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| The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.2 |
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Citation Information
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CHAP. V. TI-IF COUNTRY CALLED CHAM$A
27I
[We learn from an inscription that in 1265 the King of Champa was JayaSinhavarman II., who was named Indravarman in 1277, and whom the Chinese called Che li Tseya Sinho plzala 4faha thiwa (Çri Jaya Sinha varmma maha deva). He was the king at the time of Polo's voyage. (A. Bergaiá ne, Ancien royaume de Canzpű, pp. J9-40 ; E. Aymonier, les Tchanzes et leurs relzç ions, p. 14.)—H. C.]
There are notices of the events in De Mailla (IX. 42o-422) and Gaubil (194), but Pauthier's extracts which we have made use of are much fuller.
Elephants have generally formed a chief part of the presents or tribute sent periodically by the various Indo-Chinese states to the Court of China.
[In a Chinese work published in the 14th century, by an Annamite, under the title of Ngan-nan chi lio, and translated into French by M. Sainson (1896), we read (p. 397) : " Elephants are found only in Lin-y ; this is the country which became Champa. It is the habit to have burdens carried by elephants ; this country is to-day the Pu-cheng province." M. Sainson adds in a note that Pu-cheng, in Annamite Bó chanh quân, is to-day Quang-binh, and that, in this country, was placed the first capital (Dong-hoi) of the future kingdom of Champa thrown later down to the south.—H. C.]
[The Chams, according to their tradition, had three capitals : the most ancient, S1zri-Bana'zzy, probably the actual Quang-Binh province ; Bal-Hangov, near Hué ; and Bal-Ansozzé, in the Binh-Dinh province. In the 4th century, the kingdom of Lin y or Leinz-' p is mentioned in the Chinese Annals.—H. C.]
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NOTE 2.—The date of Marco's visit to Champa varies in the MSS. : Pauthier has 128o, as has also Ramusio ; the G. T. has 1285 ; the Geographic Latin 1288. I incline to adopt the last. For we know that about 129o, Mark returned to Court from a mission to the Indian Seas, which might have included this visit to Champa.
The large family of the king was one of the stock marvels. Odoric says : "ZAMPA is a very fine country, having great store of victuals and all good things. The king of the country, it was said when I was there [circa 1323], had, what with sons and with daughters, a good two hundred children ; for he hath many wives and other women whom he keepeth. This king hath also 14,000 tame elephants. . . . And other folk keep elephants there just as commonly as we keep oxen here " (pp. 95-96). The latter point illustrates what Polo says of elephants, and is scarcely an exaggeration in regard to all the southern Indo-Chinese States. (See note to Odoric u. s.)
NOTE 3.—Champa Proper and the adjoining territories have been from time immemorial the chief seat of the production of lign-aloes or eagle-wood. Both names are misleading, for the thing has nought to do either with aloes or eagles ; though good Bishop Pallegoix derives the latter name from the wood being speckled like an eagle's plumage. It is in fact through Aquila, Agila, from Ab uru, one of the Sanskrit names of the article, whilst that is possibly from the Malay Kayu (wood) gahru, though the course of the etymology is more likely to be the other way ; and AÄ677 is perhaps a corruption of the term which the Arabs apply to it, viz. Al-' Ud, " The Wood."
[It is probable that the first Portuguese who had to do with eagle-wood called it by its Arabic name, ag hālulry, or malayālam, ag ila ; whence páo de' aguila " aguila wood." It was translated into Latin as lzg nu»z aquilae, and after into modern languages, as bois d'az* le, eagle-wood, adlerizolz, etc. (A. Cabaton, les Champs, p. so.) Mr. Groeneveldt (Notes, pp. 141-142) writes : " Li; nu7n aloes is the wood of the Aquilaria açalloclza, and is chiefly known as sinking incense. The Pen-ts'au Ii and -mu describes it as follows : ` Sinking incense, also called honey incense. It comes from the heart and the knots of a tree and sinks in water, from which peculiarity the name sinking incense is derived. . . . In the Description of Annam we find it called honey incense, because it smells like honey.' The same work, as well as the Aran fang Ts' au-mu Chuang, further informs us that this incense was obtained in all countries south of China, by felling the old trees and leaving them to decay,
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