the king’s behaviour and pronounced him just for having so carefully observed the laws of the country.

  They do not drink wine made from grapes here. Anyone who did would be regarded as untrustworthy. A similar prejudice applies to sailors, who are thought to be so hard up they are not to be trusted anyway!

  They do not, however, regard fornication as a crime because it’s so hot that everyone goes around naked. In fact the heat is so strong during June, July and August that were it not for the occasional falls of rain life would be insupportable.

  Adepts in the science of physiognomy – the judgement of men as good or evil – abound here and these people can quickly spot the truth simply from a man’s appearance. They also forecast events by observing certain beasts and birds, indeed they pay more attention to the flight of birds than anyone else in the world and will predict good or bad fortune from these movements.

  In each and every day of the week there is an hour which they regard as unlucky and is called choiach. On these hours they refrain from making purchases or doing any kind of business, believing it would not be a success. These inauspicious hours are worked out for every year and recorded in books. When an infant is born the parents make a careful note of the day upon which the birth took place, also the phase of the moon, the name of the month, and the hour. It certainly seemed to me that astrology ruled their entire lives.

  At the age of thirteen a son is put out of his father’s home and with a small sum of money (about 20 groats) is expected to go his own way and find work to support himself. You see boys running about throughout the day attempting to turn a profit on some item or other. When it is the season for pearl fishing they trade with the fishermen for half a dozen or so small pearls which they then carry to the merchants who are too lazy to go out in the heat of the day. The merchants usually give them a little more than they paid for the pearls and in this way, dealing in many different articles, they soon become excellent traders. The money they earn is carried home and given to their mothers who at no cost to the family still provide them with their dinners.

  In this country and throughout India the animals and birds are completely unlike our own, except for quails. There are bats as large as vultures and black as crows. They fly at great speed and never fail to catch their prey.

  In the temples there are many idols to which the parents dedicate their daughters. Once dedicated these girls are expected to attend the temple and do whatever the priests demand of them to gratify the idol. Large bands of young women attend the temple to sing, play instruments and generally enhance the festivals of worship. Several times a week they carry food to the idol and believe it is consumed. The food is placed on a special table and left there for an hour while the girls sit around it singing and gesticulating in a very wanton fashion. After the idol has had time to take a meal – about an hour – they then proceed to eat the meal and they all go home.

  I’m told that the justification for all these temple girls behaving in so lewd a manner is that the priests put it about that the male idols are out of favour with the female idols who won’t sleep with them or even talk to them. If measures weren’t taken to restore peace and harmony it would be the ruin of the temple. So the girls all dance naked with just a cloth round their waists chanting seductively to the idols in the hope of restoring good relations. It goes without saying that in this culture, gods and goddesses are assumed to sleep together.

  The natives sleep on a kind of bedstead with draperies so ingeniously contrived they only have to pull a string to close the fine gauze curtains. Such screens are very necessary because there are tarantula spiders here with an awful bite; also fleas and other small vermin. The curtains still let in enough air for you to be able to sleep in this extreme heat, although only well-off people of rank can afford such luxuries. Everyone else sleeps on the open streets.

  As I have said, St Thomas the Apostle was martyred in Maabar in this part of India. His body is kept in a small city which few merchants have cause to visit. But vast numbers of Christians and Saracens go there. Saracens worship him by the name of Ananias, meaning holy person, and he is regarded as a great prophet.

  The Christians who make the pilgrimage collect earth of a red colour from the spot where he was slain and reverently carry it away with them in the belief that miracles can be performed with it. They also dilute it in water and give it to the sick as a cure for all kinds of disorders.

  It’s reported that in the year 1288 a fine rice harvest had resulted in a powerful local prince accumulating so large a portion of the crop that he needed somewhere to store it. Much against the wishes of its guardians he decided to commandeer a building reserved for pilgrims belonging to the Church of St Thomas. In spite of their protests the prince insisted on taking over the building. The following night the Holy Apostle appeared before him in a vision holding in his hand a small spear which he pointed at the throat of the prince and warned: ‘If you do not immediately quit my house I shall put thee to a miserable death.’

  The prince awoke in a state of desperate alarm, declared publicly that he had seen St Thomas in a vision, and immediately gave orders for the Saint’s wishes to be complied with. I’m told that several miracles involving the Blessed Saint are now performed here daily.

  The Christians in charge of the church possess a grove of trees producing Indian nuts from which they make a living. They have to pay the King’s brother a tax of a groat per tree.

  The death of St Thomas is said to have taken place in the following manner. He had retired to a hermitage where there were a number of peacocks (in which the country abounds) and was there engaged in prayer when an idolater of the tribe of the gaui, not seeing the holy man, shot an arrow at one of the birds which struck Thomas in the side. Mortally wounded, the Saint thanked the Lord for all his mercies, offered up his spirit, and died.

