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Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

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CHAP. 1 I.

FANSURI CAMPHOR   303

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Pasuri, a name which the Arabs certainly made into Fansúri in one direction, and which might easily in another, by a very common kind of Oriental metathesis, pass into Bar2rsi. The legend in the Shijarat Malayu relates to the first Mahomedan mission for the conversion of Sumatra, sent by the Sherif of Mecca via India. After sailing from Malabar the first place the party arrived at was PASURI, the people of which embraced Islam. They then proceeded to LAMBRI, which also accepted the Faith. Then they sailed on till they reached Ilaru (see on my map Aru on the East Coast), which did likewise. At this last place they enquired for SAMU DRA, which seems to have been the special object of their mission, and found that they had passed it. Accordingly they retraced their course to PERLAK, and after converting that place went on to SAMUDRA, where they converted Mara Silo the King. (See note I, ch. x. above.) This passage is of extreme interest as naming four out of Marco's six kingdoms, and in positions quite accordant with his indications. As noticed by Mr. Braddell, from whose abstract I take the passage, the circumstance of the party having passed Samudra unwittingly is especially consistent with the site we have assigned to it near the head of the Bay of Pasei, as a glance at the map will show.

Valentyn observes : " Fansur can be nought else than the famous Pantsur, no longer known indeed by that name, but a kingdom which we become acquainted with through Hanna Pantsuri, a celebrated Poet, and native of this Pantsur. It lay in the north angle of the Island, and a little west of Achin : it formerly was rife with trade and population, but would have been utterly lost in oblivion had not I-ìamza Pantsuri made us again acquainted with it." Nothing indeed could well be " a little west of Achin" ; this is doubtless a slip for "a little down the west coast from Achin." Hamza Fantsuri, as he is termed by Professor Veth, who also identifies Fantsur with Bárús, was a poet of the first half of the 17th century, who in his verses popularised the mystical theology of Shamsuddin Shamatrani (supra, p. 291), strongly tinged with pantheism. The works of both were solemnly burnt before the great mosque of Achin about 1640. (J. Ind. Arch. V. 312 segq; Valentyn, Sumatra, in Vol. V., p. 21 ; Veth, Atchin, Leiden, 18i3, p. 38.)

Mas'udi says that the Fansur Camphor was found most plentifully in years rife with storms and earthquakes. Ibn Batuta gives a jumbled and highly incorrect account of the product, but one circumstance that he mentions is possibly founded on a real superstition, viz., that no camphor was formed unless some animal had been sacrificed at the root of the tree, and the best quality only then when a human victim had been offered. Nicolo Conti has a similar statement : " The Camphor is found inside the tree, and if they do not sacrifice to the gods before they cut the bark, it disappears and is no more seen." Beccari, in our day, mentions special ceremonies used by the Kayans of Borneo, before they commence the search. These superstitions hinge on the great uncertainty of finding camphor in any given tree, after the laborious process of cutting it down and splitting it, an uncertainty which also largely accounts for the high price. By far the best of the old accounts of the product is that quoted by Kazwini from Mahomed Ben Zakaria Al-Rázi : " Among the number of marvellous things in this Island" (Zdnij for Zábaj, i.e. Java or Sumatra) " is the Camphor Tree, which is of vast size, insomuch that its shade will cover a hundred persons and more. They bore into the highest part of the tree and thence flows out the camphor-water, enough to fill many pitchers. Then they open the tree lower down about the middle, and extract the camphor in lumps." [This very account is to be found in Ibn Khordâdhbeh. (De Goeje's trans?. p. 45.)—II. C.] Compare this passage, which we may notice has been borrowed bodily by Sindbad of the Sea, with what is probably the best modern account, Junghuhn's : "Among the forest trees (of Tapanuli adjoining Barus) the Camphor Tree (Dryahalanops Camphora) attracts beyond all the traveller's observation, by its straight columnar and colossal grey trunk, and its mighty

crown of foliage, rising high above the canopy of the forest.   It exceeds in
dimensions the I'asamala,* the loftiest tree of Java, and is probably the greatest tree

* Liquidambar Altin,; iana.

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