(See Note 4 to next chapter.)
[Illustration: Ethiopian Sheep.]
NOTE 6. - An approximation to 12,000 as a round number seems to have been
habitually used in reference to the Indian Islands; John of Montecorvino
says they are many more than 12,000; Jordanus had heard that there were
10,000 inhabited. Linschoten says some estimated the Maldives at 11,100.
And we learn from Pyrard de Laval that the Sultan of the Maldives called
himself Ibrahim Sultan of Thirteen Atollons (or coral groups) and of
12,000 Islands! This is probably the origin of the proverbial number. Ibn
Batuta, in his excellent account of the Maldives, estimates them at only
about 2000. But Captain Owen, commenting on Pyrard, says that he believes
the actual number of islands to be treble or fourfold of 12,000. (P. de
Laval in Charton, IV. 255; I.B. IV. 40; J.R.G.S. II. 84.)
NOTE 7. - The term "India" became very vague from an early date. In fact,
Alcuin divides the whole world into three parts, Europe, Africa, and
India. Hence it was necessary to discriminate different Indias, but there
is very little agreement among different authors as to this
discrimination.
The earliest use that I can find of the terms India Major and Minor is in
the Liber Junioris Philosophi published by Hudson, and which is believed
to be translated from a lost Greek original of the middle of the 4th
century.