  Strangely, the people of this province are not born as black as they appear. They regard black as the perfect skin colour and artificially dye themselves and their children by rubbing themselves with oil of sesame three times every day. They present all of their gods as jet black and the devil they paint white and believe all his demons are also of that colour.

  Those of them who revere the ox take with them into battle some of the hair of a wild bull. This is attached to the manes of their horses and they believe it protects them from all manner of dangers. As you may imagine, wild ox hair sells for a high price in these countries.

  I want now to take you on a journey 500 miles to the north to the kingdom of Murphili or Mosul. Diamonds are found in the mountains of this country and the people, all idolaters, live on rice, meat, fish and fruit. During the rainy seasons water pours down the rocks and valleys in violent torrents and when these have subsided the people go in search of diamonds and find lots.

  I was told that in the summer also, when the heat is extreme and the mountains infested with snakes, they make a very tiring, dangerous journey into the mountains. Near the summits where there are deep valleys full of caverns they find yet more diamonds. Many eagles and white storks make their nests here feeding on the snakes. The diamond-hunters take up positions near the mouths of caverns and throw bits of meat down into the valleys. The eagles and storks swoop down after this bait and carry it off to their eyries in the high rocks. The natives climb up, drive the fierce birds off and recover the scraps of meat which quite often have diamonds stuck to them. Should the eagles have had time to eat the meat the natives note where they roost and in the morning find diamonds among their excreta.

  U
nfortunately, the local Christians never get their hands on these fine stones. They are taken directly to the Grand Khan or to the kings and chiefs of the country. The finest cotton in the whole of India is manufactured here and they also raise the largest sheep I have ever seen in the whole world. Everywhere there is a great abundance of food.

  Leaving the place where the Blessed Saint Thomas rests and proceeding in a westerly direction you eventually enter the province of Lar where the Brahmins, who have spread throughout India, originated. They are without doubt the best and most honourable of merchants to be found anywhere. There is literally no way they can be induced to tell anything other than the truth even if their life depends upon it. They hate robbery and theft and, being content with just one wife, are remarkably virtuous. A foreign merchant, unfamiliar with practices of this country, can with confidence place himself in their hands. The Brahmin will manage his business, dispose of the goods and faithfully account for everything. Even should the foreigner fail to pay the usual gratuity it will never be demanded.

  Brahmins eat and drink the wine of their country but do not kill animals themselves but get Mahometans to do it for them. You can recognise a Brahmin by a kind of a badge which consists of a thick cotton cord that passes over the shoulder and is tied under the arm in such a way that the cord spans the breast and the back.

  They have an extremely rich and powerful king who loves pearls and valuable stones. When a merchant of Maabar presents one such to the king, the king simply takes their word as to its value and gives them twice the sum they claim to have paid for it. In the circumstances, you can imagine how many fine gems he gets offered!

  The people, idolaters all, love sorcery and divination. Before making a purchase they first consult the shadow cast by their own body, only proceeding if their shadow is as large as they think it ought to be. If they are making a purchase in a shop and they see a tarantula (of which there are many), they note the direction it came from and regulate their business accordingly. If they are out and hear someone sneeze they go home and stay in! A certain vegetable [betel] is chewed to keep their teeth clean, promote digestion and is generally beneficial to health.

  Among them is one caste, the Tingui [yogis], who devote themselves to the religious life and live very austerely. They go about completely naked believing that this is how they first came into the world and there is thus no shame in it. This even applies to their privates which, not being organs of sin for them, they have no need to be embarrassed at exposing.

  They revere the ox and have a small figure of one, in gilt or brass, attached to their foreheads. They also make a paste from the burnt, ground-down bones of oxen with which they reverentially mark various parts of their body. They also put this paste on the foreheads of people with whom they are on cordial terms. They have extreme rules about what they eat. Fruit, vegetables, herbs or roots are not consumed until they become dry as they believe they all have souls. They make no use of spoons or plates, spreading their food instead on the dried leaves of Adam’s Apples, also known as the Apples of Paradise. When they need to defecate they go to a beach by the sea, do their business then immediately scatter it in all directions in order that vermin should not breed in it, believing that if such vermin were later to starve to death it would be on their conscience and a grievous fault.

  But these people do seem to live to a great age, some say to 150, and even though they sleep on the bare earth they enjoy good health and vigour.

  I would like for a moment to refer back to the island of Zeilan with more details which I picked up when I visited the island on my homeward journey. It boasts a very high mountain so steep and rocky you can only climb it with the aid of iron chains fixed for that purpose to the rock face. By such means people do attain the summit and here the Saracens believe you may find the tomb of Adam. Idolaters, on the other hand, say this tomb contains the body of Sogomonbarchan [Buddha], who founded their religious faith and is their most holy person. He was the son of a king of the island who devoted himself to the aesthetic life, refusing to accept the kingdoms and other worldly possessions offered by the sovereign even though the king tried, using alluring women and every imaginable offer of gratification, to turn him from his resolve. Every one of these attempts at seduction proved to be in vain, however, until finally he fled alone to a mountain top where in celibacy and abstinence he eventually quit this mortal life. He is regarded by all idolaters as their saint.

