XXXIV. 1451 A.D. MA HUAN
A. The Nicobars and Ceylon
In the Great Sea are the Tsui-lan shan (the Nicobar islands). There are three or four islands (in the group). The highest is called Su-tu-man.[^1] Sailing before the north-east wind they can be reached from Mao shan (Pulo Weh) in three days.
The people all live in caves. All of them, males as well as females, go naked like wild animals, so they grow no rice, but feed on yams, bananas, jack-fruit, and such like things, or on fish and prawns.
There is a foolish story to the effect that if they wore but a little piece of cotton to hide their nakedness, they would have ulcers and sores. This is because when anciently the Buddha crossed the sea, on coming here he took off his clothing and bathed, when the natives stole them. The Buddha thereupon cursed them. It is also commonly said that this is the country of Ch’ih-luan-wu.[^2]
Westward from the Tsui-lan islands for seven or eight days (watches) one comes in sight of the Ying-ko-tsui[^3] headland, and in another two or three days (watches) one comes to the Buddha Temple Hill, Dondera Head, and to the first place (reached in) Ceylon, the port called Pieh-lo-li.[^4] At the foot of the hill by the sea-side there is a huge rock with the mysterious imprint of a foot which is greatly revered. It is about two feet long. Tradition says that it is the impress of the Buddha’s foot. In the impress there is a spring which does not dry up. People dip up the water and wash their face and eyes, saying, “The Buddha water will make us clean.” Such is the common belief of the people.
In the temple there is a sleeping Buddha, the couch is made of eagle-wood and ornamented with all kinds of precious substances, and the dais is equally beautiful. The Buddha’s tooth (and other relics) are also revered in this temple which is said to be the place of the nieh-pan (nirvāṇa of the Buddha).
Travelling north-west by land[^5] from this place (i.e., from Beligam) one then comes to where the king lives.[^6] The king is a So-li man (from Coromandel).
They believe in the Buddha, Sākyamuni, and show great reverence to elephants and cows. They burn cow dung to ashes with which they smear their bodies. As to cows, they drink their milk but do not eat their flesh. When one dies, they bury it. He who kills a cow is punished with death, or he may redeem himself with a cow’s head of gold. At dawn, both in the king’s palace and in the dwellings of the people, they must mix up cow dung and smear the ground and worship the Buddha. [Stretching both hands wide out in front and stretching both legs out behind, they remain glued to the earth, both with their breast and abdomen, and so make their salutation.] (Duyvendak p. 47).
The great mountain (near) the capital (i.e., Adam’s Peak) pierces the clouds. (On it) is a great footprint two feet deep and over eight feet long. Tradition says that it is the footprint of A-jan (Adam), the first father of men; that is to say, Pan-ku.
The country is extensive, the people numerous. It equals the kingdom of Chao-wa (Java) in its wealth and plenty.
The people have the upper part of the body bare; as to the lower part, they have a piece of stuff held in place by a waistband. Their bodies are clean shaven, but they leave the hair of the head and wrap the head in a cotton cloth turban.
When they mourn their fathers, they do not shave their bodies. The women draw their hair into a knot behind and wrap around themselves a piece of white cotton cloth. [Newly born male children have their heads shaven; the head of the female child is not shaven, the hair is done up into a tuft and they let it grow until she is grown up.] (Duyvendak p. 47). They eat and drink in private, and men may not see them do so.
Butter is a necessary ingredient in their food, and betel-nut is never out of their mouths.
They burn the dead and bury the bones. [It is the custom in a family in which a death has occurred, for the relatives’ and neighbours’ wives to assemble together and smite their breasts with their hands, and at the same time make loud lamentations and weeping.] (Duyvendak, p. 47).
The native products are ya-hu of which there are three colours, blue, red and yellow, and blue mi-lan stones. The two kinds of stones (called) hsi-la-ni and kü-mo-lan are found in the sand brought down by the water which falls on the slopes of the mountain (i.e., Adam’s Peak) and rushes down.
