(Vol. ii. pp. 255 and 261.)
Dr. G. Schlegel writes, in the T'oung Pao (May, 1898, p. 153): "Abakan
or Abachan ought to be written Alahan. His name is written by the
Chinese Ats'zehan and by the Japanese Asikan; but this is because they
have both confounded the character lah with the character ts'ze; the
old sound of [the last] character [of the name] was kan and is always
used by the Chinese when wanting to transcribe the title Khan or Chan.
Marco Polo's Abacan is a clerical error for Alacan."
10. - CHAMPA. (Vol. ii. p. 268.)
In Ma Huan's account of the Kingdom of Siam, transl. by Mr. Phillips
(Jour. China B.R.A.S., XXI. 1886, pp. 35-36) we read: "Their marriage
ceremonies are as follows: - They first invite the priest to conduct the
bridegroom to the bride's house, and on arrival there the priest exacts
the 'droit seigneurial,' and then she is introduced to the bridegroom."
11. - RUCK QUILLS. (Vol. ii. p. 421.)
Regarding Ruck Quills, Sir H. Yule wrote in the Academy, 22nd March,
1884, pp. 204-405: -
"I suggested that this might possibly have been some vegetable production,
such as a great frond of the Ravenala (Urania speciosa) cooked to pass
as a ruc's quill. (Marco Polo, first edition, ii. 354; second edition,
ii. 414.) Mr. Sibree, in his excellent book on Madagascar (The Great
African Island, 1880) noticed this, but said:
"'It is much more likely that they [the ruc's quills] were the immensely
long midribs of the leaves of the rofia palm. These are from twenty to
thirty feet long, and are not at all unlike an enormous quill stripped of
the feathering portion'" (p. 55).
In another passage he describes the palm, Sagus ruffia (? raphia):
"The rofia has a trunk of from thirty to fifty feet in height, and at
the head divides into seven or eight immensely long leaves. The midrib of
these leaves is a very strong, but extremely light and straight pole....
These poles are often twenty feet or more in length, and the leaves proper
consist of a great number of fine and long pinnate leaflets, set at right
angles to the midrib, from eighteen to twenty inches long, and about one
and a half broad," etc. (pp. 74, 75).
When Sir John Kirk came home in 1881-1882, I spoke to him on the subject,
and he felt confident that the rofia or raphia palm-fronds were the
original of the ruc's quills. He also kindly volunteered to send me a
specimen on his return to Zanzibar. This he did not forget, and some time
ago there arrived at the India Office not one, but four of these ruc's
quills. In the letter which announced this despatch Sir John says: -
"I send to-day per s.s. Arcot ... four fronds of the Raphia palm, called
here 'Moale.' They are just as sold and shipped up and down the coast.
