OF THE PALACE OF THE KING OF THE ISLE OF JAVA.—OF THE TREES THAT
BEAR MEAL, HONEY, WINE, AND VENOM; AND OF OTHER WONDERS AND CUSTOMS
IN THE ISLES THEREABOUTS.
Beside the isle I have spoken of, there is another great isle called
Sumobor[378], the king of which is very mighty. The people of that isle
make marks in their faces with a hot iron, both men and women, as a mark
of great nobility, to be known from other people; for they hold
themselves most noble and most worthy of all the world. They have war
always with the people that go all naked. Fast beside is another rich
isle called Beteinga. And there are many other isles thereabout.
Fast beside that isle, to pass by sea, is a great isle and extensive
country, called Java, which is near two thousand miles in circuit. And
the king of that country is a very great lord, rich and mighty, having
under him seven other kings of seven other surrounding isles. This isle
is well inhabited, and in it grow all kinds of spices more plentifully
than in any other country, as ginger, cloves, canel, sedewalle, nutmegs,
and maces. And know well that the nutmeg bears the maces; for right as
the nut of the hazel hath a husk in which the nut is inclosed till it be
ripe, so it is of the nutmeg and of the maces. Many other spices and
many other goods grow in that isle; for of all things there is plenty,
except wine. Gold and silver are very plentiful. The king of that
country has a very noble and wonderful palace, and richer than any in
the world; for all the steps leading to halls and chambers are
alternately of gold and silver; and the pavements of halls and chambers
are squares of gold and silver; and all the walls within are covered
with gold and silver in thin plates; in which plates are inlaid stories
and battles of knights, the crowns and circles about whose heads are
made of precious stones and rich and great pearls. And the halls and the
chambers of the palace are all covered within with gold and silver, so
that no man would believe the richness of that palace unless he had seen
it. And know well that the king of that isle is so mighty, that he hath
many times overcome the great chan of Cathay in battle, who is the
greatest emperor under the firmament, either beyond the sea or on this
side; for they have often had war between them, because the great chan
would oblige him to hold his land of him; but the other at all times
defendeth himself well against him.
After that isle is another large isle, called Pathan, which is a great
kingdom, full of fair cities and towns. In that land grow trees that
bear meal, of which men make good bread, white, and of good savour; and
it seemeth as it were of wheat, but it is not quite of such savour. And
there are other trees that bear good and sweet honey; and others that
bear poison[379], against which there is no medicine but one; and that
is to take their own leaves, and stamp them and mix them with water,
and then drink it, for no medicine will avail. The Jews had sent for
some of this poison by one of their friends, to poison all Christendom,
as I have heard them say in their confession before dying; but, thanked
be Almighty God, they failed of their purpose, although they caused a
great mortality of people[380]. And there are other trees that bear
excellent wine. And if you like to hear how the meal comes out of the
trees, men hew the trees with an hatchet, all about the foot, till the
bark be separated in many parts; and then comes out a thick liquor,
which they receive in vessels, and dry it in the sun; and then carry it
to a mill to grind, and it becomes fair and white meal; and the honey,
and the wine, and the poison, are drawn out of other trees in the same
manner, and put in vessels to keep. In that isle is a dead sea, or lake,
that has no bottom; and if any thing fall into it, it will never come up
again. In that lake grow reeds, which they call Thaby, that are thirty
fathoms long; and of these reeds they make fair houses. And there are
other reeds, not so long, that grow near the land, and have roots full a
quarter of a furlong or more long, at the knots of which roots precious
stones are found that have great virtues; for he who carries any of them
upon him may not be hurt by iron or steel; and therefore they who have
those stones on them fight very boldly both on sea and land; and,
therefore, when their enemies are aware of this, they shoot at them
arrows and darts without iron or steel, and so hurt and slay them. And
also of those reeds they make houses and ships, and other things, as we
here make houses and ships of oak, or of any other trees. And let no man
think that I am joking, for I have seen these reeds with my own eyes
many times, lying upon the river of that lake, of which twenty of our
fellows might not lift up or bear one to the earth.
Beyond this isle men go by sea to another rich isle, called
Calonak[381], the king of which has as many wives as he will; for he
makes search through the country for the fairest maidens that may be
found, who are brought before him, and he taketh one one night, and
another another, and so forth in succession; so that he hath a thousand
wives or more. And he lies never but one night with one of them, and
another night with another, unless one happens to be more agreeable to
him than another. Thus the king gets many children, sometimes a hundred,
sometimes two hundred, and sometimes more. He hath also as many as
fourteen thousand elephants, or more, which are brought up amongst his
serfs in all his towns. And in case he has war with any of the kings
around him, he causes certain men of arms to go up into wooden castles,
which are set upon the elephants' backs, to fight against their enemies;
and so do other kings thereabouts; and they call the elephants _warkes_.