The floating brightness of the rays of the sun on an island of the sea is the essence of the pearl oyster.[^7] They have made a pond (in which) every two or three years they spread out oysters which officers guard; then the pearls can be sifted out and removed. [Those who sift those oysters to take them to the authorities, sometimes steal and fraudulently sell them.] (Duyvendak, p. 47).
They have rice, sesamum, and lentils, but no wheat. There are many cocoa-nut trees.
As to fruits, they have the banana, the jack-fruit, sugar-cane, melons, and esculents. There are also cattle, sheep, fowl, and ducks.
In trading they use a gold coin weighing 1 candareen 6 li, (also) Chinese musk, fine silk gauzes, embroidered taffetas, blue (and white) china-ware, copper cash, copper, iron, and camphor.
Its tribute (to the Court of China) consists in pearls and precious stones.
—Ying yai sheng lan. 10 Hsi-lan. Tr. Rockhill. T’oung Pao xvi, pp. 377-381. Modified by Duyvendak, Ma Huan Re-examined, Verhandelingen der Koninklijke Akademie van Wetenschappen Amsterdam, Afdeeling Letterkunde, Nieuwe Reeks, Deel xxxii, No. 3.
B. The Maldives
[Setting sail from Su-men-ta-la past Hsiao-mao-shan (on S. coast of Pulo Weh ?), southwestward with a favourable wind one may arrive in this country in ten days. Its native name is Teih Kan. There are no walled towns and the people live close together against the slope of the mountains.]—(Duyvendak).
To the west [the sea-route changes its character]; in the sea there is a gate of rocks like a city gate.
There are eight large islands all bearing the name of Liu, and they row in boats from one to the other. The rest are (called) the “Little Liu,” they are approximately three thousand in number, and are (also) called the “three thousand (islands) of the shallow waters.”
The people (on the little islands?) all live in caves [and in nests]. They do not know of pulse and grain, but only eat fish and prawns. They have no clothing, but hide their nakedness before and behind with leaves. [When a ship meets untoward conditions of wind and sea, and the ship’s master has lost his bearings and the rudder is gone, if one then passes the Liu islands and drifts on to its waters which are drained off, the ship is powerless in the shoals and sinks so that generally they all keep a sharp look out for it.]—(Duyvendak).
In the kingdom of Tieh-kan all are Mussulmans. The habits and customs are virtuous and good, they follow the precepts of their religious teachers. Their occupation is fishing. They like to plant cocoa-nut trees. The complexion of the men is rather dark. They wear a white turban and wrap around their lower parts a small piece of stuff (lit., “a handkerchief”).
The women wear [a short upper coat] and also wrap around the lower part of their bodies a small piece of stuff. A large piece of stuff (conceals their faces).[^8] In their marriage and funeral ceremonies they follow the rites of their religion.
The climate is constantly as hot as summer. The soil is poor and rice scarce. They have no wheat. In trading they use silver coins.
The native products are laka-wood [but not much] and the cocoa-nut (tree). [Cocoa-nuts are very abundant and people come from everywhere to buy them; amongst the merchandise which they sell to other countries there is a kind of cocoa-nut shell, from which those people manufacture a kind of wine-bowl, with legs of rosewood, the legs and the inside being varnished with native varnish, very unusual. From the fibre on the outer shell of the cocoa-nut they twine fine rope which is heaped up in the houses, and which the people aboard native ships from other places also come to buy. It is sold to other countries for building ships and other uses. In building native ships nails are never used, but with the clefts (the boards) are joined together and tied fast with this kind of rope, wooden wedges being also fixed to them. Then they smear the seams with a native resin so that the water cannot leak through][^9] (Duyvendak p. 57).
[People who fish for ambergris often stay at the Liu-islands. They find it when the water rises; it has the colour of resin, but has no odour; when it is burnt there is a rancid smell. Its price is high and it is exchanged against silver.] (Duyvendak p. 57).
[They gather cowrie-shells which are heaped up like a mountain; they catch them in a net and let them rot and sell them to other places; they are sold under the name of hai-liu-yu.[^10]] (Duyvendak p. 58.)
They weave silk handkerchiefs very finely and decidedly better than elsewhere; they weave also gold (embroidered) handkerchiefs, which the men wrap around their heads. [Some are sold for five ounces of silver.]