  His father, distraught and afflicted with the most desperate grief, caused an image to be created of gold and precious stones and ordered all the inhabitants of the island to worship it as a god. The worship of idols in these parts stems from that event, with Sogomonbarchan still regarded as the most superior of them all. People from many different parts of the island flock on pilgrimages to the mountain top on which he is said to be buried. Some of his teeth, hair and the bowl he used are preserved there. Similar pilgrimages are made by Saracens who, as I said, hold this to be Adam’s burial place.

  In 1281 Kublai heard from the Saracens that these relics existed and he sent ambassadors to demand them from the king of Zeilan. After a long and tedious journey these envoys obtained from the king two large back teeth, some hair and a handsome porcelain vessel. When the news reached Kublai that his men were returning with such valuables he ordered the people of Kabala to march out of the city to meet them and they were carried into his presence with great pomp and ceremony.

  I’ll now return to my account of the kingdom of Maabar. Its four kings are brothers. One of them, Astiar, rich in gold and jewels, ruled from the large city of Kael and always maintained a state of profound peace. As a result it is the favourite port for foreign merchants. Ships laden with merchandise and horses from places like Ormuz, Christie, Adem [Aden] and various parts of Arabia make this their favoured port of call.

  The King maintains a splendid harem of at least 300 women!

  All the people of these parts are addicted to chewing tembul leaf and they seem to get much gratification from the habit. Chewing produces a lot of saliva and they are forever spitting. Rich people have the leaf prepared with camphor, others with aromatic ingredients and quicklime. I’ve been told it’s very good for you – but if you should seriously insult someone, they’ll spit in your face! I’m not joking. This often results in the injured party going to the King and demanding the satisfaction of a duel. The King ensures the aggrieved parties are supplied with swords and small shields and they go at each other until one lies dead. Interestingly, they are forbidden to wound with the point of the sword.

  Leaving Maabar and travelling 500 miles in a south-westerly direction you arrive in the kingdom of Koulam where there are a great number of Jews and Christians who still speak their own language. The king here is not subject to anyone.

  Much good sappan wood is grown and in the wooded and also open part of the country there is pepper in great abundance. It is harvested in May, June and July and the vines which produce it are cultivated in plantations. Indigo dye of excellent quality is also produced here in large quantities. They take the indigo herb up by the roots and place it into tubs of water until the fibres rot and the pigmented juice is pressed out. This is then dried in the sun leaving a kind of paste which is cut into the small tablets of dye you see at home.

  The summer heat is awful, almost intolerable, yet the merchants gather here from all parts of the world (especially south China and Arabia), so great are the profits to be made from imports and exports.

  The kingdom has unique wildlife. There are tigers entirely black [panthers], various birds of the parrot species, some of them as white as snow, some with red feet and beaks, others of mixed red and azure hue. Even the domestic fowl have a peculiar appearance. You can say the same for the fruits that grow here. It’s all thought to be the result of the intense heat.

  Wine is made from the sugary sap of palms. It’s exceedingly good and you get drunk a lot quicker on it than you do on wine made from grapes. The only grain is rice b
ut there’s a vast amount of it, in fact these people lack for nothing when it comes to food.

  They have skilled astrologers and physicians.

  All the people are very black and apart from a little cloth strung round their middles, go about stark naked. They’re of a sensual nature and they marry their blood relatives, their mothers-in-law upon the death of their fathers and the widows of their deceased brothers. But I should make the point that such morality is common to all of India.

  From Komori [Cape Cormorin], the most southern promontory of India, part of the Great Bear, invisible in China, can be seen just a cubit above the horizon. The country, largely uncultivated, is covered in forests in which live apes with the size, shape and appearance of men. There are also smaller, long-tailed monkeys, tigers and lynxes in great abundance.

  Leaving this province and proceeding westwards for 300 miles you reach the kingdom of Deli where the king is not subject to anyone, the people are all idolaters and have their own distinctive language. There is no harbour for shipping but the place is served by a large river with a safe entrance and this also renders invasion by an enemy almost impossible. This is a great place for spices, particularly pepper and ginger. There is, however, a danger. If a ship is driven accidentally into the river mouth when it had not intended to dock, all the goods on board are seized. The authorities argue that as it was the merchant’s intention to go elsewhere, the gods have driven them into the harbour in order that their property should be forfeited!

  The vessels from Manji, which arrive before the end of the fine-weather season, try to get their cargoes shipped in a week or even less as these are very unsafe moorings. The sandbanks along the coast won’t hold a ship in a heavy gale even when large wooden anchors are deployed.

  The countryside is absolutely infested with tigers and other ferocious beasts.