Illustrated Expeditions

Marco Polo, The Description of the World, §144

They live from trade and crafts; they have silk in abundance; they make all kinds of cloth of gold and of silk. They have all kinds of grain and all kinds of provisions in plenty; for it is a very fertile province;

they have a lot of game; they burn their dead bodies; they have a lot of lions; there are many rich merchants, from whom the great lord gets a lot of tribute and a lot of income.

Marco Polo, The Description of the World, §145

Now know when one leaves Locac, and he went 500 miles to the south, then one finds an island called Bintan, which is a very savage place. Their forests are all of very fragrant wood of great utility. Now we will leave

here and will go about 60 miles between these 2 islands; the water there is only four paces [deep] and large ships passing there raise their tillers, because they draw almost four paces of water. When one has gone these 60 miles, one went further on toward the southeast about 30 miles; then one finds an island that is a kingdom; the city is called Malaiur and the island Bintan.

nothing else worth mentioning; therefore we will leave here and go on; and will tell you about Little Java, as you will be able to hear.

Now know that when one leaves the port of Zaytun and sails west, a bit toward the southwest, for 1,500 miles, then you come to a country called Champa, which is a very large and rich land.3 They have a king of their own and their own language and are idolators; each year they pay tribute to the

Great Khan in the form of elephants, giving him nothing other than lots of elephants. I tell you that I, Marco Polo, was there in 1285, and at that time, this king had 326 children, male and female, including more than 150 men who could bear arms.

This kingdom has elephants in very great quantity. They have aloe This kingdom has elephants in very great quantity. They have aloe wood in great abundance; they have many forests of wood called bonus [ebony], which is very black, from which they make chess pieces and inkstands.

gain there. On this island, there is such great treasure that no man in the world could recount or describe it. I tell you the Great Khan could never have it on account of the long and fearsome way in sailing there. Merchants from Zaytun and Mangi have already extracted very great treasure from this island, and continue to do so today. Now I have told you about

161: © London, British Library, Royal MS 19 D I, folio 120v © Paris, Bibliothèque de l’Arsenal, 5219, folio 126v

its tongue has very long spines, such that whatever harm it inflicts, it inflicts with its tongue. Its head is like that of a wild boar; it always carries its head bent down toward the ground and likes to stay in the mud and the muck. It’s a very ugly beast to see.

161: © London, British Library, Royal MS 19 D I, folio 120v © Paris, Bibliothèque de l’Arsenal, 5219, folio 126v

But I tell you it’s just the opposite of what we all say it is like. They have a great abundance of swans of many different kinds; they have goshawks, black as crows; they are very large and hawk very well. It is true that on this island there’s a kind of very small monkey whose faces are like men’s: men take such monkeys and remove their hair, leaving the hair of

their beards and chests. Then they dry them and shape them and rub them with camphor and other things so that they seem to have been human. This is a great deception, for they are made as you’ve just heard. For never in India or other, more savage parts have such little men as these seem to be ever been seen.

Savage idolaters; their king is rich and powerful, and they call themselves subjects of the Great Khan. Here’s how we stayed there 5 months: we disembarked from our ships and built castles out of wood and logs, then stayed in those castles for fear of those bestial men who eat men.

They have the best fish in the world. They don’t have any wheat but live on rice. They have no wine, except as I’ll describe to you. Know in truth that they have a kind of tree; they cut its branches and put a large pot by the remaining stump; and I tell you that in a day and a night it fills up with wine that is very good to drink.

The trees look like small date trees and have four branches; lop it off, and get the wine I’ve described to you, which is very good. I’ll tell you something else as well: when this branch no longer gives wine, they water the foot of the trees; and it doesn’t take long for the branches to give wine which, I tell you, is white and red.

Andaman is a very large island; they have no king; they are idolators and are like wild animals. I will tell you about a kind of people well worth telling about in our book. Now know

in all truth that all the men of this island have heads like dogs and teeth and eyes like dogs: for I tell you that they are all like the heads of great mastiffs.

They have a lot of spices; they are a very cruel people; they eat as many men as they can catch, if they are not their people. They have all kinds of spices in abundance; their food is rice, milk, and meat of all kinds; they

also have fruit which is different from ours. Now we have told about these various peoples. Now we will leave it and will tell you about other things and will describe an island called Ceylon.