XXVIII. 1323-1330 A.D. FRIAR JORDANUS

A. Scope for conversions in India

Let me tell you that the fame of us Latins is more highly thought of among the people of India than among us Latins ourselves. Nay they are in continual expectation of the arrival of the Latins here, which they say is clearly predicted in their books.[^1] And moreover, they are continually praying the Lord, after their manner, to hasten this wished-for arrival of the Latins. If our lord the Pope would but establish a couple of galleys on this sea, what a gain it would be! And what damage and destruction to the Soldan of Alexandria! O, who will tell this to his holiness the Pope? For me, wayfarer that I am, ’tis out of the question. But I commit all to you, holy fathers. Fare ye well, then, holy fathers, and remember the pilgrim in your prayers. Pray for the pilgrim of Christ, all of you, that the Indian converts, black as they are, may all be made white in soul before the good Jesus, through his pitiful grace. I end my words with many a sigh, most heartily recommending myself to the prayers of all.

Dated in Thana of India, the city where my holy comrades were martyred, in the year of the Lord 1323,[^2] in the month of January, and on the feast of the holy martyrs Fabian and Sebastian.

—Yule and Cordier, Cathay, iii, pp. 79-80.

B. Concerning India the Less[^3]

In the entrance to India the Less are (date) palms, giving a great quantity of the sweetest fruit; but further on in India they are not found.[^4]

In this lesser India are many things worthy to be noted with wonder; for there are no springs, no rivers, no ponds; nor does it ever rain, except during three months, viz., between the middle of May and the middle of August; and (wonderful!) notwithstanding this, the soil is most kindly and fertile, and during the nine months of the year in which it does not rain, so much dew is found every day upon the ground that it is not dried up by the sun’s rays till the middle of the third hour of the day.

Here be many and boundless marvels; and in this first India beginneth, as it were, another world; for the men and women be all black, and they have for covering nothing but a strip of cotton tied round the loins, and the end of it flung over the naked neck. Wheaten bread is there not eaten by the natives, although wheat they have in plenty; but rice is eaten with its seasoning, only boiled in water. And they have milk and butter and oil, which they often eat uncooked. In this India there be no horses, nor mules, nor camels, nor elephants; but only kine, with which they do all their doings that they have to do, whether it be riding, or carrying, or field labour. The asses are few in number and very small, and not much worth.[^5]

The days and nights do not vary there more than by two hours at the most.

There be always fruits and flowers there, divers trees, and fruits of divers kinds; for (example) there are some trees which bear very big fruit, called Chaqui; and the fruit is of such size that one is enough for five persons.[^6]

There is another tree which has fruit like that just named, and it is called Bloqui, quite as big and as sweet, but not of the same species. These fruits never grow upon the twigs, for these are not able to bear their weight, but only from the main branches, and even from the trunk of the tree itself, down to the very roots.

There is another tree which has fruit like a plum, but a very big one, which is called Aniba. This is a fruit so sweet and delicious as it is impossible to utter in words.[^7]

There be many other fruit trees of divers kinds, which it would be tedious to describe in detail.

I will only say this much, that this India, as regards fruit and other things, is entirely different from Christendom; except, indeed, that there be lemons there, in some places, as sweet as sugar, whilst there be other lemons sour like ours. There be also pomegranates, but very poor and small. There be but few vines, and they make from them no wine, but eat the fresh grapes; albeit there are a number of other trees whose sap they collect, and it standeth in place of wine to them.

