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| Cathay and the Way Thither : vol.2 |
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Citation Information
INTRODUCTORY NOTICE. 449
Karakorum. (6) In whatever manner the three travellers may " establish the fact" in question, it is not by saying anything on the subject in their narratives. As far as I can discover not one of the three contains a single word directly or indirectly as to commercial intercourse between the Mongol provinces and India.
p. Phoenix Fructifera is, I presume, the same as Phoenix Dactylifera, the date tree. If it be called dwarf-palm in Germany (which I doubt) it is very badly named ; but in any case it would puzzle any Dwarf out of Lilliput to write upon its leaves. The leaf most commonly used for the purpose is that of the Palmyra (Borassus Flabelliformis), and, in Ceylon and the peninsula ad-
joining, that of the Talipat (Corypha Umbraculifera), a gigantic palm.
P. 511. In his description of the Chandi Sewu or Thousand Temples" at Brambanan in Java, he adopts without question Mr. Crawfurd's view (formed fifty years ago when little was known about Buddhism), that these essentially Buddhist edifices have been each crowned with a lin-gam. Even if the temples were not Buddhist, who ever saw a lingam on the top of a temple P But in fact the objects in question are no more lingams than the cupolas over St. Paul's facade are dagobas. Indeed in the latter case the resemblance is much more striking.
P. 546. Here, in dealing with the Malay history as derived partly from the native chronicles cited by Marsden, and partly from the early Portuguese writers, Lassen meets with the name of a chief given by the latter as Xaquem Darxa. This hero he supposes to be the son of a certain Iskandar or Sikandar Shah mentioned in the Malay legends, and devises for his odd name a Sanscrit original " Çâkanadhara, d. h. Besitzer Kraftiger Besitzungen ;" accordingly he enters this possessor of strong possessions as an ascertained sovereign in the dynastic list under the name of Çâkanadhara. Yet this Xaquem Darxa (Xaquemdar Xa) is only a corrupt Portuguese transcript of the name of Sikandar Shah himself, (see Crawfurd's Dict. Ind. Islands, p. 242). King Çâkanadhara is therefore as purely imaginary as the Pandyan city ascribed to Cosmas or the Island of Jaonah for which Ibn Batuta is wrongly made responsible.
P
that branch of the (Franciscan) order which is termed Fratres Minores or Mindern Brüder ; he was the comrade of the second, and joined him in Poland on a journey to Rome undertaken in 1245. He reached in his company the court of the founder of the Mongol empire at Karakorum."
p. Turning back ; at p. 402. In speaking of the practice of writing on the palm-leaves with a style, Lassen notes, The leaves of the Zwergpalme (i.e. dwarf-palm) or Phoenix Fructifera are especially used for that purpose."
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