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| The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.2 |
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Citation Information
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382
BOOK III.
MARCO POLO
to the sun's heat. The liquor is then drawn off to another cistern and there agitated ; the indigo separates in flakes. A quantity of lime-water then is added, and the blue is allowed to subside. The clear water is drawn off ; the sediment is drained, pressed, and cut into small squares, etc. (See Madras journal, vol. viii. 198. )
Indigo had been introduced into Sicily by the Jews during the time of Frederick II., in the early part of Polo's century. Jews and Indigo have long vanished from Sicily. The dye is often mentioned in Pegolotti's Book ; the finest quality being termed Indaco Baccadeo, a corruption of Bdghdddi. Probably it carne from India by way of Baghdad. In the Barcelona Tariffs it appears as Indigo de Bas adel. Another quality often mentioned is Indigo di Golfo. (See Capmany, Mrenzorias, H. App. p. 73.) In the bye-laws of the London Painters' Guild of the 13th century, quoted by Sir F. Palgrave from the Liber Horne, it is forbidden to paint on gold or silver except with fine (mineral) colours, "e nient de brasil, ne de inde de Baldas, ne de nul autre mauveise couleur." ( The Merchant and the Friar, p. xxiii.) There is now no indigo made or exported at Quilon, but there is still some feeble export of sappanwood, ginger, and pepper. These, and previous particulars as to the present Quilon, I owe to the kindness of Mr. Ballard, British Resident at Trevandrum.
NOTE 5.—Black Tigers and black Leopards are not very rare in Travancore (See Welsh's Mil. Reminiscences, II. 102.)
NOTE 6.—Probably founded on local or caste customs of marriage, several of which in South India are very peculiar ; e.g., see Nelson's Madura, Pt. II. p. 51.
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CHAPTER XXIII.
OF THE COUNTRY CALLED COMARI
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COMARI is a country belonging to India, and there you
can see something of the North Star, which we had not
been able to see from the Lesser Java thus far. In
order to see it you must go some 3o miles out to sea,
and then you see it about a cubit above the water.'
This is a very wild country, and there are beasts of all
kinds there, especially monkeys of such peculiar fashion
that you would take them for men ! There are also
gaíj5auls 2 in wonderful diversity, with bears, lions, and
leopards, in abundance.
NOTE I.—Kilt/id/1 is in some versions of the Hindu cosmography the most southerly of the nine divisions of Jambodvipa, the Indian world. Polo's Comari can only he the country about Cape C0NÍORIN, the Ko/..cápca Círcpov of Ptolemy, a name derived from the Sanskrit Iiumdri, " a Virgin," an appellation of the goddess
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