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| The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.2 |
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Citation Information
CHAP. XVII. TREATMENT OF IMPORTED HORSES
351
said that it still survives amongst the poorer classes in out-of-the-way parts of the country, but it is kept up by schoolboys in a serio-comic spirit as vigorously as ever. Marco does not mention a very essential part of the ceremony. The person who draws a circle round another imprecates upon him the name of a particular divinity, whose curse is to fall upon him if he breaks through the circle without satisfying the claim." (MS. Note by the Rev. Dr. Caldwell.)
NOTE 15. — The statement about the only rains falling in June, July, and August is perplexing. " It is entirely inapplicable to every part of the Coromandel coast, to which alone the name Ma'bar seems to have been given, but it is quite true of the western coast generally." (Rev. Dr. C.) One can only suppose that Polo inadvertently applied to Maabar that which he knew to be true of the regions both west of it and east of it. The Coromandel coast derives its chief supply of rain from the north-east monsoon, beginning in October, whereas both eastern and western India have theirs from the south-west monsoon, between June and September.
NOTE i6.—Abraham Roger says of the Hindus of the Coromandel coast : " They judge of lucky hours and moments also by trivial accidents, to which they pay great heed. Thus 'tis held to be a good omen to everybody when the bird Garuda (which is a red hawk with a white ring round its neck) or the bird Pala flies across the road in front of the person from right to left ; but as regards other birds they have just the opposite notion. . . . If they are in a house any w here, and have moved to go, and then any one should sneeze, they will go in again, regarding it as an ill omen," etc. (Abr. Roger, pp. 75-76.)
NOTE 17.—Quotli Wassáf : " It is a strange thing that when these horses arrive there, instead of giving them raw barley, they give them roasted barley and grain dressed with butter, and boiled cow's milk to drink :-
" Who gives sugar to an owl or a crow ?
er who feeds a parrot with a carcase ?
A crow should be fed with carrion,
And a parrot with candy and sugar.
Who loads jewels on the back of an ass ?
Or who would approve of giving dressed almonds to a cow ?"
—Elliot, III. 33.
" Horses," says Athanasius Nikitin, " are fed on peas ; also on Kicheri, boiled with sugar and oil ; early in the morning they get shishenivo." This last word is a mystery. (India in the XI/OEM Century, p. I0.)
" Rice is frequently given by natives to their horses to fatten them, and a sheep's head occasionally to strengthen them." (Note by Dr. Caldwell.)
The sheep's head is peculiar to the Deccan, but ghee (boiled butter) is given by natives to their horses, I believe, all over India. Even in the stables of Akbar an imperial horse drew daily 2 lbs. of flour, I lb. of sugar, and in winter lb. of ghee !
(Ain. Akb. 134.) •
It is told of Sir John Malcolm that at an English table where he was present, a brother officer from India had ventured to speak of the sheep's head custom to an unbelieving audience. Ile appealed to Sir John, who only shook his head deprecatingly. After dinner the unfortunate story-teller remonstrated, but Sir John's answer was only, " My dear fellow, they took you for one Munchausen ; they would merely have taken me for another !"
NOTE i8.—The nature of the institution of the Temple dancing-girls seems to have been scarcely understood by the Traveller. The like existed at ancient Corinth under the name of icp66ovÄoc, which is nearly a translation of the Hindi name of the girls, Deva-dási. (Strabo, VIII. 6, § 2o.) " Each (Dási) is married to an idol when
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