First of these is a certain tree called Nargil; which tree every month in the year sends out a beautiful frond like (that of) a (date) palm-tree, which frond or branch produces very large fruit, as big as a man’s head. There often grow on one such stem thirty of those fruits as big as I have said. And both flowers and fruits are produced at the same time beginning with the first month and going up gradually to the twelfth; so that there are flowers and fruit in eleven stages of growth to be seen together. A wonder! and a thing which cannot be well understood without being witnessed. From these branches and fruits is drawn a very sweet water. The kernel (at first) is very tender and pleasant to eat; afterwards it waxeth harder, and a milk is drawn from it as good as milk of almonds; and when the kernel waxeth harder still, an oil is made from it of great medicinal virtue. And if any one careth not to have fruit, when the fruit-bearing stem is one or two months old he maketh a cut in it, and bindeth a pot to this incision; and so the sap, which would have been converted into fruit, drops in; and it is white like milk, and sweet like must, and maketh drunk like wine, so that the natives do drink it for wine; and those who wish not to drink it so, boil it down to one-third of its bulk, and then it becometh thick, like honey; and ’tis sweet, and fit for making preserves, like honey and the honeycomb. One branch gives one potful in the day and one in the night, on the average throughout the year; thus five or six pots may be found hung upon the same tree at once. With the leaves of this tree they cover their houses during the rainy season. The fruit is that which we call nuts of India; and from the rind of that fruit is made the twine[^8] with which they stitch their boats together in those parts.

There is another tree of a different species, which like that gives all the year round a white liquor pleasant to drink, which tree is called Tari.[^9] There is also another, called Belluri,[^10] giving a liquor of the same kind, but better. There be also many other trees, and wonderful ones; among which is one which sendeth forth roots from high up,[^11] which gradually grow down to the ground and enter it, and then wax into trunks like the main trunk, forming as it were an arch; and by this kind of multiplication one tree will have at once as many as twenty or thirty trunks beside one another, and all connected together. ‘Tis marvellous! And truly this which I have seen with mine eyes, ’tis hard to utter with my tongue. The fruit of this tree is not useful, but poisonous and deadly. There is (also) a tree harder than all, which the strongest arrows can scarcely pierce.

The trees in this India, and also in India the Greater, never shed their leaves till the new ones come.

To write about the other trees would be too long a business; and tedious beyond measure; seeing that they are many and divers, and beyond the comprehension of man.

But about wild beasts of the forest I say this: there be lions, leopards, ounces, and another kind something like a greyhound, having only the ears black and the whole body perfectly white, which among those people is called Siagois.[^12] This animal, whatever it catches, never lets go, even to death. There is also another animal, which is called Rhinoceros, as big as a horse, having one horn long and twisted; but it is not the unicorn.

There be also venomous animals, such as many serpents, big beyond bounds, and of divers colours, black, red, white, and green, and parti-coloured; two-headed also, three-headed, and five-headed. Admirable marvels![^13]

There be also coquodriles, which are vulgarly called Calcatix; some of them be so big that they be bigger than the biggest horse. These animals be like lizards, and have a tail stretched over all, like unto a lizard’s; and have a head like unto a swine’s, and rows of teeth so powerful and horrible that no animal can escape their force, particularly in the water. This animal has, as it were, a coat of mail; and there is no sword, nor lance, nor arrow, which can anyhow hurt him, on account of the hardness of his scales. In the water, in short, there is nothing so strong, nothing so evil, as this wonderful animal. There be also many other reptiles, whose names, to speak plainly, I know not.

As for birds, I say plainly that they are of quite different kinds from what are found on this side of the world; except, indeed, crows and sparrows; for there be parrots and popinjays in very great numbers, so that a thousand or more may be seen in a flock. These birds, when tamed and kept in cages, speak so that you would take them for rational beings. There be also bats really and truly as big as kites. These birds fly nowhere by day, but only when the sun sets. Wonderful! By day they hang themselves up on trees by the feet, with their bodies downwards, and in the daytime they look just like big fruit on the tree.

There are also other birds, such as peacocks, quails, Indian fowls, and others, divers in kind; some white as white can be, some green as green can be, some parti-coloured, of such beauty as is past telling.

In this India, when men go to the wars, and when they act as guards to their lords, they go naked, with a round target,—a frail and paltry affair,—and holding a kind of spit in their hands; and, truly, their fighting seems like child’s play.

