OF THE KINGDOMS OF LAMBRI AND FANSUR.
When you leave that kingdom you come to another which is called LAMBRI.
{1} The people are Idolaters, and call themselves the subjects of the
Great Kaan. They have plenty of Camphor and of all sorts of other
spices. They also have brazil in great quantities. This they sow, and
when it is grown to the size of a small shoot they take it up and
transplant it; then they let it grow for three years, after which they
tear it up by the root. You must know that Messer Marco Polo aforesaid
brought some seed of the brazil, such as they sow, to Venice with him,
and had it sown there; but never a thing came up. And I fancy it was
because the climate was too cold.
Now you must know that in this kingdom of Lambri there are men with
tails; these tails are of a palm in length, and have no hair on them.
These people live in the mountains and are a kind of wild men. Their
tails are about the thickness of a dog’s.{2} There are also plenty of
unicorns in that country, and abundance of game in birds and beasts.
Now then I have told you about the kingdom of Lambri.
You then come to another kingdom which is called FANSUR. The people are
Idolaters, and also call themselves subjects of the Great Kaan; and
understand, they are still on the same Island that I have been telling
you of. In this kingdom of Fansur grows the best Camphor in the world
called _Canfora Fansuri_. It is so fine that it sells for its weight in
fine gold.{3}
The people have no wheat, but have rice which they eat with milk and
flesh. They also have wine from trees such as I told you of. And I
will tell you another great marvel. They have a kind of trees that
produce flour, and excellent flour it is for food. These trees are
very tall and thick, but have a very thin bark, and inside the bark
they are crammed with flour. And I tell you that Messer Marco Polo,
who witnessed all this, related how he and his party did sundry times
partake of this flour made into bread, and found it excellent.{4}
There is now no more to relate. For out of those eight kingdoms we have
told you about six that lie at this side of the Island. I shall tell
you nothing about the other two kingdoms that are at the other side of
the Island, for the said Messer Marco Polo never was there. Howbeit we
have told you about the greater part of this Island of the Lesser Java:
so now we will quit it, and I will tell you of a very small Island that
is called GAUENISPOLA.{5}
NOTE 1.—The name of Lambri is not now traceable on our maps, nor on
any list of the ports of Sumatra that I have met with; but in old
times the name occurs frequently under one form or another, and its
position can be assigned generally to the north part of the west
coast, commencing from the neighbourhood of Achin Head.
De Barros, detailing the twenty-nine kingdoms which divided the
coast of Sumatra, at the beginning of the Portuguese conquests,
begins with _Daya_, and then passes round by the north. He names
as next in order LAMBRIJ, and then _Achem_. This would make Lambri
lie between Daya and Achin, for which there is but little room. And
there is an apparent inconsistency; for in coming round again from
the south, his 28th kingdom is _Quinchel_ (_Singkel_ of our modern
maps), the 29th _Mancopa_, “which _falls upon Lambrij_, which
adjoins Daya, the first that we named.” Most of the data about
Lambri render it very difficult to distinguish it from Achin.
The name of Lambri occurs in the Malay Chronicle, in the account of
the first Mahomedan mission to convert the Island. We shall quote
the passage in a following note.
The position of Lambri would render it one of the first points of
Sumatra made by navigators from Arabia and India; and this seems
at one time to have caused the name to be applied to the whole
Island. Thus Rashiduddin speaks of the very large Island LÁMÚRI
lying beyond Ceylon, and adjoining the country of _Sumatra_; Odoric
also goes from India across the Ocean to a certain country called
LAMORI, where he began to lose sight of the North Star. He also
speaks of the camphor, gold, and lign-aloes which it produced,
and proceeds thence to _Sumoltra_ in the same Island.[1] It is
probable that the _verzino_ or brazil-wood of _Ameri_ (L’Ameri,
_i.e._ Lambri?) which appears in the mercantile details of
Pegolotti was from this part of Sumatra. It is probable also that
the country called _Nanwuli_, which the Chinese Annals report, with
_Sumuntula_ and others, to have sent tribute to the Great Kaan
in 1286, was this same Lambri which Polo tells us called itself
subject to the Kaan.
In the time of the Sung Dynasty ships from T’swan-chau (or Zayton)
bound for _Tashi_, or Arabia, used to sail in forty days to a place
called _Lanli-poï_ (probably this is also Lambri, _Lambri-puri?_).
There they passed the winter, _i.e._ the south-west monsoon,
just as Marco Polo’s party did at Sumatra, and sailing again
when the wind became fair, they reached Arabia in sixty days.
