IIIF Color HighRes
National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
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| IIIF Color HighRes |
| Cathay and the Way Thither : vol.1 |
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Citation Information
84 THE TRAVELS OF
sence of the idol with loud songs. Then he takes one of those sharp. knives and calls out with a loud voice, " Thus I cut my flesh for my God ;" and cutting a piece of his flesh wherever he may choose, he casteth it in the face of the idol; and saying again, " I devote myself to die for my God," he endeth by slaying himself there. And straightway they take his body and burn it, for they look on him as a saint, having thus slain himself for his idol. And many other things greatly to be marvelled at are done by these people, which are by no means to be written.
But the king of this island' or province is passing rich in gold and silver and precious stones. And in this island are found as great store of good pearls as in any part of the world. And so of many other things which are found in this island, which it would take too long to write.
'20. Concerning the country called Lamori, where the pole star is
hidden ; and also of Surnoltra.
Departing from this region towards the south across the ocean sea, I came in fifty days to a certain country called LAmoRI,9 in which I began to lose sight of the north star, as
I This is the only time that Odoric makes a mistake of this kind. Mandeville makes islands of nearly all the Eastern regions. It has been noticed in a previous note that some of the mapmakers made Columbum an island. This probably came first from the loose use, by the Arabs, of the word Jazirah, which means properly an island (see note to Ibn Batuta.) But it is worthy of remark that Linschoten, who could not have said it through ignorance, calls China la dernière isle de la navigation orientale." Was the word then used for a place reached by sea?
2 Lamori is no doubt the Lambri of Marco Polo and De Barros, the Lâmnrf of Rashiduddin, and the Al-Rami, Ramin, and Ramni of Edrisi and other Arabian geographers, who extend the term to the whole island of Sumatra. Lambri is mentioned also by the Malay annalists. It appears to have lain near the north-west end of the island, and being on that account probably the first port of Sumatra known to the Arabs, naturally gave its name to the whole. I believe the exact position is not now known, but the list of kingdoms in De Barros places it between Daya and Achill ; and if it lay between these it must have been very small indeed.
Pegolotti speaks of cinnamon of Ameri, which is perhaps intended for the same word (Lamori, L'Amori, Ameri.) Pegol. p. 361.
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