Ibn Batuta Gives A Jumbled And Highly
Incorrect Account Of The Product, But One Circumstance That He Mentions Is
Possibly
Founded on a real superstition, viz., that no camphor was formed
unless some animal had been sacrificed at the root
Of the tree, and the
best quality only then when a human victim had been offered. Nicolo Conti
has a similar statement: "The Camphor is found inside the tree, and if
they do not sacrifice to the gods before they cut the bark, it disappears
and is no more seen." Beccari, in our day, mentions special ceremonies
used by the Kayans of Borneo, before they commence the search. These
superstitions hinge on the great uncertainty of finding camphor in any
given tree, after the laborious process of cutting it down and splitting
it, an uncertainty which also largely accounts for the high price. By far
the best of the old accounts of the product is that quoted by Kazwini from
Mahomed Ben Zakaria Al-Razi: "Among the number of marvellous things in
this Island" (Zanij for Zabaj, i.e. Java or Sumatra) "is the Camphor
Tree, which is of vast size, insomuch that its shade will cover a hundred
persons and more. They bore into the highest part of the tree and thence
flows out the camphor-water, enough to fill many pitchers. Then they open
the tree lower down about the middle, and extract the camphor in lumps."
[This very account is to be found in Ibn Khordadhbeh. (De Goeje's
transl. p. 45.) - H.C.] Compare this passage, which we may notice has
been borrowed bodily by Sindbad of the Sea, with what is probably the best
modern account, Junghuhn's: "Among the forest trees (of Tapanuli adjoining
Barus) the Camphor Tree (Dryabalanops Camphora) attracts beyond all the
traveller's observation, by its straight columnar and colossal grey trunk,
and its mighty crown of foliage, rising high above the canopy of the
forest. It exceeds in dimensions the Rasamala,[3] the loftiest tree of
Java, and is probably the greatest tree of the Archipelago, if not of the
world,[4] reaching a height of 200 feet. One of the middling size which I
had cut down measured at the base, where the camphor leaks out, 7-1/2
Paris feet in diameter (about 8 feet English); its trunk rose to 100 feet,
with an upper diameter of 5 feet, before dividing, and the height of the
whole tree to the crown was 150 feet. The precious consolidated camphor is
found in small quantities, 1/4 lb. to 1 lb. in a single tree, in
fissure-like hollows in the stem. Yet many are cut down in vain, or split
up the side without finding camphor. The camphor oil is prepared by the
natives by bruising and boiling the twigs." The oil, however, appears also
to be found in the tree, as Crawford and Collingwood mention, corroborating
the ancient Arab.
It is well known that the Chinese attach an extravagantly superior value
to the Malay camphor, and probably its value in Marco's day was higher
than it is now, but still its estimate as worth its weight in gold looks
like hyperbole.
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