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| The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.2 |
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Citation Information
.-
. s
•
346
BOOK III.
MARCO POLO
munication with her ; and they say that if peace be not
established between them things will go from bad to
worse, and they never will bestow their grace and
benediction. So they make those girls come in the way
described, to dance and sing, all but naked, before the
god a.nd the goddess. And those people believe that the
god often solaces himself with the society of the goddess.
The men of this country have their beds made of
very light canework, so arranged that, when they
have got in and are going to sleep, they are drawn up
by cords nearly to the ceiling and fixed there for the
night. This is done to get out of the way of tarantulas
which give terrible bites, as well as of fleas and such
vermin, and at the same time to get as much air as
possible in the great heat which prevails in that region.
Not that everybody does this, but only the nobles and
great folks, for the others sleep on the streets.19]
Now I have told you about this kingdom of the
province of Maabar, and I must pass on to the other
kingdoms of the same province, for I have much to tell
of their peculiarities.
1'
,
.t
YI
NOTE I.—The non-existence of tailors is not a mere figure of speech. Sundry learned pundits have been of opinion that the ancient Hindu knew no needle-made clothing, and Colonel Meadows Taylor has alleged that they had not even a word for the tailor's craft in their language. These opinions have been patriotically refuted by Bábú Rájendralál Mitra. (Prot. Ass. Soc. B. 1871, p. Ioo. )
Ibn Batuta descriLes the King of Calicut, the great " Zamorin," coming down to the beach to see the wreck of certain Junks ;—" his clothing consisted of a great piece of white stuff rolled about him from the navel to the knees, and a little scrap of a turban on his head ; his feet were bare, and a young slave carried an umbrella over him." (IV. 97. )
NOTE 2.—The necklace taken from the neck of the hindu King Jaipál, captured by Mahmúd in A.D. IOOI, was composed of large pearls, rubies, etc., and was valued at 200,000 dinars, or a good deal more than Ioo,000l. (Elliot, II. 26.) Compare Correa's account of the King of Calicut, in Stanley's V. da Gaina, 194.
NOTE 3.—The word is printed in Ramusio Pacauca, but no doubt Pacauta is the true reading. Dr. Caldwell has favoured me with a note on this : " The word . . . . was probably Ba; avd or Pagavd, the Tamil form of the vocative of Bha; avata,
Lord,' pronounced in the Tamil manner. This word is frequently repeated by Hindus of all sects in the utterance of their sacred formulae, especially by Vaishnava
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