[There are not many vegetables.] They have cattle, sheep, domestic fowl, and ducks. [One or two Chinese trading-ships also go to that place to buy ambergris and cocoa-nut. It is however a small country.]
—Ying yai sheng lan. 14 Liu-shan Tieh-kan. Tr. Rockhill: T’oung Pao xvi, pp. 388-390. (Modified by Duyvendak, Ma Huan Re-examined, Verhandelingen der Koninklijke Akademie Van Wetenschappen, Amsterdam, Afdeeling Letterkunde, Nieuwe Reeks, Deel xxxii No. 3.)
C. Ko-Chih, Cochin
(Ma Huan’s account: a precis, by Geo. Phillips)
Cochin is described as a day and a night’s sail[^11] from Coilum, the present Quilon, most probably the Kaulam Malai of the Arabs (vide Yule’s Glossary under Malabar), known to the Chinese navigators of the Tang dynasty, A.D. 618-913, as Mūhlai.
The king or ruler is of the solar race,[^12] and is a sincere believer in Buddhism,[^13] and has the greatest reverence for elephants and oxen; and every morning at day-light prostrates himself before an image of Buddha.[^14] The king wears no clothing on the upper part of his person; he has simply a square of silk wound round his loins, kept in place by a coloured waist-band of the same material, and on his head a turban of yellow or white cotton cloth. The dress of the officers and the rich differs but little from that of the king. The houses are built of the wood of the cocoanut-tree and are thatched with its leaves, which render them perfectly water-tight.[^15]
There are five classes of men in this kingdom. The Nairs[^16] rank with the king. In the first class are those who shave their heads, and have a thread or string hanging over their shoulder, these are looked upon as belonging to the noblest families.[^17] In the second are the Muhammadans; in the third the Chittis, who are the capitalists; in the fourth the Kolings, who act as commission agents; in the fifth the Mukuas, who are the lowest and poorest of all. The Mukuas live in houses which are forbidden by the Government to be more than three feet high, and they are not allowed to wear long garments; when abroad, if they happen to meet a Nair or a Chitti they at once prostrate themselves on the ground, and dare not rise until they have passed by; these Mukuas get their living by fishing and carrying burdens.
The merchants of this country carry on their business like pedlars do in China. Here also is another class of men, called Chokis (Yogi), who lead austere lives like the Taoists of China, but who, however, are married. These men from the time they are born do not have their heads shaved or combed, but plait their hair into several tails, which hang over their shoulders;[^18] they wear no clothes, but round their waists they fasten a strip of rattan, over which they hang a piece of white calico; they carry a conch-shell, which they blow as they go along the road; they are accompanied by their wives, who simply wear a small bit of cotton cloth round their loins. Alms of rice and money are given to them by the people whose houses they visit.
In this country there are two seasons, the wet and the dry. In the first two months of the rainy season there are only passing showers, during which time the people lay in a stock of provisions; in the next two months there is a continual downpour day and night, so that the streets and market places are like rivers, and no one is able to go out of doors; during the last two months the rain gradually ceases, and then not a drop falls for another six months. The soil is unproductive; pepper, however, grows on the hills and is extensively cultivated; this article is sold at five taels the P’o-ho,[^19] which is 400 cattis of Chinese weight.
All trading transactions are carried on by the Chittis, who buy the pepper from the farmers when it is ripe, and sell it to foreign ships when they pass by. They also buy and collect precious stones and other costly wares. A pearl weighing three-and-a-half candareens can be bought for a hundred ounces of silver. Coral is sold by the catti; inferior pieces of coral are cut into beads and polished by skilled workmen; these are also sold by weight. The coinage of the country is a gold piece, called Fa-nan, weighing one candareen; there is also a little silver coin called a Ta-urh, which is used for making small purchases in the market. Fifteen Ta-urhs make a Fa-nan. There are no asses or geese in this country, and there is neither wheat nor barley; rice, maize, hemp, and millet abound. Articles of tribute are sent to China by our ships on their return voyage.
—Geo. Phillips in JRAS 1896, pp. 341-44; cf. Rockhill. T’oung Pao xvi pp. 449-52.
