National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

something to do with the Lung-ya-chia-mao of the map. FERRAND thought that Chinese envoys to
Java could not be driven by a storm to the south-western coast of Sumatra, but such an accident is
not necessarily excluded. As to the state which sent an embassy, the map of the early 15th cent.
shows that the course along the south-western coast of Sumatra was well-known to sailors, who used
the Sunda Straits. Nervertheless, I must note that, according to ROUFFAER (Bijdragen, Vol. I,
XXVII, 156), Wang Ta-yüan's description fits Bintan well (but why then does not Wang Ta-yüan
call it Bintan as everybody did ?). Finally, it may be that some of the Chinese Pansur (Pančur) are
to be sought for in the Straits, but the Pin-su of 1225 and the Pan-tsu of the 15th cent. map are
enough to show that in the Middle Ages the Chinese knew Baros under the same name which is
written « Fansur » by Polo.
According to FERRAND (JA, 1922, II, 95), quoting a work by L. VAN VUUREN, Pansur is properly
the third stage on the road from Baros to the camphor and benzoin districts. « The Battaks write
Pansur, but pronounce Patsur, hence the Malay form Pančur which combines both. » While I glad-
ly accept that the name of the stage of Pansur is identical with the Fanṡûr of the Arabs and Pantsur
of the Chinese, I am rather surprised that such an insignificant place should have acquired a world-
wide renown. May it not be that Pantsur (or Pansur) and Barus were originally a double name
for one and the same place, and that the ascription of one of them to the present Pansur is a late spe-
cification ? As to the Malay form Pančur, I may add that, according to DULAURIER, the name is
written فنصور Paṡûrî in the Malay chronicle Šejarat Malayu (cf. Pa, 577; Y, II, 302; GERINI,
Researches, 434 [with an alternate reading فنصور Faṡûrî]); but it must eventually go back to an origi-
nal Arabic source which gave Fanṡûrî.
A last question remains. As has been said in Pe, LIX, it is very doubtful whether Polo, although
he remained several months at « Sumatra » (= Pasé) and says he is speaking only of the states of
Sumatra he has visited, would have gone out of his way to Baros, at least when he was accompanying
the Mongol princess to Persia. The case is the same with « Basman » (q. v.), if Basman be Pasaman.
The possibility remains, nevertheless, that, on a previous mission to the South Seas, Polo had visi-
ted the south-western coast of Sumatra, but brought his former information into the continuous
account of his return journey. Or must we here raise again the question of the digressions turned
into a continuous itinerary ?

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In F, camphor is called «canfara» and «canfre», but «canphora», «camphora», in Z, «canfre» in
the FG Mss.; forms like «caffren» in FC¹ are fortuitous corruptions; and it may be surmised that even
F's «canfara» is an erroneous reading instead of «canfora». Fra Mauro (Zu, 50) speaks of «ganfora».
Our word «camphor» is derived from Arabic kāfûr; the inserted -m- (-n-) already occurs in the
ancient forms Span. alcanfor, Port. alcamphor, directly borrowed from the Arabic. Yet, there
are a few forms without the nasal : Ital. (ancient) cafura (caffera and chaffera in Pegolotti), MH Germ.
gaffer, NH Germ. kaffer, :> Czech kafr, Slovenian kâfra; modern Greek καφούρα; French cafor in
Assises de Jérusalem, II, 176 (cf. DOZY and ENGELMANN, Glossaire, 84; BERNEKER, Slav. Etymol.
Wörterbuch, 468; LOKOTSCH, No. 1100). These forms may go back to the earliest form attested in the
West, Lat. caphura, c. 540, in Aetius (cf. Hobson-Jobson², 152; DEVIC, Dict. étymol., 81). Kāfûr