In this India are many and divers precious stones, among which are the best diamonds under heaven. These stones never can be dressed or shaped by any art, except what nature has given. But I omit the properties of these stones, not to be prolix.

In this India are many other precious stones, endowed with excellent virtues, which may be gathered by anybody; nor is anyone hindered.

In this India, on the death of a noble, or of any people of substance, their bodies are burned: and eke their wives follow them alive to the fire, and, for the sake of worldly glory, and for the love of their husbands, and for eternal life, burn along with them, with as much joy as if they were going to be wedded; and those who do this have the higher repute for virtue and perfection among the rest. Wonderful! I have sometimes seen, for one dead man who was burnt, five living women take their places on the fire with him, and die with their dead.

There be also other pagan-folk in this India who worship fire; they bury not their dead, neither do they burn them, but cast them into the midst of a certain roofless tower, and there expose them totally uncovered to the fowls of heaven. These believe in two First Principles, to wit, of Evil and of Good, of Darkness and of Light, matters which at present I do not purpose to discuss.[^14]

There be also certain others which be called Dumbri,[^15] who eat carrion and carcases; who have absolutely no object of worship; and who have to do the drudgeries of other people, and carry loads.

In this India there is green ginger, and it grows there in great abundance.

There be also sugar-canes in quantities; carobs also, of such size and bigness that it is something stupendous. I could tell very wonderful things of this India; but I am not able to detail them for lack of time. Cassia fistula is in some parts of this India extremely abundant.

The people of this India are very clean in their feeding; true in speech, and eminent in justice, maintaining carefully the privileges of every man according to his degree, as they have come down from old times.

The heat there is perfectly horrible, and more intolerable to strangers than it is possible to say.

In this India there exists not, nor is found, any metal but what comes from abroad, except gold, iron, and electrum. There is no pepper there, nor any kind of spice except ginger.

In this India the greater part of the people worship idols, although a great share of the sovereignty is in the hands of the Turkish Saracens, who came forth from Multan, and conquered and usurped dominion to themselves not long since, and destroyed an infinity of idol temples, and likewise many churches, of which they made mosques for Mahomet, taking possession of their endowments and property. ‘Tis grief to hear, and woe to see!

The Pagans of this India have prophecies of their own that we Latins are to subjugate the whole world.

In this India there is a scattered people, one here, another there who call themselves Christians, but are not so, nor have they baptism, nor do they know anything else about the faith. Nay, they believe St. Thomas the Great to be Christ!

There, in India I speak of, I baptised and brought into the faith about three hundred souls, of whom many were idolaters and Saracens.

And let me tell you that among the idolaters a man may with safety expound the Word of the Lord; nor is any one from among the idolaters hindered from being baptized throughout all the East, whether they be Tartars, or Indians, or what not.

These idolaters sacrifice to their gods in this manner; to wit, there is one man who is priest to the idol, and he wears a long shirt, down to the ground almost, and above this a white surplice in our fashion; and he has a clerk with a shirt who goes after him, and carries a hassock, which he sets before the priest. And upon this the priest kneels, and so begins to advance from a distance, like one performing his stations; and he carries upon his bent arms a tray of two cubits (long), all full of eatables of different sorts, with lighted tapers at top; and thus praying he comes up to the altar where the idol is, and deposits the offering before it after their manner; and he pours a libation, and places part (of the offering) in the hands of the idol, and then divides the residue, and himself eats a part of it.

They make idols after the likeness of almost all living things of the idolaters; and they have besides their god according to his likeness. It is true that over all gods they place One God, the Almighty Creator of all those. They hold also that the world has existed now xxviii thousand years.[^16]

The Indians, both of this India and of the other Indies, never kill an ox, but rather honour him like a father; and some, even perhaps the majority, worship him. They will more readily spare him who has slain five men than him who has slain one ox, saying that it is no more lawful to kill an ox than to kill one’s father. This is because oxen do all their services, and moreover furnish them with milk and butter, and all sorts of good things. The great lords among the idolaters, every morning when they rise, and before they go anywhither, make the fattest cows come before them, and lay their hands upon them, and then rub their own faces, believing that after this they can have no ailment.