(_Bretschneider_, p. 16.)
[The theory of Sir H. Yule is confirmed by Chinese authors quoted
by Mr. Groeneveldt (_Notes on the Malay Archipelago_, pp. 98–100):
“The country of Lambri is situated due west of Sumatra, at a
distance of three days sailing with a fair wind; it lies near the
sea and has a population of only about a thousand families.... On
the east the country is bordered by Litai, on the west and the
north by the sea, and on the south by high mountains, at the south
of which is the sea again.... At the north-west of this country, in
the sea, at a distance of half a day, is a flat mountain, called
the Hat-island; the sea at the west of it is the great ocean, and
is called the Ocean of Lambri. Ships coming from the west all
take this island as a landmark.” Mr. Groeneveldt adds: “Lambri
[according to his extracts from Chinese authors] must have been
situated on the north-western corner of the island of Sumatra, on
or near the spot of the present Achin: we see that it was bounded
by the sea on the north and the west, and that the Indian Ocean was
called after this insignificant place, because it was considered to
begin there. Moreover, the small island at half a day’s distance,
called Hat-island, perfectly agrees with the small islands Bras
or Nasi, lying off Achin, and of which the former, with its
newly-erected lighthouse, is a landmark for modern navigation, just
what it is said in our text to have been for the natives then.
We venture to think that the much discussed situation of Marco
Polo’s Lambri is definitely settled herewith.” The Chinese author
writes: “The mountains [of Lambri] produce the fragrant wood called
_Hsiang-chên Hsiang_.” Mr. Groeneveldt remarks (_l.c._ p. 143)
that this “is the name of a fragrant wood, much used as incense,
but which we have not been able to determine. Dr. Williams says
it comes from Sumatra, where it is called laka-wood, and is the
product of a tree to which the name of _Tanarius major_ is given by
him. For different reasons, we think this identification subject to
doubt.”
Captain M. J. C. Lucardie mentions a village called Lamreh,
situated at Atjeh, near Tungkup, in the xxvi. Mukim, which might
be a remnant of the country of Lâmeri. (_Merveilles de l’Inde_, p.
235.)—H. C.]
(_De Barros_, Dec. III. Bk. V. ch. i.; _Elliot_, I. 70; _Cathay_,
84, _seqq._; _Pegol._ p. 361; _Pauthier_, p. 605.)
NOTE 2.—Stories of tailed or hairy men are common in the
Archipelago, as in many other regions. Kazwini tells of the hairy
little men that are found in Rámni (Sumatra) with a language like
birds’ chirping. Marsden was told of hairy people called _Orang
Gugu_ in the interior of the Island, who differed little, except
in the use of speech, from the Orang utang. Since his time a
French writer, giving the same name and same description, declares
that he saw “a group” of these hairy people on the coast of
Andragiri, and was told by them that they inhabited the interior
of Menangkabau and formed a small tribe. It is rather remarkable
that this writer makes no allusion to Marsden though his account
is so nearly identical (_L’Océanie_ in _L’Univers Pittoresque_,
I. 24.) [One of the stories of the _Merveilles de l’Inde_ (p.
125) is that there are anthropophagi with tails at Lulu bilenk
between Fansur and Lâmeri.—H. C.] Mr. Anderson says there are “a
few wild people in the Siak country, very little removed in point
of civilisation above their companions the monkeys,” but he says
nothing of hairiness nor tails. For the earliest version of the
tail story we must go back to Ptolemy and the Isles of the Satyrs
in this quarter; or rather to Ctesias who tells of tailed men on an
Island in the Indian Sea. Jordanus also has the story of the hairy
men. Galvano heard that there were on the Island certain people
called _Daraque Dara_ (?), which had tails like unto sheep. And
the King of Tidore told him of another such tribe on the Isle of
Batochina. Mr. St. John in Borneo met with a trader who had seen
and _felt_ the tails of such a race inhabiting the north-east coast
of that Island. The appendage was 4 inches long and very stiff; so
the people all used perforated seats. This Borneo story has lately
been brought forward in Calcutta, and stoutly maintained, on native
evidence, by an English merchant. The Chinese also have their
tailed men in the mountains above Canton. In Africa there have been
many such stories, of some of which an account will be found in the
_Bulletin de la Soc. de Géog._ sér. IV. tom. iii. p. 31. It was a
story among mediæval Mahomedans that the members of the Imperial
House of Trebizond were endowed with short tails, whilst mediæval
Continentals had like stories about Englishmen, as Matthew Paris
relates. Thus we find in the Romance of Cœur de Lion, Richard’s
messengers addressed by the “Emperor of Cyprus”:—
“Out, _Taylards_, of my palys!
