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diff --git a/old/63894-0.txt b/old/63894-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 904ce08..0000000 --- a/old/63894-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,8430 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg eBook, Four Pilgrims, by William Boulting - - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most -other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of -the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - - - - -Title: Four Pilgrims - - -Author: William Boulting - - - -Release Date: November 27, 2020 [eBook #63894] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - - -***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FOUR PILGRIMS*** - - -E-text prepared by Turgut Dincer and the Online Distributed Proofreading -Team (http://www.pgdp.net) from page images generously made available by -Internet Archive (https://archive.org) - - - -Note: Images of the original pages are available through - Internet Archive. See - https://archive.org/details/fourpilgrims00bouliala - - - - - -FOUR PILGRIMS - -by - -WILLIAM BOULTING - -Author of -_Giordano Bruno: his Life, Thought, and Martyrdom_; -_Woman in Italy, 1100–1600 A.D._, etc. - - - - - - -London: -Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co., Ltd., -New York: E. P. Dutton & Co. - - - - -ERRATA. - - -Page 84, Line 2. For “a little before” read “some time after.” - - - - -CONTENTS - - - I: HIUEN-TSIANG - - _Master of the Law; and his Perilous Journey to the Sacred - Land of Buddha_, A.D. 627–643. - - CHAP. PAGE - - I. THE ISOLATION OF CHINA 1 - - II. BUDDHA AND BUDDHISM 5 - - III. AN ADVENTUROUS JOURNEY 9 - - IV. THROUGH INDIA IN THE SEVENTH CENTURY 27 - - V. INDIAN SOCIAL LIFE IN THE SEVENTH - CENTURY 47 - - VI. THE JOURNEY HOME BY A NEW AND - PERILOUS ROUTE 55 - - VII. PEACEFUL DAYS 61 - - - II: SÆWULF, AN ENGLISH PILGRIM TO - PALESTINE - - I. EARLY PILGRIMAGE TO PALESTINE 65 - - II. “DIEU LE VEULT” 68 - - III. SÆWULF’S RECORD 72 - - - III: MOHAMMED IBN ABD ALLAH, - - _Better known as Ibn Batûta, the Greatest of Moslem - Travellers_, A.D. 1304–77. - - I. THE WHIRLWIND FROM ARABIA AND WHAT - FOLLOWED 89 - - II. A RESOLUTE PILGRIM 96 - - III. A ROUNDABOUT PILGRIMAGE 104 - - IV. GLIMPSES OF ARABIA, PERSIA AND EAST - AFRICA IN THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY 109 - - V. TO INDIA BY WAY OF CONSTANTINOPLE AND - THE STEPPES 117 - - VI. AN EASTERN DESPOT 128 - - VII. PERILS BY LAND AND SEA 137 - - VIII. OFF TO MALAYSIA AND CATHAY 147 - - IX. MOORS OF SPAIN AND NEGROES OF TIMBUKTU 158 - - - IV: LUDOVICO VARTHEMA OF BOLOGNA, - - _Renegade Pilgrim to Mecca, Foremost of Italian Travellers_. - - I. THE GREAT AGE OF THE RENAISSANCE AND - OF DISCOVERY 163 - - II. FROM VENICE TO DAMASCUS 165 - - III. OVER THE DESERT TO MECCA 172 - - IV. THE ESCAPE FROM THE CARAVAN 186 - - V. CERTAIN ADVENTURES IN ARABIA THE HAPPY 190 - - VI. EASTWARD HO! 200 - - VII. THE PAGANS OF NARSINGA 208 - - VIII. FARTHER INDIA, MALAYSIA AND THE BANDA - ISLANDS 221 - - IX. SOME CUNNING MANOEUVRES 235 - - X. WAR BY LAND AND SEA 244 - - XI. THE NEW WAY ROUND THE CAPE 249 - - - - -PREFACE - - -Pilgrimage has been popular in all countries and at all times. For what -could be happier than an agreeable change which should contribute at -once to welfare of soul, refreshment of spirit, and vigour of body? -Adventures on the way gave zest to the enterprise. If the more timid -or feeble were content to visit neighbouring shrines, those of hardier -mould, like the Wife of Bath, took more formidable journeys. - - “Thries hadde she been at Jerusalem; - She hadde passed many a straunge strem; - At Rome she hadde been, and at Boloigne, - In Galice at Seint Jame, and at Coloigne, - She koude muchel of wandrynge by the weye.” - -Some of the boldest and bravest of ancient travellers were pilgrims, -and we have their records of wide wandering. But their style is -archaic, has at best little purely literary merit, and is usually -forbidding. They are little known, except to the special student. - -The footprints then are scanty, and all the worse for time, which -testify to ardent spirits that once inhabited the warm vesture of -flesh, but have long, long ago been laid to rest. I have tried to -set forth certain of these dead and half-forgotten worthies as with -“organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions,” even as we. Four -have been chosen. Three of these were shrewd, fearless, observant -men, who overcame surpassing obstacles and met with adventure almost -unparalleled. The first of my bundle of four was a Chinaman, a Buddhist -monk of the early Seventh Century, who started alone on an almost -impossible quest. My second was an Englishman of the earliest years -of the Twelfth Century, who gives us some notion of what the ordinary -palmer was like who got to Jerusalem, - - “e qui devoto - Il gran sepolchro adora e scioglie il voto” - -(“and venerates the Holy Sepulchre and discharges his vow”). My third -was a Mohammedan, who, in the first half of the Fourteenth Century, -made several pilgrimages to Mecca and ran over the world from Tangier -to Pekin and from Turkestan to Timbuktu. My fourth was a very son of -the glowing age of Julius II, the first European Christian on record -to reach Mecca, one who outstripped the Portuguese in reaching the -aromatic islands of the Banda Sea. In each case, there is a brief -historical foreword to give the pilgrim due introduction into his -proper setting. - - WILLIAM BOULTING. - - - - -I.—HIUEN-TSIANG. - -MASTER OF THE LAW; AND HIS PERILOUS JOURNEY TO THE SACRED LAND OF -BUDDHA, A.D. 627–643. - - - - -CHAPTER I. THE ISOLATION OF CHINA - - -For thousands of years China was a world to itself, cut off from the -races of men. The main causes of this singular seclusion are simple:— - -China was protected from serious invasion by her geographical position. -Northward, it was no easy business for the barbarous intruder to find a -way into China from the Manchurian plain, or for a Chinaman to find a -way out; and it was still more difficult to effect a passage by force. -To the North-West rose the forbidding walls of the Altai Mountains; -and, between them and China, a broad and demon-haunted waste of sand -blocked the way. Westward, huge interlocked ranges of Central Asia—the -Thian Shan and Pamirs—mountains which o’er top Alp or Caucasus, which -rival the loftiest Andes, and which are inferior only to Himalaya, -presented perils in abundance. These difficulties surmounted, the -vast, trackless sands of Gobi formed a second barrier; and the steep -rocks of Ala-Shan and In-Shan were a third. To the South-West rose the -plateau of Thibet, interlocking with the Pamirs—a plateau with a mean -level of more than 12,000 feet, terminating southward in Himalaya, that -highest and broadest of mountain-walls. To the South of China were the -dense forests, deep valleys, and rapid rivers of Burma and Tonquin. -Eastward the Celestial Empire was guarded by the sea: to reach China -from India was a long and perilous voyage; and the boldest navigator -might hesitate to entrust his clumsy craft to the caprice of the Indian -Ocean, to thread his way through the tortuous straits of Malaysia, and -to chance an encounter with the fierce islanders who lined them, only -in the end to reach a jealous shore. The unwieldly Chinese junk—a -town afloat—did, however, make a periodic and prolonged voyage—at -least in later days—to India; and a few bands of bold, hardy traders -were wont to cross over the formidable passes of Central Asia on -horses, mules, or asses, and to traverse vast, trackless wastes on -camels. They exchanged the products of India, Persia, and those States -which were watered by the classic streams of Oxus and Jaxartes, for the -silks and manufactures of Cathay. Chinese porcelain has been found in -Egyptian tombs. - -China enjoyed a soil so productive of every kind of wealth that she was -independent of commercial intercourse with other lands. Secure from all -invaders but the scattered hordes of Mongolia, she developed a high and -distinctive civilization, which became more and more fixed and rigid, -but was superior in many respects to that of other Eastern States. By -the Seventh Century of our Era, good roads, good inns, and an admirable -system of canals rendered internal communication easy; the heavens had -been surveyed by astronomical instruments of some precision; and the -art of printing, which had not then been discovered long, was in use; -although to this day the Chinese do without the valuable economy of an -alphabet. - -Moreover the Chinese People preferred to be undisturbed by stimulus -from without. Yet China transmitted her culture to her near and less -civilized neighbours—Japan and the Indo-Chinese peninsula—and claimed -a precarious overlordship of semi-barbarous Manchuria, Mongolia, -Eastern Turkestan and Thibet. During a long stretch of time, the -powerful and jealous Persian Empire was a bar to intercourse with the -far West; because it tried to preserve a monopoly of its own products. - -The records of early intercourse with other countries are few; and -those few are meagre. Thirteen centuries before the age in which -Hiuen-Tsiang lived, Embassies from distant nations would seem to -have reached China. Marcus Aurelius despatched a mission (A.D. 166) -to establish direct relations; it travelled by way of India; and -failed. Carus sent another (A.D. 284). At the close of the fourth -century, Ammianus Marcellinus knew of the Chinese as a people dwelling -on fertile plains enclosed by protecting mountains: “a frugal folk, -studying to live peacefully and shunning intercourse with the rest of -mankind.” Half a century later, Moses the Armenian spoke of them as -“dwelling in wealth and civility at the end of the earth; a people -worthy to be called not merely the friends of peace but of life.” -Until the Great Age of Discovery arrived as a novel development of the -Great Age of the Renaissance to derange and remodel the earth, Cathay -was little more than a name to European ears: before the Nineteenth -Century, the Celestial Empire remained undisturbed by the Modern World. - -Although the Chinese Government was always persistently obstructive to -foreign intercourse, it took an interest in foreign religions. This -seeming paradox was due to the fact that Confucianism, the official -Faith, was essentially a body of moral precepts, as was Taoism, (albeit -Taoism had stronger pretension to metaphysic), and both people and -rulers were eager to receive any moral doctrine which might strengthen -that love of peace and orderly conduct which would seem to be inborn -in the Chinese breast. There was no _odium theologicum_ in China. Now, -Buddhism was essentially an ethical system, and had much in common with -Taoism. On the whole, the Chinese were eager to adopt it; especially -as becoming a good Buddhist did not disallow of one’s remaining a good -Confucian, or of reconciling Buddhistic and Taoistic speculation. The -Chinese government naturally sanctioned a creed fitted to keep a people -quiet and submissive; and Buddhism proved to be peculiarly suited to -the Chinese mind: it touched the Chinese heart and left a profound -effect on Chinese character. - -It had to compete with other religions. For with the caravan of the -trader came many religious Zealots, such as the Fire-Worshippers of -Persia. At the very beginning of Mohammedanism, Wahd-Abi-Kabha, the -maternal uncle of the Prophet, reached China, bearing presents to the -Emperor; and Mohammedans were to be found there in the third decade -of Hiuen-Tsiang’s life; while, in the following decade, Nestorian -missionaries introduced Christianity, which, after due examination, an -Imperial Decree declared to be a satisfactory and permissible faith. -Buddhist missionaries carried the teaching of Gautama to China at a -period not yet ascertained; but it must have lost much of its early -purity by whatever time that may have been. - - - - -CHAPTER II. - -BUDDHA AND BUDDHISM. - - -Gautama was the son of a petty chieftain, who exercised limited -authority in a district which lay north of Faîzâbâd. He lived about 600 -years before the beginning of the Christian era—about the time when -Jerusalem fell to Nebuchadnezzar and Assyria to the Medes. The evils of -disease, old age, and death weighed on the melancholy mind of the young -princelet: he sought for some way of escape from the curse of craving -flesh and the wild delirium of desire. He abandoned wife and family; -and dwelt, at first, in the solitude of a jungle. At this time, his -life was one of pure contemplation. Then a wave of love for humanity -and profound grief at human suffering swept over him. He resumed the -active life, preaching a pure religion of duty and affection along the -valley of the Ganges; for his soul, like the soul of Plato’s poet, “was -no longer within him.” He had learned and he taught that the misery of -Being is mitigated by strict obedience to the Law of human kindness and -duty. He made stirring appeals to heart and conscience, and supported -his mission by the ancient doctrine of Kharma, which Brâhmans had -taught him—the doctrine that the action of the evil will, barren as -its fruits invariably prove for the living agent, is delayed, but not -destroyed, by death, and builds up a new body and mind, which reap the -bitter harvest of former transgression and also the weal which results -from former well-doing. The heart achieves blessedness in proportion -to its purification; a good life acquires merit, by means of which -relative freedom is obtained from the mournful, malevolent turnings -of the “wheel of things.” Completely purified, Nirvâna (which is -sometimes interpreted as nescience, sometimes as the supra-conscious), -peace in the very heart of things, is obtained. All men may be touched -by love; but only rare intelligencies will seek Nirvâna. For the way -to the Blessed Life is steep and beset with thorns; but the resolute -spirit may achieve increasing and even perfect tranquillity by -uprooting every germ of ill-will and trampling down every one of those -passions of mind or body the results of which are as futile as their -origin is senseless. Gautama accepted the institution of the cloister -then, for such men of high intelligence as sought the truly spiritual. -In time Buddhistic monasticism became divided into the system of the -“Lesser Vehicle”—an ascetic scheme of discipline,—and that of the -“Greater Vehicle” for richer and more metaphysical minds. The first -aimed at restraint; the second, at contemplation. Buddha had no regard -for caste; and this brought his teaching into conflict with that of -the Brâhmans; he promised no endless personal life in heaven—only -progressive release from the evils of temporal existence; he did not -interfere with the popular worship of gods. His doctrine was an appeal -to our more spiritual nature, and closely resembles the Sermon on the -Mount. It awakened a people bound by a system of lifeless forms framed -by a priestly caste, yet who were all athirst for living waters. - -But Buddhism speedily became metaphysical in the metaphysical East. -Some of the convents grew into abodes of speculation and seminaries of -learning. It was held that Gautama was the latest of those Buddhas, -those “redeemers” of the world, into whose mother’s womb Bôdhisattva, -the spirit about to become a Buddha, descended spiritually. Yet the -purest teaching of the Spirit contains within itself the seeds of its -own decay: the germ of fulfilment is also the germ of dissolution. -The history of Buddhism strikingly illustrates the truth of this, its -own tenet. Before long the new Faith, like unto Brâhmanism, became -half-throttled by formalism and encrusted by all manner of ridiculous -legend and vulgar superstition. And Asôka, who usurped a throne and -established an Empire at Magadha, near Behar (in the 3rd century before -Christ?) embodied the ethics of Buddhism in formal ordinances. The -letter and not the spirit, of the Law prevailed. But Asôka sent forth -missionaries, East and West and North and South, and they reached far -distant lands. - -Probably imperfect and infrequent relations between Chinese Buddhists -and Indian priests were maintained through the medium of caravans -of trade. These have left no record; but in A.D. 65, the Chinese -Authorities sent envoys to Sind by the long, painful, and perilous -overland route. They returned with an Indian priest, sacred writings, -and sacred images of Buddha. After this, an occasional embassy from -India arrived; but such missions soon came to an end, although a -little intercourse was kept up with Ceylon by means of an arduous and -dangerous voyage. Not until the fourth century were Chinamen allowed -to become Buddhist priests. Then, at once, monasteries sprang up all -over the country. About the year 400 Fa-Hian and others with him were -sent on an embassy to secure religious writings. They made their -difficult way through Central Asia. Fa-Hian alone returned, after 14 -years absence, by way of Ceylon, bearing authentic scripture with him. -A hundred years later Sung-Yun became a pilgrim to the same end and -was successful in securing a hundred and seventy volumes. Gautama, -like Jesus, had taught by word of mouth only. His manner was to utter -some pithy precept, and then to develop it in a running commentary. -But his disciples recorded these precious words; and, from time to -time, expositions and doctrinal developments and marvellous fables -were added. Of these, the earlier were written in Pali; the later -in Sanskrit, even then a dead tongue, knowledge of which was the -privilege of a small learned class. These Buddhistic writings, made on -prepared palm-leaves, were regarded by the faithful with superstitious -reverence; and Chinese Buddhists were anxious to obtain complete and -accurate copies of them, as well as sacred images and relics of Buddha, -which might serve as the objects of deep veneration. - -At no period has the disordered tragedy of human history been more -cataclysmic than in the early part of the Seventh Century after Christ. -The whole world was then a theatre of wild unrest and stupendous -change, little as one fragment of the human race might know of aught -but its own disasters or triumphs. The shattered edifice of the -Roman Empire of the West was run over by Lombard, Frank and Goth and -races still more barbarous than these. From Cheviot to Illyricum, -all was confused, bloody, and unceasing riot. The exceptional vigour -of Heraclius alone saved the Roman Empire of the East from the -ever-watchful and now advancing hosts of Persia; while a new and -wholly unexpected menace arose in the Arabian desert: there a peril -burst forth as abrupt, fierce and overwhelming as a sandstorm of that -rocky waste. For Mohammed and his followers advanced thence with fiery -and resistless speed to offer the nations choice between the Koran, -tribute, and the sword. Even distant, tranquil China, the land cut off -from the rest of mankind was parturient: the Empire had broken up, and -was contended for by vulturine feudatories, who fought together for -sole possession of its bleeding carcase. A new and strong dynasty arose -amid slaughter and desolation. But, for a time, Central China was hell -let loose. The adolescence of Hiuen-Tsiang was passed amid scenes of -death and dismay. - - - - -CHAPTER III. - -AN ADVENTUROUS JOURNEY. - - -This boldest of pilgrims, greatest of Chinese travellers came into the -world A.D. 603—nearly twelve hundred years after the founder of his -faith. He was the fourth son of a Chinese Professor in the Province -of Ho-nan, in Central China. Probably he shewed mental ability and a -devotional spirit early; for the second of his elder brethren took him -into his own monastery at Lo-Yang, the Eastern Capital, to supervise -his education. The boy is said to have evinced such brilliant parts and -such a spiritual mind that he became a novice at what would seem, at -that time, to have been the exceptionally early age of thirteen years; -although, two centuries before, Fa-Hian was a novice at three! It was -soon after this event that revolution shook the ancient Empire, and -came near to disrupt it. China became a slaughter-house, and Buddhist -priests were murdered as well as Government Officials. - -As certain saints bear witness, the passion that wings its flight -towards no earthly home is occasionally combined with bold and -efficient direction of mundane life. It was so combined in -Hiuen-Tsiang. The monk of perfervid faith gave early proof that he was -a lad of mettle as well as an enthusiast for the Greater Vehicle. In -resolution and spirit, he dominated his elder brother, and insisted on -their both setting off, in the teeth of peril, for a safer place in the -Eastern province of Sz-chuen; and here he ended his novitiate and was -fully ordained at the age of twenty. - -At last, chaos within the Chinese frontier and warfare along it began -to yield to the military genius and state-craft of T’ai-Tsung, the -greatest of Chinese warriors and rulers. Hiuen-Tsiang was not slow -to avail himself of the return of some measure of tranquillity to -the State. He disobeyed monastic authority, joined a band of nomadic -traders, and visited convent after convent of the wide Empire, with the -purpose of clearing his mind, in debate with their inmates, concerning -difficult problems in scriptural scholarship and the precise import -of certain tenets of his faith. There was full scope for speculative -discussion, since Chinese Buddhists did not yet possess a complete set -of the Sacred Writings or of the Buddhist Fathers and workers in that -kind of suggestive fiction which is so often taken to be veritable -history and which becomes the wardrobe of moral truth. Much was, as -yet, unsettled by authority and lay open to dispute. - -Dissatisfied by the indefinite results of controversy, and fired by -the records of previous pilgrims, the young monk resolved to make for -the cradle and sanctuary of Buddhism and to seek there for the books -which his countrymen lacked. He and a few ardent monks applied to -the newly-established Emperor for permission to do this. The monarch -was Kao-T’sou, first of the T’ang dynasty—that most famous of the -many Imperial lines of China—the glory of having founded which -rests with his son, the redoubtable T’ai-Tsung, whom, later on, we -shall find seated on his father’s throne. The request was made at -an inopportune time, and was refused. For monkdom did not stand in -court-favour just then; monks were ordered to marry; possibly, because -recent internecine strife had thinned the population; possibly, also, -because the new government was jealous, in a perilous time, of the -power of growing sacerdotalism. This prohibition put an end to the -hope of Hiuen-Tsiang’s coadjutors: it only increased his own ardour -and hardened his own resolve. He was now 24 years of age; therefore in -the full vigour of early manhood; he cared nothing for obedience to -constituted authority when constituted authority stood in the way of -spiritual enlightenment. And he was not merely filled with religious -enthusiasm: the restless force and curiosity of youth were his; there -were shrewd, observant eyes in his head as well as disciplined wits. -Here was a man anxious and fitted to observe the physical features, -governments, productions, and peculiarities of unknown countries and to -record them. Westward, beyond the setting sun, lay mysterious lands, -vague as a dream, yet to be found a reality in this so wondrous world. -There was a call from afar. When the spirit of one born for action is -all a fire with enthusiasm begotten of idea, let the world keep watch! - -It would appear from Tao-Sun, a Chinese author contemporary with -Hiuen-Tsiang, that there were three routes from China to India—the -one which our traveller took; the one by which he returned; and a -third from Lake Lob-nor, over the thousand miles of terrible plateau -in Thibet and the Himalayas to Nepal. Before long Hiuen Tsiang was -at Liang-chau, the capital of the province of Lan-su, far beyond the -upper reaches of the great Yellow River, and nearly at the extreme -north-western limit of China Proper. Here were gathered merchants -from Thibet and other far-distant lands; and these were so impressed -by Hiuen-Tsiang’s fervour and the grandeur of his project that they -are said to have cast themselves at his feet. They provided him with -ample means to go on. Now, Chinese administration in the province of -Lan-su had only been established recently, and remained insecure; no -inhabitant was allowed to cross the frontier; and the Governor was -a strong man who rigorously enforced his regulations. But what are -the strongest bonds of any mere narrow national group against the -conflicting obligation of Moral or Ideal impulse? How can usage and -prescription and enactment prevail against more spiritual forces? -Our would-be pilgrim secured the aid of a friendly monk, and stole -out of the city by night, accompanied by two young novices. The trio -stealthily, yet rapidly, pursued their course each night; they crept -furtively into some hiding place before each dawn. By the time this -evasive noctambulation had brought them to Kwa-chau, more than a -hundred miles north-east of Liang-chau, Hiuen-Tsiang’s horse was dead. -There was small comfort in learning that he would have to cross a river -so turbulent that no boat could live on it; that, beyond the river, -was an entrenchment which he must contrive to get over; and that, even -should he overcome this obstacle, the frontier was closed by rings of -forts; beyond the forts there was a vast stretch of herbless, waterless -waste; and beyond this desert lay the land of a Turkish people—those -Uïghurs, who appear in European folk-lore as the terrible Ogres. - -His heart sank within him; the melancholy which seized him lasted a -whole month, and his taciturnity made it apparent. The Imperial Veto -arrived at Kwa-chau; the Governor of the city sent him a summons to -appear. But this new blow roused his failing courage; he pulled himself -together; personality and enthusiasm prevailed at the interview; the -Governor was won over; Authority gave the pilgrim a hint to lose no -time in making off; and closed its official eye to his departure. - -Now, one of the novices was faint-hearted; the other sickly. -Hiuen-Tsiang sent them back. He was anxious to get on his solitary way -as fast as he could; so he bought a new horse; but he lacked a guide. -By a lucky accident he fell in with a “barbarian,” who expressed a -desire to become a monk, and who offered to guide him past the five -successive forts which lay ahead, and which he must somehow contrive to -dodge. The “barbarian” also took him to see an ancient trader who had -been to the land of the Uïghurs over thirty times. This old gentleman -made no attempt at reassuring him. “The routes of the West are rough -and dangerous,” he said, “now, one is stopped by shifting sands; now, -by demons and scorching winds. Even big caravans are liable to lose -their way and come to a miserable end. How, then, can you hope to -make the journey all by yourself? Be wise, I entreat you, and do not -play with your life.” But the monk answered that he held his life as -nothing when set against his holy quest. The old trader then dropped -vain arguments and proposed a deal which should be mutually profitable: -he would take the horse which Hiuen-Tsiang had bought, and would -give him his own Rosinante, which had made the journey so often, and -therefore must remember the road. The pilgrim, when he saw the beast, -recalled how one skilled in occult science had once spoken to him of an -ancient steed, reddish of colour, with a varnished saddle and an iron -framework to it; and lo! was not the very steed before him? He closed -the bargain; and he and the barbarian set forth together, each on his -“mount.” - -The twain came up to the river (the Bulunghir) and found a place where -there were narrows. The guide proved himself to be resourceful: he made -a sort of bridge of boughs, covered them with sand, and belaboured the -horses until they dashed across the frail structure. A strange way of -crossing an unfordable stream! but by no means so improbable as it -sounds. It is said to be still used in Central Asia. - -Night drew on. Both men were weary, and spread their mats for sleep. -But Hiuen-Tsiang placed small confidence in his guide. They lay fifty -paces apart. And, before long, our hero heard a stealthy footfall and -saw the dim outline of the half-savage stalking up to him. With drawn -sword, too! He sprang up, and breathed a prayer; whereupon the guide -returned to his own mat, stretched himself out, and straightway fell -asleep. Had he meant evil? or did he wish to make off if he found the -pilgrim asleep? or was his desire to frighten him from pursuing a -journey so perilous to them both? - -Next morning, being already within the verge of the desert, they ate -sparingly, but were lucky enough to find water. No more water would -be found until they reached close up to the first fort; and they must -steal this by night; for, once espied by the garrison, they might -count themselves dead men. The guide tried to work on our pilgrim to -give up such a mad enterprise. But Hiuen-Tsiang knew no shadow of -turning; so the twain, ears and eyes wide open, wormed they way over -the rough tackless waste. Suddenly the guide tightened his bow and bade -Hiuen-Tsiang go on in front. Our pilgrim was far too wary a person to -do anything of the kind; he was by no means satisfied as to the designs -of the half-civilized stranger. However, the barbarian quietly resumed -his duty as scout; but he displayed such a desire to be out of it all, -and his fears were so obviously growing, that Hiuen-Tsiang dismissed -him with a present of the horse he rode. - -Behold our traveller, then, solitary on the unending, pathless desert -of Gobi—one of the most immense of Earth’s waste places,—eagerly -on the look out for such heaps of bleached bones as might mark the -track of some caravan. After some time of slow, painful progress, -he beheld a band of men wearing glittering armour and bearing their -banners unfurled; they were making for him, but vanished as suddenly as -they appeared. It was the mirage come to perplex and delude him. One -illusion followed another in rapid succession; fleeting, dissolving -scenes which were the works of the Devil. But a voice said to him: -“Fear not.” This brought comfort, and his fear departed. He pushed on, -and in the end he sighted the watch-tower. He hid in a sand-hollow -until night closed round, and then he crept up to the wall of the fort -and found the hoped-for water. He was busy filling his leathern-bottle, -when an arrow whizzed by and very nearly hit him; and a second arrow -followed. He shouted out: “Stop your shooting. I am a monk from the -Capital.” Soldiers ran up, dragged him into the fort, and took him -before their captain. He produced papers which proved his identity, -and was treated with the respect due to a priest of Buddha; yet the -Captain urged him to return home. Finding the pilgrim to be a man of -heroic piety and inflexible will, he set out with him and guided him -some distance along the way to the next fort. He even gave Hiuen-Tsiang -a message to its captain, recommending the pilgrim to his favour and -assistance. But the message was a verbal one only. And Hiuen-Tsiang was -not sure that he might not find more rigour and less charity at the -next watch-tower; so, when he came up to it, he crept furtively towards -its base, in search of water as before. The dispatch of an arrow was -sufficient warning; he came into the open, and the scene at the first -fort was re-enacted. He repeated the message to its Captain; and this -second officer gave him hospitable entertainment and better advice. For -he urged him to avoid the third fort, which was held by rough soldiery, -who would not be nice in making delicate distinctions and might easily -become violent. And he directed him to take a route which avoided this -fort altogether, and along which, at ten leagues distance, he would -come across sweet water. - -He set off across the arid plain, where was neither beast nor bird to -be seen, nor blade of grass, nor any sign of moisture—only mirage. A -pandemonium of fantastic forms encircled him; forms begotten of the -Power of Evil. But he felt secure in the midst of devils; for did he -not bear, folded in his bosom, a sure talisman—none other than a -Sacred Manuscript, the gift of grateful leper to whom he had stood as a -friend? - -Illusory peril was followed by solid disaster: he dropped his -water-bottle and spilled its precious contents. Next, his horse lost -its way, and made the same long circuit again and again. For a moment, -he was tempted to assay a return to the fort: he brushed the thought -aside, turned his horse’s head to the North-West, and pushed on. - -Night came on. Evil spirits seized on the opportunity to close in on -him. Every demon bore a burning torch. They were more in multitude than -the stars of heaven. Four horrid nights, filled with hallucination, -wore away. Four days he struggled on, tortured by thirst, his body one -ache. At last horse and rider fell to the ground, worn out. Death was -close at hand when a refreshing night-breeze swept over the desert, -and horse and rider renewed the struggle. Suddenly, the horse insisted -on taking his own way: he had scented water; and soon a little oasis -was reached. It was uninhabited; but a day’s rest there refreshed man -and beast; and, on the third day, the traveller saw the last of the -shifting sands of Shamo and came to the pastures of the Uïghurs. - -In the capital, probably identical with the town now known as Hâmî, he -found a Buddhist monastery, wherein dwelt three Chinese monks. He had -already made fully 600 miles from Liang-chau; but that was as nothing -to the journey which lay before him; and from this he was compelled to -digress. For he was in a region tributary to the ruler of Kau-chang -(Turfan) and this monarch, having heard of his arrival, ordered that -he should be sent on to him. Six days of travel to the West, through -a desert, brought him to Turfan. The Lord-paramount of the Uïghurs -received him with all honour and much state-ceremony. He sat under -a “canopy of precious stuffs” pitched in the courtyard of a palace. -Soon after the pilgrim’s arrival, the queen, accompanied by her suite, -appeared; but Hiuen-Tsiang being fatigued, their Majesties retired to -the “palace,” and he was conducted to his chamber, where eunuchs served -and guarded him. Next day he was taken to a Buddhist convent, still in -the custody of the eunuchs. For the monarch had resolved to keep such a -holy person for the better instruction of his subjects. - -Hiuen-Tsiang incurred the royal displeasure by stoutly refusing to do -as he was bid and stay on. Then ensued, in that far away time and half -barbaric land, the ancient and ever recurrent struggle which history -so copiously illustrates—the contest between regnant authority and -the claims of religion. At one time the despot tried to brow-beat; at -another time, to cajole; he even put aside his dignity and offered -to serve the monk at table. Both men were equally resolute; and the -situation seemed hopeless, when Hiuen-Tsiang bethought him of an -expedient with which we moderns became familiar at no very recent -date. He started to hunger-strike. In four days the result of this -policy alarmed the King. The queen-mother declared herself for the holy -pilgrim, and the monarch gave in. He begged that Hiuen-Tsiang would at -least stay in the country during one short month. The monk accepted the -compromise; and in that single month his unaffected piety, passionate -singleness of aim and personal attraction did the work they never -failed to accomplish everywhere and on every occasion. Moral intensity -was the secret of his success. - -And so we see the poor wanderer who came to Uïghur-land alone, -famished, and half dead, leaving the land under the protection of an -armed escort, and provided, not merely with an ample supply of warm -clothing for the heights he must cross, but with 100 ounces of gold, -30,000 pieces of silver and 500 pieces of satin for the presents -which were necessary and to pay his way. He was also given letters of -recommendation to the Princes of the West. Monks and the population of -the city followed him beyond its gates; and the despot, having sent the -queen and people back, conducted him surrounded by his whole court, -some miles on his journey. - -The route lay westward, over a difficult, mountainous land. Southward -lay the Tarim, a considerable river, which discharges itself into -Lob-nor, one of the numerous inland salt-seas of Asia, for ever -rising and falling and shifting its boundaries. It was well that the -pilgrim had a military escort; for a band of brigands lurked among the -mountains. They were probably quite as strong as the Uïghur soldiery; -for negotiations were entered into, and ended in their being bought -off. A little farther on there was ghastly evidence that these -ruffians had recently attacked and destroyed a caravan of traders: a -few score corpses lay stretched out on the ground. - -When Kara-shahr (Karshâr) was reached, its King behaved courteously, -but refused to grant fresh horses, by reason of the frequent raiding of -his domain by the Uïghurs. He was disquieted by the presence of Uïghur -soldiery. Hiuen-Tsiang tells us, among much else that is interesting, -that the coinage here was of gold, silver and copper,—that there -were ten Buddhist monasteries of the Lesser Vehicle; that these were -properly kept, but that the country “had no annals” and that “the laws -were not settled. The people clothe themselves in cotton or wool, and -go about with their scalps shorn and uncovered.” - -The separate account of each country the pilgrim visited or concerning -which he believed he had credible information—his great monumental -work—the _Si-yu-ki_—begins with Kara-shahr which he calls Akni -or Agni. One is at once struck with the exactness of the author’s -observation, the orderliness of his mind, and the minute precision of -his statement. One is equally astounded at his oriental love of the -marvellous and his eager haste to record every grotesque and absurd -legend. There is before us a man as full as any modern explorer of -ardent zeal for travel, eager curiosity, keen eye, and quick interest -in all that is novel and peculiar. There is the same intellectual grasp -of the natural features, products and government of strange countries. -But Hiuen-Tsiang’s inmost, burning passion is revealed both in this -book and in the biography compiled from his documents and discourse -by two pupils and intimate friends Hwui-Lih and Yen-Tsong[1]: it was -for all that appertained to his religion, whether sacred writing or -Buddhist monuments or the relics of saints. When he deals with mundane -matters he rarely goes astray. And, from his earliest years, he bore a -sacred flame, a consuming fire in his breast, fed by the highest and -holiest emotions and aspirations of man. But, although he breathed the -breath of life, the purest atmosphere of the East in his century was -tainted by superstition. The mental disposition for the marvellous, -implanted in him at a tender age, and sustained by precept and example, -waxed with the years. The absurdest legends became credible if they -bore the name of his faith. This close observer, this clear minded -man became passionate for prodigies, had a Gargantuan swallow for the -superstitious-grotesque. Brought up on legend, he soon found himself in -a home of fable. He records every marvellous tale which is told him, -and worships at every shrine which guards any relic of wonder. And this -although he was not wanting in passion for orderly thinking. - -News from Kara-shahr that a holy pilgrim, bound for India, might be -expected reached the next Kingdom, and he found monks standing to greet -him at the gate of Kutchê, its capital. Feelings of simple grace and -beauty dwelt in those Eastern hearts; they welcomed him with a gift -of flowers. But the strict laws of his order did not permit of his -accepting these for himself. He placed them before an image of Buddha, -Teacher of the Law. Kutchê was a land of music, its people excelling -all others on the lute and pipe. They were a wholly honest folk, -with an incompetent ruler. “The King’s wisdom being small,” says our -Chinaman, “he is ruled by a private minister. The heads of children of -the humbler order are flattened by the pressure of a wooden board”; -which recalls the custom of certain North American Indians. The King -had ordered a banquet to honour his visitor; but the strictness of the -rule which Hiuen-Tsiang followed forbade him to be present. This cast -the potentate into a mighty rage; but once again the simplicity and -sincerity of the pilgrim’s character, which glowed in his countenance, -disarmed wrath. He was retained at Kutchê, an honoured guest, until -such time as the snows should melt. He spent two months there, chiefly -occupied in religious discussion with the monks. He tells us that the -monarch and his ministers met together once a month to discuss matters -of state, and consulted