Let this be enough about Lesser India; for were I to set forth particulars of everything down to worms and the like, a year would not suffice for the description.

But (I may say in conclusion) as for the women and men, the blacker they be, the more beautiful they be (held).

—Yule, Friar Jordanus: pp. 11-25.

C. Concerning India the Greater

Of India the Greater I say this; that it is like unto Lesser India as regards all the folk being black. The animals also are all similar, neither more nor less (in number), except elephants, which they have (in the former) in very great plenty. These animals are marvellous; for they exceed in size and bulk and strength, and also in understanding, all the animals of the world. This animal hath a big head; small eyes, smaller than a horse’s; ears like the wings of owls or bats; a nose reaching quite to the ground, extending right down from the top of his head; and two tusks standing out of remarkable magnitude (both in) bulk and length, which are (in fact) teeth rooted in the upper jaw. This animal doth everything by word of command; so that his driver hath nothing to do but say once, “Do this,” and he doeth it; nor doth he seem in other respects a brute, but rather a rational creature. They have very big feet, with six hoofs like those of an ox, or rather of a camel. This animal carrieth easily upon him, with a certain structure of timber, more than thirty men; and he is a most gentle beast, and trained for war, so that a single animal counteth by himself equal in war to 1,500 men and more; for they bind to his tusks blades or maces of iron wherewith he smiteth. Most horrible are the powers of this beast, and specially in war.

Two things there be which cannot be withstood by arms; one is the bolt of heaven; the second is a stone from an artillery engine; this is a third! For there is nothing that either can or dare stand against the assault of an elephant in any manner. A marvellous thing! He kneeleth, lieth, sitteth, goeth, and cometh, merely at his master’s word. In short, it is impossible to write in words the peculiarities of this animal.

In this India there are pepper and ginger, cinnamon, brazil,[^17] and all other spices.

Ginger is the root of a plant which hath leaves like a reed. Pepper is the fruit of a plant something like ivy, which climbs trees, and forms grape-like fruit like that of the wild vine. This fruit is at first green, then when it comes to maturity it becomes all black and corrugated as you see it. ‘Tis thus that long pepper is produced, nor are you to believe that fire is placed under the pepper, nor that it is roasted, as some will lyingly maintain.[^18]

Cinnamon is the bark of a large tree which has fruit and flowers like cloves.

In this India be many islands, and more than 10,000 of them inhabited, as I have heard; wherein are many world’s wonders. For there is one called Silem, where are found the best precious stones in the whole world, and in the greatest quantity and number, and of all kinds.

Between that island and the main are taken pearls or marguerites, in such quantity as to be quite wonderful. So indeed that there are sometimes more than 8,000 boats or vessels, for three months continuously, (engaged in this fishery). It is astounding, and almost incredible, to those who have not seen it, how many are taken.

Of birds I say this: that there be many different from those of Lesser India, and of different colours; for there be some white all over as snow; some red as scarlet of the grain; some green as grass; some parti-coloured; in such quantity and delectability as cannot be uttered. Parrots also, or popinjays, after their kind, of every possible colour except black, for black ones are never found; but white all over, and green, and red, and also of mixed colours. The birds of this India seem really like creatures of Paradise.

There is also told a marvellous thing of the islands aforesaid, to wit that there is one of them in which there is a water, and a certain tree in the middle of it. Every metal which is washed with that water becomes gold; every wound on which are placed the bruised leaves of that tree is incontinently healed.

