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| The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.1 |
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Citation Information
CHAP. XVII. " STEEL AND ONDANIQUE"
93
dicate their position, in the hills east of Niriz. (Edrisi, vol. i. p. 43o ; Hanznzer, 111-énz. lur la Perse, p. 275 ; Teixeira, ltelaciones, p. J78 ; and see Map of Itineraries, No. II.)
[ " Marco Polo's steel mines are probably the Parpa iron mines on the road from hermán to Shíráz, called even to-day M'aden-i-fúlád (steel mine) ; they are not worked now. Old Kermán weapons, daggers, swords, old stirrups, etc., made of steel, are really beautiful, and justify Marco Polo's praise of them." (Houtum-Schindler, l.c. p. 491.)-11 C.]
Ondanique of the Geog. Text, Andaine of Pauthier's, Andanicunz of the Latin, is an expression on which no light has been thrown since Ramusio's time. The latter often asked the Persian merchants who visited Venice, and they all agreed in stating that it was a sort of steel of such surpassing value and excellence, that in the days of yore a man who possessed a mirror, or sword, of Andanic regarded it as he would some precious jewel. This seems to me excellent evidence, and to give the true clue to the meaning of Ondanique. I have retained the latter form because it points most distinctly to what I believe to be the real word, viz. IIundwáníy,
` Indian Steel." * (SeeJohnson's Pers. Dict. and De Sacy's Chrestomathie Arabe, II. 148.) In the Vocabulista Arabico, of about A. n. 1200 (Florence, 1871, p. 211), Hunduwán is explained by Ensis. Vüllers explains Hundwán as " anything peculiar to India, especially swords," and quotes from Firdúsi, " Khaijar-i-Hundwán," a hanger of Indian steel.
The like expression appears in the quotation from Edrisi below as Ilindialz, and found its way into Spanish in the shapes of Alhinde, A fizde, Alinde, first with the meaning of steel, then assuming, that of steel mirror, and finally that of metallic foil of a glass mirror. (See Dozy and Engelnzann, 2d ed. pp. 144-145.) Hint or Al-hint is used in Berber also for steel. (See/ R. A. S. IX. 255.)
The sword-blades of India had a great fame over the East, and Indian steel, according to esteemed authorities, continued to be imported into Persia till days quite recent. Its fame goes back to very old times. Ctesias mentions two wonderful swords of such material that he got from the king of Persia and his mother. It is perhaps the ferrum candidum of which the Malli and Oxydracae sent a 10o talents weight as a present to Alexander.]` Indian Iron and Steel (űí8-pos 'Ivôcxòs Kaì űróµw,ua) are mentioned in the Perzplus as imports into the Abyssinian ports. Ferrum Indicunz appears (at least according to one reading) among the Oriental species subject to duty in the Law of Marcus Aurelius and Commodus on that matter. Salmasius notes that among surviving Greek chemical treatises there was one irepi ßaks 'Ivan ov o u57 pou, " On the Tempering of Indian Steel." Edrisi says on this subject : " The Hindus excel in the manufacture of iron, and in the preparation of those ingredients along with which it is fused to obtain that kind of soft Iron which is usually styled Indian Steel (H t N D IAH ). + They also have workshops wherein are forged the most famous sabres in the world. . . . It is impossible to find anything to surpass the edge that you get from Indian Steel (al-hadíd al-Hindi)."
Allusions to the famous sword-blades of India would seem to be frequent in Arabic literature. Several will be found in Hamása's collection of ancient Arabic poems translated by Freytag. The old commentator on one of these passages says : " Ut optimos gladios sig 1z fcet . . . Indicos esse dixit," and here the word used in the original is Hundwániyah. In Manger's version of Arabshah's Life of Timur
* A learned friend objects to Johnson's Hundwániy=" Indian Steel," as too absolute ; some word for steel being wanted. Even if it be so, I observe that in the three places where Polo uses Ondanique (here, ch. xxi., and ch. xlii.), the phrase is always " steel and ondanique." This looks as if his mental expression were PliMci-i-Ifuna'zvdni, rendered by an idiom like Virgil's yocula et
aurunz.
t Kenrick suggests that the " bright iron " mentioned by Ezekiel among the wares of Tyre (ch. xxvii. 19) can hardly have been anything else than Indian Steel, because named with cassia and
calamus.
+ Literally rendered by Mr Redhouse : " The Indians do well the combining of the mixtures of the chemicals with which they (smelt and) cast the soft iron, and it becomes Indian (steel), being re-
ferred to India (in this expression)."
J
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