the priests before publishing their decrees. - -When the season ripened and the ways became open once more, he was sent -forth in magnificent pomp and protection; he was accompanied by an -armed escort and a staff of servants, all mounted on camels and horses. -The escort was very necessary; for a great horde of Turkish robbers -were passed on the way, quarrelling about the booty of a caravan which -they had stopped and plundered. A march of about 120 miles brought -our party to a small desert which they crossed over, and so entered -the domain of another Khân. A single night was spent at what is now -Bai, where he found Buddhist monasteries, and the party pushed across -another small desert. The towering and forbidding ranges of Thian-shan -were before them, “very dangerous and reaching up to the sky.” Indeed -Khân Tengri, the highest mountain of the range, has an elevation of -24,000 feet. The imposing features of the mountain-masses and the -horror of the passes across them left indelible marks on Hiuen-Tsiang’s -memory. “Since the creation of the world,” he says, “the snow has -gathered there and become frozen blocks, which spring and summer cannot -melt. Shining sheets of solid ice spread before one, and there is, as -it were, no end to them; they blend with the clouds. Frozen splinters -have become detached and have fallen; some of these are an hundred -feet high; others measure some dozens of feet athwart, and they bar -the way. You attempt to climb over the former kind at your peril; you -get across the latter with pain. And all the time tempest assails -you with gusts of wind and whirling drifts of snow; so that double -soles to your foot-gear and fur garments to your body fail to keep -out the cold. Of dry shelter there is none, either to feed or sleep -in. You have to sling up your cooking-pot and lay your sleeping mat -on the frozen ground.” Mountain-staves were used, and we learn from -the _Si-yu-ki_ (the “Record of Western Countries”) that mountaineers -were accustomed to cut steps in the ice. But to climb uncharted hills, -among the highest of the world, led by guides of no great experience; -to make one’s way over rock and glacier unroped and unprovided with -specially constructed boots; to sleep in the open in rarified and -arctic air; to live on poor food, and often to lack it, was to loathe -the mountain-pass. And this Hiuen-Tsiang did, heartily. - -It cost the caravan seven dolorous days to cross the higher ranges, -and, by the time the western uplands were reached, 13 or 14 strong men -had been lost through cold and hunger, and more than double that number -of beasts of burthen. - -Beyond the mountains, the uplands of Western Turkestan lie at a higher -level than that reached by Ben Nevis, and they embosom a great inland -sea—the Issyk-Kul, which lies nearly 5,000 feet up. Wending their -way along its southern shore, our travellers ran into a hunting party -of the Khân of the Turks. Only half a century had then passed since -nomadic Turkish tribes possessed themselves of the “thousand sources” -of those two great rivers which lose themselves in the Aral Sea, which -are known to modern geographers as Amu Daria and Syr Daria, and which -readers of the classics know as Oxus and Jaxartes. The Turks speedily -became masters of the fertile plains of Sogdiana and Bactria, subdued -the tribes that occupied the region we call Bokhâra, and extended their -sway into the very heart of the Hindû Kûsh, reaching as far south as -the Kapiśa of the Greeks—that is to say, within a few miles of Kâbul. - -We have an interesting account of how the Nomadic Ruler gave the -travellers a gracious reception within a great tent, resplendent with -cloth of gold. Two long rows of dignitaries, clad in figured silks -of many colours, squatted on mats before the Khân; behind him stood -the royal guard. He wore a cloak of green satin; his long hair was -bound over the forehead by several folds of silk, the ends whereof -fell over his back. When on horseback, two hundred captains, gay in -brocade and riding horses with plaited tails, and an army with banners, -spears and long bows accompanied him. This was not foot soldiery; -horses or camels were ridden, and the men were clad in furs and fine -wool. One could see no end to the army, it was such a multitude. Our -author tells us that the Turk of his day worshipped fire, and sat on -mats, since wooden chairs contain the quality of fire. Ten centuries -later Sir Thomas Browne, in his “Urn-Burial” refers to the Parsees -of India “which expose their bodies unto vultures and endure not so -much as _feretra_ or biers of wood, the proper fuel of fire.” A huge -arm-chair, made of iron and covered with a mat was brought in for -the use of Hiuen-Tsiang. The whole party was invited to sit, Turkish -fashion; wine was brought in, cups clinked, and everybody drank, turn -and turn about; while music, which to Chinese ears was barbaric yet -not unpleasing, came from strange instruments. After the wine, legs -and shoulders of boiled mutton and veal were brought in; but the -Buddhist was separately served with “pure food”—rice-cake, cream, -milk, crystallized sugar, honeycomb and grapes. Of course the divine -gadfly which pursued our hero stung him to testify on this occasion, as -on all other opportunities, whether in season or out of season. But his -personality stood him in good stead; moreover, to this day, a holy man -is respected throughout the pagan East, no matter what his faith may -be. The Khân was interested and attentive; even impressed. He raised -his hands towards heaven, cast himself on the ground, kept Hiuen-Tsiang -about his person for some days, and earnestly besought him to give up -his project. “You must not go,” he said. “The country is a very hot -one. You look too frail a man to give hope of your success. The natives -are black; they go about naked; they have no modesty; they are unworthy -of your presence among them.” “Whatever I may be,” replied the Master -of the Law, “I burn with longing to seek for the commands of Buddha, -to inspect the ancient monuments, and to follow lovingly the track of -our Lord’s footpath on earth.” What followed marks yet once more the -personal ascendency of our hero in every situation. This half-savage -head of wild Mongolian hordes sought straightway for some one who knew -Chinese and could also interpret the confusion of tongues in his own -subject-lands to the south. Such a man was speedily picked out of the -Khân’s army; for Chinese had been carried off by the Turkish Hiung-nu -(a people possibly, though by no means certainly, identical with the -terrible Huns whom Attila led to devastate Europe) and had settled down -in towns, deserted when Hiuen-Tsiang arrived in the district, but where -they had kept up their native tongue, although they had adopted Turkish -dress and ways. With true Eastern courtesy to a guest, the great Khân -accompanied our traveller some little way on his journey. - -At first the route lay westward towards the “Land of the Thousand -Sources”—a region of lakes and pools, great trees, much vegetation, -and a sweet and wooing air. Hither the Khân was wont to repair in -summer. Still travelling westward, Talas was reached, and then, by -bending round to the South-West and South, Samarkand, the “storehouse -of precious merchandise from many foreign countries.” Our traveller -found the ruler “full of courage, and controlling neighbouring -countries” with his fierce soldiery. He received the pilgrim with an -air of lofty disdain; but Hiuen-Tsiang was not a man to be daunted, -and, next day, when he boldly set forth his faith, contempt became -respect. Buddhism was practically dead in Samarkand. The monasteries -were empty. Two young monks who were with Hiuen-Tsiang sought to pass -the night in one of these vacant buildings; but the populace threw -burning brands at them and drove them out. The King condemned the -offenders to decapitation; but Hiuen-Tsiang pleaded for mercy; so -they were merely beaten and expelled from the city. His successful -intercession increased the fervour of his missionary zeal; nor did he -toil in vain; the monasteries were re-opened; and he ordained priests -to fill them. - -Leaving Samarkand, about 90 miles off, he entered a pass bordered by -mountains “of prodigious heighth, with a narrow road” to add “to the -difficulty and danger.” The pass was closed by double wooden doors, -studded with iron, and hung with bells. The pass owed its name—The -Iron Gates—to these strong defences. - -The Oxus was reached and crossed, and our pilgrim now deviates -considerably from the direct route to fulfil a promise which he had -made to the Khân of the Uïghurs to visit his son-in-law, the son of -the great Khân of the Turks, who ruled over a little Khânate, called -Hwo, and probably identical with the district which lies east of the -Surkh-âb. When he arrived, he found the monarch on his death-bed; and -was obliged to wait two months until the funeral ceremonies were done -with. During this time a tragedy took place which casts a lurid light -on court-life in Central Asia during the Seventh Century, and which -reminds us of the Italian tragedies during the High Renaissance. The -wife of the Khân had died, and the Khân replaced her by marrying her -young sister. At the instigation of a son by the first marriage, the -bride murders her husband. “The serpent that did sting his father’s -life now wears his crown,” and marries his aunt-step-mother. A similar -atrocity is recorded of the Chinese Imperial family in Hiuen-Tsiang’s -time. In A.D. 655 the Emperor, Kao-Tsung, deposed the Empress and -married one of his father’s widows, who wholly ruled him, cut off -the feet of the Empress, and of another queen, and then had these -unfortunate ladies drowned “like Clarence in his Malmsey-butt,” in a -vat of wine. - -Hiuen-Tsiang was fortunate in finding a monk who had dwelt in India and -had studied the Scriptures there; and the twain set forth for Balkh -in some sort of waggon. At Balkh, he found no fewer than a hundred -Buddhist monasteries, three thousand monks, and sacred memorials and -relics beyond count. He might have become very rich; for the Kinglets -around Balkh were eager to secure a visit from such a holy being, and -offered to load him with gold and jewels. But he was not the man to -depart from the straight and narrow path he had chosen. He refused them -one and all, and set forth for ways “even more difficult and dangerous -than the deserts of ice. Every moment one is at battle there with -frozen cloud or snow-whirlwind. Sometimes one is faced with worse than -this, even, namely, morasses of mud, dozens of feet wide. Ice, pile on -pile, rises into mountain masses, snow-blasts dash on for a hundred -leagues.” “The raging spirits and demons of the mountains send every -kind of calamity; and there are murderous robbers to be met with.” Thus -does Hiuen Tsiang describe the passage of the Hindû Kûsh. - -At Bâmiyân, in the heart of Afghanistan, a great centre of Buddhism -after the model of the Little Vehicle, he was honourably received by -its ruler and rested five days in his palace. He visited the great -Buddhist images, hewn out of the solid rock (which our soldiers saw -in the Afghan Campaign of 1843) and other remarkable monuments. On -the second day after leaving Bâmiyân, he was caught in a blinding -snowstorm, lost his way, and was like to perish, when mountaineers -who were out hunting came across him and put him on the right track. -A mountain pass brought him to the Kapiśa of Ptolemy and Pliny. It -was situated a little to the north of the present Kâbul. Here “the -people were fierce and cruel speaking a rude tongue, their marriage a -mere intermingling of the sexes.” The monarch, shrewd, brave, firm and -sagacious, had established a little empire by bringing ten neighbouring -States under his overlordship, and had won the love of his subjects. -Hearing of the approach of the pilgrim, this potentate set out to meet -him, accompanied by a procession of monks. These pietists of various -monasteries of the Great and Little Vehicle remained sufficiently -human to quarrel as to which house should shelter so rare a guest. Now -the King was an enthusiastic supporter of the more rigid Order; and -Hiuen-Tsiang would naturally have prepared to take up his abode in a -convent of the Great Vehicle. But the appeal of the monks of a convent -following the Little Vehicle, an appeal made on historic grounds, -touched him; yet one of the monks who had accompanied him showed strong -repugnance to sleep in a house of Hiuen-Tsiang’s rival and stricter -sect. Our Chinese was neither a Courtier nor a Pharisee; he could -“suffer fools gladly,” and took up his abode with the weaker brethren. -Then the rivals had but one voice in entreating him to uncover a -treasure, which had been set aside for the repair of some religious -house, and which lay buried beneath the foot of an image of Buddha. - - - - -CHAPTER IV. - -THROUGH INDIA IN THE SEVENTH CENTURY. - - -He passed the wet season at Kapiśa, and then, protected by the King’s -envoys, went along the North bank of the Kâbul river and through -districts memorable in the record of the Indian expedition of Alexander -the Great. Again and again do we come across the names of places -familiar to the reader of Arrian and Strabo. He visited Peshâwar and -Attock; he travelled through many a little Kingdom of what is now -North-Eastern Afghanistan and the North-West Provinces of India, by -zig-zag and perplexing routes. Here was the classic soil of ancient -Brâhmanism; here was to be found many a Buddhist record of the great -days of Aśôka. It was a land of monasteries and monuments, of countless -_stûpas_ (monuments containing relics) and sculptured stones, of -ancient tradition and extravagant myth. The recording carvings of ages -still stood thick on the ground or lay there in ruin. He saw every one -of them, traversing perilous ravines by the help of chains affixed to -the rocks; crossing frail swaying bridges made of rope. He got as far -north as Baltistân, or Little Thibet, “in the midst of the Great Snowy -Mountains.” More than six centuries later, Marco Polo refers to the -inhabitants as “an evil race of savage idolaters,” and Hiuen-Tsiang -found their forefathers “fierce, passionate folk, ill-mannered, and of -uncouth speech.” “Strictly speaking, they do not belong to India, but -are rude frontier-folk.” Sometimes the ways were deserted; for brigands -were abroad. Almost everywhere Brâhmanism was in the ascendent; -Buddhism in decay; but, as yet, the rivalry of the two creeds had -nowhere become acute; rival religionists behaved kindly and courteously -one to another; and Brâhmans received the traveller with generous -hospitality. Yet the careful student will not fail to observe that the -antagonism between Brâhman and Buddhist, which is evident in the pages -of Fa-Hien, had not decreased in the two centuries since his time. For -Exoteric Brâhmanism, with its clever adaptation of the ancient gods of -India; its appeal to the imagination of the vulgar, always concrete -in character and incapable of comprehending an abstract proposition; -its deities, embodying human passion and evoking human sympathies; its -support of human pride in the institution of caste; its intercessory -priesthood and vicarious sacrifice; and its supple manipulation of -men to obtain power, was on the high road to revival. But there is an -esoteric Brâhmanism, as Macaulay found out, always the lofty, pure -creed of the educated Hindu. - -Hiuen-Tsiang went up and down and to and fro in these frontier-states, -threading many a delicious valley which nestled among the mountains -and was overlooked by the snows of Himalaya; and returning from time -to time to the more enervating atmosphere of the valley of the Indus. -The King of Kaśmîr (Cashmir) visited him at a monastery where he was -staying, preceded by a brilliant procession. The roadway was covered -with umbrellas and banners; it was carpeted with flowers, and the -air was filled with sweet scents. The monarch was full of compliment -and shows of respect, and scattered a great quantity of flowers in -Hiuen-Tsiang’s honour. Then he begged him to take his seat on a great -elephant. And he walked behind him. The pilgrim remained two years -in Kasmîr, sitting at the feet of a sage, studying Sanskrit and the -Buddhist scriptures. Indeed, throughout all his travels, he was forever -studying or collecting or transcribing manuscripts, when he was not -visiting and venerating relics. - -Now near Nagarahâra, in the district of Jalâlâbâd, there was a certain -cavern, where, peradventure, the pious might behold the shadow which -Buddha had cast on its walls. It had been granted to Sung-Yun to see -it, when the Empress Dowager of a Tartar dynasty which ruled in -Northern China sent him and another on an embassy to obtain Buddhist -books (A.D. 518); and Hiuen-Tsiang was consumed by desire to see it -also. His escort from Kapiśa earnestly begged him not to make the -attempt; it was a rash and perilous project; brigands were abroad; and -few indeed were those who might see the holy vision. They could not -dissuade him; so they left him and went home, and he took an old man as -guide. When he got near the cavern five brigands pounced upon him. He -pointed to his monks’ robe and told them that, if they were brigands, -they were none the less men, and he had no fear of men, or even of wild -beasts, when sacred duty called him. He touched their hearts, and they -let him go. - -Although a man visited by visions and a dreamer of significant dreams, -he spent a long time in the cave and saw nothing. Prostrations and -convictions of sin were in vain. Then, quite suddenly, came a flash -of light; thereupon he vowed that he would not quit the spot until -he should behold the veritable shade. In the end the reward of such -persistent enthusiasm was bestowed: he beheld the Buddha, attended by -his sacred court, in all their heavenly splendour. But, just then, -torch-bearers came into the cave, intending to burn perfumes in the -holy place, and the glory disappeared. Hiuen-Tsiang ordered them to -put out their lights, and lo! there was the vision as before. Five -of the six torch-bearers declared that they beheld the shadow. It is -characteristic of our pilgrim that he is careful to tell us that the -sixth man saw nothing whatever. Never a shadow of doubt arises as to -his good faith. Sung-Yun the Chinese ambassador and pilgrim, writing -an account of his journey a hundred years before Hiuen-Tsiang, tells -us how, “Entering the mountain cavern fifteen feet and looking for a -long time (or, at a long distance?) at the western side of it, opposite -the entrance, at length, the figure, with its characteristic marks, -appears; on going nearer to look at it, it gradually grows fainter, -and then disappears. On touching the place where it was with the hand, -there is nothing but the bare wall. Gradually retreating, the figure -begins to come into view again, and foremost is conspicuous that -peculiar mark between the eyebrows, which is so rare among men.” And -Hiuen-Tsiang tells us, in his “Records of Western Lands,” that in later -days the shadow has faded to a feeble likeness, although, by fervent -prayer, it may be clearly seen, “though not for long.” - -Leaving the North-Western corner of India, he now proceeded through the -Punjâb. Many a city he names has perished, and not a stone thereof is -left; of others a few stones mark the seat of departed greatness; but -often the names recall the Embassy of Megasthenes and differ but little -from those by which they were known to the Greeks of a yet earlier age. - -He had left certain rude tribes behind him, yet he found particular -districts by no means free from murderous gangs; and he had to traverse -many a forest inhabited by wild elephants and great beasts of prey. In -one forest, he and fellow-monks who accompanied him found themselves at -the mercy of half a hundred armed brigands, who chased them into the -bed of a pond which had run dry. Hiuen-Tsiang and some others contrived -to hide among thorny bushes and coarse growth; but some of the company -were caught and bound. Happily a hollow, scooped out by escaping -waters, was hit upon; and our pilgrim and some who were in hiding -contrived to make their way out. About half a mile off they came across -a Brâhman ploughing with oxen; and he took them to a village hard -by. He blew a conch and beat a drum, and soon 80 men of the village -snatched up their arms and gathered together to attack the robbers. -These latter, seeing so many bounding towards them, made off with all -speed; the villagers found and released their captives, who lay bound, -stripped, and quite helpless, groaning and weeping many tears. The -good people of the village covered their nakedness and took them to -their homes for food and shelter. “Master,” said one of the monks, to -Hiuen-Tsiang, “all that we had has been taken by the thieves, and we -have barely got off with our lives. How is it you can smile and look so -cheerful!” “Because life is man’s greatest boon,” was the reply. “When -that has been saved, why vex one’s self over clothes and food?” - -Soon we are with Hiuen-Tsiang at a centre of Brâhmanism which was -probably Lâhôr (Lahore). Everywhere he is received with courtesy; -usually welcomed with procession and pageantry. Before very long, we -find him making a long détour to the cold upper valley of the Bujas -river, under the Himalayas, and among a rude, hard, fierce race, but -one that had a regard for justice as well as for courage. - -He returns to a warmer latitude, and reaches Mathurâ, or Muttra, on the -River Jumna; a place once famous for the relics stored in its _stûpas_. -Here, different convents followed different authorities; but once a -year they gathered together, and each sect made offering before the -relics of its chosen saint. A little later, after traversing several -small States, it would seem that he visited the source of the Ganges, -although, in spite of explicit statement, this has been doubted. He -speaks of the river as being 3/4 mile wide at its source! May he not -mean that the end of its parent glacier is of that width?[2] - -A little later on, we are told of the softness of Ganges water; of -how multitudes of bathers assemble on its sandy banks to cleanse them -of sin; and how a mere rinsing of the mouth with its water wall avert -every calamity and secure future blessedness. “But there is no truth in -this universal belief, which is wholly the invention of heresy,” adds -our traveller, critical of everything but the superstitions which had -encrusted his own faith. And he is of opinion that this special form of -false belief is on the wane among the Indian people! - -We find him before long in Western Rohilkand, and then again in an icy -Himalayan valley, where “for ages a woman has ruled; wherefore it is -called the Kingdom of the Eastern Women.” It corresponds to what is -now British Garwal and Kumain. As then, so is it to-day: relics of the -matriarchate and polyandry are to be found among the Himalayan ranges. - -He returns to the Ganges, and, passing through several small States, -arrives at Kanauj. He is for ever visiting scholars, and sits for -months at the feet of every famous sage. He does so at Kanauj, which he -tells us is a city measuring four miles in length and one in breadth. -He is now in an Empire recently established by Sîlâditya, a warrior -of the Vaiśya, or trading, class, who had forced a number of petty -Kinglets to become his tributaries. Sîlâditya would seem to have been -a devout Buddhist, favouring the Greater Vehicle, and, really devoting -himself to the prosperity of the Empire he ruled. - -He now enters Ayôdhyâ—Oude—the same name that, eleven centuries -later, rang so compellingly in the ears of Clive and Warren Hastings. -Here Brâhmanism was getting the upper hand. And there was not merely -much lawlessness but a terrible perversion of religious worship -abroad in this land, which reminds one of modern Thuggee. A boat with -Hiuen-Tsiang and eighty others on board was gliding peacefully down the -Ganges, when a whole little navy of pirates, which had lain concealed -under the dense foliage of the river-bank, shot out into mid-stream, -and surrounded the pilgrim’s vessel. Some of the passengers leaped -into the river; those who remained in the vessel were towed ashore and -robbed. Now these water-thieves were devotees of the goddess Durgâ, the -wife of Siva, and were wont to offer at her altar a yearly sacrifice -of some unblemished human victim, selected from their captives. They -carefully examined Hiuen-Tsiang, and pronounced him fit for this -purpose. Some of his companions generously offered to take his place; -but the pirates would have none of them—Hiuen-Tsiang and he alone was -the goddess’ chosen prey. He, of all the company, remained calm and -undismayed. “Let me enter Nirvâna tranquil and happy,” he said, his -mind wholly occupied with some future incarnation wherein he might turn -such cruel hearts as those of the pirates. These, amazed, and even -touched, by his meek and compassionate fortitude, granted him a few -more minutes of life. Just at this moment, a squall came on, so fierce -that it terrified the pirates, even. Hiuen-Tsiang’s companions were -loud in exclaiming that it was heaven’s warning of the awful vengeance -which would ensue on the murder of a saint. The hearts of the homicides -were stricken by fear. One of them took the pilgrim’s hand. He only -felt the pressure; for his eyes were closed and he was wrapt in some -celestial vision. He asked if the fatal moment had come; and when he -learned that the mind of the robbers was changed, he began to unfold -“the Law” to them with such persuasive power that they cast their -instruments of sacrifice into the river, restored what they had stolen, -and quietly went their way. - -He visited Prayâga (Allahabad), near the confluence of the Ganges and -Jumna, and then took a dangerous course, south-west, through a forest -infested with wild elephants and beasts of prey, to Kosâmbi-nagar, now -a mere village on the Jumna, only to find ten Buddhist monasteries -ruined and deserted and fifty temples of flourishing Brâhmanism, -frequented by an enormous number of “heretics.” Thence he travelled -northwards, and came to Gautama’s birth place, Kapila. It was a waste. -Almost everywhere Brâhmanism was quietly triumphing and Buddhism in -gentle decay; although it was not until the following century that this -shrivelling process became rapid, and four or five centuries had yet to -pass before new dynasties sacked monasteries and burned their inmates -or expelled them from India in such wise that Buddhism became extinct -throughout the Great Peninsula. - -At Bânâras (Benares) he saw Brâhman ascetics who shaved the head, or -went about naked, or covered themselves with ashes, and “by all manner -of austerity sought to escape from any more births and deaths.” He -tells us of the blueness of the sacred river and its rolling waves; of -the sweet taste of its waters and the fineness of its sands; of how -numbers of people, in order to wash away the pollution of sin, “would -abstain from eating for seven days, and then drown themselves in the -sacred stream. Daily, towards sunset, ascetics would climb up a pillar -set in the middle of the river, cling to it by one hand and one foot in -a marvellous manner, and gaze at the sun until he went down, when they -would descend. Thereby they hoped to escape from reincarnation.” “If -the body of a dead man be cast into the stream, he cannot fall into an -evil way. Swept on by its waters and forgotten by men, he is safe on -the other side.” - -It was at Bânâras that Gautama began his evangel, and the vast district -between Jumna and the mountains of Nepal was the main scene of his -labours. In the Kingdom of Magadha, which, like Kanduj, was under the -rule of Sîlâditya, he found an area of fourteen miles covered with the -ruins of a city which was flourishing when Fa-Hien visited India. The -stones of _stûpas_, monasteries, pagodas and hospitals for men and -beasts cumbered the ground. - -While Hiuen-Tsiang was staying at the place where Gautama “Sâkyamûni” -as he was called during the ascetic portion of his career—that is to -say, “the sage of the family of the Sâkyas”—became “Buddha,” or “the -Enlightener of men,” a deputation of four of the most distinguished -monks of the great Sarighârâma of Nâlanda—the greatest scholastic and -monastic institution in the world—came to him bearing an invitation -to stay there. When he arrived he was welcomed with much state and -ceremony. Two hundred monks and crowds of people greeted him, singing -songs in his praise, bearing standards and umbrellas, and scattering -flowers and scent. They raised him to a seat of honour, and then the -sub-director sounded a gong and repeated the invitation. Twenty grave -and reverend seniors of the monastery presented him to the Father -Superior, who was no other than the famous scholar Sîlabhadra, a -dignitary so exalted that no one dared name him except by his title -of “Treasury of the Righteous Law.” Hiuen-Tsiang had to drag himself -towards this sage on knees and elbows, clacking his heels together, -and striking the ground with his brow. This done, seats were brought -forward, compliments were interchanged, and the pilgrim was made free -of the institution. The best rooms were given up to him; ten servants -were allotted to him, and, daily he was furnished with an ample supply -of food at the cost of the monks and the Râja. A Buddhist monk and a -Brâhman, dwelling in peace together, took him abroad from time to time -and shewed him the holy sights of the neighbourhood, seated in state on -an elephant or carried in a palanquin; but when he was in the convent -the “Treasury of the Righteous Law” devoted no small measure of his -time to his instruction in the higher learning. - -In the Seventh Century there was not, in the whole world a seat of -learning which might compare with the splendid establishment at -Nâlanda. It had been magnificently endowed by a succession of monarchs -and still enjoyed the royal favour as much as ever. There were open -courts and secluded gardens; splendid trees, casting a grateful shade, -under which the monks and novices might meditate; cool fountains of -fresh water that gurgled delightfully in the hot season. Ten thousand -inmates dwelt in six blocks of buildings four stories high, which -looked out on large courts. There were a hundred rooms set apart for -lectures on religion and on all the science and literature of the time. -There were halls wherein disputations frequently took place; and in -these Hiuen-Tsiang took a distinguished part. The monks impressed him -favourably: he found them sincere, and living in the strict observance -of severe rules. He says: “from morning to night, young and old help -each other in discussions, for which they find the day too short.” The -mental power and learning of the monks were as renowned as the towers, -the pavilions, and the cool retreats of the convent-university in which -they dwelt. The study of medicine and natural history and useful and -useless branches of mundane research was by no means cast aside for -speculation. But the latter was of so subtle a character that, while -ten hundred might be found capable of expounding twenty books of the -Sâtras and Sâstras, only five hundred could deal with thirty books, and -only ten with fifty; although students were not admitted until they had -proved themselves men of parts, and well-read in books, old and new, -by hard public discussion; and of ten candidates for admission, seven -or eight were rejected. Altogether, Hiuen-Tsiang spent five years in -study here; and he became one of the ten who could expound fifty sacred -books. But Sîlabhadra, the Father Superior, who was his tutor, had left -no sacred book unstudied. - -From Nâlanda, our pilgrim proceeded to Patna, and crossing the Ganges, -visited Gayâ. He saw everything worth seeing in the country about -Bhagalpur, and found there a monastery of the first order, the origin -of which was a curious history. A “heretic” from South India had -marched into the country, staff in hand, with stately step and pompous -mien, beating “the drum of discussion.” On his head, he bore a lighted -torch, and his belly was encased in plates of shining copper. When -asked the reason for such strange attire, he replied that the torch -was to enlighten the ignorant multitude, who dwelt in darkness, and -the belt was for self-preservation, since he was so filled with wisdom -that he feared his belly would burst. In spite of this mummery, he -proved himself so well instructed and persuasive that all the learned -men in the Kingdom were unable to controvert his arguments. At last, a -Buddhist from Southern India was sent for and reduced him to silence. -The Râja was so impressed by the victory that he founded the monastery. - -Our traveller now came to the land of the sugar-cane. His account of -the Kingdoms he visited after leaving the chief scenes of Gautama’s -missionary zeal, and the history of his wanderings, put together from -his notes and conversations with his pupils, become less full than -before; but it is clear that he made his way to “the shore-country” of -the Bay of Bengal, which would seem to be the Sunderbans, between the -rivers Ganges and Hûgli—afterwards a name of horror, as the lair of -infamous Portuguese pirates. At all events, he crossed the great Delta -of the Ganges, intending to embark for Ceylon at Tamluk on the Selai, -just where that river joins the Hûgli. Fa-Hian had done so, and had -seen Ceylon and its monuments; but Hiuen-Tsiang was given such accounts -of the perils of the long voyage that anxiety for the safety of the -treasures he had collected induced him to travel by land to South -India, and he determined to sail thence across the narrow Palk Strait. -So he returned inland, nearly as far back as Bhagalpur again, and -proceeded thence to Orissa. Thence he travelled south-westward to the -district watered by the upper tributaries of the Mahanadi and Godavari -in Central India; penetrating many a pestiferous marsh and perilous -jungle, deep and dangerous forest and scorching desert-plain, before -he arrived at Congeveram, the Dravidian capital, a little south-west of -Madras and north-west of Pondicherri. Here he learned that Ceylon had -become the theatre of a bloody war and that it would be impossible to -reach it. So he turned his reluctant steps to the north. - -He tells of the courage, honesty and love of truth of the Dravidian -race, and of the heat and fruitfulness of the land they inhabited. He -speaks of his return-journey as being partly through “a wild forest -and many deserted villages where bands of brigands attack travellers.” -Then, going north-west, he came to the country of the Mahrattas—not -the modern race which goes by that name, but a people who apparently -were Rajpoots, the old military Aryan aristocracy of India, whose -widows, following a Scythian custom, cast themselves on the funeral -pyre of their husbands to be worthy of their chivalry and to rejoin -them in the next life. Hiuen-Tsiang describes the Mahrattas as being -tall of stature, honest and simple; grateful to friends, relentless to -enemies. They avenged an insult at the risk of life; they would forget -all about themselves in their haste to give aid. They always gave -due warning to a foe before attacking him, and spared the enemy who -should yield. A commander who lost a battle was not directly punished; -but he received a present of women’s clothes, and this was enough: -it drove him to suicide. The army was of several hundred chosen men, -who went into battle drunk, and made their elephants drunk also. Then -they would rush forward in close array, bearing everything before them -and trampling on the foe. Nothing could withstand such an onset. And -one man all alone, with his lance in hand, was always quite ready to -challenge and fight ten thousand. These champions had drums beaten -before them every time they went abroad; and should one of them come -across a man and slay him no notice of the offence was taken. - -Passing through Western India and States which bordered on the Arabian -Sea, we find our traveller in Southern Malwa and Rajputana and, later, -in Sind. Twice in his account of Southern and Western India and once -in the _Life and Journeyings of Hiuen-Tsiang_, we are told that he -heard of a “Land of Western Women.” While on the Coromandel Coast, -he heard of an island inhabited by women who bore female children -only to Persian demons. Of old time, they were wont to allure sailors -and traders by signals. If successful, they changed themselves into -beautiful women, holding flowers and dispersing sweet scents. They -went forth to meet voyagers to the sound of sweet music, and, having -inveigled them into their City, which was built of iron, and having -solaced them with their society, they would cast them into an iron -prison and devour them at leisure. On the Western Coast, he is told -that the island is rich in gems and lies to the south-west of the -Byzantine Empire, to which it is tributary, and where its precious -stones are exchanged. It is inhabited by women only. Once a year, the -Emperor of Byzantium sends them male partners; and, if boys are born -of the union, the laws forbid their being brought up on the island. -Marco Polo also speaks of a Kingdom of Western Women. Ferdusi, the -Persian Poet, makes Alexander the Great visit an island-city of women -where no man was allowed to dwell. In the early art and literature of -Buddhism the legend is to be found. It reached Malaya. It made its -way into Chinese literature, too, some generations before the time of -Hiuen-Tsiang. But the locality given to the island varies with the -legend. - -Here, surely, are our Homeric friends, the Sirens—the daughters of -Achelous, serpent and ox, and the Muse Calliope—whose “shrill music -reached Ulysses on the middle sea” from a little island off Sicily. Can -these Western and Eastern legends have come from a common source; or, -did they travel overland with trader or missionary; or was some faint -echo of the golden harp of Hellas wafted by the breezes which bore the -trader across the Arabian Sea to Sind and Southern India? Possibly -the latter; for our author speaks of the island as lying to the west, -beyond the great sea which laves the shores of Kutch. It is perplexing -to find what would seem to be the same story told by the natives of -Martinique to Columbus during his second voyage. - -From Sind beyond the Indus, Hiuen-Tsiang proceeded to Multân in the -Punjâb, and saw the majestic temple of the Sun-dêva, whose image was -cast in gold and set with rare gems. Crowds of worshippers flocked -hither from other Kingdoms; and women did honour to the god with music -and torches and offerings of blossoms and perfumes. The temple was -surrounded with water-tanks and flowery groves; and near it was a -“House of Happiness,” which was a hospital for the poor and sick. - -He visited this temple on his way back to the sacred land where Gautama -had assumed his mission of teacher of mankind; for he felt that he must -return thither. So he made a thousand miles eastward and arrived at -Magadha in time to see the grand procession of the ashes of Buddha. He -thought the remains too large to be genuine; so did an Indian sage of -great reputation, and it would seem that the crowd of spectators were -also in doubt. Some time afterwards, suddenly, the relics could not be -found; the _stûpa_ in which they were kept was a sheet of light, and -flames, in five different colours shot up to the sky. This brilliant -phenomenon was witnessed by a wondering multitude; it gradually passed -away; and so did incredulity. - -Hiuen-Tsiang passed his time in the monasteries of Magadha, partly in -study, partly in refuting Brâhmans and the followers of the Little -Vehicle. To refute the latter could not have been a difficult task: -simple monks, only instructed in practical ethics, would stand no -chance against an erudite monk trained in subtle speculation and -fine distinctions. As in European Universities of the Middle Ages, -the thesis to be disputed was hung up by its supporter; and whatever -wrangler chose to deny it would take it down. Then a contest ensued; -and, at Nâlanda, its learned Head, the “Treasury of the Law,” was wont -to preside at great discussions. In some of these, our Chinaman took a -triumphant part. - -On one occasion, a certain Brâhman had hung up a challenge to the -Buddhists, which consisted of 40 articles, and, according to custom, -he wagered his head to maintain them; possibly perfectly well aware -that, in the unexpected event of defeat, the forfeit would not be -exacted. For some days, no one would come forward to oppose him. Then -Hiuen-Tsiang sent a monk to take up the insolent challenge in his -name: it was torn into shreds, and trampled under foot. At the solemn -discussion which ensued, he held forth at portentous length, and -dumbfounded the Brâhman. Hiuen-Tsiang then told him he had suffered -humiliation enough: he was free to go. - -The defeated wrangler went to Kâmarûpa, a Kingdom which extended -from west of the Brahmaputra to Manipur, on the borders of Burmah. -The eloquence and learning of