In this India, whilst I was at Columbum, were found two cats having wings like the wings of bats;[^19] and in Lesser India there be some rats as big as foxes, and venomous exceedingly.[^20]

In this India are certain trees which have leaves so big that five or six men can very well stand under the shade of one of them.[^21]

In the aforesaid island of Sylen is a very potent king, who hath precious stones of every kind under heaven, in such quantity as to be almost incredible. Among these he hath two rubies, of which he weareth one hung round his neck, and the other on the hand wherewith he wipeth his lips and his beard; and (each) is of greater length than the breadth of four fingers, and when held in the hand it standeth out visibly on either side to the breadth of a finger. I do not believe that the universal world hath two stones like these, or of so great a price. of the same species.[^22]

There is also another island where all the men and women go absolutely naked, and have in place of money comminuted gold like fine sand. They make of the cloth which they buy walls like curtains; nor do they cover themselves or their shame at any time in the world.

There is also another exceeding great island, which is called Jaua,[^23] which is in circuit more than seven (thousand ?) miles as I have heard, and where are many world’s wonders. Among which, besides the finest aromatic spices, this is one, to wit, that there be found pygmy men, of the size of a boy of three or four years old, all shaggy like a he goat. They dwell in the woods, and few are found.

In this island also are white mice, exceeding beautiful. There also are trees producing cloves, which, when they are in flower, emit an odour so pungent that they kill every man who cometh among them, unless he shut his mouth and nostrils.[^24]

There too are produced cubebs, and nutmegs, and mace, and all the other finest spices except pepper.

In a certain part of that island they delight to eat white and fat men when they can get them.[^25]

In the Greater India, and in the islands, all the people be black, and go naked from the loins upwards, and from the knee downwards, and without shoes.

But the kings have this distinction from others, that they wear upon their arms gold and silver rings, and on the neck a gold collar with a great abundance of gems.

In this India never do (even) the legitimate sons of great kings, or princes, or barons, inherit the goods of their parents, but only the sons of their sisters; for they say that they have no surety that those are their own sons, because wives and mistresses may conceive and generate by some one else; but ’tis not so with the sister, for whatever man may be the father they are certain that the offspring is from the womb of their sister, and is consequently thus truly of their blood.

In this Greater India many sacrifice themselves to idols in this way. When they are sick, or involved in any grave mischance, they vow themselves to the idol if they should happen to be delivered. Then, when they have recovered, they fatten themselves for one or two years continually, eating and drinking fat things, etc. And when another festival comes round, they cover themselves with flowers and perfumes, and crown themselves with white garlands, and go with singing and playing before the idol when it is carried through the land (like the image of the Virgin Mary here among us at the Rogation tides); and those men who are sacrificing themselves to the idol carry a sword with two handles, like those (knives) which are used in currying leather; and, after they have shown off a great deal, they put the sword to the back of the neck, cutting strongly with a vigorous exertion of both hands, and so cut off their own heads before the idol.[^26]

In this Greater India, in the place where I was, the nights and days are almost equal, nor does one exceed the other in length at any season by so much as a full hour.

In this India the sun keeps to the south for six months continuously, casting the shadows to the north; and for the other six months keeps to the north, casting the shadow to the south.[^27]

In this India the Pole-star is seen very low, insomuch that I was at one place where it did not show above the earth or the sea more than two fingers’ breadth.

There the nights, when the weather is fine and there is no moon, are, if I err not, four times as clear as in our part of the world.

There also, if I err not, between evening and morning, often all the planets may be seen: there are seen their influences (as it were) eye to eye, so that ’tis a delightful thing there to look out at night!

From the place aforesaid is seen continually between the south and the east a star of great size and ruddy splendour, which is called Canopus, and which from these parts of the world is never visible.

There are many marvellous things in the cycle of those (heavenly bodies) to delight a good astronomer.

In this India, and in India the Less, men who dwell a long way from the sea, under the ground and in woody tracts, seem altogether infernal;[^28] neither eating, drinking, nor clothing themselves like the others who dwell by the sea.

There serpents too be numerous, and very big, of all colours in the world; and it is a great marvel that they be seldom or never found to hurt anybody unless first attacked.

There is there also a certain kind of wasps, which make it their business to kill very big spiders whenever they find them, and afterwards to bury them in the sand, in a deep hole which they make, and so to cover them up that there is no man in the world who can turn them up, or find the place.