Now go, and say your _tayled_ King
That I owe him nothing.”
—_Weber_, II. 83.
The Princes of Purbandar, in the Peninsula of Guzerat, claim
descent from the monkey-god Hanumán, and allege in justification
a spinal elongation which gets them the name of _Púncháriah_,
“Taylards.”
(_Ethé’s Kazwini_, p. 221; _Anderson_, p. 210; _St. John,
Forests of the Far East_, I. 40; _Galvano_, Hak. Soc. 108, 120;
_Gildemeister_, 194; _Allen’s Indian Mail_, July 28, 1869; _Mid.
Kingd._ I. 293; _N. et Ext._ XIII. i. 380; _Mat. Paris_ under A.D.
1250; _Tod’s Rajasthan_, I. 114.)
NOTE 3.—The Camphor called _Fansúrí_ is celebrated by Arab writers
at least as old as the 9th century, _e.g._, by the author of the
first part of the _Relations_, by Mas’udi in the next century,
also by Avicenna, by Abulfeda, by Kazwini, and by Abu’l Fazl,
etc. In the second and third the name is miswritten _Ḳansúr_,
and by the last _Ḳaisúri_, but there can be no doubt of the
correction required. (_Reinaud_, I. 7; _Mas._ I. 338; _Liber
Canonis_, Ven. 1544, I. 116; _Büsching_, IV. 277; _Gildem._ p.
209; _Ain-i-Akb._ p. 78.) In Serapion we find the same camphor
described as that of _Pansor_; and when, leaving Arab authorities
and the earlier Middle Ages we come to Garcias, he speaks of the
same article under the name of camphor of _Barros_. And this is the
name—_Kápúr Bárús_—derived from the port which has been the chief
shipping-place of Sumatran camphor for _at least_ three centuries,
by which the native camphor is still known in Eastern trade, as
distinguished from the _Kápúr Chíná_ or _Kápúr-Japún_, as the
Malays term the article derived in those countries by distillation
from the _Laurus Camphora_. The earliest western mention of camphor
is in the same prescription by the physician Aëtius (_circa_
A.D. 540) that contains one of the earliest mentions of musk.
(_Supra_, I. p. 279.) The prescription ends: “and _if you have a
supply of camphor_ add two ounces of that.” (_Aetii Medici Graeci
Tetrabiblos_, etc., Froben, 1549, p. 910.)
It is highly probable that _Fansúr_ and _Barús_ may be not only the
same locality but mere variations of the same name.[2] The place is
called in the _Shijarat Malayu_, _Pasuri_, a name which the Arabs
certainly made into _Fansúri_ in one direction, and which might
easily in another, by a very common kind of Oriental metathesis,
pass into _Barúsi_. The legend in the Shijarat Malayu relates to
the first Mahomedan mission for the conversion of Sumatra, sent by
the Sherif of Mecca _viâ_ India. After sailing from Malabar the
first place the party arrived at was PASURI, the people of which
embraced Islam. They then proceeded to LAMBRI, which also accepted
the Faith. Then they sailed on till they reached _Haru_ (see on
my map _Aru_ on the East Coast), which did likewise. At this last
place they enquired for SAMUDRA, which seems to have been the
special object of their mission, and found that they had passed
it. Accordingly they retraced their course to PERLAK, and after
converting that place went on to SAMUDRA, where they converted
Mara Silu the King. (See note 1, ch. x. above.) This passage is
of extreme interest as naming _four_ out of Marco’s six kingdoms,
and in positions quite accordant with his indications. As noticed
by Mr. Braddell, from whose abstract I take the passage, the
circumstance of the party having passed Samudra unwittingly is
especially consistent with the site we have assigned to it near the
head of the Bay of Pasei, as a glance at the map will show.
Valentyn observes: “_Fansur_ can be nought else than the famous
_Pantsur_, no longer known indeed by that name, but a kingdom which
we become acquainted with through _Hamza Pantsuri_, a celebrated
Poet, and native of this Pantsur. It lay in the north angle of
the Island, and a little west of Achin: it formerly was rife with
trade and population, but would have been utterly lost in oblivion
had not Hamza Pantsuri made us again acquainted with it.” Nothing
indeed could well be “a little west of Achin”; this is doubtless a
slip for “a little down the west coast from Achin.” Hamza Fantsuri,
as he is termed by Professor Veth, who also identifies Fantsur with
Bárús, was a poet of the first half of the 17th century, who in his
verses popularised the mystical theology of Shamsuddin Shamatrani
(_supra_, p. 291), strongly tinged with pantheism. The works of
both were solemnly burnt before the great mosque of Achin about
1640. (_J. Ind. Arch._ V. 312 _seqq._; _Valentyn_, Sumatra, in Vol.