And in that isle there is a great wonder; for all kinds of fish that are
there in the sea come once a year, one kind after the other, to the
coast of that isle in so great a multitude that a man can see hardly any
thing but fish; and there they remain three days; and every man of the
country takes as many of them as he likes. And that kind of fish, after
the third day, departs and goes into the sea. And after them come
another multitude of fish of another kind, and do in the same manner as
the first did another three days; and so on with the other kinds, till
all the divers kinds of fishes have been there, and men have taken what
they like of them. And no man knows the cause; but they of the country
say that it is to do reverence to their king, who is the most worthy
king in the world, as they say, because he fulfils the commandment of
God to Adam and Eve, "Increase and multiply, and fill the earth;" and
because he multiplies so the world with children, therefore God sends
him the fishes of divers kinds, to take at his will, for him and all his
people; and thus all the fishes of the sea come to do him homage as the
most noble and excellent king of the world, and that is best beloved of
God, as they say.
There are also in that country a kind of snails, so great that many
persons may lodge in their shells, as men would do in a little house.
And there are other snails that are very great, but not so huge as the
other, of which, and of great white serpents with black heads, that are
as great as a man's thigh, and some less, they make royal meats for the
king and other great lords. And if a man who is married die in that
country, they bury his wife alive with him, for they say that it is
right that she make him company in the other world, as she did in this.
From that country they go by the Sea of Ocean, by an isle called
Caffolos; the natives of which, when their friends are sick, hang them
on trees, and say that it is better that birds, which are angels of God,
eat them, than the foul worms of the earth. Then we come to another
isle, the inhabitants of which are of full cursed kind, for they breed
great dogs, and teach them to strangle their friends, when they are
sick, for they will not let them die of natural death; for they say that
they should suffer great pain if they abide to die by themselves, as
nature would; and, when they are thus strangled, they eat their flesh as
though it were venison.
Afterwards men go by many isles by sea to an isle called Milk, where are
very cursed people; for they delight in nothing more than to fight and
slay men; and they drink most gladly man's blood, which they call Dieu.
And the more men that a man may slay, the more worship he hath amongst
them. And thence they go by sea, from isle to isle, to an isle called
Tracoda, the inhabitants of which are as beasts, and unreasonable, and
dwell in caves which they make in the earth, for they have not sense to
make houses. And when they see any man passing through their countries
they hide them in their caves. And they eat flesh of serpents, and they
speak nought, but hiss, as serpents do. After that isle, men go by the
Sea of Ocean, by many isles, to a great and fair isle called Nacumera,
which is in circuit more than a thousand miles. And all the men and
women of that isle have dogs' heads; and they are reasonable and of good
understanding, except that they worship an ox for their god. And also
every man of them beareth an ox of gold or silver on his forehead, in
token that they love well their god. And they go all naked, except a
little clout, and are large men and warlike, having a great target that
covers all the body, and a spear in their hand to fight with. And if
they take any man in battle they eat him. The king is rich and powerful,
and very devout after his law; and he has about his neck three hundred
orient pearls, knotted, as paternosters are here of amber. And as we say
our Pater Noster and Ave Maria, counting the paternosters, right so this
king says every day devoutly three hundred prayers to his god, before he
eats; and he beareth also about his neck an orient ruby, noble and
fine, which is a foot in length, and five fingers large. And when they
choose their king, they give him that ruby to carry in his hand, and so
they lead him riding all about the city. And that ruby he shall bear
always about his neck; for if he had not that ruby upon him they would
not hold him for king. The chan of Cathay has greatly coveted that ruby,
but he might never have it, neither for war, nor for any manner of
goods. This king is so righteous and equitable in his judgments, that
men may go safely through all his country, and bear with them what they
like, and no man shall be bold enough to rob them.
Hence men go to another isle called Silha, which is full eight hundred
miles in circuit. In that land is much waste, for it is so full of
serpents, dragons, and cockodrills, that no man dare dwell there. These
cockodrills are serpents, yellow and rayed above, having four feet, and
short thighs, and great nails like claws; and some are five fathoms in
length, and some of six, eight, or even ten; and when they go by places
that are gravelly, it appears as if men had drawn a great tree through
the gravelly place. And there are also many wild beasts, especially
elephants. In that isle is a great mountain, in the midst of which is a
large lake in a full fair plain, and there is great plenty of water. And
they of the country say that Adam and Eve wept on that mount a hundred
years[382], when they were driven out of Paradise. And that water, they
say, is of their tears; for so much water they wept, that made the
aforesaid lake. And at the bottom of that lake are found many precious
stones and great pearls. In that lake grow many reeds and great canes,
and there within are many cockodrills and serpents, and great water
leeches. And the king of that country, once every year, gives leave to
poor men to go into the lake to gather precious stones and pearls, by
way of alms, for the love of God, that made Adam. To guard against the
vermin, they anoint their arms, thighs, and legs with an ointment made
of a thing called limons, which is a kind of fruit like small pease, and
then they have no dread of cockodrills, or other venomous things. This
water runs, flowing and ebbing, by a side of the mountain; and in that
river men find precious stones and pearls, in great abundance. And the
people of that isle say commonly, that the serpents and wild beasts of
the country will do no harm to any foreigner that enters that country,
but only to men that are born there.