The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.2 / Page 406 (Grayscale High Resolution Image)

0406	The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.2

any other cause, they cook and eat it. The name 'Paraïyar, which means
'Drummers,' does not appear to be ancient."* (Note by the Rev. Dr. Caldwell.)

In the history of Sind called Chach Namah, the Hindus revile the Mahomedan
invaders as Chandâls and cow-eaters. (Elliot, I. 172, 193). The low castes are often
styled from their unrestricted diet, e.g. Halâl-Khor (P. "to whom all food is lawful"),
Sab-khawd (H. "omnivorous").

Bâbû Râjendralâl Mitra has published a learned article on Beef in ancient India,
showing that the ancient Brahmans were far from entertaining the modern horror of
cow-killing. We may cite two of his numerous illustrations. Goghna, "a guest,"
signifies literally "a cow-killer," i.e. he for whom a cow is killed. And one of the
sacrifices prescribed in the Sûtras bears the name of Sûla-gava "spit-cow," i.e. roast-
beef. (J. A. S. B. XLI. Pt. I. p. 174 seqq.)

Note 11.—The word in the G. T. is loeci dou buef, which Pauthier's text has con-
verted into suif de buef—in reference to Hindus, a preposterous statement. Yet the
very old Latin of the Soc. Géog. also has pinguedinem, and in a parallel passage
about the Jogis (infra, ch. xx.), Ramusio's text describes them as daubing themselves
with powder of ox-bones (l'ossa). Apparently l'osci are not understood (It. uscite).

Note 12.—Later travellers describe the descendants of St. Thomas's murderers as
marked by having one leg of immense size, i.e. by elephantiasis. The disease was
therefore called by the Portuguese Pêjo de Santo Toma.

Note 13.—Mr. Nelson says of the Madura country: "The horse is a miserable,
weedy, and vicious pony; having but one good quality, endurance. The breed is
not indigenous, but the result of constant importations and a very limited amount of
breeding." (The Madura Country, Pt. II. p. 94.) The ill success in breeding horses
was exaggerated to impossibility, and made to extend to all India. Thus a Persian
historian, speaking of an elephant that was born in the stables of Khosru Parviz,
observes that "never till then had a she-elephant borne young in Irân, any more than
a lioness in Rûm, a tabby cat in China (!), or a mare in India." (J. A. S. sér. III.
tom. iii. p. 127.)

[Major-General Crawfurd T. Chamberlain, C.S.I., in a report on Stud Matters
in India, 27th June 1874, writes: "I ask how it is possible that horses could be bred
at a moderate cost in the Central Division, when everything was against success.
I account for the narrow-chested, congenitally unfit and malformed stock, also for the
creaking joints, knuckle over fittocks, elbows in, toes out, seedy toe, bad action,
weedy frames, and other degeneracy: 1st, to a damp climate, altogether inimical to
horses; 2nd, to the operations being intrusted to a race of people inhabiting a
country where horses are not indigenous, and who therefore have no taste for
them . . . ; 5th, treatment of mares. To the impure air in confined, non-ventilated
hovels, etc.; 6th, improper food; 7th, to a chronic system of tail rearing and
forcing." (MS. Note.—H. Y.)]

Note 14.—This custom is described in much the same way by the Arabo-Persian
Zakariah Kazwini, by Ludovico Varthema, and by Alexander Hamilton. Kazwini
ascribes it to Ceylon. "If a debtor does not pay, the King sends to him a person
who draws a line round him, wheresoever he chance to be; and beyond that circle he
dares not to move until he shall have paid what he owes, or come to an agreement
with his creditor. For if he should pass the circle the King fines him three times the
amount of his debt; one-third of this fine goes to the creditor and two-thirds to the
King." Père Bouchet describes the strict regard paid to the arrest, but does not
notice the symbolic circle. (Gildem. 197; Varthema, 147; Ham. I. 318; Lett.
Édif. XIV. 370.)

"The custom undoubtedly prevailed in this part of India at a former time. It is

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