There is also a kind of very small ants, white as wool, which have such hard teeth that they gnaw through even timbers and the joints of stones, and, in short, whatever dry thing they find on the face of the earth, and mutilate woollen and cotton clothes. And they build out of the finest sand a crust like a wall, so that the sun cannot reach them, and so they remain covered. But if that crust happens to get broken, so that the sun reaches them, they incontinently die.[^29]

As regards insects, there be wonders, so many, great, and marvellous, that they cannot be told.

There is also in this India a certain bird, big like a kite, having a white head and belly, but all red above, which boldly snatches fish out of the hands of fishermen and other people, and indeed (these birds) go on just like dogs.

There is also another big bird, not like a kite, which flies only at night, and utters a voice in the night season like the voice of a man wailing from the deep.

What shall I say then? Even the Devil too there speaketh to men, many a time and oft, in the night season, as I have heard.[^30]

Everything indeed is a marvel in this India! Verily it is quite another world!

There is also a certain part of that India which is called Champa. There, in place of horses, mules and asses, and camels, they make use of elephants for all their work.[^31]

“Tis a wonderful thing about these animals, that when they are in a wild state they challenge each other to war, and form troops (for the purpose); so that there will be sometimes a hundred against a hundred, more or less; and they put the strongest and biggest and boldest at the head, and thus attack each other in turn, so that within a short time there will remain in one place XL or L killed and wounded, more or less. And ’tis a notable thing that the vanquished, it is said, never again appear in war or in the field.

These animals, on account of their ivory, are worth as much dead as alive, nor are they ever taken when little, but only when big and full grown.

And the mode of taking them is wonderful. Enclosures are made, very strong, and of four sides, wherein be many gateways, and raised gates, formed of very big and strong timbers. And there is one trained female elephant which is taken near the place where the elephants come to feed. The one which they desire to catch is pointed out to her, and she is told to manage so as to bring him home. She goeth about him and about him, and so contriveth by stroking him and licking him, as to induce him to follow her, and to enter along with her the outer gate, which the keepers incontinently let fall. Then, when the wild elephant turneth about, the female entereth the second gate, which is instantly shut like the first, and so the (wild) elephant remaineth caught between the two gates. Then cometh a man, clothed in black or red, with his face covered, who cruelly thrasheth him from above, and crieth out abusively against him as against a thief; and this goeth on for five or six days, without his getting anything to eat or drink. Then cometh another fellow, with his face bare, and clad in another colour, who feigneth to smite the first man, and to drive and thrust him away; then he cometh to the elephant and talketh to him, and with a long spear he scratcheth him, and he kisseth him, and giveth him food; and this goeth on for ten or fifteen days, and so by degrees he ventureth down beside him, and bindeth him to another elephant. And thus, after about twenty days, he may be taken out to be taught and broken in.[^32]

In this Greater India are twelve idolatrous kings, and more. For there is one very powerful king in the country where pepper grows, and his kingdom is called Molebar. There is also the king of Singuyli and the king of Columbum, the king of which is called Lingua, but his kingdom Mohebar. There is also the king of Molephatam, whose kingdom is called Molepoor, where pearls are taken in infinite quantities. There is also another king in the island of Sylen, where are found precious stones and good elephants. There be also three or four kings on the island of Java, where the good spices grow. There be also other kings, as the king of Telenc, who is very potent and great. The kingdom of Telenc abounds in corn, rice, sugar, wax, honey and honey-comb, pulse, eggs, goats, buffalos, beeves, milk, butter, and in oils of divers kinds and in many excellent fruits, more than any other part of the Indies. There is also the kingdom of Maratha which is very great; and there is the king of Batigala, but he is of the Saracens. There be also many kings in Chopa.[^33]

What shall I say? The greatness of this India is beyond description. But let this much suffice concerning India the Greater and the Less.

—The Wonders of the East (Mirabilia Descrepta) by Friar Jordanus: Yule pp. 26-41.