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| 0449 |
The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.2 |
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(f. 26 seqq.). The latter says the Ceylon cinnamon exceeded it in value as 4 : 1.
Uzzano discriminates canella lunga, Salami, and Mabari. The Salami, I have no
doubt, is Sailani, Ceylonese ; and as we do not hear of any cassia from Mabar, pro-
bably the last was Malabar cinnamon.
Turbit: Radex Turpethi is still known in pharmacy, at least in some parts of the
Continent and in India, though in England obsolete. It is mentioned in the Pharma-
copœia of India (1868) as derived from Ipomœa Turpethum.
But it is worthy of note that Ramusio has cubebs instead of turbit. The former
does not seem now to be a product of Western India, though Garcia says that a
small quantity grew there, and a Dutch report of 1675 in Valentyn also mentions it as
an export of Malabar. (V., Ceylon, p. 243.) There is some ambiguity in statements
about it, because its popular name Kâbab-chîni seems to be also applied to the cassia
bud. Cubeb pepper was much used in the Middle Ages as a spice, and imported into
Europe as such. But the importation had long practically ceased, when its medical uses
became known during the British occupation of Java, and the demand was renewed.
Budaeus and Salmasius have identified this drug with the κόμακον, which
Theophrastus joins with cinnamomum and cassia as an ingredient in aromatic con-
fections. The inducement to this identification was no doubt the singular resemblance
which the word bears to the Javanese name of cubeb pepper, viz., Kumukus. If the
foundation were a little firmer this would be curious evidence of intercourse and trade
with Java in a time earlier than that of Theophrastus, viz., the 4th century B.C.
In the detail of 3 cargoes from Malabar that arrived at Lisbon in September 1504
we find the following proportions : Pepper, 10,000 cantars ; cinnamon, 500 ; cloves,
450 ; zz. (i.e. senzare, ginger), 130 ; lac and brazil, 750 ; camphor, 7 ; cubebs, 191 ;
mace, 2½ ; spikenard, 3 ; lign-aloes, 1½.
(Buchanan's Mysore, II. 31, III. 193, and App. p. v. ; Garcia, Ital. version,
1576, f. 39-40 ; Salmas. Exerc. Plin. p. 923 ; Bud. on Theoph. 1004 and 1010 ;
Archiv. St. Ital., Append. II. p. 19.)
NOTE 5.—We see that Marco speaks of the merchants and ships of Manzi, or
Southern China, as frequenting Kaulam, Hili, and now Malabar, of which Calicut
was the chief port. This quite coincides with Ibn Batuta, who says those were the
three ports of India which the Chinese junks frequented, adding Fandaraina (i.e.
Pandarani, or Pantaláni, 16 miles north of Calicut), as a port where they used to
moor for the winter when they spent that season in India. By the winter he means
the rainy season, as Portuguese writers on India do by the same expression (IV.
81, 88, 96). I have been unable to find anything definite as to the date of the
cessation of this Chinese navigation to Malabar, but I believe it may be placed
about the beginning of the 15th century. The most distinct allusion to it that I am
aware of is in the information of Joseph of Cranganore, in the Novus Orbis (Ed. of
1555, p. 208). He says : "These people of Cathay are men of remarkable energy,
and formerly drove a first-rate trade at the city of Calicut. But the King of Calicut
having treated them badly, they quitted that city, and returning shortly after inflicted
no small slaughter on the people of Calicut, and after that returned no more. After
that they began to frequent Mailapetam, a city subject to the king of Narsingha ;
a region towards the East, . . . . and there they now drive their trade." There is
also in Gaspar Correa's account of the Voyages of Da Gama a curious record of a
tradition of the arrival in Malabar more than four centuries before of a vast
merchant fleet "from the parts of Malacca, and China, and the Loqueos" (Lewchew) ;
many from the company on board had settled in the country and left descendants.
In the space of a hundred years none of these remained ; but their sumptuous idol
temples were still to be seen. (Stanley's Transl., Hak. Soc., p. 147.)* It is prob-
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731
732
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