Etc., p. 170).
Several considerations point to the probability that the states of Pasei
and Sumatra had become united, and that the town of Sumatra may have been
represented by the Pacem of the Portuguese.[4] I have to thank Mr. G.
Phillips for the copy of a small Chinese chart showing the northern coast
of the island, which he states to be from "one of about the 13th century."
I much doubt the date, but the map is valuable as showing the town of
Sumatra (Sumantala). This seems to be placed in the Gulf of Pasei, and
very near where Pasei itself still exists. An extract of a "Chinese account
of about A.D. 1413" accompanied the map. This states that the town was
situated some distance up a river, so as to be reached in two tides. There
was a village at the mouth of the river called Talumangkin.[5]
[Mr. E.H. Parker writes (China Review, XXIV. p. 102): "Colonel Yule's
remarks about Pasei are borne out by Chinese History (Ming, 325, 20, 24),
which states that in 1521 Pieh-tu-lu (Pestrello [for Perestrello ?])
having failed in China 'went for' Pa-si. Again 'from Pa-si, Malacca, to
Luzon, they swept the seas, and all the other nations were afraid of
them.'" - H. C]
Among the Indian states which were prevailed on to send tribute (or
presents) to Kublai in 1286, we find Sumutala. The chief of this state
is called in the Chinese record Tu-'han-pa-ti, which seems to be just the
Malay words Tuan Pati, "Lord Ruler." No doubt this was the rising state
of Sumatra, of which we have been speaking; for it will be observed that
Marco says the people of that state called themselves the Kaan's subjects.
Rashiduddin makes the same statement regarding the people of Java (i.e. the
island of Sumatra), and even of Nicobar: "They are all subject to the
Kaan." It is curious to find just the same kind of statements about the
princes of the Malay Islands acknowledging themselves subjects of Charles
V., in the report of the surviving commander of Magellan's ship to that
emperor (printed by Baldelli-Boni, I. lxvii.). Pauthier has curious Chinese
extracts containing a notable passage respecting the disappearance of
Sumatra Proper from history: "In the years Wen-chi (1573-1615), the
Kingdom of Sumatra divided in two, and the new state took the name of Achi
(Achin). After that Sumatra was no more heard of." (Gaubil, 205; De
Mailla, IX. 429; Elliot, I. 71; Pauthier, pp. 605 and 567.)
NOTE 2. - "Vos di que la Tramontaine ne part. Et encore vos di que
l'estoilles dou Meistre ne aparent ne pou ne grant" (G.T.). The
Tramontaine is the Pole star: -
"De nostre Pere l'Apostoille
Volsisse qu'il semblast l'estoile
Qui ne se muet ...
Par cele estoile vont et viennent
Et lor sen et lor voie tiennent
Il l'apelent la tres montaigne."
- La Bible Guiot de Provins in Barbazan, by Meon, II. 377.
The Meistre is explained by Pauthier to be Arcturus; but this makes
Polo's error greater than it is. Brunetto Latini says: "Devers la
tramontane en a il i. autre (vent) plus debonaire, qui a non Chorus.
Cestui apelent li marinier MAISTRE por vij. estoiles qui sont en celui
meisme leu," etc. (Li Tresors, p. 122). Magister or Magistra in
mediaeval Latin, La Maistre in old French, signifies "the beam of a
plough." Possibly this accounts for the application of Maistre to the
Great Bear, or Plough. But on the other hand the pilot's art is called in
old French maistrance. Hence this constellation may have had the name as
the pilot's guide, - like our Lode-star. The name was probably given to
the N.W. point under a latitude in which the Great Bear sets in that
quarter. In this way many of the points of the old Arabian Rose des Vents
were named from the rising or setting of certain constellations. (See
Reinaud's Abulfeda, Introd. pp. cxcix.-cci.)
NOTE 3. - The tree here intended, and which gives the chief supply of toddy
and sugar in the Malay Islands, is the Areng Saccharifera (from the
Javanese name), called by the Malays Gomuti, and by the Portuguese
Saguer. It has some resemblance to the date-palm, to which Polo compares
it, but it is a much coarser and wilder-looking tree, with a general
raggedness, "incompta et adspectu tristis," as Rumphius describes it. It
is notable for the number of plants that find a footing in the joints of
its stem. On one tree in Java I have counted thirteen species of such
parasites, nearly all ferns. The tree appears in the foreground of the cut
at p. 273.
Crawford thus describes its treatment in obtaining toddy: "One of the
spathae, or shoots of fructification, is, on the first appearance of the
fruit, beaten for three successive days with a small stick, with the view
of determining the sap to the wounded part. The shoot is then cut off, a
little way from the root, and the liquor which pours out is received in
pots.... The Gomuti palm is fit to yield toddy at 9 or 10 years old, and
continues to yield it for 2 years at the average rate of 3 quarts a day."
(Hist. of Ind. Arch. I. 398.)
The words omitted in translation are unintelligible to me: "et sunt
quatre raimes trois cel en." (G.T.)
["Polo's description of the wine-pots of Samara hung on the trees 'like
date-palms,' agrees precisely with the Chinese account of the shu theu
tsiu made from 'coir trees like cocoa-nut palms' manufactured by the
Burmese. Therefore it seems more likely that Samara is Siam (still
pronounced Shumuro in Japan, and Siamlo in Hakka), than Sumatra."
(Parker, China Review, XIV.