V., p. 21; _Veth, Atchin_, Leiden, 1873, p. 38.)
Mas’udi says that the Fansur Camphor was found most plentifully in
years rife with storms and earthquakes. Ibn Batuta gives a jumbled
and highly incorrect account of the product, but one circumstance
that he mentions is possibly founded on a real superstition,
viz., that no camphor was formed unless some animal had been
sacrificed at the root of the tree, and the best quality only then
when a human victim had been offered. Nicolo Conti has a similar
statement: “The Camphor is found inside the tree, and if they do
not sacrifice to the gods before they cut the bark, it disappears
and is no more seen.” Beccari, in our day, mentions special
ceremonies used by the Kayans of Borneo, before they commence the
search. These superstitions hinge on the great uncertainty of
finding camphor in any given tree, after the laborious process
of cutting it down and splitting it, an uncertainty which also
largely accounts for the high price. By far the best of the old
accounts of the product is that quoted by Kazwini from Mahomed Ben
Zakaria Al-Rázi: “Among the number of marvellous things in this
Island” (_Zánij_ for Zábaj, _i.e._ Java or Sumatra) “is the Camphor
Tree, which is of vast size, insomuch that its shade will cover a
hundred persons and more. They bore into the highest part of the
tree and thence flows out the camphor-water, enough to fill many
pitchers. Then they open the tree lower down about the middle, and
extract the camphor in lumps.” [This very account is to be found
in Ibn Khordâdhbeh. (_De Goeje’s transl._ p. 45.)—H. C.] Compare
this passage, which we may notice has been borrowed bodily by
Sindbad of the Sea, with what is probably the best modern account,
Junghuhn’s: “Among the forest trees (of Tapanuli adjoining Barus)
the Camphor Tree (_Dryabalanops Camphora_) attracts beyond all the
traveller’s observation, by its straight columnar and colossal
grey trunk, and its mighty crown of foliage, rising high above the
canopy of the forest. It exceeds in dimensions the _Rasamala_,[3]
the loftiest tree of Java, and is probably the greatest tree of
the Archipelago, if not of the world,[4] reaching a height of 200
feet. One of the middling size which I had cut down measured at the
base, where the camphor leaks out, 7½ Paris feet in diameter (about
8 feet English); its trunk rose to 100 feet, with an upper diameter
of 5 feet, before dividing, and the height of the whole tree to the
crown was 150 feet. The precious consolidated camphor is found in
small quantities, ¼ lb. to 1 lb. in a single tree, in fissure-like
hollows in the stem. Yet many are cut down in vain, or split up
the side without finding camphor. The camphor oil is prepared by
the natives by bruising and boiling the twigs.” The oil, however,
appears also to be found in the tree, as Crawford and Collingwood
mention, corroborating the ancient Arab.
It is well known that the Chinese attach an extravagantly superior
value to the Malay camphor, and probably its value in Marco’s day
was higher than it is now, but still its estimate as worth its
weight in gold looks like hyperbole. Forrest, a century ago, says
Barus Camphor was in the Chinese market worth nearly its weight in
_silver_, and this is true still. The price is commonly estimated
at 100 times that of the Chinese camphor. The whole quantity
exported from the Barus territory goes to China. De Vriese reckons
the average annual export from Sumatra between 1839 and 1844 at
less than 400 kilogrammes. The following table shows the wholesale
rates in the Chinese market as given by Rondot in 1848:—
_Qualities of Camphor_. _Per picul of 133⅓ lbs._
Ordinary China, 1st quality 20 dollars.