our Chinaman would appear to have -converted the Brâhman, who was generous enough to tell the Râja of his -defeat. The tale so impressed that monarch that he sent an invitation -to Hiuen-Tsiang to pay him a visit; but our pilgrim, having fully -accomplished the purpose for which he had travelled so far, was eager -to return to China. The Râja waxed wroth at his disobedience to a -royal command, and warned the “Treasury of the Law” that, little as -he cared for the religion of Buddha, he would come with a vast army -and level with the dust the famous building over which he presided if -Hiuen-Tsiang were not forwarded without delay. It was evident that the -Râja, a powerful ally or tributary of Sîlâditya, whose loyalty to that -great monarch was not too assured, might conceivably let loose the -hounds of uncertain war. Here, a gleam of enlightenment is thrown on -the attitude of Râjas tributary to Sîlâditya, who had won his empire -by the sword and who had made Kanouj and Allahabad his capital cities. -Hiuen-Tsiang was despatched by Sîlabhadra to far-off Kâmarûpa; He had -been at the Râja’s court a whole month, when Sîlâditya returned from -the chastisement of a rebellious feudatory and learned whither he had -gone. Sîlâditya had urged the pilgrim to visit him in vain; now he -finds him at the court of a rival. Here is the making of a very pretty -quarrel. Sîlâditya sends to the Râja, saying that he wants the Chinese. -“My head first!” replies that monarch. Then Sîlâditya waxed wrath; and -his wrath is terrible. “Since I have power to cut off your head, it may -be given straightway to my ambassador,” is the message he returns. The -Râja of Kâmarûpa now begins to reflect. He orders his court-barge and -sets off with Hiuen-Tsiang in it to make amends to Sîlâditya. - -But he took the precaution to be accompanied by a great army. The -Ganges was crowded with boats filled with troops, and, as these were -rowed up the stream, other soldiery mounted on war-elephants marched -slowly along the banks. On their arrival at the court of Sîlâditya -he commanded that Hiuen-Tsiang should be presented to him. The Râja -of Kâmarûpa saw at once that here was an opportunity of quietly -humiliating Sîlâditya in his turn—a monarch who, from conviction or -by policy, professed the deepest reverence for the Greater Vehicle -and was the munificent patron of Buddhist institutions. He suggested -to Sîlâditya that it would be unworthy of a monarch so renowned -for cherishing sages and saints to do otherwise than pay the holy -and learned Chinese pilgrim the compliment of visiting him first. -Sîlâditya fell in with the proposal; and the Râja at once went back to -Hiuen-Tsiang and persuaded him, “for the honour of the law of Buddha,” -to consent. Thus, should his enemy, or anyone, never be sensible of -so subtle a revenge, the secret of it was sweet in the heart of the -Eastern King; a psychological peculiarity by no means confined to the -ruler of Kâmarûpa. - -Next evening, shortly after sunset, the Ganges was ablaze with torches; -the air resounded with the noise of tom-toms, for Sîlâditya was about -to pay his visit with Generals and Ministers of State. It was the -distinction of the Lord-paramount that the beating of a hundred gongs -heralded his approach and gave step to his guards. The haughty despot, -who determined the fate of thousands by a gesture, cast himself on -the ground at the feet of the humble monk, and kissed them. Next day, -the Master of the Law returned the visit. Now, a sister of the great -monarch, an enthusiast for high doctrine, who was seated behind the -throne, entreated that a great assembly of all the sages of the Empire -should be convoked at Kanouj to give Hiuen-Tsiang an opportunity of -setting out the beauty of the Greater Vehicle. So, at the beginning of -the cold season, the sages assembled at Kanouj, mounted on elephants -or carried in palanquins, surrounded by banners and accompanied by an -immense multitude. An elephant bore a golden statue of Buddha on his -back, and this was solemnly erected on a daïs. To the right of the -elephant, marched Sîlâditya, dressed as Indra and carrying a white -fly-flap in his hand; to the left was Kumâra, monarch of Kâmarûpa, -in the garb of Brâhm, and carrying a parasol of precious silk. Both -monarchs wore magnificent tiaras, from which garlands of flowers and -ribbons set with jewels hung down. Following the golden image and the -two Râjas came our Master of the Law, seated on a big elephant, and -then the officials and monks of the two Kingdoms, also on elephants. -Eighteen tributary princes were drawn up on either side, also riding -elephants, and these fell into the procession as the great Râjas and -Hiuen-Tsiang passed on. - -Food was provided for everybody, without distinction of rank, and -rich gifts were bestowed on all the monks. Hiuen-Tsiang ordered his -thesis to be hung up; but eighteen days passed, and no one attempted -to controvert it. But the followers of the Little Vehicle were so -mortified that some of them conspired against Hiuen-Tsiang’s life. The -plot was detected, and a severe edict was issued that even the very -smallest slander against him would be punished by loss of tongue; while -any attempt to injure him bodily would be followed by decapitation. At -the end of the eighteen days, following ancient usage, the victorious -pilgrim was mounted on a richly-caparisoned elephant and taken a tour -round the crowd, in the company of the dignitaries of the Empire and -with full state-honours. Rich presents were offered him; but these he -refused; and then Sîlâditya dissolved the assembly; and the eighteen -kings, the monks, and the crowd returned every man to his own abode. - -Now, it was the custom of Sîlâditya, as it had been that of his -predecessors, to distribute all their accumulated wealth at the end of -every five years. But they were careful to keep their war-elephants, -war-horses and weapons of war; for on these their power rested. The -practice kept the people submissive and contented, while effective -force remained with the Râja. The distribution was made on a plain at -the confluence of Ganges and Jumna, three miles from Prayâga, and not -far from the existing city of Allahabad. When the time for it arrived, -Sîlâditya took the Master of the Law with him. He observed that gold -and silver, silk and cotton, and much else were stored up in temporary -buildings within an enclosure, and arrangements were made for seating -a thousand persons at a time. The eighteen tributary Kings and a vast -crowd of monks and laity were summoned to be present, and did not fail -to arrive. It is significant that each tributary prince brought his -army with him: it throws light on the character of Sîlâditya’s empire. - -On the first day, the statue of Buddha was installed in a temple and -adorned with jewels. A great feast followed on this ceremony; it was -accompanied by music and the scattering of blossoms; and then rich -gifts were distributed among the more important of the guests. On the -second day, the image of the Sun-god was honoured, and presents of -magnificence were made. The third day, the god Siva received honours, -and a similar distribution was made. The fourth day, every one of about -10,000 monks was given a hundred pieces of gold and a cotton garment. -The fifth day, distribution to the Brâhmans was begun; but it is worthy -of note that the awards to them took up three weeks all but a day. On -the sixth day, and for 9 days following, alms were given to “heretics”; -on the eighth, and for the next nine days, to naked mendicants from -distant Kingdoms. Lastly, it took a whole month to give to the poor, to -orphans, and to poor men who had no family to fall back upon. Finally -Sîlâditya took off and gave up his tiara and necklace, exclaiming that -he had exchanged them for incorruptible riches. And now, the tributary -Râjas surrendered their robes and jewels to their Lord-paramount. What -with this ordinance and the retention of the sinews of war, Sîlâditya -remained no less powerful than before. - -Our pilgrim now obtains permission to set forth on his return-journey. -He is offered an escort to China should he choose to return by sea; -but he has precious manuscripts to preserve, the rich harvest of his -labours, and he prefers to take the smaller risk of desert and icy -mountains to that of pirates and of frail, clumsy craft, breasting “the -feasted waters of the sea stretched out In lazy gluttony, expecting -prey.” Moreover, whether T’ai Tsung, now Emperor of China, would -welcome a foreign Embassy, may have been in his mind. He refused all -gifts from the Râja of Kâmarûpa, save a warm garment needful for the -high passes. - -Now, the Master of the Law had been wont, if he had no escort to -protect him, to send an attendant monk ahead, and, should his -fore-runner meet with wayside thieves, he would announce the character -of Hiuen-Tsiang’s mission. The explanation had been made more than -once, and prevailed. But many a Râja was now eager to give him a warm -welcome and send soldiery to see him safe in the next Kingdom. And, -Sîlâditya, not merely went with him some small part of the long way, -but charged a tributary prince of the North to accompany and protect -him through the Punjâb. He also presented the pilgrim with a big -elephant, horses and chariots to convey the manuscripts and images he -had collected, and 3000 pieces of gold and 10,000 pieces of silver to -defray the expenses of the journey. He also provided him with letters -to various princes whose territories he would have to cross, ordering -or recommending them to expedite his journey. These documents were -written on rolls of cotton and sealed with red wax. Sîlâditya and his -tributary Râjas even rode out again to catch the pilgrim up and bid him -a second farewell. - -Easy progress was made across North-West India; and native rulers vied -with each other in doing honour to the traveller from afar. Now, at the -best of times, to cross the Indus is perilous; and this time it was not -effected without mishap. The “Master of the Law” rode on the elephant; -but the manuscripts, images, relics, and a precious collection of -seeds, which he had made during his travels, and which he hoped might -grow in China, were placed in a boat under the care of a special -custodian. When the middle of the current was reached, a storm-gust -swept over the river, and the boat was well nigh sunk by tossing waves. -The custodian was rescued with great difficulty; but half a hundred -manuscripts and the valuable collection of seeds which might have done -so much service, were lost. Only by the very greatest exertion was -anything at all saved. - - - - -CHAPTER V. - -INDIAN SOCIAL LIFE IN THE SEVENTH CENTURY. - - -Once more we find Hiuen-Tsiang by the Kâbul river. Many years had -passed since he rested on its banks and entered India. Since that -time he had made himself a finished Sanskrit scholar; he had visited -three and a half score of States; he had traversed the whole breadth -and well-nigh the whole length of the great Peninsula; he had debated -the subtlest questions with the profoundest scholars and acutest -minds in India; he had been entertained by powerful princes as their -venerated guest. In every corner of a vast territory, he had met with -large hospitality at the hands of men of differing creeds; he had seen -many new things, strange and wonderful; more than once, his life had -been in jeopardy, and narrow indeed had been his escape; he had visited -every spot connected with the life of Gautama, from the scene where -Bôdhisattva “descended spiritually into the womb of his mother” to the -place where he became Buddha, and to the place of his death. He had -visited every spot sacred to Asôka-râja, the great promulgator of the -faith. It had been granted him to see the shadow of Buddha. And, above -all, he had not failed in his quest. Written on prepared palm-leaves -and carefully packed, were the so much lacking sacred scriptures; much -of them tales of the absurdest fantasy and most extravagant romance, it -is true; but the sympathetic eye can still discover in the fable the -mild and sweet moral teaching of the Buddhist faith. - -In the _Si-yu-ki_ (Observations on Western Lands) there is a very full -account of India in the early Seventh Century. So long a residence in -that land, and such a wide knowledge of its various peoples as the -Master of the Law had acquired in personal intercourse with them makes -this invaluable. The work is preceded by a general description of the -Great Peninsula, which applies more particularly to that land, so -sacred to a Buddhist, which lies between the Jumna and the lower slopes -of the Himalayas. And, now that Hiuen-Tsiang is leaving India, it will -be well to know what he has to tell us concerning that vast region. - -He begins by discussing the various names given to In-tu (India); for -each district is differently called. He gives its shape, extent and -climate. “The north is a continuation of mountains and hills, the -ground being dry and salt. On the east, there are valleys and plains, -which, being well-watered and cultivated, are fruitful and productive. -The southern district is wooded and herbaceous; the western parts are -stony and barren.”[3] - -Indian measures of length and the Indian Calendar and seasons are next -described, and the author then goes on to treat of towns and buildings, -seats and clothing, dress and habits, ablutions, language and -literature, schools, castes, marriages, kings, troops, weapons, manners -and customs, administration of laws, ceremonial observances, revenues, -natural products, and commercial dealings—all in systematized order. -The lapse of thirteen centuries; conquest by Mohammedan and European -invaders; and Mohammedan and Brahmanistic oppression would appear to -have altered but little the ways and external appearance of Indian life -since Hiuen-Tsiang’s time. He tells us that “the walls of towns are -wide and high; the streets and lanes, tortuous; the roads, winding; the -thoroughfares, dirty; the stalls, arranged on both sides of the road -and furnished with appropriate signs. Butchers, fishermen, dancers, -executioners, scavengers and their like dwell outside the city. Coming -and going these people must keep to the left side of the road.” The -city-walls are of brick, but their towers are made of wood or bamboo; -the houses are plastered with cob, “mixed with cow-dung for purity”; -they are provided with wooden balconies, coated with mortar and shaded -by tiles. The roofs are of rushes, branches, tiles, or boards. It -is a habit to scatter flowers before the house. The _sarighârâmas_, -or monasteries, are very cleverly built in quadrangles, ornamented -with dome-shaped buildings of two or three stories at the corners of -each quadrangle, and joists and beams are adorned with carving; there -is much decoration and mural painting; the cells being plain on the -outside only. - -Everybody takes his rest on a mat of one uniform size, but of various -degrees of ornamentation; but the Râja has an imposing throne, studded -with gems, and nobles use painted and enriched seats. The garb is of -pure white silk or cotton or hemp or goat’s hair, uncut to fit the -body and wound round the waist, gathered up under the armpits, and -then slung across the body to the right. There is quaint humour in our -pilgrim’s observation that “some of the men shave their moustaches and -have other odd customs”: one thinks of the strange appearance of some -of our long-shore men. - -Women keep their shoulders covered, and their robes reach the ground. -Their hair is knotted up on the crown; otherwise it hangs loose. They -wear crowns and caps and flower-wreaths on the head, and necklaces of -jewels. - -In North India, where the climate is colder, close-fitting garments are -worn. Some non-believers wear peacock-feathers, or necklaces made of -the bones of the skull; some cover their nakedness with leaf or bark, -or go bare. Some pull out the hair; others wear their whiskers bushy -and braid their hair. - -The monks wear three different kinds of dress, either red or yellow in -colour. Merchants, for the most part, go bare-footed, stain the teeth -red or black, bind up the hair, and pierce the nose for the wearing of -ornaments there. Everybody is very cleanly, washing before eating, -never eating of a dish served twice over, never passing the dish on. -Wooden and stone vessels are destroyed after use; metal ones are -polished. The teeth are cleansed with a willow-stick after eating; the -hands and mouth are washed; and folk do not touch one another until -these duties are carried out. The body is washed after attending to -the calls of nature, and then perfumes are used. The bath is taken -before religious functions, and also at the time when the King washes -himself. Each province keeps its own record of events. Education is -begun early. Young Buddhists are put to the study of the five Vidyâs, -or treatises on grammar, progressively; first come the principles of -mechanics; then elements of medicine and drugs and the use of charms; -then the principles of right-doing and the distinction between the -true and the false; and, finally, the various “vehicles” of the faith. -Brâhmans are trained on similar lines by skilled teachers. Some “rise -above mundane rewards, and are as insensible to renown as to contempt -of the world.... Rulers value men of reputation highly; but are unable -to draw them to court.” But the thirst of others for honour leads them -on in the search for wisdom, and, if they finish their education at -thirty, they seek for occupation. Some Brâhmans are devoid of virtuous -principles, and waste their substance in riotous excess. Unhappily -the Buddhist schools are not without reproach: “they are constantly -at variance, and their contentious utterances swell like the waves of -an angry sea”; yet, “in various directions, they do aim at one end.” -Knowledge of sacred books and successful exegesis are rewarded by -successive grades of distinction, beginning with exemption from control -and leading up to the possession of “an elephant-carriage,” and even to -a “surrounding escort.” A successful disputant, like Hiuen-Tsiang, is -mounted on an elephant (as he was), the animal is completely covered -over with precious ornaments, and the rider is conducted by a numerous -suite to the gates of the convent. But woe betide the unhappy wretch -who proves himself a fool at these mental wrestling bouts; “his face -is painted red and white; he is bedaubed with dust and dirt, and then -borne off to some deserted spot, or cast into a ditch!” For slight -faults a monk is only reprimanded; for graver offences, silence is -enforced; for a great fault, he is cast out of the convent to find a -home for himself and take up some kind of work, or he may wander about -the roads. - -We are told next about the four great castes, The Brâhman, or -hereditary priest takes precedence of the Kshattriya or military -descendents of the Aryan conquerors, a caste which rules, and observes -human kindliness. Next come the traders (Vaiśyas); fourth is the Sûdra, -the caste of tillers of the soil. When one marries, he takes social -position according as he preserves or impairs purity of caste. Widows -may not marry again. - -“The succession of Râjas is confined to the Kshattriya caste, who have -from time to time achieved power by means of usurpation and bloodshed.” -The army of the Râja is one of the many separate hereditary castes of -India. In times of peace, it is garrisoned around the Râja’s palace. -In each Indian army are elephants, protected by strong armour, and the -tusks capped with sharp metal. A general issues his command from a car, -driven by two attendants, between whom he sits, and is drawn by four -horses abreast. The generals of the foot soldiers also ride in cars and -are protected by a guard. An attack is met by the cavalry, who also -carry orders. The infantry is very brave. It is armed with spear and -shield, bows and arrows, swords, axes, slings and many other weapons of -ancient usage. - -Hiuen-Tsiang speaks of the common people in the highest terms. As -Wheeler remarks they “would almost appear to have been a different race -from the modern Hindus. They had not yet been moulded into existing -forms by ages of Brahmanical repression and Musselman tyranny; and they -bore a stronger resemblance to the unsophisticated Buddhists of modern -Burma than to the worshippers of Vishnu and Siva.”[4] Our traveller -admits that they are volatile, but “gentle and sweet, straight-forward, -honourable, keeping their word, with no fraud, treachery or deceit -about them.” Criminals are rare, and these few are not even beaten, -and are never put to death, but cast into prison and left to live or -die, “not being counted among men.” A small payment is exacted for a -small offence; but those who seriously offend the moral sense of the -community are mutilated in various ways, or expelled from it. Frank -confession is followed by punishment proportioned to the offence; but -denial, or attempt to wriggle out, is met by trial by ordeal. Of this -there are four kinds:—1, The accused person is put into one sack and a -stone into another; both sacks are tied together and thrown into deep -water: If the man sinks lowest, he is deemed guilty. 2, The accused has -to stand or sit on red hot iron, or to handle it, or have it applied to -his tongue: If no scars result, he is deemed innocent. 3, He is weighed -against a stone: If he weighs it down, he is innocent. 4, An incision -is made in the right thigh of a ram, and all manner of poisons and some -food of the accused are put into the wound. Should the ram survive, the -man is innocent. “The way of crime is blocked by these four methods.” -It is obvious to us that the issue of every one of these ordeals could -be manipulated in the interests of justice, or against them. - -We are next told of etiquette, and are informed that no less than nine -ways of being polite are employed. Of these, the most respectful is to -cast one’s self on the ground, and then to kneel “and laud the virtues -of the one you address.” When one of inferior rank receives orders, he -lifts the skirt of his superior, and casts himself on the ground. The -“honourable person thus reverenced must speak gently to the inferior, -and touch his head, or pat him on the back, and give him kindly orders -or good advice, in order to show affection.” - -When ill, there is no rush to the physic-bottle. “Everyone who falls -sick, fasts for seven days. Should he not get well in the course of -this period, he takes medicine.” Hiuen-Tsiang causes us no surprise -when he informs us that “doctors differ in their modes of treatment.” - -At funerals there are weepings and lamentable cries, rending of -garments and beatings of head and breast. No one takes food in a house -where someone has died until after the funeral; and all who have been -at the death-bed are unclean until they have bathed outside the town. -Those who desire release from life “receive a farewell meal at the -hands of relatives or friends,” and then are put into a boat amid -strains of music; and this is shot into mid-Ganges, “where such persons -drown themselves.” Sometimes, but rarely, one of these may be seen on -the banks, not yet quite dead. - -Hiuen-Tsiang speaks of the civil administration as being mild and -benevolent. Officials have “a portion of land assigned to them for -their personal support.” There is neither registration of families nor -forced labour. Râjas possess their own private domains, divided into -four portions; whereof one provides for state-matters and the cost of -sacrifices; one, for salaries; one, for rewarding men of exceptional -talent; and the fourth affords charity to religious bodies. By this -arrangement taxation is light, and the personal service required is -moderate, labour at public works being paid for. “Everyone keeps his -own belongings in tranquillity; and all till the ground for food. -Those who cultivate the royal estate pay a sixth part of the produce -as tribute.” There is a light tax payable on travel by river and at -barriers across the roadways. - -Such people as smell of onion and garlic are thrust out of the -town. The usual food is simple, consisting of milk, cream, butter, -sugar-candy, corn cakes and mustard. Fish, mutton and venison are -eaten; other flesh is prohibited. Brâhmans and warriors drink -unfermented syrup of the grape; but the trading caste indulges in -strong drink. Rich and poor eat precisely the same food, but out of -very different vessels, both as to material and cost. They eat with the -fingers, and have no spoon, cup, or chopstick. - -Hiuen-Tsiang tells us that he found India divided into 70 Kingdoms. -Nine centuries before his time Megasthenes the Greek Ambassador, -found twice as many. In spite of the many political settlements which -have had their day and vanished, some of the territories described by -Hiuen-Tsiang are divisions corresponding to natural features, race, -language, and religious customs, and remain distinct districts, each -of them with its idiosyncrasies to-day. Consolidation by successive -conquests has taken place, it is true, but the village persists. -The village-settlements were there before the Aryan conquest; they -have survived the long passage of time; they carry on their ancient -tradition, and have maintained provincial characteristics against the -pressure of the Mohammedan, the Mahrattan, and all other attempts at -organic Empire. - - - - -CHAPTER VI. - -THE JOURNEY HOME BY A NEW AND PERILOUS ROUTE. - - -We left our hero on the Kâbul river, beyond the boundaries of India: -a royal reception awaited him at Kapiśa, and a hundred experienced -men were chosen to conduct and protect him in the passage across the -Hindû Kûsh. The shortest, but most difficult of the passes—probably -the Khawak, which reaches 13,000 feet, was selected. Seven days of -travel brought the party to those snow-mountains of which Hiuen-Tsiang -always speaks with mingled wonder, fear and dislike. Born and brought -up in a mild climate, and having now spent many years in a hot one, he -describes the discomforts and dangers of every high pass at length. -He tells us how wild and perilous are the precipices; how fearsome, -contorted, and difficult the path. Of the Hindû Kûsh he writes: “Now -the traveller is in a profound valley; now aloft on a high peak, with -its burthen of ice in full summertide. One gets along by cutting steps -in the ice, and, in three days one reaches the summit of the pass. -There, a furious icy blast, cold beyond measure, sweeps on; the valleys -are laden with accumulated snow. The traveller pushes on; for he dares -not pause. Soaring birds must needs alight; it is impossible for them -to fly; and they have to cross afoot. One gazes down on mountains that -look like hillocks.” The whole cavalcade had to dismount and clamber -up with the aid of mountain-staves. One wonders how the guides got -the elephant over such ridges; but they did. “Great men lived before -Agamemnon”; Hannibal solved the same problem two hundred years before -Christ. - -At the end of the second week a large village of a hundred families -was reached, the inhabitants of which lived by rearing a very big -variety of sheep, which is said still to be found in this district. -Here the “Master of the Law” secured the services of a local guide, and -took a whole day’s rest. His escort now returned; and he set forth in -the middle of the night, mounted on a camel accustomed to the hills, -and attended by seven priests, twenty servants, the elephant which -Sîlâditya had given him, six asses, and four horses. Next morning the -bottom of the pass was reached; but there still lay before them what, -in the distance, looked like a snow-peak. But when they had ascended -a long zig-zag path and come up to it, it turned out to be mere white -rock. None the less, it towered far above the clouds, and the icy wind -there blew so hard and cutting that headway could hardly be made. - -The descent of the range occupied five or six days. The route now -lay north westward to the Upper Oxus. Hiuen-Tsiang rested a month in -the camp of a petty Khân,—and then joined a caravan of traders who -were eastward bound. The caravan took a meandering course through -several little Khânates; and in one of them the Master of the Law -was struck by the singular head-gear of the women. They wore caps -three feet high, topped by two peaks of unequal length, if both -father-in-law and mother-in-law were living. The higher and lower -respectively represented these relatives. But, when one of them died, -the corresponding peak was removed; should both of them be dead, no -peaks were worn. This region was mountainous, and its inhabitants were -remarkable for their surpassing ugliness. They differed from all other -peoples in the peculiar blue-green of the iris. They were innocent of -all manners, and knew no law of justice; the horse was their study and -care, and they reared a breed of sturdy little ponies. - -The caravan now followed the narrowing stream of Oxus, and, after a -time, ascended to the great plateau of the Pamirs, no less lofty than -the topmost Pyrenees. “There even in summer” says the Pilgrim “one -suffers from squalls and eddies of snowstorm. Just a few wretched -plants manage to root in ground that is almost always frozen. No -grain will sprout and no trace of man is to be found in all this vast -solitude.” But he came across a species of ostrich, a bird “ten feet -high,” of which he had previously been shown the eggs which were “as -big as small pitchers.” - -The central valley of the Pamirs along which the caravan advanced, led -to difficult snow-passes of the Kizil Yart range, the highest peak of -which soars to 26,000 feet. Having forced a way over ice and through -snow, the long descent of the Eastern slopes was nearly at an end when -a band of brigands was observed to be on the look out for prey. The -traders fled, helter skelter, up the hill-side; and the robbers charged -furiously at their laden elephants, several of which they killed, -while others were drowned in trying to get across the torrents from -the mountains. It was probably at this time that Hiuen-Tsiang lost his -elephant. The thieves were soon fully occupied with their booty; the -traders seized the opportunity, drew together again, and proceeded, -with what goods they had been able to save, towards Kâshgar. - -At Kâshgar the same custom obtained as at Kutchê: “When a child is -born the head is compressed by a wooden board.” The people are “fierce -and impetuous and most of them are deceitful and indifferent to polite -manners and learning. They paint their bodies and eyelids.” But they -show real skill in the making of hair-cloth and finely woven carpets. -More than six hundred years later, Marco Polo travelled along the -caravan route through Kâshgar and by Lob-Nor to China. - -At Yârkand he was told that Arhats, (very purified and wise men), -“those who had obtained the holy fruit and were no longer bound by -worldly influences” “displaying their spiritual power, coming from afar -(that is, from India), abode here at rest.” - -Arrived at Khotan, he found it a land of song and dance. Fa-Hian also -describes the inhabitants as being, in his time, “lovers of religious -music.” - -It would seem that the caravan in which Hiuen-Tsiang travelled was -bound for Kau-chang, that land of the Uïghurs whose Khân-paramount had -tried to detain him “for the better instruction of his subjects.” Now -Khotan was tributary to this despot; and as the Master of the Law had -no desire to go out of his direct way home, or to be detained again, -not to speak of another hunger-strike, he wrote the Khân a politic -letter, wherein he recounted the perils he had undergone and the -successful issue of his sacred mission. Yet, an elephant which bore the -burthen of many scriptures had been drowned on the way home; but the -writings were saved. Would the Great Khân grant him a convoy? - -It took six or seven months for a reply to arrive; and Hiuen-Tsiang -filled up the time in expounding sacred writings to the Khân of -Khotan and his subjects. When the answer came from Kau-chang, it was -favourable; the Khân of Khotan was permitted to furnish the Master of -the Law with transport for his treasures. - -Fully a thousand miles still lay before him, and the painful desert -known to modern geographers as the Takla Makan must be crossed. The -route pursued was a very tortuous one, south of the great lake Lob-nor -(which lies between 2,000 and 3,000 feet above the sea-level), and -north of the Altyn-Tag mountains, which are the northern buttresses -of the great plateau of Thibet. He passed by ancient cities of -Eastern Khotan, once flourishing, now buried by drifting sands. Mere -mounds marked their sites.[5] Going East “we enter a great desert of -shifting sands, which are as a vast flood, driven hither and thither -by the wind. There is no track; and, without guide or indication, -travellers get bewildered and are lost. So the bones of beasts (which -have perished) are piled up to serve as beacons. Neither water nor -herb is to be found, and hot winds, which are frequent, befog the mind -and muddle the memory of man and beast, and make them ill and feeble. -Sometimes one hears plaintive notes and piteous lamentations, and men -get confused and know not whither they are going. Hence, many a life is -lost. And all is the work of demons and evil spirits.” All travellers -in deserts speak of the weird noises, which we now know to be due to -the shifting of the sand-ridges.[6] - -And now, after sixteen years of pilgrim travel, after visiting a -hundred and ten different States, and journeying some twenty thousand -miles, Hiuen-Tsiang is drawing near his native land. He bears with -him five hundred grains of relics, reputed to belong to the body of -Tathâgarta (Gautama Buddha); one hundred and twenty-four works of -the Great Vehicle; five hundred and twenty other volumes, borne by -twenty-two horses; and six images of Buddha, in gold or silver or -sandal-wood. In the appeal for transport sent to Kau-chang, he had -written: “Notwithstanding differences in climate and mode of life; -and notwithstanding perils beyond count which have menaced me in my -journeying, I thank Heaven that nowhere did I come to harm. Reverence, -beyond all limit, has been done to me; my body has suffered no ill; and -I have fulfilled all that I vowed to accomplish.” - -But his body _had_ suffered ill. The terrible ordeal of crossing -ice-bound ranges left its mark: it weakened his robust constitution and -shortened his life. - -At the Chinese frontier, waggons and men were obtained, and the escort -from Khotan returned. T’ai Tsung, the great warrior statesman, now sat -on the throne he had won for his father, and to him “The Master of the -Law” announced his return. Emperor, Mandarins, Priests, and People -made ready to receive the great pilgrim with plaudit and parade such as -Western reserve bestows only on the victor in some scene of slaughter, -or on the inheritor of some soiled circlet and blood-stained robe. - -The great day arrived. It was as if all China were present, so -crushing were the crowds. The Sacred Writings were taken in state to -the “Convent of the Great Bliss.” (Later they were transferred to a -“Convent of Beneficence,” specially constructed to contain them.) -High dignitaries led the way; marvellous wind-instruments discoursed -astounding music; priests in thousands chanted hymns; banners and -brilliantly-coloured rugs floated in the wind. A procession of the -most varied character, miles long, passed through the narrow, crowded -streets, which were lined by rows of flower-scatterers and less poetic, -but even more desirable, perfume burners. To the irreverent European -mind, the record of this Eastern parade in the Seventh Century suggests -a highly variegated travelling-circus; and the brow is involuntarily -raised when we come to the royal harem and its enthusiastic ladies -welcoming the return of the monk and the arrival of yet more ascetic -doctrine. The best of us is but human, and it is evident from the -narrative that, true saint as he was, the “Master of the Law” none the -less thoroughly enjoyed the recognition of his great merits, and made -little objection to the honours he received. - - - - -CHAPTER VII. - -PEACEFUL DAYS. - - -At intervals an order came from T’ai-Tsung and his successor to appear -within the green enclosure which surrounded the Imperial Throne. It -was by Imperial command that the world possesses Hiuen-Tsiang’s report -of the States he had visited and of eighteen other States of which he -believed himself to have gathered authentic information. The work, as -already stated, is full of the absurd, fantastic fables of corrupted -Buddhism, related at full length and with perfervid unction; but it is -also a record of observation so close, systematic, and even scientific, -and of a will so firm-set and bold, that it is surpassed in no age -by any record of travel whatsoever. But there is little of personal -narrative in it. Now, Hiuen-Tsiang had lost full command of his native -language during so many years of residence among alien peoples, and it -was found necessary to get a Chinese stylist to redact his “Account of -Western Countries” (“_Si-yu-ki_”). This was done, in the main, from -notes which the pilgrim had brought back with him. - -When the “Master of the Law” had finished this big undertaking, he -returned to work that had been interrupted by it—the collating, -translating and editing of the books he had brought with him. He was -accustomed to eat a slight breakfast at dawn, and to lecture to the -monks (_Sramans_) of his convent during the next four hours on some -canonical book or religious treatise. When this task was done, he would -go on with translation, marking out a certain portion for the day’s -task; but, if he had not finished this by night-fall, he usually sat on -until it was ended. He was scrupulous in his efforts to restore corrupt -text to its pristine purity; and one would always find him fully -occupied. Yet he always made time to discuss religious matters with -the sages who visited him. “When he had penetrated some profundity, -got light on some obscure passage, or amended some corrupt reading, it -seemed as if some divine being had come to his aid.... When expounding, -he was wont to become impassioned and his voice swelled out.” He had -the great gift of a convincing manner. - -One is glad that his biographers did not neglect to describe his -personal appearance and other details of a similar kind. “His face,” -they say, “had a little colour to it; it was radiant and gracious; his -bearing, grave and stately. His voice was clear and penetrating; and -one never got weary of listening to him; for his words were noble, -elegant, and congenial. Often a distinguished guest would listen to -him for half a day with rapt attention. He liked to wear a garment of -fine cotton, of a length suited to his height, which was 7 _tchi_.[7] -He walked with even steps, and as one at ease. He looked you straight -in the face; there was never a hint of side-glance. He kept strict rule -and was always the same man. Nobody could rival him for warmth and -kindness of heart and gentle pity, ardour, and inviolate observance of -the Law. He was slow in making friends, and reserved in intercourse -with those that he made. Once within the gates of his monastery, -nothing but an Imperial decree could make him budge.” - -Yet, on one occasion, he paid a visit to his native village. Only one -feeble old sister was left of all his family. He went with her to the -graves of their parents; it is said to clear them of weeds which had -overgrown them; but probably also to restore the few bones he had taken -with him on his pilgrimage. His parents perished during the time of -bloody civil strife, and their remains were hastily buried in a mean -grave; so he obtained Imperial permission to carry them to a better -resting-place. Thousands of monks and laity came to honour the father -and mother of the “Master of the Law.” - -When Hiuen-Tsiang was a little more than 60, the hardships of travel -and the intense application of his latter years told on him; health -rapidly failed him. “I have come to the end of my work on this sacred -book,” said he to a disciple, “and also I have come near to the end -of my life. Bury me in a simple, quiet way. Wrap my body in a mat and -bear it to some lonely, hushful valley, far from any palace (_sic_) or -convent; for so impure a carcass as mine should not be near either.” -His disciples were disturbed at his condition and wept bitterly; they -tried to persuade him that he was mistaken as to the approach of death. -“I know myself,” he replied; “How can you enter into my intuition?” The -weakness increased, “The moment of departure is at hand,” he told them. -“Already my soul gives way and seems to leave me. Sell my clothes and -belongings without delay, and turn the money into images (of Buddha), -and tell the monks to pray.” He lay stiff and still for days, taking -no food. At last, when asked if he felt sure of reaching the goal of -his desires, he answered “Yes” in a weak voice. In a few moments he -was dead; yet his face retained its rosy colour and suggested supreme -happiness. He was 65 years of age. - -He had begged for a simple funeral. He was buried in pomp; and there -was an immense giving of alms at his grave-side. His wish was so far -respected, however, that his remains were ultimately carried to a -reposeful spot in a tranquil valley. - -Hwui-Lih, one of Hiuen-Tsiang’s disciples, whom he had employed in -translation, had gone far in writing a biography of the Master from his -notes and conversation, when his labours were interrupted by death. -Yen-Tsong, another devoted disciple took up the uncompleted work; he -collected and put the manuscripts of Hiuen-Tsiang and Hwui-Lih in -order, corrected the blunders and imperfections of Hwui-Lih’s five -volumes, and expanded them into ten volumes; which Monsieur Julien -translated into French many years ago. M. Julien condensed the later -and less interesting part of the biography, for the complete work was -too voluminous and too full of flowery periods to be worth the labour -of full translation; and even with this abridgement, much of the work, -like the _Si-yu-ki_, remains tedious reading. There is also a much -abbreviated translation into English by Dr. Samuel Beal. - -Yet, the work is an imperishable monument to a great mind. When, here -and there, one suspects a little of that chastened self-inflation from -which few, if any, saints have been exempt; and when one has made due -allowance for the natural desire of two enthusiastic disciples to -offer innumerable flowers of Chinese rhetoric at the tomb of a beloved -Master, the fact remains that his lofty mind and gentle, yet ardent, -character, secured their deep reverence and commanded their devotion. -This affords further evidence of that personal attraction, the effects -of which we have so often observed in the record of his pilgrimage. -We may justly apply to this ancient Chinaman the happy phrase of John -Lyly, the Euphuist, and say of him that his soul was “stitched to the -starres.” - - - - -II.