D. Ku-li, Calicut
This sea port, of which Ma Huan gives us a most lengthy account is described as a great emporium of trade frequented by merchants from all quarters. It is three days’ sail from Cochin, by which it is bordered on the south; on the north it adjoins Cannanore (K’an-nu-urh); it has the sea on the west; and on the east, through the mountains, at a distance of 500 li (167 miles), is the kingdom or city of K-an-pa-mei,[^20] a great seat of cotton manufacture where is made, as also in the surrounding districts, a cloth called Chih-li (Chih-li-pu) cloth. It is made up into pieces, four feet five inches wide and twenty-five feet long; it is sold there for eight or ten gold pieces of their money. They also prepare raw silk for the loom which they dye various shades of colour and then weave into flowered pattern goods made up into pieces four to five feet wide and twelve to thirteen feet long. Each length is sold for one hundred gold pieces of their money.
To return to Calicut, much pepper is grown on the hills. Coco-nuts are extensively cultivated, many farmers owning a thousand trees; those having a plantation of three thousand are looked upon as wealthy proprietors. The king belongs to the Nair class, and, like his brother of Cochin, is a sincere follower of Buddha, and as such does not eat beef; his overseer, being a Muhammadan, does not eat pork. This led, it is said, in times past, to a compact being made between the king and his overseer, to the effect that if the king would give up eating pork the overseer would give up eating beef. This compact has been most scrupulously observed by the successors of both parties upto the present day. The king at his devotions prostrates himself before an image of Buddha every morning; which being over, his attendants collect all the cow-dung about the place, and smear it over the image of the god. Some of the dung the king orders to be burnt to ashes and put into a small cotton bag, which he continually wears upon his person; and when his morning ablutions are over, he mixes some of the powdered dung with water and smears it over his forehead and limbs; by so doing he considers he is showing Buddha the greatest reverence.
Many of the king’s subjects are Muhammadans, and there are twenty or thirty mosques in the kingdom, to which the people resort every seventh day for worship. On this day, during the morning, the people being at the mosque, no business whatever is transacted; and in the after part of the day, the services being over, business is resumed.
When a ship arrives from China, the king’s overseer and a Chitti go on board and make an invoice of the goods, and a day is settled for valuing the cargo. On the day appointed the silk goods, more especially the Khinkis (Kincobs), are first inspected and valued, which when decided on, all present join hands, whereupon the broker says, “The price of your goods is now fixed, and cannot in any way be altered.”
The price to be paid for pearls and precious stones is arranged by the Weinaki broker, and the value of the Chinese goods taken in exchange for them is that previously fixed by the broker in the way above stated.
They have no abacus on which to make their calculations, but in its place they use their toes and fingers, and, what is very wonderful, they are never wrong in their reckonings.
The succession to the throne is settled in a somewhat curious manner. The king is not succeeded by his son, but by his sister’s son, because his nephew, being born of his sister’s body is considered nearer to him by blood. If the king has no sister the succession goes to his brother; if he has no brother it goes to a man of ability and worth. Such has been the rule for many generations.
Trial by ordeal is much practised in this country, such as thrusting the finger of the accused into boiling oil, and then keeping him in jail for two or three days. If after that time the finger is ulcerated he is pronounced guilty and sentenced to punishment; but if his finger has received no injury he is at once set free, and escorted home by musicians engaged by the overseer. On his arrival home his relatives, neighbours, and friends make him presents and rejoice and feast together.
The jack fruit and the plantain abound in this country, which is also well supplied with melons, gourds, and turnips, and every other kind of vegetable. Ducks, herons, and swallows are numbered among the feathered tribe, and there are bats as large as vultures, which hang suspended from the trees.
As in Cochin, the money in circulation is the Fa-nan and the Ta-urh. Their weights are the P’o-ho and the Fan-la-shih, and there is a measure called a Tang-ko-li.[^21]
The king’s present to the Emperor is usually a gold-plaited girdle set with all kinds of precious stones and pearls.
—Geo. Phillips in JRAS 1896, 345-48; cf. Rockhill; T’oung Pao xvi, pp. 455-60.