„ „ 2nd „ 14 „
Formosa 25 „
Japan 30 „
China _ngai_ (ext. from an Artemisia) 250 „
Barus, 1st quality 2000 „
„ 2nd „ 1000 „
The Chinese call the Sumatran (or Borneo) Camphor _Ping-pien_
“Icicle flakes,” and _Lung-nau_ “Dragon’s Brains.” [Regarding Baros
Camphor, Mr. Groeneveldt writes (_Notes_, p. 142): “This substance
is generally called _dragon’s brain perfume_, or _icicles_. The
former name has probably been invented by the first dealers in the
article, who wanted to impress their countrymen with a great idea
of its value and rarity. In the trade three different qualities
are distinguished: the first is called _prune-blossoms_, being the
larger pieces; the second is _rice-camphor_, so called because the
particles are not larger than a rice-kernel, and the last quality
is _golden dregs_, in the shape of powder. These names are still
now used by the Chinese traders on the west coast of Sumatra. The
_Pên-ts’au Kang-mu_ further informs us that the Camphor Baros is
found in the trunk of a tree in a solid shape, whilst from the
roots an oil is obtained called _Po-lut_ (Pa-lut) _incense_, or
_Polut balm_. The name of Polut is said to be derived from the
country where it is found (Baros.)”—H. C.] It is just to remark,
however, that in the _Aín Akbari_ we find the price of the Sumatran
Camphor, known to the Hindus as _Bhím Seni_, varying from 3 rupees
as high as 2 mohurs (or 20 rupees) for a rupee’s weight, which
latter price would be _twice_ the weight in gold. Abu’l Fazl says
the worst camphor went by the name of _Bálús_. I should suspect
some mistake, as we know from Garcias that the fine camphor was
already known as _Barus_. (_Ain-i-Akb._ 75–79.)
(_Mas’udi_, I. 338; _I. B._ IV. 241; _J. A._ sér. IV. tom. viii.
216; _Lane’s Arab. Nights_ (1859), III. 21; _Battaländer_, I.
107; _Crawf. Hist._ III. 218, and _Desc. Dict._ 81; _Hedde et
Rondot, Com. de la Chine_, 36–37; _Chin. Comm. Guide; Dr. F. A.
Flückiger, Zur Geschichte des Camphers_, in _Schweiz. Wochenschr.
für Pharmacie_, Sept., Oct., 1867.)
NOTE 4.—An interesting notice of the Sago-tree, of which Odoric
also gives an account. Ramusio is, however, here fuller and more
accurate: “Removing the first bark, which is but thin, you come
on the wood of the tree which forms a thickness all round of some
three fingers, but all inside this is a pith of flour, like that
of the _Carvolo_ (?). The trees are so big that it will take two
men to span them. They put this flour into tubs of water, and beat
it up with a stick, and then the bran and other impurities come to
the top, whilst the pure flour sinks to the bottom. The water is
then thrown away, and the cleaned flour that remains is taken and
made into _pasta_ in strips and other forms. These Messer Marco
often partook of, and brought some with him to Venice. It resembles
barley bread and tastes much the same. The wood of this tree is
like iron, for if thrown into the water it goes straight to the
bottom. It can be split straight from end to end like a cane. When
the flour has been removed the wood remains, as has been said,
three inches thick. Of this the people make short lances, not long
ones, because they are so heavy that no one could carry or handle
them if long. One end is sharpened and charred in the fire, and
when thus prepared they will pierce any armour, and much better
than iron would do.” Marsden points out that this heavy lance-wood
is not that of the true Sago-palm, but of the _Nibong_ or Caryota
urens; which does indeed give some amount of sago.
[“When sago is to be made, a full-grown tree is selected just
before it is going to flower. It is cut down close to the ground,
the leaves and leaf-stalks cleared away, and a broad strip of the
bark taken off the upper side of the trunk. This exposes the pithy
matter, which is of a rusty colour near the bottom of the tree,
but higher up pure white, about as hard as a dry apple, but with
woody fibres running through it about a quarter of an inch apart.
This pith is cut or broken down into a coarse powder, by means of
a tool constructed for the purpose.... Water is poured on the mass
of pith, which is kneaded and pressed against the strainer till the
starch is all dissolved and has passed through, when the fibrous
refuse is thrown away, and a fresh basketful put in its place.
The water charged with sago starch passes on to a trough, with a
depression in the centre, where the sediment is deposited, the
surplus water trickling off by a shallow outlet. When the trough is
nearly full, the mass of starch, which has a slight reddish tinge,
is made into cylinders of about thirty pounds’ weight, and neatly
covered with sago leaves, and in this state is sold as raw sago.
Boiled with water this forms a thick glutinous mass, with a rather
astringent taste, and is eaten with salt, limes, and chilies.