—SÆWULF, AN ENGLISH PILGRIM TO PALESTINE A.D. 1102 - - - - -CHAPTER I. - -EARLY PILGRIMAGE TO PALESTINE. - - -Very soon after Hiuen-Tsiang set forth on his arduous enterprise, -Jerusalem witnessed a remarkable scene (A.D. 629). Heraclius, Emperor -of New Rome, had overthrown the hosts of Chosroes II, the Persian, -and now he marched on foot through streets which that monarch had so -lately ravaged and shorn of half their population. A spirit of devout -and humble thankfulness possessed Heraclius and his chastened people. -The imperial feet were naked; the imperial shoulders bore the weight of -that True Cross which the aged Helena, mother of Constantine the Great, -had so significantly discovered, and which Chosroes had carried away -from the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. - -Long before the True Cross was miraculously found, pious Christians -were wont to visit the sacred scenes of their Faith; but, after that -event, Pilgrimage became fashionable. Not the devout only thronged -to the Holy Land, and crowded all its many sanctified spots. The -inhabitants of Palestine were not slow to provide for the satisfaction -of the pilgrim; whether he were of the eager faithful, burning to -behold the burial places of Patriarchs and the very spot associated -with some scene of the Gospels; or were one moved by a love of novelty -and excitement. Tradition was revived, or legend invented; a vast -number of sacred relics was hit upon and produced; hostelries became -scenes of piety, and, alas! often of dissipation. - -Many, if not most, of the travellers were undoubtedly impelled by -a genuine spirit of reverence; but pilgrimages have always been -popular because, under the sanction of Religion, they afforded the -excitement of mild adventure and the physical and mental exhilaration -which accompanies change of scene. As is always the case when men -gather together from many lands and find themselves released from the -restraints of home and the specified conventions of country, many were -pliant to the allurements of pleasure. Indeed, Jerusalem was soon -turned into a theatre of the passions, a centre of wild dissipation, -and even of serious crime. Gregory of Nyssa, St. Jerome, and St. -Augustine, set themselves against the fashionable craze, and told -would-be pilgrims that they might do far better by remaining at home -and praising God in whatsoever station he had assigned to them. - -When Jerusalem fell to the onrush of the Arabs (A.D. 637), the -Moslem conquerors regarded it as a sacred city; for they believed -Mohammed to have been transported thence to visit Paradise. Christian -subjects and Christian pilgrims added to Mohammedan wealth; and -they were allowed, under restrictions, to dwell in or to visit the -Holy Land. Haroun-Al-Raschid, Caliph of Bagdad, and Charlemagne, -Emperor of the West, were drawn together by the political antagonism -of Constantinople alike to the Saracen and to an upstart Empire. -They exchanged gifts; and the traveller may still see some of those -sent by Haroun-Al-Raschid, as well as much else that is curious or -beautiful, in the Treasury of the great Church which Charlemagne -built at Aix-la-Chapelle. Bernard, one of three Benedictine monks who -visited the Holy Land A.D. 870, says that Christians there enjoyed such -security that if, by some accident, a traveller should lose a beast -of burden on the road, he might leave his belongings where they lay, -proceed to the nearest city for assistance, and find them untouched on -his return. - -When the great Empire of the Abassides crumbled and fell, the Fatimite -Caliphs of Cairo were usually tolerant of infidels, who increased -their wealth and power. Commercial relations with the Christian West -continued; and pilgrims flocked to the Holy Land. In the tenth century, -that darkest of the Dark Ages, John of Parma visited Palestine no fewer -than seven times; and even far-off Iceland sent its pilgrims. - -But in the eleventh century (A.D. 1074) the Seljuk Turk swept down -from the Oxus, and, aided by Emirs in revolt, took Jerusalem. The main -body of the Turkish army retained the barbarous habits of a nomadic -people; they lusted for battle; they were drunk with blood. Palestine -became the scene of exaction, of debauchery, and of every kind of -licence and excess. Churches were ransacked for spoil; the rich pilgrim -was subject to threat and compelled to disgorge much of his wealth -before he was allowed to see Jerusalem; the poor pilgrim, already worn -down by privation and suffering in some diminutive crazy craft, met, -on landing, with insult and outrage. Neither Mohammedan Cairo nor -Christian Constantinople were strong enough to deal with the Turk: -he exhibited Moslem fanaticism at its worst. The Scimitar had indeed -displaced the Cross. - - - - -CHAPTER II. “DIEU LE VEULT.” - - -One of the eye-witnesses of the wretchedness of Christians in Palestine -was a certain Peter, a man from Picardy; high-strung; one to whom -a very varied experience brought no satisfaction. His restless -disposition had driven him into the profession of arms; he had sought -for peace in study; he had tried the companionship of a wife, who had -borne him the boon of children; his spirit found no tranquility among -cloistered monks; he fled to the greater seclusion of a hermitage. -There visions left his soul still unsatisfied, and he went to the Holy -Land. The sufferings of Christians at the hands of the Turk filled him -with spiritual fury. He returned to Europe, and with inextinguishable -zeal, traversed its western half to urge in impassioned eloquence, -which made every heart throb and frenzied every mind, the union of all -Christendom for the destruction of the Turk and the re-establishment of -the True Faith in its first home. - -He set Europe ablaze. Fourteen generations of Christians had grieved -over the Moslem occupation of the Holy Land. John Zimiskes, the -ablest and most popular of Byzantine generals, had carried his arms -as far as Lebanon in the year 975, and had recovered what were said -to be the shoes of the Saviour and the hair of John the Baptist. But, -contrary to the vainglorious assertions of Byzantine historians, he -was unable to penetrate into Palestine. In 1073, Hildebrand, the great -Pope-Statesman, was anxious to deliver the Holy Places; but any project -that he may have formed came to naught; for the Head of the Holy Roman -Empire was bent on subordinating the Church to his Imperial Will; and -the Head of the Church was even more resolute in his resolve to make -the Papacy independent and supreme. About this time, German prelates -headed 7,000 pilgrims, of whom only 2,000 survived to see their home -once more. The conquest of Jerusalem remained a dream until Peter the -Hermit awoke the sleeper. - -But now Urban II responded to his call, and summoned and presided over -the famous Council of Clermont in Auvergne. “God wills it,” shouted -the assembly; “a truce of God” was declared; private war and princely -quarrels appeared to be forgotten; and all Western Europe prepared for -a Crusade. - -The barons were undoubtedly captive to a great idea, and their zeal -was sincere. But little of any human action is due to a single motive. -Remission of sin was promised to those who should assume the Cross; -and love of battle, the charm of novelty, and the desire of acquiring -large and lucrative fiefs in the Holy Land also played their part. -The imagination of the common people, so lively and virile, often -so spiritual and exalted in the Middle Ages, was no less fired than -that of the barons. The spirit which directed men to the cloister now -summoned them to the camp. A belief that God had decreed the expulsion -of the Turk, and would protect and direct them to the capture of the -Holy City, filled all men with fanatic fervour. The sound of clarion -and trumpet and the clash of arms mingled with the voice of the -preacher exhorting seigneur and serf. To men of the eleventh century, -the curtains of the Unseen were often withdrawn, and the splendour of -God shone forth, or devils appeared, comely to tempt, or distorted -to terrify. Guibert tells us that, while at Beauvais, he noticed, at -mid-day, a few clouds stretched a little obliquely athwart others, and -“All at once, thousands of voices from every quarter cried out that a -cross had appeared in the sky.” - -But, as with the barons, motives other than religious also moved the -populace and favoured the Crusade. Private war had been unceasing; -famine and pestilence, the attendants on war, had desolated Europe; -the serf lay prostrate under the heel of his exacting seigneur. There -would be release from these evils in that land which the Redeemer of -Mankind had chosen to be the scene of his birth and Sacrifice. - -The wave of enthusiasm struck our own shores, and passed beyond -them. William of Malmesbury says in his “Chronicles of the Kings of -England” that, “there was no nation so remote, no people so retired, -as not to contribute its portion.” This ardent love not only inspired -the continental provinces, but even all who had heard the name of -Christ, whether in the most distant islands, or savage countries. The -Welshman left his hunting; the Scot his fellowship with lice; the Dane -his drinking party; the Norwegian his raw fish. Lands were deserted -of their husbandmen; houses of their inhabitants; even whole cities -migrated. There was no regard to relationship; affection to their -country was held in little esteem; God alone was placed before their -eyes. Whatever was stored in granaries, or hoarded in chambers, to -answer the hopes of the avaricious husbandman, or the covetousness of -the miser, all, all was deserted; they hungered and thirsted after -Jerusalem alone. Joy attended such as proceeded; while grief oppressed -those who remained. But why do I say remained? You might see the -husband departing with his wife; indeed, with all his family; you -would smile to see the whole household laden on a carriage, about to -proceed on their journey. The road was too narrow for the passengers, -the path too confined for the travellers, so thickly were they thronged -with endless multitudes. A French eye-witness tells us that “thieves -and evil-doers of all kinds cast themselves at the feet of priests -to receive the cross.... The rustic shod his oxen like horses; the -children on approaching any large town or castle would ask: ‘is that -Jerusalem?’” - -These undisciplined hordes became turbulent; their march was marked -by famine, pillage and murder. The few who reached Asia Minor were -exterminated. - -Macaulay’s “schoolboy” knows the story of the disciplined army of the -First Crusade; how, after the Caliph of Cairo had wrested Jerusalem -from the weakened Turk and offered peace and security to Christians in -vain, the slow advance of the invaders, marked by incredible cruelty -on both sides, was so far successful that the crusading barons and -their followers hurled themselves against the Holy City and took -it (A.D. 1099). “Even civilization always bears a brute within its -bosom,” remarks Sainte-Beuve; and assuredly Mediæval Religion made -small attempt to caste out the devils that made the Cross their screen. -The loftiest passions are often unstable; the enthusiasm of the crowd -readily passes from mood to mood. The fervour of faith became the -frenzy of carnage. Raymond of Agiles, an eye-witness, declares that the -Mosque of Omar and its portals ran blood up to the knees and even so -far as to the reins of the horses. For seven days, Jerusalem was given -up to slaughter and pillage. - -Yet, in spite of a campaign tarnished with shame and dyed with guilt, -the Christian ideal had not wholly disappeared. The growing spirit of -Chivalry was not wanting, nor was the Norman genius for statesmanship -absent. At the famous “Assizes of Jerusalem,” a code of laws was drawn -up better than the Middle Ages had yet known. But after Baldwin was -crowned at Bethlehem (A.D. 1100), the new Kingdom remained unsettled. -Neither Christian nor Saracen was likely to forget the atrocities of -war; the whole of Palestine was far from being subdued; a few parts -were still held by the Infidel; the paths to Jerusalem were still -perilous for the pilgrim; but once again the Holy City and other sacred -places were under Christian rule. The enthusiasm and joy of Western -Europe ran high. The tide of pilgrimage at once set in, and an obscure -Englishman was one of the first pilgrims to reach Jerusalem. - - - - -CHAPTER III. SÆWULF’S RECORD. - - -There is preserved in the library of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, -a valuable collection of ancient manuscripts presented by an old pupil -of the College, who was no other than Matthew Parker, Archbishop of -Canterbury in the reign of Queen Elizabeth. Among these manuscripts -is a mere fragment, written in Mediæval Latin, which tells of the -pilgrimage to Jerusalem of one Sæwulf, an Englishman, who must have -started from his native shores thirty-six years after the landing of -William the Conqueror, and less than two years after the coronation of -Baldwin.[8] The record of Sæwulf is the broken voice of an obscure, -unlettered palmer, which chance has preserved from common sepulture -with things more important in the Ancient Silences. It gives us little -more than a glimpse of a single year of adventurous pilgrimage in the -life of a plain Englishman who, like the Chinaman who undertook a -sacred journey nearly five centuries before him, having beheld “a gleam -upon the mountain, needs must arise and go thither.” - -The narrative begins with the statement: “I Sæwulf, an unworthy -person and an evil doer, made for Jerusalem that I might pray at the -tomb of our Lord.” Who Sæwulf was, is open to conjecture. It seems -probable that he was the man of that name of whom William, Librarian -of Malmesbury Abbey, speaks in his “Book of Bishops”; a merchant who -had recurring spasms of penitence, during which he was wont to repair -to Wulstan, Bishop of Worcester, a prelate of “pious, simple truth,” -who commanded the affection of the people and the confidence of the -King. This Sæwulf was probably a native of Worcester. Wulstan, we know, -was the last of the Saxon Bishops; for the hand of the Norman was -heavy on the prostrate land, and it was the policy of the Conqueror, -as William of Malmesbury tells us, in another of his works, to replace -the native bishops on their death “by diligent men of any nation except -English”—a policy which the Church supported; for religion had been in -a decaying state in England for some years before the arrival of the -Normans. Indeed, “the clergy, contented with a very slight degree of -learning, could scarcely stammer out the words of the sacraments; and a -person who understood grammar was an object of wonder and astonishment. -The monks mocked the rule of their order by fine vestments and the -use of every kind of food.” Wulstan implored Sæwulf to give up a -livelihood which was beset with all manner of temptation, and to take -the habit; for his conviction of sin was soon over, and he invariably -resumed his former vices. Wulstan told him that the time would come -when he would become a monk, “which” says the Chronicler, “I afterwards -saw fulfilled; for he was converted in our monastery in his old age, -being driven to it by disease.” There is nothing in Sæwulf’s narrative -to indicate that he was in holy orders; more than once he speaks of -himself as one oppressed by a sense of sin; and the record of his -pilgrimage may very well have been translated into the dry, terse Latin -of the monks by another hand, or, conceivably, may have been written by -himself in his last years at Malmesbury. - -Whoever he was, Sæwulf’s early manhood was spent in a disordered land -among a dejected people. During the reign of William Rufus, England -was visited by tempest and famine and even by severe earthquake; -rebellion was rife; the Welsh over-ran the county of Chester and part -of Shropshire, leaving them waste; Magnus, King of Norway, swooped down -the Irish Sea, occupied Anglesea, and threatened the mainland; the -common people were oppressed by their foreign masters and illegally -taxed; “the courtiers preyed upon the property of the country -people and consumed their substance,” says William of Malmesbury, -and Eadmer of Canterbury, our best authority on the period, confirms -his statement: “As to their cruelty towards their hosts,” he writes, -“or their unseemly conduct towards their wives and daughters, it is -shameful even to remember”; the royal progresses through England were a -travelling Sodom and Gomorrah. And we may judge of the tender mercies -of the time when we read that traitors to the King, or innocent men -deemed to be such, “were deprived of their sight and manhood.” These -inhumanities also disgraced the far more civilized Byzantine Empire. -No wonder that men’s hearts yearned for a “City of God,” or that their -hearts were set on the peace of the convent, or that they disdained the -mere perils of pilgrimage! - -The existing fragment of Sæwulf’s narrative begins with his departure -from Southern Italy; but we know, from other sources, what were the -conditions and prescribed forms of pilgrimage, and how an English -pilgrim would reach Apulia. - -First, he had to get the consent of near relatives, in order that the -interests of his family or dependents might be protected. To make sure -that the would-be pilgrim was moved by devotion or penitence, and -not by vain desire to see the world, he was also required to secure -the sanction of his bishop, who made investigation into his life -and character before granting it. The enquiry was a very searching -one in the case of a monk; for his real motive might be to escape -from conventual discipline. If satisfied, the Bishop or his delegate -solemnly presented him with a pilgrim’s staff and wallet, and bestowed -his benediction at Mass in the church of the parish in which the -pilgrim resided. He was furnished with a document which exhorted all -monasteries, priests, and faithful Christians to give him aid and -relief on his journey. He was now bound to set off without delay, -under penalty of being dealt with as a backslider and perjurer. When -the day of departure arrived, a procession of relatives, friends, and -pious people accompanied him some little distance, and then, having -been blessed by the clergy present, clad in white linen with the cross -marked on it, and duly sprinkled with holy water, he went on his way -alone. - -The long and hazardous sea-voyage to the Mediterranean was shunned. -Despite the perturbed state of the Continent, it was safer to make -for the heel of Italy by the overland route. All men who bore arms -were under the obligation to defend him; no robber-baron might demand -a toll from him—nay the castle welcomed him, and he was seated at -table beside the house-priest. The bishop of every town and the abbot -or prior of every monastery gave him shelter and hospitality; alms -were specially devoted to the relief of the poor pilgrim and the -support of monasteries along the pilgrim’s path. If he were ill, the -doors of whatever hospital might be near were open to him, or he was -cordially received into the Infirmary of every convent. A pilgrim’s -hospice, founded in the first half of the ninth century by Louis the -Pious, stood amid the snowy wastes of Mont Cénis to shelter him from -its bitter blasts. He would pass through Italy, little affected by the -unceasing and bloody conflict of noble with bishop, bishop with city, -city with noble, and every one of a thousand petty communes and fiefs -with its neighbours; for the charitable monastery would prove a ready -asylum. Arrived at a convenient port, a greatly reduced passage-money -was required of a pilgrim to the Holy Land; and there were some ports -where ships belonging to them were compelled to carry pilgrims free of -all charge. - -Mediterranean shipping was not notably different in build and badness -from that of Northern waters; but was often of larger size. Nearly all -that we know about it is derived from the uncouth paintings, coins, -and arms of maritime towns of a somewhat later period, which are -rather symbols than representations. The sailing-ship was shorter than -the galley, which was rowed as well as sailed; it was shaped somewhat -like a half-moon and was very broad in the beam. It could sail only -before the wind. There was rarely more than a single mast; the sails -were square; and the yards could be lowered to the deck like those -of a modern barge. These ships were not unlike the clumsy coasters -still to be met with off Norway. Passengers were very uncomfortably -crowded together, and must have had a terrible time. The outside -planks overlapped, and were held together by iron nails; and the seams -were stopped up with oakum. Mediæval vessels were crazy craft, and -frequently went to pieces when wind and wave ran high: he was a bold -traveller who tempted Neptune in those days, and especially bold if, -after a first experience, he braved the sea god a second time. - -Brindisi was the usual place of embarquation; but for some reason, -which Sæwulf does not state, he started from Monopoli, a little port -midway between Bari and Brindisi. Now there was a general belief in -certain days being unlucky; a belief which persisted in spite of the -condemnation of the Church. A Christian Calendar of the early part -of the 4th century indicates what days are of ill omen, according to -the Astrology of Egypt. Popular belief credited the feast-day of St. -Mildred the Virgin (a saint of Kent) with this disqualification; and it -was on St. Mildred’s day, July 13th, 1102, that Sæwulf set sail in a -craft rather crazier than most. A storm came on the very same day the -port was left behind, and the ship was wrecked a short distance from -the harbour; but, “by Divine Mercy,” all aboard got safely to shore. -The passengers went on to Brindisi; their ship, having been patched -up in some fashion, sailed thither, and the pilgrims got on board -again; but alas! it was another of those unlucky Egyptian days! Corfu -was reached in two days (July 24th); but a great storm arose after -leaving port and drove the rickety craft before it. However, shelter -was gained at another of the Ionian islands—Cephalonia—on August -1st. Here, the company was still further depressed by the death of -one of their number. Cephalonia is opposite the Gulf of Lepanto, and, -sailing up the gulf, they landed at Patras, which Sæwulf speaks of as a -“notable _island_”; not improperly, the word island being often applied -to a port in those days. The ship stopped at Patras for a special -purpose—that its passengers and mariners should go on shore and pray -to St. Andrew the Apostle at the site of his martyrdom. Corinth was -reached on Aug. 9th, and Sæwulf and fellow pilgrims left their wretched -craft to avoid the long, stormy passage by Cape Matapan. He finds a -resemblance between his experiences and those of St. Paul: both had -suffered shipwreck, and Paul met with misadventure at Corinth, where -“we suffered many hardships.” When a pilgrim to the Holy Land speaks of -hardship, it was probably of an unusually severe kind. Roman Catholics -neither loved nor were loved by members of the Greek Communion; and the -behaviour of Crusading hosts in Eastern Europe was too recent to be -forgotten. - -The pilgrims crossed the isthmus to Livadrostro, and, some riding -asses, the rest on foot, reached Thebes. They would find Thebes -inhabited chiefly by Jews, who were “the most skilled artificers in -silk and purple cloth of all Greece.” Sixty-four years later, a Spanish -Jew, Benjamin of Tudela on the Ebro, who visited the settlements of his -race in many lands and reported on their condition, found 300 Jews at -Corinth and no fewer than about 2,000 at Thebes, “many of them being -learned scholars, not to be equalled in the land of Greece, save in the -city of Constantinople.” Leaving Thebes the travellers arrived next day -at Negropont (Aug. 23rd). This land-journey had proved untoward; the -Greeks were so inhospitable and so suspicious of them that often they -had to pass the night in deserted huts and sheds. No wonder that they -do not go a little out of their way to visit Athens, in spite of the -fact that “in the Church of the Blessed Virgin there is a lamp which -is ever burning with miraculously replenished oil,” and that Scripture -records how St. Paul preached there and “certain men clave unto him and -believed.” Among these converts was Dionysius, the Areopagite. It may -be true that Dionysius “was born and got his learning there”: we are -indebted to Sæwulf for the information. - -At Negropont, the band of pilgrims took passage in a tramp-trader, -which first touched at one of the islands of Petali, hard by Marathon; -but what Englishman of the year of grace 1102, even if he were an -educated monk, knew aught of the “glory which was Greece?” The voyagers -now made for Naxos, touching at various islands on their way; their -mediæval minds sightless to the classic lustre of the Cyclades. Sæwulf -does indeed speak of Naxos as being “near to Crete, that memorable -island”; memorable because his own lively experience of what it means -to “go down to the sea in ships” recalls the “tempestuous wind” which -caught St. Paul off Crete; for certain, he had never heard of that -Epimenides of whom the Apostle makes such vigorous use. Patmos is -reached, where the Beloved Apostle, banished by Domitian, “entered his -tomb alive.” Other islands are touched at, among them Cos, and here our -author exhibits his learning: it is the birthplace of Galen, “the most -famous physician among the Greeks.” However, Hippocrates and Galen were -both physicians, and that is near enough. On the trader goes, changing -its course, now north, now south; and the pilgrim associates every -place visited with some pious legend. Rhodes is reached, and history -is again rescued from oblivion: the Colossus was “an idol, 125 feet -high; the Persians destroyed it together with almost the whole Roman -province on their way to Spain.” Sæwulf, or tradition, has confused -the first conquering onrush of the Arabs with the Persian advance; but -the Colossus was destroyed, not by Persians but by earthquake, nine -centuries before Sæwulf’s time. Yet there is a basis for his story; -its fragments were removed for building purposes about the time of the -first Arab conquests. Sæwulf falls into a widespread blunder of his -unlettered age when he assumes that the inhabitants of Rhodes drew -their name from the Colossus, and that the Epistles to the Colossians -were directed to them. - -Leaving Rhodes, a great storm drove the ship straight before it; but -the sailors got her into the harbour of Patara, “and, by next day, -the storm had abated, and we came to Long Island.” Here was a ruined -city which had been the refuge of exiles, escaped from the Turk. Myra, -on the mainland, was now reached; and Sæwulf states that it is “the -port of the Adriatic Sea; as Constantinople is of the Ægean”: either -his geography is not quite accurate, or he would imply that, in his -time, Myra received the main Eastern traffic from the Adriatic, and -Constantinople from the Ægean. At Myra, he worshipped at the empty tomb -of St. Nicholas. Favourable winds bore the ship thence to an island -called “Sixty oars,” on account of the force of the sea and the effort -required to overcome it. A discursion, out of sight of land, brought -the pilgrims to Paphos in Cyprus. We do not expect any reference to the -Cyprian Venus; but we are a trifle surprised to find that our author -now confuses two separate chapters of “Acts” in one jumbled statement. - -Leaving Cyprus “we were tossed about by violent storms seven days’ -space before we could reach our haven; and one night a fierce contrary -wind drove us back towards Cyprus; but Divine Mercy, Who is close at -hand to those who truly call on Him, vouchsafed no small pity for us -afflicted souls, and we resumed our proper course. Yet, during seven -nights, we were overwhelmed by such a tempest and were in such peril -that almost all hope left us. Nevertheless, at the rising of the -sun, behold! the coast of Joppa lay before our eyes; and even as the -turbulence of our peril had made our hearts to sink within us, so joy, -unexpected and unhoped for, lifted them up an hundredfold more. And so -it came to pass that, thirteen weeks after our departure from Monopoli, -the sea having been our home, or deserted hovels in the islands (the -Greeks not being hospitable), we made the harbour of Joppa, filled with -joy and thanksgiving.” Sæwulf gives no dates; but many have been fixed -by the industry of a French scholar, who compared feast days mentioned -in the narrative with the calendar, and its events with ascertained -dates. Sæwulf reached the Holy Land, Oct. 12th, 1102. - -God had interposed on behalf of “the meanest of His servants and the -company of pilgrims”; and Sæwulf renders praise, with the manner of -the Psalms of David in his mind. But yet another danger from wind and -wave awaits him. He got warning from some weather-wise friends who knew -the badness of the harbour. But he shall tell his own tale: “The same -day that we anchored, someone, directed by God, as I believe, said to -me, ‘Master, go ashore this very day, for it may hap that to-night, at -dawn, a storm shall come on and stop you from landing.’ When I heard -this, the desire to land seized me. I got a boat and wrent ashore with -all my party. Even whilst I was landing the sea was vexed; the waves -became more troubled, and a tempest came on; yet by Divine Mercy, I -landed unharmed. What happened then? We entered the city to find a -lodging. Weary and overdone by our long labours, we fed ourselves and -went to rest. And then? In the morning, when we came out of church, we -heard the roaring of the sea and the populace shouting, and everybody -was running in a crowd to the shore, marvelling at such sounds as -they had never heard aforetime. And, when we got there, we beheld the -waves higher than hills, a countless number of bodies of men and women -lying in wretched-wise on the beach; and ships were crashed against -each other and broken into small bits. Could anyone hear a sound save -that of roaring breakers and splintering ships? For this drowned the -outcry of the crowd and the shouting in the ships. Our ship, however, -being a big one and strongly built, and some others, laden with corn -and other goods and with pilgrims going or returning, held to their -anchors still. Yet how were they tossed about? Into what terror were -they plunged! How their ladings were cast into the sea! What onlooker -so hard and strong as to keep a dry eye! Not long did we gaze when, -through the violence of the waves and currents, the anchors parted, the -ropes were broken asunder, and the ships abandoned to the fierceness -of the billows. All hope of safety was gone. Now they were cast high; -now flung down, and hurled by degrees upon beach or rock. There were -they dashed against one another in wretched plight, and, little by -little, torn to bits by the tempest. Neither would the savage blasts -allow of their getting back to the sea whole, nor the steepness of the -shore admit of their gaining safety there. But what gain in telling -how dismally sailors and pilgrims hung on; every hope gone, some to -ships, some to masts, some to spars, some to cross-tenders? What more -shall I tell? Some, overwhelmed with fright, are drowned. It may seem -unbelievable to many, yet I beheld with my own eyes the heads of some -separated from their bodies by the timbers of their own ship. Some, -washed from the decks, are borne away again into the deep. Some, who -can swim, leap into the sea. So, very many find their end. But just a -very few, relying on their strength, gain the land. Thus, of 30 ships -of largest size, of which some were Dromonds” (that is to say, having -two tiers of double oars), “Gulafri” (a sort of galley) “and Catts” -(vessels narrowing to the stern, with overhanging quarters and a deep -waist)—“all full of pilgrims and goods—of all these barely seven were -still unwrecked when I left the shore. That day more than a thousand -folk, of both sexes, perished. Never did eye behold greater horrors in -a single day. But the Lord, to whom be honour and glory, world without -end, delivered me from all this of His grace. Amen.” - -The little company had escaped a great peril, but another lay ahead. -Two days later they set forth to Jerusalem, and found the way “hilly, -very rough, and very perilous. For the Saracens are constantly devising -traps for Christians; they lie hidden in the hollows of the hills -and in rocky holes, and by day and night remain ever sharply on the -look-out for those whom they may pounce upon, by reason of their being -few in numbers, or so jaded as to lag behind their band. Suddenly, the -Saracens are all round about; the next moment they are gone. Anyone -who does that journey, may make trial of this. How many human bodies, -torn by wild beasts, lie along the way and beside it! Perchance, some -one may marvel how the bodies of Christians should lie unburied. But -there is nothing to wonder at; for there is very little earth, and the -rocks are not easy to dig, and, even if there were soil, who would -be so unwise as to leave his band and dig his companion a grave all -by himself? He who should do so would dig his own grave rather than -one for his companion. On that wayside, not only the poor and weak, -but the rich and strong also, are in peril. If men are cut off by the -Saracens, yet more in number die from heat and thirst; many through -want of drink; more by drinking inordinately. Nonetheless we and all -our company came scatheless to the place we longed for.” Sæwulf’s -account of the dangers which beset the pilgrim is confirmed by that of -Daniel, Abbot of Kief, who made his pilgrimage four years later (1106, -A.D.) North of the pilgrim’s way lay Acre; south of it Ascalon, strong -fortresses, still held by the Saracen. - -The track from Jaffa led to the gate of David, and, entering the -city, Sæwulf visited its holiest place first—the Martyrium or Holy -Sepulchre. The tomb was under cover, because the Church above was so -built as to be open to the skies. He tells us that Titus and Vespasian -destroyed the whole of Jerusalem to fulfil the prophesy of Christ, and -that the city has undergone the same fate seven times since Titus. -He has for guides native Syrians, a people whom he confuses with -the Assyrians and calls by that name. The guides told him that the -Church of the Holy Sepulchre was built in the time of Constantine the -Great. Now, the existing Church was only about 80 years old, and there -had been two previous buildings, of which the earlier was destroyed -by Chosroes II, early in the Seventh Century, and the second by -Mohammedans, early in the Eleventh Century. - -He was then taken to see the place where Christ was imprisoned, the -spot where His Cross and the crosses of the two thieves were found, -the column to which Christ was bound (the thong with which He is said -to have been bound is still to be seen at Aix-la-Chapelle); all these -sacred objects of pilgrimage being near the Holy Sepulchre. He was -shown the “navel of the earth,” a spot which a contemporary of Sæwulf -tells us was in the outside wall of the Martyrium, beyond the altar. -Sæwulf assures us that Christ marked it out with His own hand, and -declared it to be the centre of the world. This tradition dates from -the Sixth Century. Readers of Dante will recall that the poet makes -Jerusalem and the Earthly Paradise the Antipodes of our globe; and, -indeed, the Holy City was at the middle of the circumscribed world -known to the Middle Ages. And had not David sung “God is my King of -old, working Salvation _in the midst of the earth_?” - -Thence to Calvary; “Which is the very same place where Abraham built -an altar to sacrifice Isaac.” Traces of the Earthquake which rent the -rock, “for that it could not endure the death of its Maker without -breaking asunder,” were pointed out to him. The guides also took him to -Golgotha, the very place where a stream of the Saviour’s blood reached -the bones of Adam, “and he and the bodies of many saints arose.” Again -readers of Dante will think of the passage where the shade of Virgil -tells him how, some time after the Roman poet’s own death, Christ took -from Hades the souls of Adam and Moses and other Scriptural personages -of distinction, with many others “_e fecegli beati_,” “and made them -blessed.” Sæwulf has perfect trust in any information conveyed to him -by his “Assyrian” guides. Indeed, who so likely to know the truth about -this wonderful land as its natives? - -Close by the Holy Sepulchre was a little monastery which merchants of -Amalfi had founded 54 years before Sæwulf saw it. It was the abode -of the Knights Hospitalers, who became so famous; but they had not -yet become that military order of which, after so singular a history, -England possesses traces in St. John’s Gate, Clerkenwell, and a -memorial in the beneficent work of which that building is the official -centre. - -He saw the “Gate Beautiful,” through which Heraclius, triumphant bearer -of the Cross, entered after his defeat of the Persians; and heard how -“the stones fell down and closed the way, until an angel reproved -him; and he descended from his horse, and a passage was opened up to -him.” The guides took the pilgrim to see that stone which was the -pillow of Jacob when angels ascended and descended a celestial ladder -“and the Lord stood above it” at Bethel. It was now at Jerusalem, -and, traditionally, is the very stone which was transported to Scone, -whereon the Kings of Scotland sat to be crowned, and is to be seen at -the present day, placed below the Coronation Chair at Westminster Abbey. - -He was taken to Bethlehem; and complains that there, as at every holy -place, the Saracen had destroyed everything. Yet the Convent of the -Virgin still stood, and within it he saw the very manger where the -infant Jesus lay; the very stone on which His head reposed in the -tomb, and which St. Jerome had brought hither from Jerusalem; the -marble table at which the Mother of our Lord sat at meat with the -Magi; a well which received their guiding star into its waters; and -the burial-place of the Innocents. The story of the Star falling into -a well is also told by that fraudulent Fleming who adopted the name of -Sir John Mandeville, in his “Voiage and travaile.” - -As much of Palestine as had been conquered was still the scene of -unceasing disorder, brigandage, revolt and warfare; so pilgrims were -conducted to the holy places under military escort. Sæwulf went to -Hebron, and tells us of the tombs of the Patriarchs, ornamented by the -men of old and emitting sweet odours. The tombs were inside a strong -protecting fortress. Here, at Hebron, he found, still standing, an -ancient Ilex tree, under the shadow of which the Lord had appeared -to Abraham and promised that Sara should bear him a son. Apparently, -his friends, the “Assyrians,” during many centuries of experience, -had found what profit accrued to them in tacking on some Biblical -association to every available object. - -Travelling Northward, he visited Nazareth and Cana of Galilee, whence -he beheld Mount Tabor, clad in refreshing green and sprinkled with -flowers. Still