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National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
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| The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.2 |
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Citation Information
CHAP. XXXIV. THE THREE INDIES
425
war nor otherwise, and if they hunt them 'tis only to kill them " (III. 7). It is difficult to conceive how Marco could have got so much false information. .The only beast of burden in Zanzibar, at least north of Mozambique, is the ass. His particulars seem jumbled from various parts of Africa. The camel-riders suggest the Bejas of the Red Sea coast, of whom there were in Mas'udi's time 30,00o warriors so mounted, and armed with lances and bucklers (III. 34). The elephant stories may have arisen from the occasional use of these animals by the Kings of Abyssinia. (See Note 4 to next chapter.)
NOTE 6.—An approximation to 12,000 as a round number seems to have been habitually used in reference to the Indian Islands ; John of Montecorvino says they are many more than 12,000 ; Jordanus had heard that there were io,000 inhabited. Linschoten says some estimated the Maldives at II, roo. And we learn from Pyrard
177
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de Laval that the Sultan of the Maldives called himself Ibrahim Sultan of Thirteen Atollons (or coral groups) and of 12,000 Islands ! This is probably the origin of the proverbial number. Ibn Batuta, in his excellent account of the Maldives, estimates them at only about 2000. But Captain Owen, commenting on Pyrard, says that he believes the actual number of islands to be treble or fourfold of 12,000. (P. de Laval in Charton, IV. 255 ; I. B. IV. 40 ;J. R. G. S. II. 84.)
NOTE 7.—The term " India " became very vague from an early date. In fact, Alcuin divides the whole world into three parts, Europe, Africa, and India. Hence it was necessary to discriminate different Indias, but there is very little agreement among different authors as to this discrimination.
The earliest use that I can find of the terms India Major and Minor is in the Liber Junioris Philosophi published by Hudson, and which is believed to be translated from a lost Greek original of the middle of the 4th century. In this author India Minor adjoins Persia. So it does with Friar Jordanus. His India Minor appears to embrace Sind (possibly Mekran), and the western coast exclusive of Malabar. India Major extends from Malabar indefinitely eastward. His India Tertia is Zanjibar. The Three Indies appear in a map contained in a MS. by Guido Pisanus, written in
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