Sago-bread is made in large quantities, by baking it into cakes
in a small clay oven containing six or eight slits side by side,
each about three-quarters of an inch wide, and six or eight inches
square. The raw sago is broken up, dried in the sun, powdered, and
finely sifted. The oven is heated over a clear fire of embers,
and is lightly filled with the sago powder. The openings are then
covered with a flat piece of sago bark, and in about five minutes
the cakes are turned out sufficiently baked. The hot cakes are
very nice with butter, and when made with the addition of a little
sugar and grated cocoa-nut are quite a delicacy. They are soft, and
something like corn-flour cakes, but have a slight characteristic
flavour which is lost in the refined sago we use in this country.
When not wanted for immediate use, they are dried for several days
in the sun, and tied up in bundles of twenty. They will then keep
for years; they are very hard, and very rough and dry....” (_A. R.
Wallace’s Malay Archipelago_, 1869, II. pp. 118–121.)—H. C.]
NOTE 5.—In quitting the subject of these Sumatran Kingdoms it may
appear to some readers that our explanations compress them too
much, especially as Polo seems to allow only two kingdoms for the
rest of the Island. In this he was doubtless wrong, and we may the
less scruple to say so as he had _not_ visited that other portion
of the Island. We may note that in the space to which we assign
the _six_ kingdoms which Polo visited, De Barros assigns _twelve_,
viz.: Bara (corresponding generally to _Ferlec_), Pacem (_Basma_),
Pirada, Lide, Pedir, Biar, Achin, _Lambri_, Daya, Mancopa,
Quinchel, Barros (_Fansur_). (_Dec._ III. v. 1.)
[Regarding these Sumatrian kingdoms, Mr. Thomson (_Proc. R. G. S._
XX. p. 223) writes that Malaiur “is no other than Singapore ...
the ancient capital of the Malays or Malaiurs of old voyagers,
existent in the times of Marco Polo [who] mentions no kingdom or
city in Java Minor till he arrives at the kingdom of Felech or
Perlak. And this is just as might be expected, as the channel in
the Straits of Malacca leads on the north-eastern side out of
sight of Sumatra; and the course, after clearing the shoals near
Selangore, being direct towards Diamond Point, near which ...
the tower of Perlak is situated. Thus we see that the Venetian
traveller describes the first city or kingdom in the great island
that he arrived at.... [After Basman and Samara] Polo mentions
Dragoian ... from the context, and following Marco Polo’s course,
we would place it west from his last city or Kingdom Samara;
and we make no doubt, if the name is not much corrupted, it may
yet be identified in one of the villages of the coast at this
present time.... By the Malay annalist, Lambri was west of Samara;
consecutively it was also westerly from Samara by Marco Polo’s
enumeration. Fanfur ... is the last kingdom named by Marco Polo
[coming from the east], and the first by the Malay annalist [coming
from the west]; and as it is known to modern geographers, this
corroboration doubly settles the identity and position of all.
Thus all the six cities or kingdoms mentioned by Marco Polo were
situated on the north coast of Sumatra, now commonly known as
the Pedir coast.” I have given the conclusion arrived at by Mr.
J. T. Thomson in his paper, _Marco Polo’s Six Kingdoms or Cities
in Java Minor, identified in translations from the ancient Malay
Annals_, which appeared in the _Proc. R. G. S._ XX. pp. 215–224,
after the second edition of this Book was published and Sir H. Yule
added the following note (_Proc._, _l.c._, p. 224): “Mr. Thomson,
as he mentions, has not seen my edition of _Marco Polo_, nor,
apparently, a paper on the subject of these kingdoms by the late
Mr. J. R. Logan, in his _Journal of the Indian Archipelago_, to
which reference is made in the notes to _Marco Polo_. In the said
paper and notes the quotations and conclusions of Mr. Thomson have
been anticipated; and _Fansúr_ also, which he leaves undetermined,
identified.”—H. C.]
----------------------------------------------------------------------
[1] I formerly supposed _Al-Ramni_, the oldest Arabic name of Sumatra,
to be a corruption of Lambri; but this is more probably of Hindu
origin. One of the _Dvípas_ of the ocean mentioned in the Puranas
is called _Rámaṇíyaka_, “delightfulness.” (_Williams’s Skt. Dict._)
[2] Van der Tuuk says positively, I find: “Fantsur was the ancient
name of Bárus.” (_J. R. A. S._ n.s. II. 232.) [Professor Schlegel
writes also (_Geog. Notes_, XVI. p. 9): “At all events, _Fansur_ or
_Pantsur_ can be naught but Baros.”—H. C.]
[3] _Liquidambar Altingiana_.
[4] The Californian and Australian giants of 400 feet were not then
known.