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| The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.2 |
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Citation Information
242
BOOK II.
MARCO POLO
4
vremeil," in Caffiaux, Abattis de maisons á Gornmegnies, p. 17, 14th century. The Portuguese have setim. But I willingly accept Sir Henry Yule's suggestion that
the origin of the word is Zayton ; cf. zeitun COE 349 olive.
" The King [of Bijánagar] . . . . was clothed in a robe of zaitún satin." (Elliot, IV. p. 113, who adds in a note zaitún : Olive-coloured ?) And again (Ibid. p. 120) : " Before the throne there was placed a cushion of zaitúni satin, round which three rows of the most exquisite pearls were sewn."—H. C.]
(Recherches, etc., II. 229 seqq. ; Martini, circa p. I Io ; Klaproth, Ménz. II. 209-210 ; Cathay, cxciii. 268, 223, 355, 486 ; Empoli in Append. vol. iii. 87 to Archivio Storico Italiano ; Bonet d'Arcq. p. 342 ; Galv., Discoveries of the World, Hak. Soc. p. 129 ; Marsden, Ist ed. p. 372 ; Appendix to Trade Report of Amoy, for 1868 and 1900. [Heyd, Corn. Levant, II. 701-702.]
NOTE 3.—We have referred in a former note (eh. lxxvii. note 7) to an apparent change in regard to the Chinese consumption of pepper, which is now said to be trifling. We shall see in the first chapter of Bk. III. that Polo estimates the tonnage of Chinese junks by the number of baskets of pepper they carried, and we have seen in last note the large estimate by Giov. d'Empoli of the quantity that went to China in 1515. Galvano also, speaking of the adventure of Fernáo Perez d'Andrade to China in 1517, says that he took in at Pacem a cargo of pepper, " as
being the chief article of trade that is valued in China." And it is evident from
what Marsden says in his History of Sumatra, that in the last century some tangible
quantity was still sent to China. The export from the Company's plantations in
Sumatra averaged 1200 tons, of which the greater part carne to Europe, the rest went to China.
[Couto says also : "Os portos principaes do Reyno da Sunda sáo Banta, Aché, Xacatara, por outro nome Caraváo, aos quaes yam todos os annos mui perto de vinte sommas, que sáo embarcaçőes do Chincheo, huma das Provincias maritimas da China, a carregar de pimenta, porque dá este Reyno todos es annos oito mil bares della, que sáo trinta mil quintaes." (Decada IV. Liv. III. Cap. I. 167.)]
NOTE 4.—These tattooing artists were probably employed mainly by mariners frequenting the port. We do not know if the Malays practised tattooing before their conversion to Islam. But most Indo-Chinese races tattoo, and the Japanese still " have the greater part of the body and limbs scrolled over with bright-blue dragons, and lions, and tigers, and figures of men and women tattooed into their skins with the most artistic and elaborate ornamentation." (Alcock, I. 191.) Probably the Arab sailors also indulged in the same kind of decoration. It is common among the Arab women now, and Della Valle speaks of it as in his time so much in vogue among both sexes through Egypt, Arabia, and Babylonia, that he had not been able to escape. (I. 395.)
NOTE 5.—The divergence in Ramusio's version is here very notable : " The River which enters the Port of Zayton is great and wide, running with great velocity, and is a branch of that which flows by the city of Kinsay. And at the place where it quits the main channel is the city of Tingui, of which all that is to be said is that there they make porcelain basins and dishes. The manner of making porcelain was thus related to him. They excavate a certain kind of earth, as it were from a mine, and this they heap into great piles, and then leave it undisturbed and exposed to wind, rain, and sun for 30 or 40 years. In this space of time the earth becomes sufficiently refined for the manufacture of porcelain ; they then colour it at their discretion, and bake it in a furnace. Those who excavate the clay do so always therefore for their sons and grandsons. The articles are so cheap in that city that you get 8 bowls for a Venice groat."
Ibn Batuta speaks of porcelain as manufactured at 'Layton ; indeed he says positively (and wrongly) : Porcelain is made nowhere in China except in the cities
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