advancing to the North, he saw the glory of Lebanon -above him, and the springs which give birth to the milky waters of -Jordan. - -More than seven months had passed since our simple-minded, -whole-hearted pilgrim landed at Joppa, and now he turns his steps -towards home. “Having seen every one of the Holy Places of Jerusalem -and its territory, so far as we were able; and our devotions done, we -took ship at Joppa on the day of Pentecost” (May 17th, 1903). Each -pilgrim would take on board with him a palm branch as ensign of his -success, and a few portable _souvenirs_. - -Just as war with the Caliph of Cairo prevented our pilgrim from -reaching the Holy Land by way of Egypt (which was the ordinary route -from Western Lands), so its continuance compelled him to return -by an unusual journey. The ship turned from Joppa to the North. -Saracen ships were scouring the sea; and the returning pilgrims found -themselves hugging the shore, although they must pass by that one -fortified seaport which the Crusaders had not yet overcome. Four -days out from Joppa, and when a little to the south of Acre, “behold -twenty-six Saracen ships hove into sight. They were the squadron of -the Admiral of Tyre and Sidon, sailing for Babylonia with an army to -aid the Chaldeans in waging war with the King of Jerusalem” (_! sic_). -This statement is an example of how hearsay may germinate in the -uninstructed mind. It may not, however, be quite so wild as it seems. -Cairo is called Babylon in all Mediæval writings, but, as a matter of -fact, Arabs were, about this time, trying to turn Tancred out of his -fief at Edessa; and Edessa may, perhaps, be regarded as lying towards -the Babylon of Scripture. And a Saracen army was at sea, sent by the -Caliph of Cairo, the new “Babylon,” to raise the siege of Ascalon, -which Baldwin I. was conducting. Probably it was this expedition from -Cairo which Sæwulf came across. “Two vessels from Joppa, which were -with us, laden with pilgrims, left our ship to itself; for they were -lighter craft; and, by hard rowing, fled to Cæsarea. The Saracens -sailed all round our ship, and kept an arrow’s flight off, rejoicing -over so much plunder. However our men were ready to die for Christ; -they laid hold of their arms, and used up each moment in fortifying -the castle (at the stern) of our ship; for we had in our dromond 200 -fighting men. After the space of about an hour, the chief of the -expedition, having held a council-of-war, ordered one of his sailors -to climb up to the mast-head, so as to find out what it was exactly -that we were at. And, when he learned from this man how strong was our -defence, he hoisted his high yards and made for the main. Thus did Our -Lord, of His Grace, rescue us from the foe that day. Afterwards our -folk from Joppa took three of these same ships and made themselves -rich men with the spoil thereof.” - -Sæwulf’s dromond hugged the coast for eight days, and then crossed -the open sea to St. Andrews’, at the eastern extremity of Cyprus; -thence it made for Antiochetta on the mainland. “During this voyage -pirates often attacked us; but, under the protection of Divine Grace, -we suffered naught, whether from hostile attack or from tempestuous -tossing.” Rhodes was reached on June 23rd; and Sæwulf and some others, -who were weary of tacking east and west and of the slow progress made -by the heavy vessel, agreed to go a certain distance together, and -hired a smaller but swifter craft. Embarked in this, they returned -towards the Asian Coast. A contrary wind detained them a few days at -a place which Sæwulf calls Stromlo (Astypalæa), “once a fair city, -wholly made waste by the Turks.” At Scio, “we took leave of our (last) -ship and fellow-travellers, and began our journey to Constantinople, -in order that we might pray there.” While passing Tenedos, he heard -of the ruins of Troy, and “how many miles of ground they covered.” He -tells us of two fortresses facing one another from opposite sides of -the “Arm of St. George” (the Dardanelles), “which are so near as to -be only two or three bowshots apart, and which thus make the taking -of Constantinople an impossibility.” We have another reference to the -Trojan war: “The Greeks say that Helen was carried off (from Eregli) by -Paris Alexander.” And now the fragment ends, leaving our pilgrim landed -at Rodosto on the Sea of Marmora, Sept. 10th, 1103. It has taken him -more than four months’ voyage from Joppa to reach within fifty miles of -New Rome. Doubtless he found at St. Sophia, as Benjamin of Tudela did -towards the end of the same century, “a quantity of wealth beyond all -telling ... and the like of these riches is not to be seen in any other -Church in the world.” - -A long, weary journey, full of the excitement of peril, still lay -before him, whatever route he might take. All we know is that, arrived -at his native town (Worcester?), a procession would receive and -accompany him to his parish church. There he would render thanks to God -for his safe return, and deliver his palm branch into the hands of the -priest, who would lay it on the altar. - -Some chance has rescued this broken record of an obscure, unlettered -palmer from oblivion. He is as the hollow voice of a shade which has -burst its sepulture in the silences of oblivion. We catch but a glimpse -of some tenuous wraith; once warm and breathing flesh. It tells us -of a few months in the brief adventure of Life. Yet we recognize, as -in Hiuen-Tsiang, one who, having beheld “a gleam on the mountain,” -must “arise and go seek it.” Sæwulf the Englishman may be but “a poor -thing,” yet he is our own. There lies the excuse for “a poor humour of -mine, sir, to take that that no man else will.” - - - - -MOHAMMED IBN ABD ALLAH - -BETTER KNOWN AS IBN BATÛTA, THE GREATEST OF MOSLEM TRAVELLERS, A.D. -1304–77. - - - - -CHAPTER I. - -THE WHIRLWIND FROM ARABIA AND WHAT FOLLOWED. - - -Marauder as he was, the Arab, like his half-brother the Hebrew, carried -an ethical spark in his bosom which could be readily fanned into a -consuming blaze. He was accustomed, in the silence of the stony waste -and of the stars, to plunge into the depths of his own spiritual being, -or to await, in patience, some portent from the unseen. Mohammed, a -mystic, like unto the ancient prophets of Israel, hating false gods and -illuminated by the “One All Merciful, Lord of Creation and Sultan of -Life,” in trance, in ecstasy, and in paroxysms of enthusiasm, strove -to purge his fellow countrymen of their vain worship of idols and -false gods, and to lead them to the feet of the Almighty. At first he -preached to closed ears; but persistence and enthusiasm prevailed: the -religious intoxication of the Prophet was shared by the unconquered -sons of the desert; the Arab took fire from the flaming words which -fell from these inspired lips, and was eager to carry the message to -the uttermost ends of the earth or to perish in the effort. Within ten -years of Mohammed’s flight from Mecca (A.D. 622) all Arabia was won to -the Monotheist by conviction or by conquest. - -The combination of spiritual fervour with a prospect of worldly -achievement is formidable. A year after the death of the Prophet, -Kalid, riding against the embattled hosts of Persia (A.D. 633), -broke into a chant which reveals a baser spring of action in the -Arabian mind. “Behold the wealth of the land,” he sang; “its paths -sweat fatness; food abounds as do stones in Arabia. It were a great -thing to fight here for worldly goods; but to battle in a holy war -is beyond praise. These fruitful fields and Paradise!!!” It was not -religious fanaticism alone, although it was religious fanaticism in the -main, which put an invincible scimitar into the hands of the tough, -tenacious, untamed Arab. He was impelled by religious fervour, without -doubt; but religious fervour had the strong support of a lusting after -possessions, all the more tempting in contrast with the stinted boons -of his desert home. And, should he fall in battle, was he not promised -an immediate admission into Paradise with those sensuous enjoyments, -which were most in contrast with the penury of the nomad tent, and -which were most alluring to the imagination of the average sensual man? - -When material greed supports spiritual fanaticism, there is no need -to wonder at success. The Arab advanced against exhausted, loosely -organised Empires, sprawling and decayed; he offered righteous -government, a pure simple faith, with tolerance of the unbeliever under -penalty of a light tribute. The requital of refusal was the sword. -Damascus fell three years after Mohammed’s death (A.D. 635); Jerusalem, -within two year; Egypt, six years later (A.D. 641), and Persia when the -Prophet had only lain a decade in his tomb (A.D. 642). Not many years -passed before Okba swept across North Africa, rode his steed far into -the Atlantic tide, and waved his scimitar over the waste of waters, -lamenting that it put a limit to victory. Thrice was the Mediterranean -coast of Africa conquered, and thrice was the Arab well-nigh expelled; -and then Greek and Roman and all civilized inhabitants of the coast, -preferring the rule of the Moslem to that of the barbarous Berbers -who had replaced him, welcomed the fourth invasion, and settled down -under Arab rule. By the close of the century which in its youth saw -the hurried night-flight of Mohammed from Mecca, the Moslem held sway -from the Oxus to the Western ports of Barbary. At the beginning of the -next century the great Iberian peninsula was added to the dominion -of the Caliph; and, although Ironic Destiny turned back the triumph -of the Prophet in the decisive battle of Tours (A.D. 732), a hundred -years after his death, the great Iberian Peninsula was held by the Arab -from sea to sea and as far north as the Cantabrian Mountains and the -southern spurs of the Pyrenees; while the Koran was preached, although -it did not everywhere prevail, east and west, over a broad belt more -than seven thousand miles in length. The muezzin called the Faithful to -prayers from the Atlantic to the Yellow Sea. - -When a race, endowed with natural gifts, subdues an enlightened people, -it becomes inseminated by the higher culture it encounters, and is -stimulated to evolve an art, a literature, and a polished civilization -of its own. So was it when Rome conquered Hellas; so was it when the -Northmen established themselves in France and Sicily; so was it when -the thundering steeds of the desert bore their wild riders north and -east and west, and the ancient Parthian monarchy and the fairest, the -wealthiest, and the most cultured of the Roman provinces fell before -the triumphant Arab. Like the Norman, like the Roman, he had the -natural gift of governing as well as a passionate wisdom. He steeped -himself in the lore of Hellas; it was through him that the philosophy -of Aristotle was transmitted to the Schoolmen; it was through him that -St. Thomas Aquinas was able to construct that venerable philosophical -system, based on the Peripatetic, which has received the sanction and -endorsement of the Church of Rome; it was through him, therefore, -that Dante beheld that “glorious philosopher,” that “guide of human -reason,” that “_Maestro di color che sanno_,” “Master of those who -know,” seated amid a philosophic family. The great names of Averrhoes, -Avicenna, Avempace, Algazel, and Avicebron attest the freedom of -Arab speculation in the tenth, eleventh and twelfth centuries. -Mohammedans were the begetters of chemical science; they eagerly -pursued the study of botany; they contributed much to geography; they -carried medicine far beyond the ancient limits of Galen and Celsus; -they became bold, brilliant and successful operators, and introduced -new methods into surgery; they cultivated letters and left a noble -literature behind them; they were poets almost to a man: Princes wrote -verses to the stars in some interval between private plot and public -slaughter; water-carriers and camel-drivers vied with professional -poets in singing the praises of love in those delicious hours when -the refreshing breezes of the night might carry songs beyond the -lattice of the harem to be received with the light laughter of girls; -even the forbidden wine-flask became a theme for song. Much of Arabic -love poetry is immortal, and few are the literatures in which it is -surpassed. In Architecture and the Decorative Arts, the Arabs achieved -inimitable elegance and grace; as workers in metal they were supreme. -After a prolonged struggle, they subdued and civilized the wild Berber. -They regarded the Jew as a brother, less well informed in sacred things -than themselves; and they treated even the “tritheistic” Christian with -forbearance. Indeed they were not too anxious to proselytize; for the -unconverted were taxable, and they did not wish the sources of public -income to dry up. But taxation was light, and, in the main, the Arab -yoke was far from heavy. Slaves were treated with humanity, and might -earn their freedom at any moment by a simple profession of faith: the -Negro, the Spaniard, the Berber, the Turk, could acquire the full right -of a man by the repetition of a short formula. During the declining -years of the Byzantine Empire, and until Liberty and Literature arose -in the Italian Communes, the Mohammedan bore the torch of learning and -kept human justice enthroned. - -But Islam was another illustration of the profound truth already -recorded in this volume as one of the melancholy tenets of Buddhism: -Every human institution bears within it the seeds of its decay. Though -a sense of righteous dealing dwelt from of old in the bosom of the -Arab, in his native desert the sword which executed it was held by -his own right hand. The predatory tentsmen were divided into clans; -and between the clans there were blood-feuds. They were a democratic -people; but they had a deep reverence for men of noble blood; and their -feuds were taken up by the chief men of the cities of Arabia, and by -those leaders who, later, became the governors of new provinces. And -the conquered Berbers had precisely the same characteristics: they -also were predatory, democratic, and revered their noble families. -Moreover, both races were readily moved to the more violent of the -emotions of religion. Before long Moslem fought against Moslem, and -a thousand forms of religious dissent weakened, although they did -not destroy, the essential unity of Faith. Again, the extensive and -rapidly acquired Empire was too vast and too ill-organized to be ruled -by one, all-powerful Caliph. The centre of government was transferred, -during the revolutions of Islam at variance with itself, from Damascus -to Bagdad and from Bagdad to Cairo; but the Caliph of Cairo was -defended by, and therefore in the hands of Mamelukes—slaves, bought -in childhood and trained to arms. The Mameluke became the ruler; -and, by the middle of the Thirteenth Century, the Caliph was a mere -nominal Spiritual Head, far feebler than the Pope in Rome. For, distant -provinces were continually falling away from central authority; and it -was never long before the ally who came forward to support the Caliph -found it to his advantage to turn against him. The Mohammedan world was -divided, not merely between the Shiite and Sunnite sects, but between -many ambitious and rival States. Long before the Fourteenth Century, -Islam was past its prime. There was decay in matters political, in -literature, and in art. Yet the amity in Islam was greater than its -discord. The need of mutual protection against the Christian, and -the duty of every Mohammedan to make a pilgrimage to Mecca at least -once in his lifetime, helped to preserve true brotherly feeling among -all followers of the Prophet, whatever their rank, their wealth, or -the colour of their skin. The study of the Koran implied a study of -Arabic: there was therefore a common language to serve the needs of -intercommunication. The Koran was carried into mysterious lands, known -before its arrival only in the distortion of legend and in fables -of romance. Passionate devotion to a Faith which antagonistic or -far-separated races came to hold in common swept away these obstacles -to commutual intimacy. Huge hosts of Pilgrims from many lands met at -Mecca, and different caravans and different sects united in prayer and -praise. Some had encountered peril by sea; all had baffled the craft -or repelled the attack of robber-bands; all had endured trials of the -desert; all had triumphed over those countless dangers which lurked -along difficult ways. Thus, disciplined in endurance and accustomed to -adventure, latent powers of mind and character were aroused. Strange -sights awakened the curiosity of the trader; novel wares excited his -cupidity and converted him into an explorer of the world. In spite -of the intertwining of religious zeal with commercial instinct, -Pagan princes saw their opportunity of enrichment, and welcomed the -Arab, Moorish, or Persian merchant. And, in days of peace, the whole -Mohammedan world was open to every Mohammedan traveller; rulers -received him with elaborate courtesy and sped him on his way, rejoicing -in gifts. It mattered not whether he entered the gateway of some -princely residence, or stood on the threshold of some peasant’s hut; he -was sure at least of welcome and refreshment. The trader might settle -anywhere and find amity awaiting him; an honest man was an honoured -guest in whatever land he might pursue his calling. A Christian, -Missionary to the East, who died in Ibn Batûta’s time, bears witness -to the brotherly love which obtained among Moslems of different races. -So we shall not marvel overmuch at Ibn Batûta accomplishing what even -to-day would be considered world-wide travel, or at his discovering -children of the same father, who in their childhood watched the sun -setting over Atlantic waters, prosperously dwelling in their maturity, -one, where the dawn breaks from the Yellow Sea; one, where the oasis -lies an incongruous and solitary blossom amid the sands of Sahara. - - - - -CHAPTER II. A RESOLUTE PILGRIM - - -Among Mohammedan pilgrims and travellers Ibn Batûta stands without -a peer. He was born in a city which was once an extreme outpost of -Roman rule in Africa, the Ancient Tingis, the modern Tangiers, in the -Sultanate of Fez, 24th February, 1304. He devoted his youth to the -study of the Koran and its exegesis; becoming thereby an expert in -theology and jurisprudence. For, throughout the Mohammedan world the -Koran is the living fountain of all law and of all piety: hence Moslem -theology and law are inextricably intertwined. - -“Life is a pure flame, and we live by an invisible sun within us,” -is one of the quaint metaphors of Sir Thomas Browne. The old Norwich -physician is writing of the body; but his remark is profoundly true of -the soul of men. By the time that Batûta had reached the age of 21, he -tells us that he was all aflame with “inner desire and determination -to visit the Holy Places; tearing himself away from those who were -dear to him, both male and female, and taking wing from home as a -bird doth from its nest.” He started from his native city when not -quite twenty-one years and four months old (14th June, 1325), making, -first, for Tlemçen, the capital of a Moslem State 300 miles distant -from Tangier. Tlemçen remains in the present writer’s memory as a gem -set among the Algerian Mountains, remarkable for the ruins of Mansûra, -which almost run up to its walls—a rival city built by a rival prince -during a siege which dragged on longer than the ten years’ assault -on Troy—remarkable also for a master-piece of decoration in that -Thirteenth Century which was the great period of Moslem Architecture -no less than of our own. In this beautiful city rested a Tunisian -Embassy which had completed its mission and was about to return; -and this he joined. When he arrived at Bougie, he became a prey to -fever; but the patient was a man of mettle and he pushed on. Fever was -not the only foe. All North Africa was more or less unsafe, by reason -of Nomadic Berbers and brigands; and hostilities were frequent between -the States into which the great Empire of the Undivided Caliphate had -broken up. The returning Embassy was exposed to danger on its journey -“from the perfidy of Arabs.” - -Arrived at Constantine, he received the first of those welcome -donatives which it was incumbent on the Rulers of Islam to bestow. It -was a scarf for head-gear; and tucked in its folds, with considerate -delicacy, were two gold coins. - -At Bona, the ancient Hippo, whereof once Augustine was bishop, fever -again preyed on him, and he became so ill that he could only keep his -saddle by taking his turban off and tying himself on with it; nor -could he stand at all during the whole long journey to Tunis. When the -Embassy arrived at its destination, the inhabitants came outside the -walls to welcome the cavalcade. Weak, weary, and worn down by illness, -unfriended and solitary, among strangers who were joyfully greeted -by relatives and friends and fellow-countrymen; remote from all that -was hallowed by family affection or endeared by early association, a -terrible tempest of longing swept the bosom of our pilgrim. He saw all -the others saluted: “there was no salutation for me” he says, “I knew -no soul there. I burst into a flood of tears. A pilgrim saw this; he -came forward and did me courtesy; nor did he cease to take me off my -thoughts by his conversation until I was housed in the city.” This is -the sole occasion on which we hear a word of home-sickness during a -journey which lasted more than a score of years. The born traveller, -like the born sailor, may feel the pang and have it renewed, but he -brushes it aside. Moreover, we shall shortly find Ibn Batûta setting up -a travelling-home of his own. - -The Caravan for Mecca was about to start from Tunis; and we find -our jurisconsult become its Cadi, or justiciary. A hundred bowmen -accompanied it through a district always perilous by reason of -marauding nomads, who lurk among its hills. It was the rainy season; -the weather turned so wet and cold that the caravan halted at Sfax, -and remained there some time, hoping for improvement. Ibn Batûta -seized the opportunity to marry the first wife of whom we are told. -She was a daughter of a syndic of Tunis; and probably this was his -first, but far from being his last, entrance into matrimony. For he -was a man of taste, and we shall find him, in the course of time, -become an experienced Benedict, and by no means indifferent to the -charms of his pretty slave-concubines. All delay was intolerable -to Batûta; so, accompanied by his bride, he set off at the head of -an armed band, bearing its standard. He soon entered a district -notorious for brigandage even to-day, when conquering France and Italy -hold the land and bestow sanguinary lessons on wild tribesmen and -robbers-in-blood. Fierce nomads hovered around the little company, -awaiting an opportunity to attack; but happily the caravan caught it -up at one of those tombs of saint or warrior which the Moslem holds in -such veneration. Probably Batûta’s father-in-law was in the caravan; -for we are now told of dissensions between the two men, although -there is silence as to the subject of dispute. If the Prophet granted -the doubtful privilege of a plurality of wives, he mitigated the -inconveniences of polygamy by extreme facility in divorce. Batûta -availed himself of this, and sent his bride back to her father. The -ill-luck, which so soon attended this first matrimonial venture, did -not deter him from a second experiment: he lost no time in marrying -a fellow-countrywoman, presumably also a fellow-pilgrim; she was -the daughter of a dignitary of Fez. The pilgrims halted a whole day -to indulge in wedding festivity. On the 3rd April, 1326, nearly ten -months after Batûta’s departure from Tangier, the caravan drew up at -Alexandria, and his long and not too safe journey along the southern -coast of the “mid sea, moaning with memories,” was at an end. - -Alexandria was, at that time, one of the great commercial centres of -the world. Shipping from all Christendom and North Africa were to be -found in its haven. Batûta tells us that it surpassed all ports he -ever saw, excepting Colon and Calicut in India, the Italian settlement -in the Crimea, and Zaitun (Thsiuan-Cheu) at that time the great -port of China. Alexandria was almost as remarkable for Moslem piety -as for trade. Batûta made a point of visiting a learned and pious -person there, who, like all Mohammedan saints, was reputed to possess -miraculous powers. The saint’s acuteness penetrated into the character -of his visitor: he perceived a born-wayfarer in the prescriptive -pilgrim, and told him that he had a taste for travel. “‘Yes,’ was my -reply,” says Batûta, “although at that time, I had formed no project of -distant travel. ... ‘You will see my brother in Sind, another brother -who is in India, and yet a third who is in China, and will bear my -salutations to them.’ I was astounded at what he said, and made up my -mind to visit these countries; nor did I give up my resolve until I had -beheld all three men.” “Only strongly impassioned men may achieve great -results,” says Mirabeau. We shall see what Batûta’s passion was and -what he accomplished. - -His keen eye noted the glories of Alexandria; the great lighthouse -of Ptolemy, in the last stage of decay, and that great column of -Diocletian, mis-called Pompey’s Pillar. Stung more than ever by a -divine gadfly, he must run all over Lower Egypt, visiting every living -saint of renown and every relic of the past, especially such relics as -were the tombs or dwellings of departed saints. The attention which -holy men paid to their dreams and the confidence with which they -interpreted them recall the Hebrew Scriptures. Batûta tells us that -he visited an unusually gifted and eminently holy seer; and from -that time “good fortune attended me throughout my travels.” But our -traveller was no mere inattentive dreamer: the minuteness and accuracy -of his observations are remarkable; and his statements are fully -confirmed in the literature of contemporary and later travel, and other -records of the age in which he lived. - -Among the places he visited, we find him at Damietta, where was -preserved the cell of the Chief of the Calenders. The very name -Calender recalls one’s youth and those fantastic fables of the “Arabian -Nights” which delighted it. A Calender was a Moslem under vow to -deliver himself from the allurements of earth and to consecrate his -life to things spiritual. It was the usage of all Calenders to shave -off beard and eyebrow; and Batûta supplies us with a story to account -for their disfigurement. The founder of the sect was a personable man, -and a certain lady fell in love with him and pursued him in every -conceivable way. But all her lures and devices coming to nought, she -contrived a still more ingenious stratagem. She got an old woman, -who, of course, could not read, to stop the beloved one, who was as -good-natured as he was devout, when on his way to the mosque, and ask -him to read a letter which she said she had received from her son. He -complied, and then quoth the old woman: “My son has a wife who dwells -in yonder house. Will you be so good as to read it in the passage so -that she may hear what her husband says?” He agreed to this also; but -no sooner had he crossed the threshold than the old woman clapped the -door to, and the love-sick lady appeared, attended by her slaves, who -forced him into an inner room. She cast herself at him, and began to -take liberties with him. So he made the excuse that it was necessary -for him to retire privately. No sooner was he alone, than he whipped -out a razor which he had with him, and divested himself of beard and -eyebrow. Then he presented himself before the enamoured woman, who -was so disgusted at the disfigurement that she had him chased from -the house. “Thus,” says Batûta, “by Divine Providence, his chastity -was preserved, and his sect shaved eyebrow and beard from that time -forward.” - -This is one of the many anecdotes which Batûta thrusts into his -narrative. It is much more amusing than most of them. All Orientals -(and Moors are essentially Orientals) dote on pointless fable and -wild romance. They are insatiate for marvel, and gulp down any -stretch of fancy coloured by religion. Batûta’s farrago of stories -is, for the most part, silly. Happily, these legends are short. He -wrought diligently in hagiology; he was a-gape for yarns, remembered -them all and carefully recorded them; for they suited his own taste -and that of his nation and time. They are the gatherings of a man -profoundly learned in the Koran and Mohammedan lore; one concerned, -like the Pharisees of old, with minor questions of the Law and minutiæ -of ceremonial observance; vexed, as it were, about tithes of small -herbs. His main interest was his religion, and in his religion he was -a meticulous pedant. He had a natural love of the miraculous, and -religious credulity case-hardened it. Every mosque was a magnet to -draw him from afar; he made a pilgrimage to every Mohammedan shrine -he heard of; he cannot away without its legend. He reports wonders as -dull as they are extravagant. They possess neither genius nor charm -nor authority. Sometimes Oriental taste for the tawdry is to blame: -sometimes he is flatly gulled. But, in mundane matters, restless -impulses converted the credulous pundit into a man of the world. He -records accurately what he actually saw and heard, or what he believed -he saw and heard. He was interested in all that life had to offer; but -supremely so in all that had to do with Islam. - -From the mouths of the Nile, Ibn Batûta approached that ancient land -where mournful memorials stand out, clear and awful, in the flood of -light; where every winding of the mysterious valley repeats the enigma -of the tomb. He came to Cairo, and saw the Pyramids, - - “Memphis, and Thebes, and whatso’er of strange - Dark Ethiopia on her desert hills conceals.” - -He tells us of all in architecture that struck him as worthy of -mention, of the products of the soil, of the habits of the people, -and of their government. He praises the emulation of the provincial -Emirs of Egypt in good works and the building of mosques. He watches -the gathering of great personages at the procession of the Mahmil, or -drapery woven to cover that sanctuary at Mecca wherein lay the object -of Arabian worship ages before Mohammed was born. For the Sacred Stone -fell from Paradise with Adam; and the Archangel Gabriel carried it to -him for the house which he built to God. - -Magistrates and juris consults, the great officials of the Sultan and -the Syndics of Corporations, some on horseback, some on foot, assemble -at Cairo and await the Holy Drapery. The Emir who, this year, is to -head the annual pilgrimage, arrives with attendant troops and camels -and water-carriers. A conical box encloses the sacred cloth. All the -nondescript population of the city follow it. By some trick of the -camel-drivers, their beasts are urged to strange screeching; and the -motley throng makes its slow progress round the city, a winding river -of vivid colour and odd effect; a procession not without dignity, but -which an ancient Athenian had perhaps found a tawdry show compared with -the simple grace of the procession of the _peplops_ in his City of the -Violet Crown. - -From Cairo, our pilgrim makes his way to Panopolis, then “a great town, -fine and well-built,” and so to Syene, partly following the river where -each new morning mocks the ruined temples, and partly taking short cuts -across the desert. - -A holy man told him that he would find it impossible to fulfil his -pilgrimage just then; but he pushed across the unpeopled sands which -lie between the Nile and the Red Sea, and, after a trying journey -of fifteen days, found himself among a “black” race, called Bodjas, -who were settled at Aidhab, at that time a port of considerable -trade. These people wore yellow garments and affected the smallest of -head-gear. They would seem to have preserved their independence by -martial spirit; and, as is so often the case among a warrior-people, -daughters were not allowed to succeed to property. At this moment, they -were at war with the Mamaluke soldiery of Egypt; and it was impossible -for pilgrims to get transport across the Red Sea. - - - - -CHAPTER III - -A ROUNDABOUT PILGRIMAGE - - -Now, besides the shrewd reading of Batûta’s character by the holy -man of Alexandria, who saw in him the born traveller, another Sheik -had also read his man aright and foretold that he should meet the -seer’s brothers in widely separated parts of the world. Oracles are -often suggestive and start the way to their own fulfilment. These -predictions actually came about. Batûta assures us that he had at the -time no intention of running over nearly all of the known earth; but by -now an inborn tendency to keep moving had developed into a veritable -_wanderlust_. “A brief space,” sings Pindar, “a brief space hath -opportunity for men; but of him it is known surely when it cometh, and -he waiteth thereon.” Batûta’s opportunity had come to him. Stopped from -reaching Mecca during the present pilgrimage, he resolved to retrace -his steps to Cairo, push on to Palestine, visit its sacred spots and -the renowned cities of Syria, join the Syrian Caravan, and take the -long, fearsome journey from Damascus over the Arabian waste. Here was -occasion to visit holy places only less interesting to the Moslem -than to the Christian, to wander at leisure in notable lands, and to -compare the amazing ways of the tribes of men. He sold all that might -encumber him, and returned to High Egypt. The Nile was in flood; he -sailed down it, spent a night at Cairo, and pushed on, (A.D. 1326). -There was a caravan-route to Palestine, north of Sinai, with stations -in the desert. Each station had its _Khân_, or inn, an institution -which afforded bed and stabling, but not food or fodder. But there -was a shop at each station, where all that might be wanted was sold; -and there was a water-cistern, free to all comers at the door of each -inn. At the frontier of Palestine, there was a custom-house, and a -passport must be produced before one was allowed to cross the boundary -in either direction. At Khalil, a town of Hebron, remarkable for its -beauty, and also for the unusual distinction of being well lit at -night, Batûta admired a mosque said to have been reared by those genii -whom the wisdom of Solomon had made his servants, and whom he evoked -by his mystic talisman. Passing through Palestine, our pilgrim visited -those very few places the sanctity of which could be established by -indisputable record and those very many places which owed their fame -to rank imagination or crafty legend begotten of sordid avarice. He -went to the birthplace of Jesus, because the Moslem regards Jesus as -a fore-runner of Mohammed: and from Bethlehem he came to Jerusalem. -He thought the Mosque there as fine a building as any on earth. It -occupied one side of a vast courtyard, and its fretted walls and roof -shone with gilding and vivid colours. In the middle of the Mosque was a -rock, so brilliant in hue that no idea of its glory could be given. And -this was the rock whence (so says tradition) Mohammed rode up to heaven -on the sacred winged ass. - -Tyre, “mother of cities fraught with pride,” Acre and Askalon -were in ruins—the result of the Crusades. Tiberias rejoiced in a -bathing-establishment. Having plenty of time to fill up before the -Syrian caravan should leave Damascus, the pilgrim wandered hither and -thither, backwards and forwards, and saw many famous cities, such as -Beyrout, Tripoli, Aleppo, Baalbec, Emessa and Antioch. He found all -the people who inhabited the district of Gabala sadly misguided; for -they believed Ali, son-in-law of the Prophet to be a god. They neither -purified themselves, nor prayed, nor fasted. They had turned mosques -into cattle-sheds; and, should any pious wanderer wish to pray in one -of the desecrated buildings, these heretics were wont to gibe at him -and shout: “Don’t pray, ass that thou art; fodder shall be given thee.” - -Nomads from Central Asia had penetrated Asia Minor and reached the -Mediterranean shore. Here and there they had settled; just as Scythian -and Hun, Goth and Vandal once forced their way into the Roman Empire -and effected lodgement within it before they rose and overthrew it. But -the Emirs, whatever their nationality, would seem to have maintained -decent government. Sometimes the despotisms of Islam surprise us by -such unexpected qualities as sagacity, prudence, and self-restraint. -At Latakia, Batûta found that, when anyone was condemned to die, the -official appointed to superintend the execution was expected to go up -to wherever the condemned man might be, return without apprehending -him, and ask the Emir to repeat the sentence. Not until three such -journeys had been made and the sentence thrice delivered was it carried -out. On the other hand, secret murder was a favourite political engine. -Our pilgrim beheld, on the heights of Lebanon, strongholds of that -military sect, the Hashashin, to which we owe the word assassin. “They -will admit no stranger among them, unless he be of their own body. The -Sultan, El Malik El Nasir, uses them as his arrows; and, through them, -he strikes down those of his foes that dwell afar from him; such, for -instance, as may dwell in Persia or anywhere else. Various duties are -allotted to different men among them; and when the Sultan wishes one of -them to waylay some foe, he bargains as to the price of blood. Should -the murderer accomplish his work, and return to safety, his reward is -paid to him; and should he fail, his heirs receive it. These folk carry -poisoned knives wherewithal to strike their prey.” - -Laodicea would seem to have been held by a ruler who, like the -robber-barons of Germany or the pirates of Dalmatia, was a terror to -the trader: “he is said to take by violence all the ships he can.” Like -all travellers, Batûta is enthusiastic about the glories of Lebanon. -He found it “the most fertile mountain on Earth, where are copious -springs of water and shady groves; and it is laden with many kinds of -fruit. And I beheld there very many of that host of hermits who have -left the world that they may devote themselves to God.” - -Two thousand feet above the sea-level lay Damascus, most ancient of -cities, with a delightful climate and a productive soil. “The chief -Mosque is the most splendid in the world, most tastefully built, -excelling in beauty and grace.” His interest in mosques and public -worship is inextinguishable; and he recounts the dramatic methods of a -certain preacher. There dwelt at Damascus an imam whose orthodoxy was -not above suspicion; indeed he had already suffered imprisonment on -that score. It so fell out that, one Friday, I was at his preaching. -He came down the stairway of the pulpit calling out: ‘God came down -to the Earthly Paradise in the very same way as I am coming down.’ A -theologian who was there denied this; and the congregation, set on the -preacher and beat him. A complaint was made against this too literal -expositor; he was cast into prison, and there he died. - -Islam has always been remarkable for charity. Damascus boasted many -benevolent institutions. “As I was passing along a street one day,” -says Batûta “I saw a slave-child who had dropped a porcelain dish, made -in China, which lay in pieces on the ground. A crowd gathered round the -little Mameluke, and one of them said, ‘Pick up the pieces and carry -them to the overseer of the Utensils Charity.’ This man took the little -slave with him to the overseer, who at once gave him what money was -necessary to buy such another dish. This is one of the best of these -endowments; for the owner of the slave would doubtless have beaten him -or scolded him severely. Moreover he would have been heart-broken. So -the endowment really relieves sorrowful bosoms.” Batûta gives more -than one little indication that children (and even his own wives -occasionally) could touch his heart. The Moslem can be very pitiful; -he usually treats his slaves kindly; and one does not wonder that our -pilgrim speaks warmly about the piety and high civilization of Damascus -in his time. He was licensed to teach in that beautiful city; but found -time to visit the cavern which is one of the places where Abraham is -said to have been born, and the grotto where Abel’s blood was still to -be seen; “for his brother dragged him thither.” - -Batûta started with the Pilgrim’s Caravan to the Holy Cities on -September 1st, 1326. Many hundreds of perilous miles lay before him. -The mere solitude of the desert always inspires insupportable dread, -and to secure a sufficient supply of water is a problem not always to -be solved. Batûta was told how, during one pilgrimage, water gave out, -and “a skin of it rose to a thousand _dinars_; yet both seller and -buyer perished.” Ancient travellers always speak with awe of the weird -noises which suddenly break the silence of the desert and inspire a -new dread. Shifting sands cause these sounds. Batûta tells us of one -huge sandhill called The Mount of Drums, because the Bedouins “say that -a sound as of drums is heard there every Thursday night.” But this -particular pilgrimage, although made along a difficult and dangerous -route, was comparatively uneventful, as were all the journeys Batûta -made to Mecca. He gives small space to it, and we shall find the record -of a much livelier and more interesting pilgrimage from Damascus in -the pages of Varthema. The journey was often one of perils, grave and -manifold. - - - - -CHAPTER IV - -GLIMPSES OF ARABIA, PERSIA AND EAST AFRICA IN THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY - - -After duly visiting the tomb of the Prophet at Medina and performing -the prescribed rites at Mecca, Batûta, still insatiate of travel, -joined the Persian caravan on its homeward journey, and soon came to -the place where, to this day, the devil is lapidated. “It is a great -collection of stones. Everyone who comes to it hurls one. They say -there was once a heretic who was stoned to death there.” From Medina, -Central Arabia was crossed, and a journey of 600 miles brought the -caravan to a town in the Nedjd which was one of the claimants to the -possession of the bones of Ali, the son-in-law of the Prophet. Where -Ali really was buried is unknown. But the excited mind worked a great -effect on the body here, for, on a certain night of the year devoted -to religious revival, “cripples were brought to the tomb, even from -far-away lands, and were laid on it soon after sunset. Then there was -praying and reciting of the Koran and prostrations; and, about midnight -the halt rose up, sound and hale.” - -At Bussora, the port so opulent and its trades so flourishing in the -days of Haroun-al-Raschid, one dared not venture to travel abroad -without the protection of a Bedouin escort: “There is no journeying -possible in these parts except with them.” Yet traces remained of the -former wealth of the city. “Bussora is richer in palm-trees than any -place in the world. Its people are generous and friendly to strangers. -One of the finest mosques is paved with red pebbles. And therein is -kept that beautiful copy of the Koran which Othman was reading when he -was murdered; and the stain of his blood is on it yet.” - -In this district he came across vestiges of the worship of Baal. -Certain of the fanatical sect called Haïderia lit a fire of wood, ate -of the burning embers, rolled in them, and then trampled them with bare -feet until all flame was put out. Later on, he saw the same strange -feat done by the same strange sect in India, when there came to a -place near Delhi, where he was encamped, men led by a very black man -and wearing collars and bracelets of iron. “They stayed all night with -us. Their chief asked me for wood to light a fire for them to dance -by, and I requested the deputy-ruler of that part to let them have it. -After the second evening prayer, the pile was lit, and, when the wood -had become burning charcoal, they struck up music and began to dance -into the fire; and they rolled themselves in it. Then their head-man -asked me for a tunic, and I gave him one of very fine make. He put it -on, rolled in the fire, and beat the embers so that the fire ceased to -flare, and it went out. He then brought the tunic to me, and I found -it to be undamaged. And thereat I marvelled greatly.” And between -these two experiences he came across Haïderia in Eastern Persia at -Turbet-Haïdarj: “They wore an iron collar, and, what is stranger still, -their _virilia_ are incarcerated to ensure their chastity.” - -He now sailed down the united Tigris and Euphrates and along the coast -of Persia in a small boat, and, landing at a port, travelled across -the plains of Southern Persia, with high mountains right and left. He -found the ways in mountainous Lâristân cut through the rocks. These -parts were governed by a tributary ruler. “In every one of the stations -in this country are cells made ready for those bent on religious -undertakings and for travellers. Every newcomer is provided with bread, -flesh, and sweetmeats.” After two months of travel, Batûta came to -Ispahan, in the heart of Persia. The Sultan had already provided him -with money to cover the cost of his wanderings in Persia. Eastern -rulers regarded munificence as a duty: Eastern travellers claimed it as -a right. From Ispahan he went southward to Shiraz, which he found a -large and well-built city, but inferior to Damascus. “The inhabitants -are honest, religious, and virtuous, especially the women. I went -thither in order to visit that paragon of saints and of those that -have the power to work miracles, Majd Oddîn. I put up therefore at the -College which he founded. He was judge of the City: but, being advanced -in years, his brother’s sons took on his duties for him.... He is much -venerated by the Emirs of that land, so that, when they are before him, -they lay hold of both their ears; which is the mark of devotion due to -the Sultan.” - -At El Hilla, on the banks of the Euphrates, he found a curious belief -that the last of the Imams was still alive and dwelt there; but that -he was invisible to mortal eye. “Every day, a hundred armed men come -to the portal of the mosque. They lead with them a beast saddled and -bridled; and a gathering of folk beat drums and blow trumpets. They cry -aloud: ‘Come forth, Lord of the Times; for the earth is filled with -evil doing and deeds of shame. Now is the hour for thee to appear, so -that, through thee, Allah may divide the truth from the lie.’ They wait -on until night, when needs must that they go home.” - -“It is an uncontrolled truth,” says Swift, “that no man ever made an -ill figure who understood his own talents.” Ibn Batûta, theologian, -jurist, and, by this time, experienced man of the world, knew his -powers; and one of his powers was knowing how to employ the rest. We -now find him accompanying the Tartar Ruler of Persia, the “Sultan of -the Two Iraks and Khôrasân, to Tabriz, whither the monarch marched with -his army.” Tabriz is not more than a hundred miles from Armenia and the -Caspian Sea. Batûta tells us how his eyes were dazzled by the lustre of -precious jewels which well-dressed slaves purchased to decorate their -Tartar mistresses. The Sultan gave him a fine dress and other handsome -presents; and he resolved to make a second pilgrimage to Mecca; -whereupon the Sultan ordered that he should be provided with all that -was necessary to further such a worthy end. But, before starting he had -time to travel along the banks of the Tigris as far north as Diarbekir; -for he wished to visit a saint and worker of miracles, reputed “not to -break his fast during forty days at a stretch, save with a crust of -barley bread.” On getting back to Bagdad he found the caravan ready to -start, and took his departure with it. - -Persia, exhausted by the long struggle with the Roman Empire, fell -an easy prey to the Arabs; and, although it enjoyed a second era of -power and prosperity under the Caliphs of Bagdad, first Seljuk Turks -conquered it, and then Mongolians, under Chinghiz Khân, which, being -interpreted, is the Great Khân, no other than the “Tartre Cambyuskan” -of Chaucer’s Squire’s Tale, the “Cambuscan” bold of Milton’s II -Penseroso. Mongolians had now possessed the land for little less than -a century, and they and the Sultans of Egypt held each other in dread. -Religious differences have always been convenient as a war-cry; and, -from of old, religious unity has been wont to fulfil some of the -functions of our modern patriotism. The Caliph at Cairo was the head of -the Orthodox Sunnites, Moslems who hold the Sunna, or body of tradition -which professes to preserve such teaching and laws as the Prophet gave -by word of mouth as of equal authority with the Koran; but the Tartar -Sultan of Persia was a Shiite, or one of those who reject the Sunna, -and hold that Ali, son-in-law of the Prophet, was Mohammed’s legitimate -successor. Hence Batûta found the Shiite Sultan putting pressure on the -Sunnites of the great cities of Bagdad, Shiraz, and Ispahan to make -them renounce the form of faith sacred to them because it was that of -their fathers and further endeared because the Caliphate at Bagdad had -brought such lustre to the Persian name. - -Our pilgrim arrived at Mecca, for the second time, without meeting with -any remarkable adventure in crossing Central Arabia. One is surprised -to find so restless a spirit content to remain three years in Mecca. -But Batûta was a theologian and jurist; one, moreover, who held the -outward observances of Islam in high respect; and he dwelt during the -whole of that time at a Mohammedan theological school. And now the old -passion for travel returns, and he is completely in its grip. He is -away to Jidda on the Red Sea, embarks on one of those Eastern ships -which were even more wretchedly built and worse navigated than those -of the Western nations, and is forced by tempest into a port between -Aidhab and Suakin. Nothing daunted, he puts to sea again and arrives in -Arabia the Happy. A Cadi welcomes the distinguished sage and traveller, -entertains him for three days, and, on the fourth, takes him to the -court of the Sultan at Zebid, one of the chief towns of Yemen. Batûta a -true Oriental delights in pomp and ceremony, and describes the audience -in full. - -“The Sultan is to be saluted by touching the ground with forefinger, -raising it to the head, and saying ‘May Allah give thee enduring rule.’ -This I did, copying the Cadi; who seated himself at the right hand of -the Sultan, and told me to be seated facing him. The monarch sat on a -daïs, which was covered with ornamental silk stuff; and right and left -of him stood his warriors. Around him are sword and buckler-bearers; -nearer are bowmen; and in front of these, on either side, the -chamberlain, the first men of the State, and the private scribe. -Djandar, the Emir, is also present before him and the officers of the -guard; but the latter keep their distance. When the Sultan takes his -seat, all cry aloud, ‘In the name of Allah!’ and they repeat this when -he rises; so that all who are in the Hall of Audience know precisely -when he sits down and when he rises. Directly the Monarch is seated, -all those who are wont to visit the Court and do him obeisance, come -in and salute him. This done, each takes his allotted place to right -or left, nor does he leave it or sit down unless commanded to do so. -In the latter case, the Sultan says to the Emir Djandar, who is Chief -Constable of the Palace, ‘Tell such an one to be seated.’ And the man -so commanded comes forward a little way and sits down on a carpet in -front of and between those who are grouped to right and left. Meats -are then brought forth; and these are of two kinds, one kind being for -the many, the other kind for people of importance, that is to say, the -Sultan, the Chief Justice, the principal Sheriffs, jurisconsults and -guests. The other sort of viands serves for the rest of the Sheriffs, -jurisconsults, judges, sheiks, emirs, and officers of the army. -Everyone takes the place allotted to him at the feast and everybody has -room enough. I found the same form observed at the Court of the Sultan -of India; and I know not which monarch hath copied it from the other.” - -After visiting several cities of Yemen, which were flourishing centres -of trade at that time, Batûta reached Aden, “a large city, but without -water, and nothing can grow there. Rain is caught and stored up in -tanks, and that is the only water to drink. But rich traders make their -abode in Aden, and hither vessels come from India.” - -Now the Arabs had sought for wealth in the products of Ethiopia; they -had advanced along the Eastern Coast of Africa, and had established -ports considerably south of Zanzibar. Batûta had a fancy to see these -tropical parts; so he sailed from Aden as far as Kiloa or Kilwa, which -is nine degrees south of the equator. The ship touched at various -ports where there were Arab settlements; some of them by no means -salubrious or agreeable. At Zeila, he experienced “an unbearable stench -from decaying fish and the blood of camels, which are slaughtered -in the streets:” At another station, Mogdishu, he was received with -much civility. “When a ship draws up, the young men of the place come -forth, and each accosts a trader, and becomes his host. Should there -be a theologian or a man of station on board, he is taken to dwell -with the Cadi. When it was known that I was there, the Cadi came to -the beach, and his students with him, and I took up my abode with him. -He led me to the Sultan who is styled the Sheik.... A servant brought -vegetables and fawfel-nut ... and rose-water to us ... and this is the -highest honour that can be done to a stranger.... The people are far -too fat, because they gorge. One of them will eat as much as a whole -congregation of worshippers ought to do.” From Mogdishu, the ship went -on to Mombasa and Kiloa for a cargo of ivory. Batûta tells us of the -productions of tropical East Africa, and how “the greatest gift to the -peoples here is ivory, which is the tooth of the elephant.” - -From Kiloa, he coasted back to the straits of Bab-el-Mandel, ran along -the Gulf of Aden, and landed at Zafar, in Oman. He tells us, as does -Marco Polo, how the natives feed their cattle on fish. Zafar “is a -filthy place, plagued with flies by reason of the markets for fish and -dates. Copper and tin pieces of money are used. The heat is so great -that those who dwell there must bathe several times a day; and they -suffer greatly from elephant’s leg (elephantiasis) and from ruptures. -It is indeed beyond a marvel that they will hurt no one unless it be to -return some hurt done to them. Many Sultans have tried to subdue them, -yet naught but bale have they gotten thereby.” - -Batûta travelled past the shores of Oman in a small coaster which -touched at many ports. He found the banana, the betel-tree, and the -cocoa-nut flourishing in this corner of Arabia, and describes them -and their uses. Wishing to see what the hinterland was like, he took -a seven-days’ journey from the coast, but found that it took six days -to cross a desert. The inland people would seem hardly to have emerged -from primitive promiscuity; for he tells us that “there wives are most -base and husbands shew no sign of jealousy.” Jealousy as to the harem -is an excellent masculine virtue to our good Moslem. - -Crossing the Persian Gulf, the island of Hormuz was reached, whither -traders had recently migrated from old Hormuz on the Persian mainland. -Vases and lamp-stands of rock-salt were among the manufactures of -this important mart and port of call; and hard by were the renowned -fisheries for “orient pearl.” He was told, and believed, that the -divers remained two hours under water, and was astounded to see people -amusing themselves by crawling from orbit to orbit of the battered -skull of a spermaceti whale which had been washed ashore. - -Crossing the narrow strait to Persia, he hired an escort of Turkoman -settlers, “a hardy and brave race, who occupy these parts and know -the roads. Without them, there is no travelling.” His object in -returning to Persia was to visit a man of saintly repute who dwelt -far away in Lâristân. It took four days to cross a waterless desert -where the Simoon blows in summer, “and kills everyone in its path; -and their limbs drop away from the trunk.” At Lar, the capital, he -found the saint in his cell, seated on the ground. He was clad in an -ancient garment made of wool. Yet he was in the habit of giving costly -presents, and had food and fresh clothing ready for all who visited -him. - - - - -CHAPTER V - -TO INDIA BY WAY OF CONSTANTINOPLE AND THE STEPPES - - -Batûta joined the Persian Caravan to Mecca, and once again journeyed -across the territory of the Wahabi in Central Arabia. This, his third -pilgrimage, over, he resolved to see India. But the wretched ship in -which he put forth was storm-tossed, and finally driven into a little -port on the Egyptian coast. So he made across the desert, seeing, now -and again, the tents of a few wandering Arabs or an ostrich or gazelle. -After much hardship, he reached Syene and travelled once more along the -banks of the Nile to Cairo. And now the fancy seized him to revisit -Asia Minor, see Southern Russia and Turkestan, and get to India over -the Hindu Kûsh. He retraced his old route through Palestine and Syria -as far as Latakia. There he embarked on a Genoese vessel for Alâia, on -the south coast of Asia Minor, which he calls “Rûm, because it belonged -of yore to the Romans; and, to this day many of them dwell here under -the protection of the Moslems.” He was now farther north than he had -been before. One of the petty Sultans gave him and those who were with -him the usual gracious greeting of the East, and furnished them with -provisions. On reaching Anatolia, he found the country broken up into a -multitude of contending States, many of these being held by Turkomans. -The secular efforts of the keepers of wandering herds on the Steppes -of Asia to settle in the rich, civilized countries of Europe and Asia -had established the nomad in Persia and Asia Minor. Successive waves of -conquest had swept over the fair lands south of the Oxus and Caspian, -and, one by one, the victorious tribes settled down and received a -higher civilization than their own from the subjugated tillers of the -soil. But now the Empire of the Seljuk Turks was broken into fragments. -Among the new rulers the Ottoman Turks, a small class of the tribe of -Oghuz, were gradually and with difficulty gaining territory and power -in Asia Minor. But there was as yet no hint that they were destined -to inherit the Roman Empire of the East and to rule from the Danube -to the Euphrates. Some of these little States were ancient provinces, -with splendid and busy cities that rivalled Cairo in wealth and beauty. -Some were carved out of the mouldering Byzantine Empire; some had -been torn from Persia. There were also solitary fortresses and towns -held by Turkomans who lived by rapine and piracy; and some States -only preserved their precarious existence by the aid of a force of -slaves who had been purchased or torn from their Christian parents in -childhood and rigidly trained to military life. These Mamelukes were -sent by their overlord, the Sultan of Egypt. - -Yet the tradition of good government was far from being lost. The new -rulers were vigorous and prudent. It would seem that one of the secrets -of Ottoman success lay in that close supervision of subordinates which -recent conquest requires. Consequently, on the whole, the country was -prosperous. Batûta found that the ruler of one province never remained -more than a month in one place. He moved about to inspect fortresses -and see the condition of various districts. This man had besieged a -city for twelve years. It is not without precedent in Moslem history -for a siege to last longer than that of Troy; a fact which shows how -little the husbandman was interfered with in these local wars. Even -in France at the close of the Dark Ages, the tiller of the soil was -safe from the invader of his field if he laid his hand on the plough. -Batûta wandered at large, and was received in all places with warm -hospitality. On landing, he took up his abode in the college of a -sheik; and, on the second day, a poorly-clad man came to invite him -and those who were with him to a feast. He wondered “how so poor a -man could bear the charges of feasting us, who were many.” The sheik -explained that the man was one of a society of silk-merchants who had -a “cell” of their own. The guests were received with much courtesy -and hospitality, and were liberally, supplied with money to cover -their travelling expenses. Batûta learned that, in every town of the -Turkomans, there was constituted a brotherhood of young men to supply -strangers with food and other necessaries. A president, styled The -Brother, was elected by those of the same trade, and even a foreigner -might occupy the post. Each guild built a “cell” for itself in which -food, a saddled steed, and all that might be wanted by travellers was -stored. One of the duties of a President was to call daily on the -members of his guild or brotherhood, and assist them in their diverse -needs. Every evening the brotherhood returned his call; and whatsoever -had not been needed was sold to support the “cell.” Should any -traveller have arrived during the day, he was entertained. Otherwise -“the brotherhood of youths” spent the evening in song, dance, and -feast. On one occasion, directly Batûta’s party arrived at the gate of -a city, two knots of men rushed to seize the bridles of their horses, -and there was a struggle between them. This proceeding greatly alarmed -the travellers, the more so that none of them was able to speak the -language. But a man who knew Arabic came forward to assure them that -there was no cause for fear. The rival parties were two brotherhoods -disputing as to which should entertain the travellers. The antagonists -cast lots, and the travellers went to the cell of one guild on the -first day and to that of the other guild the next day. At another time, -Batûta put up at the “cell” of one who was a member of a society of -youths and who had a great number of disciples distinguished by their -coarse ragged mantles and closely fitting hose. The petty Sultans, too, -would provide horses or provisions. - -The ruler of Bigni, a man proud of the possession of “a stone which had -fallen from heaven,” gave Batûta gold, clothes, two horses and a slave. -Although a severe Sunnite, our traveller shows no great religious -hatred to Shiites, Jews, or Christians; but he liked to keep heretics -and infidels in their place. He tells a story which is instructive as -to the medical attainments of the Jew and the relations between Jew and -Moslem. At Bigni an old man came and saluted the Sultan. All rose to -do him honour. “He sat himself on the daïs, opposite the Sultan, and -the readers of the Koran were below him. I asked the sage, ‘who is this -sheik?’ He smiled and kept silent; but when I asked again, he replied: -‘he is a Jewish physician of whom we all have need. That is why we rose -when he came in.’ Whereat I fumed, and said to him: ‘thou dog, son of a -dog, how darest thou, a mere Jew, to seat thyself above the readers of -the Koran?’ I had raised my voice, and this astonished the Sultan, who -asked why I had done so. The sage told him, and the Jew was humbled, -and went away very much cast down. When we returned, the sage said to -me: ‘well have you done! Allah bestow his blessing on thee! None other -but thou had dared to speak thus to the Jew. Thou hast taught him to -know his place.’” - -Language-difficulty caused some embarassment during this long journey -through Asia Minor; so an interpreter, who had done the pilgrimage to -Mecca and who spoke Arabic, was engaged by Batûta’s party. But the -Hadji cheated them abominably; so one day they asked him what he had -stolen from them that day. The thief, quite unabashed told them the -precise amount; “whereat we could but laugh and put up with it.” - -Batûta embarked from Sinope, on the southern shore of the Euxine, for -Sodaia, in the Crimea. Sodaia was one of the great ports of the world. -Venice had established a factory there a century back, but had been -ejected. The Crimea was chiefly in the hands of the Genoese, who -were established at Caffa; but the Italian cities were in pressing -danger of ejection and of losing their Levantine and Euxine trade. -After suffering much distress on the voyage and “only just escaping -from being drowned,” we find Batûta at Caffa; and for the first time -suffering from the annoyance of those Christian bells which have been -a nuisance, not merely to Moslems, but to the more sensitive among -European ears from the days when they were perhaps necessary, yet when -Rabelais objurgated them in his chapter on the “Island of bells,” to -these modern times of clocks and watches. In all these cosmopolitan -towns, each nation occupied a separate fortified quarter. The trade of -Southern Russia was great; and one is surprised to find that horses -were exported to India. - -Batûta made across a land where the quiet air was no longer annoyed by -the insistent clang which was an insult at once to his faith and his -ears. He found Southern Russia a plain without hill or tree. Waggons -might travel for six months through a green desert, the silence broken -only by lowing of cattle, hoarse voice of an occasional herdsman, -or languid stir of some collection of huts which passed for a town. -Cattle were protected by severe laws severely enforced. “Should a -beast be stolen, the thief must return it with nine more. If unable to -furnish these, his children are taken into slavery; and, if he have no -children, he is slaughtered like a sheep.... The only fuel is dung.” - -Batûta was bent on visiting Uzbek Khân, the powerful Tartar who now -represented the dynasty founded by Chinghiz Khân, the blacksmith. Uzbek -was one of the seven mightiest monarchs of the world, the others being -the Sultan of the West; the Sultan of Egypt and Syria, the Sultan -of the two Iraks (Persia and Mesopotamia), the Khân of Turkestan, -the Sultan of India, and the Emperor of China. Our traveller hired -a waggon, and, after many monotonous days, arrived at the camp of -the Khân. He was amazed to behold “a city in motion; complete in its -streets, mosques, and cooking houses.” Nor was he less bewildered at -the consideration given to women by all men, from the Khân downwards, -and at seeing them going about unveiled, yet “religious, charitable, -and given to good works.” The wife of an Emir would ride, magnificently -attired, in a coach. “Often she is accompanied by her husband; but one -would take him for a mere attendant.” Uzbek Khân was “wont to give -audience on Friday, his four wives, unveiled, sitting enthroned to -right and left of him, a son on either side, and a daughter in front. -Princes and Emirs are gathered around. People enter into the presence -in order of rank. When a wife comes in, he takes her by the hand and -leads her to her throne. Each wife has a separate abode; and not to -visit these ladies is looked upon as a breach of good manners.” It is -evident that the ancestral habits of a nomadic people were carefully -preserved under conditions which were rapidly changing. The Sultan sent -his visitor a horse, a sheep, and koumiss in a leathern bottle. - -Batûta wished to see for himself the great change in the length of day -and night which takes place as one travels northward. So Uzbek sent -him to far-distant Bulgar, on the Volga, a place in the latitude of -Newcastle. Here he was told of a “Land of Darkness,” which lay forty -days’ journey to the North. “Traders alone go there; and only in big -companies. Dogs draw them over the ice in sledges; and the travellers -must take all food and wood for fuel with them. The dogs are fed before -anyone, and experienced dogs, who have done the journey several times, -are chosen to lead the pack. On arriving at the proper place, each -trader puts down his goods and retires. Next day, he finds furs put -down as barter. Should he be content with these, he carries them off; -but should he not be satisfied, he leaves them where they are, and more -are added. But sometimes the natives will take back their own goods, -and leave those of the traders. The traders never see anyone, and know -not whether they deal with human beings or with demons.” Strange as -this practice seems, there is other evidence that exchange of goods was -made in this way in very high latitudes. Sledge-dogs were used very -much farther south than they are to-day. Batûta speaks of the Russians -as being “Christians with red hair, blue eyes, ugly, faithless, and -rich in silver shrines.” - -When Batûta returned to Uzbek, he went on to Astrakhan with him. “Here -the Sultan dwells in very cold weather.... The city is on one of the -great rivers of the world (the Volga), which is crossed by laying -thousands of bundles of hay on the ice.” - -Now, the third of Uzbek’s four wives was a daughter of the Christian -Emperor of Constantinople. History makes no mention of this lady; but -there is no reason to doubt the fact, however surprising; for, since -1265 A.D. the Byzantine Emperor had more than once given a natural -daughter or legitimate sister in marriage to powerful Mongolian -Sovereigns, in order to get their support against the encroaching Turks -of Asia Minor. - -This particular lady was expecting her confinement and desired to -return home for the event. She had requested the Khân to allow her to -do so, and he had sanctioned the journey. Batûta saw an opportunity of -seeing the famous Christian metropolis, if the Khân would allow him -to join the escort. Such a petition from a foreign stranger naturally -aroused suspicion as to his motives; but Batûta was skilful in allaying -this; and we find him setting forth with a parting gift from the Khân -of a fine dress, several horses, and cash. Even the Khân’s ladies and -his sons and daughters gave him presents. The princess was escorted -by 500 horse and 4,500 foot. The Khân, accompanied by his head-wife -and heir-apparent rode with her the first stage; the heir-apparent and -his suite went on the next stage of a journey that took two months. -For some reason or other a very round-about route was chosen; first a -waterless, uninhabited waste was crossed; then the Caucasus approached -to within a day’s march. When a border-fortress was reached, the escort -returned; and now the real motive of the lady becomes discernable. The -unhappy woman had been the victim of state-craft, a puppet danced off -to a semi-barbarian husband in the interests of Constantinople. In -spite of the respect paid to women in her new abode, she was heartily -sick of Tartar discomfort and Moslem ways. Accustomed to the luxurious -ease and refinements of the Byzantine Court, she loathed the uncouth -manners of a half-tamed people and their rough life. She sighed for the -amenities of her father’s palace and the high civilization of his city. -She left her travelling mosque at the fortress, drank wine, and is said -to have eaten swine’s flesh. From Batûta’s point of view, she relapsed -into infidelity; yet he has no bitter word to cast at her. When a -day’s journey from her native city, a younger brother came to meet her -with 5,000 cavalry, all in shining armour. Next day the heir-apparent -arrived with 10,000 cavalry, and when quite near to Constantinople, -the greater part of the population turned out, decked in their best, -and shouting so that it was difficult to decide whether they or the -drums made most noise. The parents came forth from the gate in full -royal state, and the poor released princess threw herself on the ground -before them, kissed it, and even kissed the hooves of their horses. All -the bells of Constantinople were a-ringing, and the royal party entered -the city with glittering pomp. - -Batûta was unwilling to enter “Istambûl” without the Emperor’s special -sanction; it was not too safe a place for a Moslem. Andronicus -Palæologus the Younger gave him a safe-conduct; but he was searched -for concealed arms at the fifth gate—a practice which, afterwards, he -found to obtain in India. As he passed through the gateways the guards -muttered: “Saracens! Saracens!” And Saracens they had indeed occasion -to hold in mortal horror and dread. - -Our pilgrim-traveller gets sadly muddled about names and dates just -here. Evidently, he derived the information he gives us from a Jew, -who acted as interpreter, and who either spoke Arabic imperfectly -or heartily enjoyed “pulling his leg.” And as to dates, just here, -Batûta’s memory fails him a little. He was told that the Pope of -Rome paid an annual visit to Santa Sophia, and was received with -the greatest veneration and ceremonial. And he calls the Emperor -Andronicus, “George.” Andronicus plied him with eager questions as to -Jerusalem and the Holy Places of Palestine. He only saw the outside of -Santa Sophia. - -Now, the Princess made open objection to return to her husband, and had -her will. She gave Batûta a money-present for his services; but the -Byzantine Empire was in decay, and, to his loss in exchange, the coins -debased. He returned Eastward with a small escort, and met Uzbek Khân -at Sara. We read in Dan Chaucer how - - “At Sarray, in the land of Tartarye - Ther dwelt a king that werreyed Russye.” - -Nothing will content him but to see those famous cities beyond the -Oxus, and Balk, with its great mosque of the precious pillars, before -he proceeds to India. He travels 40 days through a desert. The whole -district is one vast desolation; and he tells us how Chinghiz Khân, -the blood-stained blacksmith, a conquering hero, a strict Moslem, and -therefore “a man of liberal mind,” subdued district after district -until he was lord of China and the Middle East; how he carried off the -youth of Bokhâra and Samarkand, Khôrasân and Irak, and slaughtered and -pillaged so that he left nothing but ruin behind him. Batûta visited -the Great Khân of Turkestan and more than one camp of petty rulers. - -“The purple robe makes Emperors, not priests,” said Ambrose the Bishop -of Milan to the Emperor Theodosius; and the Emperor remarked how hard -it was for a ruler to meet with an outspoken and unfearing man. Batûta -tells us of an amusing incident which indicates, not merely how an -imam could be outspoken to a king, but also that, if Mohammedanism -had admitted of a sacerdotal hierarchy, the same exercise of priestly -authority which cast Theodosius prostrate and weeping before the Altar -at Milan and kept Heinrich shivering in the snows of Canossa, while -awaiting the condescension of Hildebrand, would have obtained in the -Moslem as in the Christian world. When Tirim Siri Khân wished prayers -to be delayed until he should come to the mosque, the imam bade the -messenger return to the Khân and ask him whether prayers were ordered -of God or of him, and commanded the muezzin to summon the faithful as -usual. After the second prostration the Khân arrived, meekly remained -at the doorway, and joined in the prayers. When worship was over, he -grasped the hand of the imam, who laughed heartily, and the twain -sat together afterwards, Batûta being with them. The Khân told the -traveller to declare to his countrymen how the Ruler of the Turkomans -had sat with a poor man of the poorest Persians. This worthy imam lived -by the labour of his hands, and refused all the gifts his sovereign -offered him. No wonder that warm friendship sprang up between these two -men, and that both were respected and obeyed. But greater regard was -paid to the statutes than to this monarch even; for, after Batûta left, -Tirim Siri broke a law laid down by his grandfather and therefore was -deposed. - -In one province he found “a laudable practice. A whip is hung up in -every mosque, and whoever stays away from worship is beaten by the imam -before all the congregation, and fined to boot, the fine going towards -the upkeep of the mosque.” The time came when Batûta, clothed with -authority, itched to exercise it in the same praiseworthy way. - -Batûta now visits Herat, turns north-westward to Meshed, the capital -of Khôrasân and holy city of the Shiites, thence travels to Jam, the -birthplace of Jami, the Persian poet, and at Tus finds the tomb of the -Caliph Haroun-al-Raschid, who died there when on a military expedition. -Now, Haroun-al-Raschid was a Sunnite; so the orthodox “place lighted -candles on his grave, but the followers of Ali (Shiites) are wont to -give it a kick.” One recalls the story of how, when the Indian Emperor -had his attention drawn to a dog defiling the grave of a heretic, he -remarked that “the beast resembles orthodoxy.” Heterodox or orthodox, -according to point of view, here were flourishing colleges filled with -students, and saintly men dwelling in secluded cells. To work miracles -has always been a distinction of the saint; but the Eastern saint was -also permitted to live on to an age incredibly ripe. Batûta is always -running across some man of the age attained by old Parr, and upwards. A -century and a half is a moderate number of years for these holy beings, -and Batûta accepts it as veridical; especially when corroborative -evidence is given. But three and a half centuries claimed by a man who -is no Struldbrug, but looks not more than fifty, staggers even him. The -impostor assures his visitor that every century he grows a fresh crop -of hair and cuts a new set of teeth, and that he had been a Râja who -was buried at Multân in the Punjâb. “I very much doubted as to what he -might really be; and I do so to this day.” - - - - -CHAPTER VI - -AN EASTERN DESPOT - - -He waited forty days for the snows to melt on the “Hindu Kûsh—the -Slayer of the Hindus, so called because most of the slaves brought from -India die here of the bitter cold thereof.” The Afghans were at that -time subjects of the Khân of Turkestan (Transoxiana); a turbulent, -violent race, impatient of the slightest curb. Bandits attacked the -party he joined in the Kâbul pass; but bow and arrow kept them at a -distance. Fierce invaders had poured down the mountain passes from -Afghanistan from the end of the twelfth century and established a -Mohammedan Empire at Delhi. - -Batûta passed into Sind. At the Indian border the usual written -description of his personal appearance and the object of his visit was -sent to the Sultan. There was a system of stations at a short distance -from each other, and couriers of the Sultan went to and fro, some on -horseback, some on foot. To secure rapid transit, each courier was -provided with bells attached to a whip, so as to announce his approach -to a station and to warn the courier there to be ready to go on with -the royal despatch. - -Now, the Mohammedan Sultan of Northern India was a striking -illustration of the fact that humanity is not necessarily coupled -with generosity. Mohammed Tughlak was renowned throughout the Moslem -world for his lavish munificence; but the cold-blooded cruelty of the -despot was not less great than his bounty. Batûta not merely wished to -see India; he hoped to achieve lucrative establishment at the Moslem -Court. At Multân he found a body of adventurers, who sought to place -their talents at the service of the Sultan, and awaited his invitation -to court. Any shipwrecked sailor, even, had only to make his way to -Mohammed Tughlak to be relieved. Batûta has tales of him which we may -believe at our pleasure. The Sultan told one of his courtiers to go -to the treasury and take away as much gold as he could carry. He took -so much that he fell under its weight. The Sultan ordered the coins to -be gathered together, weighed, and sent to him. Once he had one of his -Emirs put into a balance, and gave him his weight in gold, kissing him, -and telling him to bestow alms for his soul’s welfare. He kissed the -feet of a “theologian and gatherer of traditions,” and presented him -with a golden vase filled with gold coins. - -On the way, Batûta saw one of the three brothers whom the Sheik at -Alexandria had prophesied he should meet, and found him “a man very -much broken by temptations of the devil. He would not allow any one -to touch his hand or even to draw near him; and, should anyone’s garb -chance to touch his, he washed it immediately.” On the road from -Multân to Delhi, Batûta was most hospitably received by the Emirs. But -Northern India was no more reduced to order by the Mohammedan Sultan -than by the Emperor Sîlâditya in Hiuen-Tsiang’s time. Between Multân -and Delhi, while travelling with a party of twenty-two, Batûta found -two horse and twenty foot opposing their progress. Our pilgrim was -a many-sided man, quite capable of taking his share in a fight. The -robbers lost one of their horsemen and twelve of their foot, and then -fled from the field. - -When Ibn Batûta arrived at the Moslem capital, which was ten miles to -the south of the Delhi of our day, he found that the Sultan was not -there. But great honour was done to the man whose fame as theologian, -jurist, traveller and three-fold hadji had preceded him. He was -received and entertained by the Sultan’s Mother and the Vizier, and -received a welcome present of money in return for the presents he had -brought with him. - -A month and a half after his arrival a child of one of his numerous -marriages died. She was a little less than a year old. “The vizier -gave her funeral honours as if she had been a child of high rank in -that country, with incense, rose-water, readers of the Koran, and -panegyrists. And the vizier paid all the costs thereof, giving money to -the leaders and food to the poor. This was done by the Sultan’s orders. -And the Dowager Sultana sent for the mother of the child, and gave her -valuable dresses and ornaments; which was much to her solace.” - -News now came that the Sultan was drawing near; so the vizier and -others set forth to meet him. Everybody, the adventurers in search of -employment included, bore presents to the palace, of which the sentries -at the palace-gateway took note. When the Sultan arrived, these gifts -were spread out before him, and the travellers were presented to him in -order of rank. Batûta was received with special marks of approval. The -Sultan graciously condescended to take his hand, promised to see to his -interests, and gave him cloth of gold which had adorned his own person. -Each visitor had a horse and silver-saddle sent him, and was appointed -either judge or writer. Batûta was made Judge of Delhi, with a stipend -and the rents of three villages attached to his office. When the -messengers brought news of these appointments, the new functionaries -were expected to kiss the hooves of their horses, go to the palace, and -invest themselves with their robes of office. - -Batûta gives an account of the Sultan which is confirmed by Ferishta, -the Moslem historian. Mohammed was a typical Oriental sovereign of -the first order, that is to say, a man of letters and learning, -“approachable, one of the most bountiful of men, splendid in his gifts -(where he took a fancy).” But despotism breeds tyranny, and tyranny, -brutality. “Notwithstanding his humility, justice, kindness to the -poor, and marvellous open-handedness, he was swift to shed blood. -Hardly a day went by without someone being slaughtered before the gates -of his palace. Often have I seen people suffer there, and their bodies -left where they fell. Once, as I rode up, my horse plunged and quivered -with fear. I looked ahead, and saw something white lying on the ground. -I asked what it might be. One who was with me replied: ‘it is the -trunk of a man who has been dismembered.’ It made no difference whether -the offence were great or small; the punishment ordered by the Sultan -was the same. He spared none on account of his learning, his upright -character, or his position. Daily, hundreds of prisoners were brought -to the audience-chamber, arms chained to neck, and feet pinioned. -Some were killed, some tortured, some severely beaten. He sat in his -Audience Hall every day, Fridays excepted, and had everybody in prison -brought before him. But Friday was a day of respite for them; then they -kept calm and purified themselves. - -“The Sultan had a brother. Never have I seen a finer man. The monarch -suspected that he had plotted against him. He questioned him concerning -this; and, for fear of being put to the torture, the brother made -avowal. But, in fact, whoever should deny any charge of this kind which -the Sultan might choose to make would most assuredly be put to the -torture; and death is usually chosen. The Sultan had his brother’s head -cut off in the middle of the courtyard, and, as is the custom, there -it remained three days. This man’s mother had been stoned to death in -the same place two years before; for she had confessed to adultery or -some debauchery.... On one occasion, when I was present, some men were -brought forward and charged with having conspired to kill the vizier. -They were sentenced to be thrown to the elephants. These beasts are -trained to put an end to culprits, their feet being shod with steel -with a sharp edge to it. They are guided by riders, take up their -victim with their trunks, hurl him up into the air, thrust him between -their fore-feet, and do to him just what the riders bid them, and -that is whatever the Sultan has ordered. If the command be to cut the -victims to pieces, the elephant shall do this with his tools, and then -shall cast the pieces to the crowd gathered around; but if it be to -leave him, he is flayed before the monarch, his skin stuffed with hay, -and his flesh given to dogs.” - -This genial sovereign had craftily contrived to bring about the death -of his father and a brother by the collapse of a pavilion. But the -reign of every Sultan was polluted by parricide or fratricide in the -frantic struggle for the throne. And, even more than has been the case -throughout history, all the ostentation, luxury, and culture of the -Court, the powerful, and the wealthy, was as fine meal ground from the -ear which the humble had sown and reaped. The people were crushed, -enslaved, outraged and despoiled. - -A case was brought before our judge which reveals that the trial by -ordeal, of which Hiuen-Tsiang told us, was still employed. A woman -reputed to be a _Goftar_, that is to say, a witch who could kill -anyone by a glance, was brought before Batûta on the charge of having -murdered a child. Not knowing what to do, he sent her on to the vizier, -who ordered four large water-vessels to be tied to her, and the whole -bundle to be thrown into the Jumna. Had she sunk, she would have been -deemed innocent and pulled out. Alas! she floated; so she was taken -away to be burned. - -One day, two Yogis, master and disciple, arrived at the Sultan’s court. -Their heads and armpits were bare, the hair having been removed by -means of some kind of powder. They were received with much respect; and -Batûta was treated to an exhibition of that Eastern skill in jugglery -which astonished all ancient travellers. The disciple assumed the -shape of a cube, rose in the air, and floated over the heads of the -spectators. Our judge was so frightened at this uncanny trick that he -fainted. When he came to, the disciple was still up above his head. The -head-conjurer then cast a sandal to the ground. It rebounded, hit the -cube, which descended, and lo! there was the disciple again. Batûta’s -heart beat at such a rate that the Sultan ordered a powerful drug to be -given him, and told him that he should have been shewn more astounding -things, but that he feared for his wits. Probably, however the illusion -was produced, our traveller saw something very much like what he -describes. Marco Polo and other old travellers tell of the astounding -feats they saw, and Jehangir, fourth in succession of the Great Moguls, -devotes several pages of his diary to a careful record of many similar -marvels which he would seem to have observed closely.[9] We shall hear -of something stranger yet, which befel Batûta in China. - -Our new-made judge was not only a restless being, but one possessed -by an immoderate desire to do things on a big scale. His qualities -were exaggerate, and a virtue tended to swell into an iniquity. One -pious pilgrimage to the Holy Places did not suffice him: he must visit -them again and again. We shall see how fully he availed himself of -the liberty in marriage, divorce, and concubinage accorded by his -creed. Egoism was a strong element in his character. He could not set -bounds to his expenditure. In a word, he borders on megalomania. In a -short time, his debts are four and a half times his total income. His -excuse is that he was ordered to attend the Sultan in an expedition -to put down an insurrection. Many servants are required in India; but -his retinue was immense. He was ingenious enough to escape from his -difficulties. Mohammed Tughlak plumed himself on his real or supposed -proficiency in Persian and Arabic and on his patronage of letters. -Batûta went to him with a panegyric in Arabic so adroitly expressed -that he charmed His Majesty. Then Batûta laid bare his distress. -The Sultan paid his debts and dismissed him with the same warning -which Mr. Micawber gave David Copperfield. The judge was excused -from accompanying his Master, and was given charge of a tomb and the -theological college attached to it. - -Encouraged by the Sultan’s liberality, perhaps incited by his example -in prodigality, and untaught by his recent dilemma, he arranges -everything on a stupendous scale. “I set up 150 readers of the Koran, -80 students, 8 repeaters, a lecturer, 80 conventuals, an imam, -muezzins, reciters selected for their fine rendering, eulogists, -scribes to note down absentees, and ushers. All of these were men -of breeding. And I set up an establishment of menials; such as -footmen, cooks, messengers, water carriers, betel-servers, swordsmen, -javelin-men, umbrella-carriers, hand-washers, criers, and other -officials—460 of them, all told. The Sultan commanded me to supply -12 measures of meal and an equal quantity of meat daily at the tomb. -This seemed to me a pitifully small amount.... I made it 35 measures of -meal, and 35 of meat, and sugar, sugar-candy, butter, and fawfel-nut in -due proportion. Thereby I fed all comers.” - -There was some excuse for the expenditure on food. Famine is the -recurrent curse of countries with imperfect means of transport, and -“the land suffered from famine at this time. Thus suffering was -relieved; and fame of it borne afar.” But Batûta does not conceal his -having used money which his friends lent him during his stay at Delhi. -Indeed he vilifies them for expecting him to return any part of it. He -tells his tale in the tone of a man who believes himself to have been -treated ungenerously and unjustly. - -Later on in his narrative, he has occasion to refer to the fact that -at some time during the few years of his residence at Delhi he added -to the number of his wives by marrying the daughter of the Emir of -Mobar, in Southern India. “She was a religious woman, who would spend -the whole night in meditation and prayer. She could read, but not -write. She bore me a female child; but what is become of either of -them is beyond my ken.” The indelicacy of the dress of women in Delhi -shocked him: “they merely cover the face, and the body from the navel -downwards only.” He tried to get them to robe themselves completely, -and failed. - - “How wretched - Is that poor man who hangs on princes’ favours!” - -It seems that the capricious Sultan had placed much confidence in a -certain holy man; but suspicion of the sheik’s fidelity was aroused, -and spies were set to take note of his visitors. Among his friends and -visitors was Batûta. Everybody on the list was ordered to appear at the -fatal portal. Batûta thought his last hour had come and betook himself -to his prayers; he repeated “God is our succour and exceeding help” no -less than 33,000 times in a single day; he fasted for four days, taking -nothing but water and expecting the executioners every moment. He alone -escaped the fatal scimitar. - -He had seen enough of Imperial caprice to know that respite was not -security, or innocence a lasting defence. He resigned his office and -went to a worker of miracles, “the saint and phœnix of his time,” who -was one of his friends. He gave all that he possessed to holy men; put -on the robe of an ascetic, and ate nothing but rice. But the blindfold -goddess had him on her wheel, and was to give it many a turn yet. Five -months passed, and then the Sultan sent for him and gave him a gracious -reception. But he deemed it wise to return to his rigorous life, and -was more severe in it than before. Yet forty more days passed, and then -the Sultan again commanded his presence. - -There was now a much greater trade with China than in the time of -Hiuen-Tsiang. An Embassy, headed by a high mandarin, had come from -China (A.D. 1342) with presents of 100 male slaves, 50 slave-girls, -rich dresses, quivers of gold, and jewelled swords. In a certain -lower reach of the Himalaya was a plain which had been overrun by the -Moslem conquerors. Once a Buddhist temple stood there; and Chinese -pilgrims were wont to journey across Thibet to pray at the sacred spot. -Moreover the inhabitants of the district were cut off from their -wonted toil in Thibetan fields beyond the border. The place was secured -by Nature from any attack from the North; and the Great Khân of China -begged that restrictions should be removed and permission given for -the temple to be rebuilt. The Sultan was willing to grant the request -on certain pecuniary conditions, but he cast about for some one to -accompany the returning embassy and represent him at the Chinese Court. -Who so suitable as Batûta, a man of the world, experienced in travel, -highly educated, and sharp-witted? His innocence was established. Such -a degree of asceticism, so long endured, was proof of piety. The Sultan -ordered him to go. The garb of the ascetic was thrown off. He would -feel more secure in China than at Delhi. - - - - -CHAPTER VII - -PERILS BY LAND AND SEA - - -Our ambassador sets off with the returning mission attended by two -favourites of the Sultan, and a guard of 1,000 horse. He has charge of -gifts which far surpass the Chinese presents—100 horses of the best -breed, richly caparisoned, 100 Hindu singing and dancing girls, robes -of rich brocade, jewelled arms, instruments of gold and silver, silks -and stuffs, and 1,700 rich dresses. - -He has not travelled 100 miles from Delhi when he finds a district in -revolt against the Mohammedan conquerors. The Hindus are besieging a -city; the cavalry attending the embassy rushes at the investing forces, -loses many men, but leaves not an enemy alive. The news is sent to -the Sultan, and a halt is made for his instructions to arrive. Batûta -is sitting in the grateful shade of a garden when word comes that a -fresh body of Hindus is attacking a village hard by. He rides off with -an escort to see how he may help. The insurgents are already fleeing -from a hot pursuit, and he finds himself left with only five others -and a few mounted men. His horse gets its fore-feet wedged between -some stones, and he has to dismount; his companions ride off, and he -finds himself alone. Suddenly, two score of the enemy’s horse appear -and ride at him. He is stripped to the skin, bound, and threatened -with death. He is unable to talk the language of his captors, is kept -a captive during two days, and then they ride away. He shuffles off -to a neighbouring jungle, and hides there. He cautiously tries every -foot-track to find that not one of them but leads to some enemy village -or to some village in ruins. He keeps himself alive by sucking wild -fruit and chewing leaves. Seven days have passed, and he is quite -exhausted, when he sees “a black man, carrying a small water-vessel -and walking by aid of an iron-tipped staff.” The man is a Mohammedan, -and gives him water and pulse, which he has with him. Batûta tries -to walk with him; but he is too weak and faint; his feet totter, -and he falls to the ground. The “black man” throws him across his -shoulders; all consciousness is lost, and he comes to himself at the -Imperial gateway one daybreak, the East aglow with the rising sun. That -good Samaritan, the “black man,” stands out in bright relief from a -background of crime and cruelty and shadows of feet swift to shed blood. - -Mohammed Tughlak received Batûta more kindly than ever, gave him -handsome compensation, and commanded him to return to the Embassy. On -his way to Cambay, we hear more of Yogi magicians and how they will -remain long time without food. “I have seen, in the city of Mangalore, -a Moslem who had learned of these folk. A sort of platform was set -up for him; and thereon he had stayed 25 days, neither eating nor -drinking. Thus did I leave him; and I know not how long he kept there -afterwards. It is said that they make up pills, and, after swallowing -one of them, can do without food or drink. They foretell hidden things. -The Sultan honours them and admits them to his society. Some among -them eat vegetable food only; and these are the greater number. There -are among them those who can slay a man by a glance at him. The common -people hold that, if the chest of the dead man be opened, no heart is -to be found within; for it has been consumed. Women do this in the -main, and such an one is called a hyæna.” - -Batûta’s chief interest was in Islam; but he noted natural products -carefully and was alive to the odd. North of the Hindu Kûsh he had seen -a woefully obese man; and now, on this 1,500 mile journey to Calicut, -he came across the ruler of a small State, “a black giant,” who thought -little of devouring a whole sheep at a sitting. - -He took ship near Goa, and the craft ran along the Malabar coast, “the -land of black pepper.” Twelve kinglets ruled as many states in Malabar -at that time, and each king had an army of from 5,000 to 50,000 men at -his command. Many ancient polyandric practices were retained; which -explains why each Râja was succeeded by a sisters’ son. No landing was -made until a king’s son had been handed over as a pledge of safety. -Many Arab traders had settled in the ports, and become wealthy. -Punishment, swift and severe, followed on the smallest infringement of -_meum_ and _tuum_. We are told how a Hindu noble, out riding with his -father-in-law, who was no less a personage than the Râja, picked up a -mango which had dropped from an overhanging tree. The Râja ordered that -both he and the mango should be cut into two halves, and half of the -mango and half of the culprit laid on either side of the public way -precisely where the enormity had been done. One may suspect that the -son-in-law was not wholly _persona grata_ to the despot. - -The Embassy had to tide over three months at Calicut awaiting the -season for the sailing of the fleet of junks from China. There were -thirteen of them at Calicut, and they also traded to Hili and Quilon. -He tells us that the biggest junks were as floating cities. They would -carry a crew of 1,000 men, whereof 400 were soldiers. The junk was -worked by oars and sails of bamboo-matting, slung from masts varying -in number from three to twelve, according to the size of the junk. Ten -to thirty men stood to pull at each oar. Garden-herbs and ginger were -grown on deck, and on it, too, were houses built for the chief officers -and their wives. The quarters of the junk were three-fold, fastened -together by spikes. Each junk of the biggest size was accompanied by -three tenders of progressively diminishing proportions. Needless to -say, the commander of a junk was a very important functionary. Often -more than one junk would be owned by a single Chinaman. But then, -“truly the Chinese are the wealthiest people on earth.” - -Our ambassador sent his servants, slave-girls and baggage on board; but -the cabin was too small to hold both concubines and luggage; so the -skipper advised him to hire a _kakam_ or junk of the third size. This -he did on a Thursday, the _kakam_ took in its cargo, and he remained on -shore the next day for public worship. - -During the night, the terror of the sea fell on them all. A violent -storm came on, and the waters shook the land. Some of the junks -contrived to get away from the perilous neighbourhood of the shore -to more open water; but one of them was wrecked, and only a few -swimmers managed to escape. The _kakam_, with all his worldly goods -and slave-concubines in it, had disappeared; but it had been seen -making for the open. The body of an envoy was washed ashore, with the -skull smashed in. A guardian Eunuch was also cast up, a nail driven -right through the brain from temple to temple. Down came the Zamorin -to the scene of disaster, Comedy attendant on Tragedy, for he braved -the tempest clad with a loin-cloth, the scantiest of head-gear, and -a necklace of jewels, but the insignium of royalty, the umbrella, -was somehow held up over his sacred head. Batûta cast himself on his -prostration-carpet, which was all that was left to him, excepting ten -pieces of gold and his servant, a freed slave, who immediately made -off. Some pious people gave him small coin, which he kept as treasure, -for it would bring blessing with it. - -We are told of the noble deed of a simple Moslem sailor during this -great storm. “There was a girl on board who was the favourite of a -merchant. The merchant offered ten pieces of gold to anyone who should -save her. A sailor, hailing from Hormuz, did save her; but he refused -the reward, saying, ‘I did it for the love of God.’” - -The junk which held the precious gifts for China was seen to go down -outside the port; and Batûta heard that the little boat which held all -his slave-concubines and worldly goods had contrived to gain the open -sea, and might conceivably put in at Quilon. He set off at once, and -arrived there after a ten days’ journey. He found the Chinese Embassy -there. They had suffered shipwreck, but their junk had not broken up -and was being refitted. - -It did not require the advice proferred him by his co-religionists to -deter him from returning to the capricious, passionate lord of Delhi. -He bethought him of Jamâl Oddîn, ruler of Honowar, a man of sense and -understanding, whom he had visited on his way to Calicut. It casts a -pleasant ray on the Mohammedan occupation of India, that there were -no fewer than 44 schools set up in the busy little capital of a small -State, and that of these no fewer than 11 were for girls. Now Jamâl -Oddîn knew the uncertain temper of the Lord of India quite as well -as Batûta, and did not give him too hearty a welcome. So to appease -offended Heaven, or to rehabilitate himself by an evidence of piety, -he repaired to a mosque and read the Koran from end to end once, and -ultimately twice, a day. Now, there were 52 ships being fitted out to -attack the island of Sindâbûr; and Jamâl evidently thought that Batûta -might prove useful, for he commanded him to accompany him on this -expedition. Batûta tried to read the future by a time-honoured method -of divination. He opened the Koran at random, and his eye fell on a -promise of Allah to aid his servant. This was satisfactory to Jamâl -Oddîn as well as to himself. - -After strenuous resistance Sindâbûr was carried by assault, and Batûta, -who was something of a warrior, received a slave-girl, clothing and -other presents from his patron. He remained on the island with Jamâl -Oddîn for some months, and then got permission to go to Calicut. For -the Chinese fleet would be returning to India by this time, and he -might get news of his little junk. At Calicut, he learned that his -_kakam_ had reached China, that his property had been divided up, and -that his pretty concubine had died on the voyage. “I felt very much -grief for her.” He went back to the island to find the city besieged -by Hindus. - -Now he had heard marvellous things concerning the Maldives, an -archipelago of small islands lying S.S.E. of India, near the equator. -The inhabitants, under British rule to-day, had accepted Islam. He -found that before he or anyone was allowed to land he must show himself -on deck; “for although the islands are multitudinous, each lies close -to its neighbour, and folk knew one another by sight.” He speaks of -the inhabitants as “pious, peaceable, and chaste. They never wage war. -Prayers are their only weapons. Indian pirates do not alarm them; nor -do they punish robbers; for they have learned that sudden and grievous -ill will come to evil-doers. When any of the pirate-ships of infidel -Hindus pass by these islands, whatsoever is found is taken, nor will -anyone stand out.” But, in spite of the moral reflection indulged in by -the islanders, Batûta traces their policy of non-resistance to physical -feebleness. And “there is one exception to it. Should a single lemon be -taken woe befals the offender. He is punished and forced to listen to -a homily. The natives delight in perfumes and in bathing twice a day, -which the heat forces them to do; yet trees give delicious shade. Their -trade is in ropes, which they make of hemp, and which are used for -sewing together the timbers of ships of India and Yemen; for if a ship -strike against a rock, the hemp allows of its yielding, and so saves it -from going to pieces, which is not the case when iron nails are used. -Shells are used for coin, and palm-leaves are used for all writing, -except for copying out the Koran; and the instrument used has a sharp -point.” - -Batûta sailed among these islands during ten days, and took up his -abode on one, the sovereign of which was a woman. For the lady’s -husband had died, leaving no male issue; so she married her vizier who, -in reality, ruled. Batûta took the full license accorded in Islam. -He married the four legal wives permitted, and took to himself some -concubines also, “all pleasant in conversation and of great beauty.” -He must have divorced his previous wives before being able to do this. -Marriage in the Maldive Islands was facile and cheap. Only a small -dowry was demanded for a handsome woman; but it was required that -the stranger should divorce the wife on leaving the land, and by no -means take her with him. But, should he not desire to marry, there -was no difficulty in getting a woman to cook for him at a very small -wage. Wives were less companionable here than in most parts of the -world, since women and men took their meals apart; nor could Batûta -get his women-folk to break the custom of their country—a custom -which Varthema speaks of, nearly two centuries later, as obtaining in -South West India. Batûta had been appointed judge, and another thing -that troubled him was the irregular attendance of the lax Moslems -of his island at the mosque. He was very eager that such flagrant -non-observance of religious duty should be duly punished; and he urged -that the best way would be literally to whip the recalcitrants to -attend on public worship. - -Now Batûta’s wives had powerful relatives. The sister of one of his -wives at Delhi was wife to the Emir of Mobar; to whom, therefore, -Batûta was doubly related. He had become a power in his island, and the -vizier grew jealous and suspicious. Might not the stranger conspire to -bring an army over from the coast of Coromandel? When Batûta saw what -was going on, he acted at once. “I divorced all my wives,” he says, -“save one, who had a young child, and I went on to other islands of -that great multitude of them.” From one of these, he shipped for Mobar; -but the wind changed, and he was driven to the coast of Ceylon and in -no small danger of drowning. The governor of the port came sailing -by, and refused a landing; for he was no friend to Moslem skippers. -Batûta won him over by telling him that he was on his way to visit -the Sovereign of Mobar, that he was related to him by marriage, and -that the whole cargo of the ship was intended as a present for that -potentate. The Ceylonese Râja of the district was on good terms with -his Moslem brother of Mobar, so Batûta was allowed to land. He found, -like Marco Polo, that Ceylon was divided among four kinglets. He of the -district soon sent for him, and gave him hospitality. He admired the -famous herds of elephants, the troups of chattering monkeys, the pool -of precious stones, and the luxuriant vegetation and glorious scenery -of Ceylon. He scaled that iron chain, which still exists, to reach the -top of Adam’s peak, and gives us the measure of the print of Adam’s -foot, on hard rock; for in Ceylon, as elsewhere, supernatural vestiges -are to be found. He visited Colombo and several other places in the -island, and then set sail for the coast of Coromandel. - -But, while crossing the strait, “the wind blew strong, and the ship -was nearly swamped. Our skipper was a lubber. We were driven near -perilous rocks, and barely escaped going to pieces; and then we got -into shallow water. Our ship grated against the bottom, and we were -face to face with death. Those on board threw all that they had into -the sea, and bade farewell to one another. We cut down the mast and -cast it onto the sea, and the sailors made a raft. The beach was eight -miles off. I wanted to get down to the raft. I had two concubines and -two friends with me. These latter exclaimed: ‘would you get down and -leave us?’ I had more regard to their safety than to my own; so I -answered: ‘Get down, both of you, and the young girl whom I love with -you.’ My other young girl said: ‘I can swim. I will fix ropes to the -raft and swim alongside these people.’ My two comrades got down, one of -the young girls being with them; and the other swam. The sailors tied -ropes to the raft, and so helped her to swim. I gave them whatever of -value I had in the way of jewels, amber, and other goods. They got to -shore safe and sound, for the wind was in their favour. But I stayed -aboard the ship. The skipper got to shore on a plank. The sailors took -the building of four rafts in hand; but night came on before they had -finished, and the ship was filling. I got up on the poop, and remained -there until morning. Then several idolaters came to us in their barque. -And we got safe to land.” - -His connexion, the Emir, received him warmly. This potentate was about -to attack a Hindu Power; and, while he was away on this expedition, -Batûta travelled about. He tells us that he came across a fakir with -long hair, who sat and ate in the society of seven foxes, and who -kept a “happy family”—a gazelle and a lion together. The Emir was -a ruthless tyrant, butchering women and children. Yet Batûta had no -scruple in proposing a scheme to him for the conquest of the Maldives, -where he had received so much kindness, and where he had left wives and -paramours. But pestilence came and swept away most of the inhabitants -of the district, including the Emir. The new ruler wanted to carry out -the scheme for occupying the Maldives; but Batûta got fever badly, and -very nearly died. When sufficiently recovered, he received permission -to recuperate his energies by taking the long voyage round Cape Comorin -to Honawar, where he wished to meet his old friend, Jamâl Oddîn, -again. But, from time immemorial, the sea had been a no-mans province, -infested by pirates; and the calling, continuous or accidental, of -sea-thief was then as honourable as it was ancient. His ship was -attacked by twelve Hindu craft, and taken after a severe battle. Batûta -was stripped of his jewels and all his belongings, and set on shore -with a pair of breeches on. He lost the notes of his travels with his -other belongings. Out of the way of direct business, the robbers could -be merciful, and there was no reason why they should take his life. He -made his painful way to Calicut, and put up at a mosque—always the -asylum of the indigent. Some of the lawyers and traders here had known -him at Delhi. They clothed, fed, and housed him. What was he to do? He -dared not return to Delhi. A son had been borne to him by a Maldive -wife. He had a desire to see the child. The vizier was dead; but the -queen had married again, and he wondered what sort of reception he -should get. Paternal tenderness prevailed: “I went there on account of -my little son; but when I had seen him, I left him with his mother, -out of kindness to her.” He was hospitably entertained, but stayed a -very few days. The new vizier furnished him with those provisions which -every traveller by sea must purchase for himself and carry with him in -the fourteenth century; and he set sail for Bengal, where he arrived -after 43 days at sea (A.D. 1341). - - - - -CHAPTER VIII - -OFF TO MALAYSIA AND CATHAY - - -Batûta speaks of Bengal as the land of plenty. Everything was cheaper -there than anywhere else in the wide world. He picked up a very -beautiful slave-girl for a trifle. But the muggy climate made Bengal -“a hell full of good things.” The Sultan was in revolt against his -lord-paramount at Delhi; and as Batûta was a prudent person, held -Mohammed Tughlak in wholesome awe, and could not predict the issue of -the contest, he did not visit the Bengalese Court. He went up to the -hill-country, half-way to the Himalayan giants, instead; for he desired -to see an aged holy man who dwelt there, one who was reported to take -no food excepting a little milk, and that only every ten days, and to -sit upright all night. This old sheik was a seer, and foretold events -which should befall his guest and which he declares really happened. -Batûta was proud to be justly hailed as “the greatest traveller of all -the Arabs.” He returned from the hills to visit a city not far from -modern Dacca. - -We next find him on the Indian Ocean, standing off the Nicobar -Islands, probably because his ship needed a fresh supply of water. The -inhabitants were fearful of strangers, would not allow any ship to sail -in front of their houses, had the fresh water required brought down to -the shore by elephants, and traded by signs; for nobody could speak -their language. The men went about naked, and the women wore a girdle -of leaves only. All were remarkable for the ugliness of their dog-like -faces. Batûta was told that a man might be the husband of 30 or more of -these beauties. Adultery was severely punished, the male offender being -hanged, unless he could find a friend or a slave willing to suffer -in his place; the woman being trampled to death and her body cast -into the sea. The king came down to the beach with an escort of his -relatives, all mounted on elephants. He wore a coloured silk turban and -a goat-skin tunic, with the hair turned outwards, and he bore a short -silver spear in his hand. The usual gifts were presented in dumb-show. -“These folk work magic on any ship that withholds presents; and it is -wrecked.” - -Moslem traders called any part of the Malaysian Archipelago, Java; but -the port to which our traveller next came was really in Sumatra. The -Emir of the Mohammedan sovereign received the visitors with customary -Eastern munificence and gave them rich dresses. Our traveller speaks -highly of the Sultan as being a cultivated man who loved the society -of the learned and enjoyed discussion with them. A modern writer says -that the humblest man he ever knew was a duke, and Batûta might have -said the same of some rulers. The humility of the Sultan of Sumatra was -so great that he walked to prayers every Friday! Batûta took a long -journey inland, and tells us of frankincense, clove, nutmeg, mace, -and other products of Sumatra, and of how a man is sacrificed by the -natives at the foot of the camphor-tree to ensure its good bearing. - -He was eager to reach China—that land of strange ways and peculiar -civilization in Farthest East. The complaisant Sultan gave him passage -in one of his own junks, provided him with stores for the voyage, and -ordered a guide-interpreter to attend on him. In three and a half -weeks, he came to a place which he calls Kakula, and which may have -been on the mainland. Here he was well received by the pagan king, and -chanced to be present at a curious proof of devotion to royalty. “One -day, a man made a long speech, not one word of which I understood. He -held a knife in his hand, which he grasped firmly, and cut off his -own head, and it fell to the ground.” This sounds incredible; but it -is a fact. The feat was done by means of apparatus. A sickleshaped -knife was attached to a stirrup. The suicide placed his foot in the -latter, gave it a sharp jerk, and the knife shore off his head. Our -traveller was told that the deed was done to make manifest the great -loyalty of the victim, and that his father and grandfather had made the -same praiseworthy exit from life in honour of the king’s father and -grandfather. Their families received compensation from the kings. A -similar case of self-execution was authentically recorded in the last -century. - -The Eastern Ocean was so calm that the junk had to be towed by boats. -Marco Polo had the same experience in these seas. Batûta touched at -Kailiki, a port of Tawalisi, probably Tonquin; but no one is quite sure -where this land lay. Even the Sulu Islands have been suggested! The -king was as powerful as the Emperor of China. His people were idolaters -after the manner of the Turks, and Batûta reports a conversation with -his Amazonian daughter, introducing a few words of their language. This -princess could write, but not speak Arabic. Some discredit has been -thrown on this part of his narrative, mainly on the ground of language, -but also because what he has to say about her recalls very ancient -classical stories. But we must recollect that Batûta is relying on -his memory at a time when the events belonged to a far-distant past; -that his work was dictated; and that it was edited by the Secretary to -the Sultan of Fez. He confesses that he did not understand very well -what the princess said to him. And the language she spoke may have -struck him as like Turkish in sound, and hence is given in some sort of -imitation of that tongue. The more one studies ancient travellers and -pilgrims the more assured one becomes of their essential sincerity and -the general accuracy of their observation. We know very little indeed -about the Nomadic penetration of the Far East. That this princess -was able to write a little Arabic, would seem to show that there was -considerable Arab trade with Tawalisi. - -This lady was governor of the port, a post which her father had given -her as the reward of her powers in battle. For, once, when her father’s -army was on the point of defeat, she routed the enemy, and brought back -the head of their leader. She commanded an army, whereof one regiment -was of women. Neighbouring princes had wished to marry her, but had -withdrawn their pretensions; for she insisted that first they should -overcome her in the lists; and they were afraid of the ignominy of -being vanquished by a woman. She was amazed at the wealth of India, and -said to Batûta: “I must conquer it for myself.” - -Favourable winds and strenuous use of the oar brought the junk to -China. He found that he had to pass through a stringent customs-house; -and that a register was taken of all who left or arrived at a Chinese -port. The captain was held responsible for his crew and passengers, -and to this end an official list was essential. Should the traveller -elect to stay with some other trader, his host took care of his money -and goods, but was bound to return them at the close of the visit, with -a deduction for necessary expenditure. Any deficiency must be made -good. But the trader might, if he chose, put up at an inn. Batûta was -surprised to find paper-currency. He admired the big poultry; but not -the dirty cotton-clothes of the Chinese, nor their relish for the flesh -of dogs and swine. As in Hiuen-Tsiang’s time, they burned their dead. -A portrait of every traveller was taken without his knowing it, and -thus, should an evil-doer try to escape from justice from one province -to another, he was readily discovered. There were many Moslem traders -in China; most of these had settled there; and Jews had found a home in -China for eleven centuries. - -Travelling in China was “safer and more agreeable than in any other -land on earth. Although it takes nine months to cross this country, one -need have no fear on the journey, even though one should have wealth in -one’s care. There is an official with troops, both horse and foot, at -each hostelry to keep matters in order. This official, accompanied by -his scribe, comes to the hostelry every evening; and the scribe writes -down the name of every guest, seals up the list, and locks the door. -They come again in the morning and go over the list and the inmates; -and a man goes with the travellers to the next hostelry and returns to -the officer with proof that they have arrived.... The traveller can buy -all he needs at these inns.” - -Batûta visited the great port of Zaitun (Touen-chow), whence, among -other manufactures, “clothes of gold and _satyns_ riche of hewe”[10] -were shipped. Perhaps there was no port in the world with so big a -trade as Zaitun. Batûta thought so: “The harbour is one of the greatest -on the earth—I err—it is the greatest. There I have seen an hundred -junks of the biggest size at one time, and more smaller ones than could -be numbered.... Here, as in every Chinese city, every citizen has a -garden and a field, and his house stands in the middle of the land he -owns. For this reason, the cities of China are very much spread out.” -At Zaitun, he had the good fortune to meet, in the Moslem quarter, the -ambassador who had been sent to Delhi; and now great folk began to make -his acquaintance. Among his visitors was “one of the merchants to whom -I owed money when I ran into debt on my arrival in India, and who had -shown more breeding than the rest of my creditors.” The Head Mandarin -wrote to the Emperor to ask permission for the traveller to visit him -at his capital; and, while awaiting a reply, allowed him to travel by -water-way far inland from Canton, and provided him with an escort. At -Canton, he found temple-hospitals for widows and orphans, the blind, -crippled, and infirm. - -He tells how the sailors stood up amidship to row, and the passengers -sat fore and aft. He visited one of those wonderful saints who claimed -incredible years. The holy man told him that he was one of the saints -whom he had visited in India. This man had the reputation of being able -to induce visions. Possibly he united the qualifications of skilled -hypnotist and skilled liar. - -When our traveller returned to Canton he received permission to visit -the capital. He journeyed many days by land and along the Imperial -Canal. He speaks rapturously of the fertility and charm of the country -he passed through. Everywhere he was treated with the deepest respect. -But there was a drawback: everywhere Paganism was flourishing. He met -a fellow-believer, the brother of one of the seers of Egypt, a man -greatly esteemed by the Chinese, and later on one particular prophesy -was completely fulfilled, for he came across another brother, whom it -was also foretold he should meet, on the borders of Sahara. - -While attending the court of the viceroy at Hang-chow, he was -eye-witness to a remarkable feat, of which he gives as circumstantial -an account as one would expect to get from a man of the fourteenth -century. “It was in the hot season, and we were in the courtyard -outside the palace. A juggler, a slave of the Khân, came in, and the -Emir commanded him to show some of his marvels. Thereupon the juggler -took a wooden bowl with several holes made in it, and through these -holes long thongs were passed. He laid hold of these thongs, and threw -the bowl up into the air. It went so high that we could no longer -see it. There was only a little of the end of the thong left in the -juggler’s hand. He ordered one of his boy helpers to lay hold of it and -mount. The boy climbed up the thong, and he also went out of sight. -The juggler called him three times; but no reply came; so he seemed -to get into a great rage, snatched up a knife, and laid hold of the -thong; and he also was no longer to be seen. After a time, down came -one of the boy’s hands, then a foot, than the other hand, then the -other foot, then the trunk, and, lastly, the head. And now, down came -the juggler, panting, and his clothes in a bloody state. He kissed the -ground in front of the Emir and said something to him in Chinese. The -Emir gave him some order, and he then took up the severed parts, laid -them together properly, gave a kick, and behold! the boy got up and was -before us again. I was so astounded that my heart beat violently, as it -did when the Sultan of India had a similar trick done before me. A drug -was given me, which set me right again. The Khazi Alfkaouddîn was next -to me. ‘By Allah!’ said he, ‘as for me I believe there has been neither -going up nor coming down, nor cutting to pieces, nor making the boy -whole again. It is nothing but trickery.’” - -We must not forget that Batûta was more than inclined to superstition, -that he was very perturbed by what he saw, or thought he saw, that the -“magician” had boys with him, who probably assisted in this trick, -and that it is part of the conjurer’s art to divert the attention of -spectators while in the actual performance of his feats. And the event -was reduced to writing years after it was observed. Moreover, one of -the earlier investigations of the Society for Psychical Research shewed -that, on an occasion when a clever amateur conjurer, not known to be -such, invited highly educated and observant witnesses to a supposed -spiritualistic séance, and received their accounts of what they -believed themselves to have seen, written independently of each other -and immediately after the event, “not one of the detailed reports is -accurate throughout, and scarcely one of them is accurate in even all -the points of importance.”[11] But we have it on the authority of the -Professor of Chinese at Cambridge that P’u Sung-ling, the author of the -Liao Chai, relates having seen the complete trick, as Batûta describes -it, in the seventeenth century,[12] except that, in this case, the -boy came out of a box. These are, perhaps, the most remarkable of many -similar mystifications, some of them related by quite respectable -witnesses, from the 13th century down to our own time.[13] - -He tells us of the excellent workmanship of Chinese artisans, and -how they worked in chains for a period of ten years. At the end of -that time, they were free to go about in China, but not to leave the -frontiers. At 50, they became absolutely free men, and were maintained -at the public cost, old age pensioners, in fact, in this early -fourteenth century. And the pension was not merely given to these -slave-workers, but to nearly all Chinese. - -He admired the gay life on the canal, crowded with the boat-houses -of the people—a teeming happy population, dressed in bright colours, -and pelting one another in pure fun with oranges and lemons. Hang-chow -had within its great encircling wall six towns, each guarded by walls. -At Khaniku or Khanbalik (Pekin?) he was present at the obsequies of a -great dignitary, whom he believed to be the Tartar Emperor; but that -was not so, for the Emperor, who had ascended the throne 14 years -before Batûta’s arrival, reigned 21 years after his departure. But -he certainly was present at the funeral of some great Tartar; for -his account of the interment of the Tartar dignitaries of China is -confirmed by at least one other early traveller. He tells us of how the -dead man’s concubines and horses were buried with him, alive, in the -same grave. He relates, not very correctly, the ceremonies observed at -the court of the Emperor. Apparently his recollection becomes confused -with that of the court-usage at Delhi and Yemen. In any case, it is -possible that he only had an interview with some viceroy, concerning -whom he was misinformed or somehow mistook him for the supreme Khân. - -A revolt against Tartar rule took place about this time, so Batûta -thought it prudent to leave China. He embarked on a junk which belonged -to the King of Sumatra, whom he had visited on his way out, and “whose -servants are Mohammedans.” On the voyage the junk laboured through -a terrific storm. The mirage of a big mountain was also seen. The -sailors took this for the fabled roc, with which the _Arabian Nights -Entertainment_ made our Childhood acquainted. - -He remained in Sumatra three months, the guest of the monarch who had -before entertained him; and was fortunate in witnessing the nuptials -of the heir-apparent. First came dancers and merry minstrelsy; then -the bride, conducted from the apartments of the women by forty richly -adorned ladies, who carried her train. For this high occasion, they -had removed their veils. The bride went up on a platform; and the -bridegroom rode up, in all the pride of armour, of a stately elephant, -and of his own self-importance. One hundred youths of quality, -beardless like himself, attended him on horseback. They were clad in -white, their caps being a glitter of gold and jewels. Largess was -scattered among the crowd. The prince now went up to his father, kissed -his foot, and ascended the platform. Then the bride rose and kissed her -groom’s hand; he sat beside her, and he and she put betel and fawfel -into one another’s mouth. Then the covering of the platform was let -down, and the whole structure, with bride and bridegroom on it, was -carried into the palace. Finally, a feast was given to the crowd. - -From Sumatra, Batûta voyaged in a junk to the Malabar coast of -Southern India, and thence sailed to Arabian Zafar (A.D. 1347), both -well-remembered places, coasted to Hormuz, wandered over the Two Iraks -(Persia and Mesopotamia) once again; made across Asia Minor to Tadmor -and as far north as Aleppo. At Damascus he got the first news of home -he had received during his wanderings; his father had lain fourteen -years in his quiet grave at Tangier. The Black Death was raging at -Damascus. It slew twenty-four hundred of the inhabitants in a single -day. So Batûta made his way to Egypt through Syria and Palestine, and -went on to Mecca by way of the Red Sea and Jidda. This was the fourth -of his pilgrimages. On his return to Cairo, he found the Black Death -wasting the population. Mocking, lethal, invisible, this awful plague -was rapidly sweeping westward and destroying whole families. Agnolo -da Tura of Siena tells us that he had to bury five of his sons in the -same grave with his own hands, and that his was no exceptional case. -Batûta left Cairo for Jerusalem and returned from Palestine to Egypt by -sea. He now felt a desire to see his native land again. He took ship to -Sardinia, and, wishing to see the island, let the vessel he had voyaged -in go to Tunis. He was lucky, for it was taken by Christians. He -managed to reach Tunis in another ship, and got to Fez overland on Nov. -8th, 1349; having been on his travels nearly a quarter of a century. He -presented himself before the Sultan, and was received as was befitting -so pious a pilgrim and distinguished a traveller. - - - - -CHAPTER IX - -MOORS OF SPAIN AND NEGROES OF TIMBUKTU - - -But Batûta’s travels were by no means at an end. He made a filial -visit to the place where earth that “makes all sweet” had closed on -his father’s history. Once at Tangier, the temptation was strong to -cross the Straits and visit the shrinking Moslem dominion in Spain. He -landed where his compatriots had landed to conquer the Peninsula—at -Gibraltar (Jabal Tarik, the Hill of Victory). He saw a cousin by his -mother’s side, who had settled here; ran all over Moorish Andalusia, -visiting renowned cities that still remained in Mohammedan hands; and -came to lordly Grenada, where the Alhambra must have been nearing its -completion. He returned to Fez by way of Ceuta. - -His energy was unabated; his thirst for travel unquenched; he could not -settle down. In February, 1352, he is off again; this time for Central -Africa. At Tafilelt, on the borders of Sahara, he meets another brother -of the Sheik at Alexandria; and so another prophecy is fulfilled. In -mid-Sahara, he finds an oasis with a “village on it where there is -nothing good. The mosque and the houses are built of blocks of salt and -are covered with camel hide. There is no tree, for the soil is pure -sand; but there are mines of salt.” He had dropped on those dwellings -of rock-salt of which Herodotus wrote seventeen hundred years before -him. But only the underlings of traders abode there; and dates and -camel’s flesh were their fare. Here was the salt-supply for the wild -tribes of Sahara. They cut the blocks of it into a certain shape and -used this as money. The caravan with which Batûta travelled suffered -severely here from the vileness of the water. - -When Tashala was reached, the caravan rested three days to make ready -for a vast and solitary tract of desert “where there is no water, nor -is bird or tree to be seen, only sand and hills of sand, blown about by -the wind in such wise that not the smallest vestige of a track remains. -Wherefore, no one can travel without guides from among the traders; -but of these there are many. The sunlight there is blinding.... Evil -spirits have their will of that man who shall travel by himself. They -enchant him, so that he wanders wide of his path, and there he comes to -his end.” - -A long journey across this great waste of sand brought the caravan to -another oasis, where pits had been dug to fill with water, and where -negroes took care of a store of goods out in the open. These negroes -did not show the deep respect due to the superior white race; but -Batûta had a fancy to learn all about them, so he stayed on, and put -up with their want of manners for two whole months. Traces, at least, -of polyandry were to be found here; for a sister’s son succeeded to -property, and everybody took the name of a maternal uncle. The women -were good looking, but, alas! they were far from shy; they did not even -wear a veil, notwithstanding their accompanying the men to the mosque. -Traders might take them for their wives; but must leave them behind on -their departure. Our zealous Moslem, experienced in matrimony as he was -and so excellent a judge of concubines—all of them sacred property -and his very own—was greatly shocked at yet another instance of the -freedom in manners of women and absence of jealousy in the husbands -among certain Mohammedan peoples. A man might have a woman visit him, -even with her husband there, and in the presence of his own wife; and -a man might go home to find one of his male friends sitting alone with -the wife of his bosom. But what would perturb an ordinary man causes -no flutter in this degenerate breast. “He quietly takes a seat apart -from them until the visitor goes away.” Batûta’s sense of delicacy was -much offended when, calling on a former host of his, who was a judge -moreover, he found that a handsome young woman had also made a call and -was still there. He upbraided his friend roundly, and the only reply he -got was that it was the custom of the country. This was too much: he -broke with the judge. - -A long, difficult, but quite safe journey brought him and three -companions to Malli. Here he was seriously ill, and the sickness lasted -many weeks; “but Allah brought me back to health.” A few white people -dwelt at Malli, of whom the judge was his host. “‘Arise,’” said the -judge to him one day when the Sultan had given a feast, “‘the Sultan -hath sent thee a gift.’ I fully looked for a rich dress, some horses -and other valuable gifts; and lo! there were but three crusts of bread, -a piece of dried fish, and a dish of sour milk. I smiled at people -so simple and the value they gave to such rubbish.” Experience of -spendthrift Oriental Courts and the lavish munificence of princes in -other parts of the Mohammedan world had spoiled him for the simplicity -of Central Africa. He often saw the Sultan after this incident; but -sorely as his self-love was wounded by such a contrast to the honour -always paid to him hitherto, he held himself in until his fury reached -fever-heat and it became impossible to keep a bridle on his tongue any -longer. Then he rose to his feet: “I have travelled the world over,” -said he; “I have visited the rulers thereof; I have stayed four months -in thy dominions; but no gift, no suitable food has come to me from -thee. What shall I say about thee when men shall question me concerning -thee?” A horse and good provisions, and a supply of gold now came from -this “greedy and worthless man”; before whom the negroes presented -themselves in the worst of their beggarly garments, probably as a sign -of their humility; for they “crawled to his presence, beating the -ground with their elbows and throwing dust on their heads.” However the -“greedy and worthless” Sultan is allowed at least one small virtue: he -kept the land in order; the traveller there had no fear of robbers, and -if any one chanced to die, his property was handed over to his lawful -successors. And the people had a great virtue also; they were constant -in their attendance at the mosque; and if a son did not learn the whole -of the Koran by heart, his father kept him shut up until he had done -so. Yet, in spite of such praiseworthy piety, they let their little -daughters and slaves whether male or female, go about quite naked. -Batûta remarks that here cowries were used as coin. Travellers in the -Niger District during the third decade of the last century found that -many of the habits and customs described by Batûta still obtained there. - -From Malli, our traveller journeyed on to the banks of the Niger, -and saw, with surprise, its great herds of hippopotami. He visited -Timbuktu, and believed he was journeying along the banks of the Nile; -a pardonable mistake; for the Niger takes a general direction towards -the North-East in this part of its course. He now returned to Fez by a -different and more easterly route (A.D. 1355). - -He had traversed the entire Mohammedan world, and beyond it to wherever -a Mohammedan was to be found. He had visited several far-separated -places several times, and had obeyed the obligation to visit Mecca -oftener than the most zealous Moslem was wont to do. The Sultan -commanded that an account of his travels should be recorded. The -Sultan’s Secretary edited the work, and thought to embellish a plain -tale by overloading it with literary pinchbeck and by dragging in -irrevelant quotations from the poets. The last words of the work are: -“Here ends what I have put into form of the words of Sheik Ibn Abdulla -Mohammed, whom may Allah honour! There is no reader of intelligence but -must grant that this Sheik is the greatest traveller of our days; and -should any one dub him the greatest traveller of all Islam, it were no -lie.”[14] - -Ibn Batûta was 51 at the end of his recorded journeyings. In spite of -the racket of thirty years, spent in unceasing travel, of shipwreck -and battle, of privation and fevers and much suffering of many kinds, -all of which he brushes lightly aside as matter of small moment, his -natural vigour remained such that he lived three years beyond the -allotted span. The “fitful fever” of his life ceased in the year 1377. - - - - -IV.—LUDOVICO VARTHEMA OF BOLOGNA, - -RENEGADE PILGRIM TO MECCA. FOREMOST OF ITALIAN TRAVELLERS. - - - - -CHAPTER I. THE GREAT AGE OF THE RENAISSANCE AND OF DISCOVERY. - - -By the close of the Fifteenth Century, the relative stability of -society and of its convictions during the Middle Ages was undone. -The Italian, at least, had cast off the restraints of that rigid and -traditional world, and was in reaction against it. For, social bonds -were loosened, and the corporate life of guild and city was in decay. -With the revival of letters, society became imbued once again with -the Greek and Roman conception of man as a progressive creature, and -was awakened to the richness of thought and feeling to be enjoyed in -vigorous passionate life. Self-sufficiency, self-assertion, and force -of will were admired above all other qualities, and it was the ambition -of most men to achieve them. Each man strove to fulfil his own nature -in his own way. Religion rapidly degenerated into an indispensable -observance of formalities, a traditional habit, a customary cloak. The -rigorous men of the Renaissance sought to live fully, freely, and with -diversity; they thirsted for new and refreshing springs; they quaffed -delightful and refreshing draughts; they boldly winged their way to -unfamiliar spheres, or gratified sense and passion to the full. The -age was aglow with all manner of ideality. On the whole its passions -were unrestrained, save by prudence; unchecked by any moral curb, which -it had counted foolishness. The religious rapture of Savonarola was -an ephemeral phenomenon, and almost unique. Even in the gentle grace -of Perugino’s Madonnas and the sweet innocence with which he invests -the Child, we may mark the substitution of religious affectation -for religious sincerity. The age loved pomp and magnificence; and -these appear in the frescoes of Pinturicchio. It was a field for the -development of a deep-seated, incalculable, yet persuasive force of -Will: the spirit is portrayed in the subtle eye and inscrutable smile -of Monna Lisa. - -It was when the Renaissance was in full flood, but before Ariosto, -“with his tongue in his cheek,” had achieved his cantoes of romantic -chivalry; before Raphael plied his brush with too perfect and serene -a finish; before Michael Angelo cast aside charm and beauty for the -expression of strength and power, that the energy of the age found a -new field for activity. The Turk swept the Ægean Sea and ruled the -Western Roman Empire. But the great drama of History unfolds tragic -irony surpassing the invention of poets. When the vast spaces of the -great Church of Justinian rang with the shout of the victors, the -knell of Moslem predominance sounded unheard. The Turk had captured -the gateways of the East only to force the European, in adventures -beyond the seas, to the domination of the world. Pioneers set out from -Portugal and Spain, and tried to cut out the Moslem middleman; they -steered to find a sea-way to the fabulous wealth of India. They coasted -along amazing lands, peopled by strange races, and entered novel and -unsuspected seas. Columbus found a new world beyond “wandering fields -of barren foam”; Vasco di Gama was forcing his way round Africa. Many -a narrow, ancient illusion was dispelled; and the minds of men were -excited to a rapture of expectation. The hearts of pious Portuguese and -Spaniards beat high at the hope of combining the salvation of heathen -souls with the profitable enslavement of heathen bodies. All men were -allured by the prospect of acquiring new markets, priceless gems, and -the gold dust of El Dorado. The modern world of aggressive commerce was -engendered in the very bosom of the High Renaissance. - - - - -CHAPTER II.—FROM VENICE TO DAMASCUS. - - -No commercial arithmetic called a certain Ludovico di Varthema to -adventure. Like Dante’s Ulysses, “nothing could quench his inward -burning to have full witness of the world.” “Ungifted,” so he tells -us, “with that far-casting wit for which the earth in not enough, and -which ranges through the loftiest regions of the firmament with careful -watch and survey; but possessed of slender parts merely,” he fixed his -mind on beholding with his own eyes some unknown part of the world and -on marking “where places are, what is curious in their peoples, their -different animals, and what fruit-bearing and scented trees grow there -... keeping before me that the thing which a single eye-witness may set -forth shall outweigh what ten may declare on hearsay.” It is as if a -cavalier of Boiardo or Ariosto had forsaken fairy land and sought novel -adventure in the kingdom of knowledge. Varthema set out to see and -know; and, although obviously a man of no great fortune, he would seem -to have neglected remarkable opportunities of trading and growing rich. - -That he was a Bolognese, we learn from the title-page of his -volume—the _Itinerario_. As a citizen of Bologna, the Pope was his -overlord; and we find him calling himself, by a pardonable license, -a Roman. Whether eager curiosity was the only motive which impelled -him to travel, we know not. He lets drop in the middle of his volume -that he left a wife and children at home. Marriage in Italy was a -matter of family arrangement, with a view to the increase of family -wealth and power; and children could readily be left under the care -of kinsmen. “The Italians make little difference between children -and nephews or near kinsfolk,” wrote Bacon, “but, so they be of the -lump, they care not, though they pass not through their own body.” -And the family council has parental force in Italy, even to-day. The -unsettled condition of every Italian State in the days of that “Most -holy Lord the Pope Alexander Borgia,” his crafty, treacherous son, -and hardly less crafty and treacherous native statesmen and foreign -invaders, often made swift change of residence highly desirable. Of -that affectation of the men of the Renaissance—excessive and trumpeted -desire of fame, which was a mere imitation of the classics,—there -is not a trace in Varthema: he cared as little for bubbles as for -baubles. Whatever other motives may have incited him, lust of travel -was his predominant passion. What his occupation had been is unknown. -On an occasion when it was helpful to him to pose as a physician he -did so; and his close observation of the structure and habits of -animals and the qualities of plants, suggests the kind of educative -discipline which a physician would receive. But since he confesses to -having ordered a cold astringent preparation when a warm laxative was -required, his knowledge of physic was limited or readily forgotten. -Again, since, on one occasion, he takes military service as a Mameluke; -professes himself, on another occasion, to be an adept in the -manufacture of mortars; and we find him fighting with the intrepidity -and skill of a proved warrior against Arabs in India, he may very well -have been a soldier before setting out on his travels. In that age -of confusion, when the successes of the French in Lombardy broke the -balance of power among the Italian States, there was ample opportunity -of martial employment. There is not a trace of the accomplished -haunter of courts, no love of literature or of art apparent in the -_Itinerario_. Varthema’s birth, upbringing, and “the fate of his bones” -are secrets which lie securely hidden in the ruins of time. But his -narrative endures—an imperishable monument. It reveals him as a true -man of his period. His skill in dissembling, and his insensitiveness -at the call of expediency to any obligation of truth or gratitude, -contrast with his scrupulous pursuit of truth for its own sake and the -accuracy of his observation. His record of travel is one which displays -the coolness of his courage no less than its intrepid dash; it reveals -a man constant of purpose, and endowed with ingenuity, resourcefulness, -self-restraint, prudence, sagacity, and a sense of humour. Here indeed -is a rare man! - -In the year 1502 there was peace in the Levant. Lucrative trade -between Venice and Egypt went on, unmolested by Turkish fleets. At -the close of that year, Varthema took sail for Alexandria; the wind -was favourable, and he reached the great port on one of the early -days of 1503. Alexandria was the chief mart for the interchange of -the wares of East and West, and therefore well known to Europeans; -“Wherefore,” says Varthema, “yearning after new things as a thirsty -man doth for fresh water, I entered the Nile and arrived at Cairo.” -“Babylon,” as Europeans called Cairo, was reputed to be one of the most -marvellous of cities; but our traveller was disappointed to find it -far smaller than he had thought. He declines to discuss the government -established there, or the arrogance of its Mameluke rulers; “for my -fellow-countrymen well wot of such matters.” Close upon two centuries -had passed since a Circassian slave clothed the Imam with a royal -robe, usurped his mundane powers, reduced him to a nonentity, founded -a dynasty, and ruled by military force from the Taurus and Euphrates -to the Nile. This dynasty delegated authority to Emirs and Sheiks. It -ruled by means of a soldiery, like itself, of slave origin, cruel, -insolent and unbending. Children of Christian descent, brought mainly -from the region which lies to the south of Caucasus, were instructed in -the faith of the Moslem and trained to physical endurance, boldness, -skill in warfare, and contempt of all men save their masters and -themselves. These Mamelukes, as they were called, received liberal -payment; they were allowed to keep a harem and to rear a family. The -land lay crushed and impotent beneath this military caste. Military -slaves, they exhibited the vices of slaves in office. As in the time -of Ibn Batûta, the Sultan of Cairo ruled; but now ruled over delegates -who were frequently rebellious to his authority; yet he and they and -all, even to the terrible ottoman Turk at Constantinople, who now held -Eastern Europe in bondage from the Danube to Cape Matapan, acknowledged -the headship of the Imam at Cairo as legitimate Caliph of the great -Abbaside line. - -Leaving Cairo, Varthema took ship for Beyrout. Here, he saw nothing -noteworthy, save the ruins of an ancient palace, “which, _so they -say_,” was once the residence of the princess whom St. George rescued -from the dragon. We find a novel scepticism in this man of the new age. -“So they say,” is a phrase of frequent recurrence in the _Itinerario_. -The sceptic’s ears are as open as his brain is active; he repeats all -the information given to him, however extravagant and however healthy -his doubt; but he is careful to let the reader know that it is mere -hearsay; he gives a hint of his own disbelief, and leaves the matter -open to sane judgment: the piping times of a merchant in marvels have -passed away. When Varthema has his own ends to serve, we shall find -him telling a lie with as little scruple as any diplomatist of his -generation; but he records faithfully and exactly what he went out -to see and the incidents which befell him. We have the testimony of -the precise Burton that “all things well considered, Ludovico[15] -Bartema, for correctness of observation and readiness of wit, stands -in the foremost rank of oriental travellers”; and that great authority -writes thus although he only quotes from Richard Eden’s imperfect and -interpolated translation of a Latin deformation of the _Itinerario_; -and probably knew of no other copy. - -Occasionally Varthema falls into a not uncommon blunder: he exaggerates -numbers; but he is always hard-headed, incredulous of tradition, and -not at all given to romancing. - -A short voyage of two days brought our Italian from Beyrout to -Tripoli, whence he took the caravan-route to Hamath, a large city on -the Orontes, once an outpost of Judah, retaken by Israel in the wars -between the two kingdoms. At Menin, a land of luscious fruits and the -serviceable cotton-plant, he found a population of Christian-subjects -of the Emir of Damascus and two beautiful churches, “said to have been -built by Helena, mother of Constantine.” He went on to Aleppo, and -thence eight days of easy travel brought him to a city so ancient that -its foundation is lost in unfathomed time. He writes of Damascus that -“to set it forth is beyond my power.” Here he remained some months, in -order to learn Arabic—a task quite indispensable for farther travel in -Mohammedan lands. He tells us of the fortress, built by a Florentine -renegade, a man skilled in physic, who cured a Sultan suffering -from the effects of poison, and is venerated as a holy man. This -transformation of the physician into the saint may have suggested some -serviceable play-acting in India, of which we shall become spectators -later on. - -The military Empire of Cairo was in decay, and had become very corrupt. -A vivid picture is set before us of delegated despotism and its -concomitants; greed, graft, outrage and squeeze. Whenever a new Sultan -succeeded to power, very large sums would be offered him for the rule -of such a wealthy city as Damascus. Of course the gold would have to -be wrung out of the resident merchants. If a good instalment of the -promised “present” were not speedily forthcoming, the Sultan would -find means to remove the dilatory Emir at the sword’s point, “or in -some other way; but, let him make the present aforesaid, and he shall -retain his rule.” “The traders of the city are not dealt with justly. -The rulers vie with each other in oppressing them, by robbery or by -dealing death.... The Moors are subject to the Mamelukes after the -fashion of the lamb to the wolf.... The Sultan will send two missives -to the governor of the citadel, one of which will command him to call -together there such lords or traders as he may choose. And when they -are gathered together in the citadel, the second letter is read to -them, whereof that which is its purpose, is gotten without delay. -Thus doth the lord aforesaid set about getting money.” We are told -of the curious way in which strict guard is enforced at the citadel: -throughout the night at intervals each sentinel signals to his next -neighbour by beating a drum; he who fails to pass on a responsive -rat-tat has to spend a twelvemonth in prison. - -Varthema found the houses dirty outside—(they are still built of a -sort of cob), but the interiors splendid, with fountains and mosaics -and carvings and columns of marble and porphyry. He visited the Great -Mosque “where, so it is said,” the head of St. Zechariah is kept; and -was shown the exact spot where, “so it is given out,” Saul, breathing -out threatenings and slaughter, saw a great light and heard the voice -of Jesus; also the house “where (so they say) Cain slew Abel, his -brother.” - -“But let us now return to the liberty which the Mamelukes aforesaid -enjoy in Damascus.... They go about in twos and threes, since it is -counted for dishonour to go alone. And, should they chance to meet two -or three ladies, license is granted to them, or they take it. They lie -in wait for these ladies in certain great hostelries, which are called -Khans; and, as ladies pass by the doorway each Mameluke will lay hold -of the hand of one of them, draw her inside, and abuse her. The lady -resists having her face seen; for women go about with face covered in -such wise that while they know us, we do not know who they are.... And -sometimes it chances that the Mamelukes, thinking to take some lord’s -daughter, take their own wives; a thing which happened whilst I was -there.... When Moor meeteth Mameluke, he must make obeisance and give -place, or he is bastinadoed, even should he be the chief merchant of -the city.” - -We are told that rich Christian traders in every kind of merchandise -dwelt in Damascus, but were “ill-treated.” Long-eared goats were -brought up three flights of stairs to be milked for your meal. A -detailed description is given of the productions of the city and the -dress and customs of its people. - - - - -CHAPTER III - -OVER THE DESERT TO MECCA - - -Now, the yearly caravan from Damascus to the Holy Cities of Arabia was -in preparation—a journey which the pious Moslem makes by rail to-day. -For, as has been truly remarked, “the unchanging East” is a venerable -catchword: the Orient moves on, but slowly. No “unbelieving dog” might -plant his foot on Arabian soil; no European Christian had ever seen -its sacred fanes. Here was a golden opportunity for one “longing for -novelty.” Varthema had learned to speak Arabic. That insinuating smile, -persuasive accent, and ingratiating address, so characteristically -Italian, were surely his, for we find that he never fails to secure the -firm friendship of utter strangers whenever he may require it—nay, he -exerts some exceptional fascination on all men, some dæmonic force, as -Goethe calls it. He says: “I formed a great friendship with the Captain -of the Mamelukes” who were to accompany and protect the caravan. -Doubtless, Varthema’s look and bearing were martial; and, as has been -said, he may have acquired experience in the Italian wars. To his -credentials he added the persuasive argument of a bribe. His new friend -accepted him as one of the escort. True, he must profess conversion -to the Mohammedan Faith. This was no great strain on the conscience -in days when Borgia and Julius della Rovere and the Medici sat in the -chair of St. Peter, and when most Christians contented themselves with -a half-sceptical observance of habitual forms. Like Henry of Navarre, -Varthema thought an apple off another tree than his own a matter -of small moment in the fulfilment of his purpose. He repeated the -necessary formula and became a Moslem. He had to take a new name. Might -it be because he was committed to an unparalleled adventure that he -took the name of the son of Amittei? He called himself Jonah. - -This bold step was worthy of the Italian Renaissance, when a man had -thought it shame not to fashion his own life to his own ends; when he -might brush weak scruples aside, and overcome obstacles as the oar -turns the wave, converting hindrance into help. Behold our unflinching -traveller mounted on a spirited steed, armed to the teeth; ready to -encounter all chances of battle, desert-thirst, and unknown peril—one -fulfilling old Malory’s test: “he that is gentle will draw him unto -gentle tatches.” - -The caravan, of pilgrims and merchants, women, children and slaves -(about 40,000 souls) and 30,000 camels, was guarded by only 60 -Mamelukes, 20 being in the van, 20 midmost, and 20 bringing up the -rear. Damascus was left on April 8th 1503, and on the third day El -Mezarib was reached, a place on the high land east of the Jordan and -about 30 or 40 miles from it. Here the caravan rested 3 days to give -the merchants time to buy Arabian steeds. Doughty, that intrepid -English traveller and writer of unique English, tells us that, not many -years ago, El Mezarib remained the appointed place for gathering up the -pilgrim multitude. In Varthema’s time the sheik of the district was -both powerful and predatory. He is said to have owned 300,000 camels -(50 times the number accorded to Job in the day of recompense), 40,000 -horses and 10,000 mares. The number may be exaggerated; but the sheik -was able to pounce down on the granaries of Egypt, Syria or Palestine -when he was least expected—even believed to be a hundred miles away. -“Truly, these folk do not run, but fly, swift as falcons; and they -keep close together like a flock of starlings,” Varthema tells us. -Their fleet spirited Arabian mares would run a whole day and night -without stopping, and be fresh again after a draught of camels’ milk. -He describes the marauding Arab very correctly as of dark complexion, -small make, effeminate voice, and with long, stiff, black hair. - -From El Mezarib, the caravan pursued its ancient course through Syrian -and Arabian deserts; but more to the east than in later days. The -scheme of travel was to march for about 20 hours; then to halt at a -given signal and unload the camels; after resting for a day and night, -a signal was again given, and, in a trice all was made ready, and -cavalcade and “ships of the desert” were off again over rocky wastes -and pathless seas of sand. Then as now, camels were fed on balls of -barley-meal and watered every three days. Every eighth day, if no well -was found, the ground was dug deeply for water, and the caravan halted -a day or two. But it was invariably attacked by Bedouins when this -happened. It was their amiable custom to lie in wait for the caravan -and carry off women, children or any other unconsidered trifle which -might fall within their grasp. Unhappy Joseph Pitts of Exeter (who -was captured by Algerine pirates, professed Mohammedanism to escape -cruelty, and accompanied his third master on a pilgrimage to Mecca in -1680) describes how, between Mecca and Medina, “the skulking thievish -Arabs do much mischief to some of the Hagges (pilgrims to Meccah). For -in the night-time they steal upon them ... loose a camel before and -behind, and one of the thieves leads away the camel with the Hagge upon -his back asleep.” And, thirty years ago, Charles Montagu Doughty told -us how the Bedouin youth would emulate Spartan boyhood and strain every -power to rob a Hadji, for the glory of the feat. - -There are many ruins to be found in Edom and Arabia Petrea. Like most -men of sceptical turn, Varthema tempered a spirit of free enquiry -with a little credulity. He saw distant rocks of red sandstone, -fantastically shaped; they were “like blood on red wax mingled with -soil.” He was told that these were the ruins of the cities of the -plain, and writes, probably from conviction, certainly with commendable -prudence, seeing that he had posed as an apostate: “Verily, Holy Writ -doth not lie, for one beholds how the cities perished by miracle of -God. Of a truth, I believe from the witness of my own eyes that these -men were evil; for all around the land is wholly dry and barren. The -earth may bear no single thing, and of water there is none ... and, by -a miracle the whole ruin is there to be seen even yet. That valley was -full twenty miles long; and thirty-three of our company died there from -thirst, and divers others, not being quite dead, were buried in the -sand, their faces being left uncovered.” - -One day, when traversing what the Bible calls “the wilderness of Edom,” -“we came to a little mountain, and near to it was a cistern; whereat we -were well pleased and encamped on the said hill. The next day, early in -the morning, 24,000 Arabs rode up to us and demanded payment for their -water”—a time-honoured exaction of the Bedouin Arab, which in our -own days is said to have supported one third of Arabia.—“We refused, -saying that the water was the gift of God. Thereupon they opened battle -with us, saying that we had robbed them of their water. We set the -camels as a protecting rampart all round us and put the merchants in -the midst thereof and we stood siege during two nights and two days; -and a constant skirmish went on. By that time both we and our foes had -come to an end of our water. The mountain was wholly encompassed by -Arabs, and they averred that they would break through our defence. Our -leader, finding himself unable to hold on, took counsel with the Moslem -traders; and we gave the Arabs 1,200 ducats of gold. But, when they had -gotten the money, they said that not even 10,000 ducats of gold should -be satisfaction for their water; whereby we perceived what they sought -more than money. So our sagacious leader agreed with the caravan that -all men capable of battle should not mount on their camels, but look -to their arms. In the morning we put the whole caravan forward, and -we Mamelukes stayed behind. We made a strength of 300 fighting men; -and we had not to wait long for the fray. We lost but one man and one -woman, and we killed 600 of them.” - -This statement evokes from a French author the ironic wit of his -race: he thinks that the two who were slain may be pitied for their -remarkably bad luck. Burton, who more than once accuses Varthema of -exaggerating numbers, thinks that his statement here may confirm -Strabo’s account of Ælius Gallus having lost two soldiers only in a -battle with 10,000 Arabs. We must not forget that the Arab’s body was -bare and wholly unprotected; he rode his steed bare-back, carried no -fire-arms, and his only weapons were lance and bow. He attacked in -dense formation. No wonder therefore that Arabs fell in masses as they -came on, and that the carnage was still more terrible when they fled, -helter-skelter “Come le rane innanzi alla nimica Biscia” as “frogs -before their enemy the snake.”[16] And the Mamelukes, few as they were, -rode saddled steeds, were disciplined, protected by armour, possessed -of fire-arms, and almost unerring of aim. Once Varthema saw one of the -Mamelukes perform a feat which recalls the legend of William Tell: At -a second attempt, he shot off from the bow a pomegranate poised on -the head of a slave at a distance of about twelve or fifteen paces. -And they were as expert horsemen as the Arabs. A Mameluke removed his -saddle, put it on his head and replaced it while at full gallop. - -Thirty days were spent in absolute desert, and the caravan was always -attacked when it encamped by a water supply; but the only loss which -the foe caused during about six weeks of journeying was in the big -battle in which the man and woman were killed. A little later on and up -to our own time, the water-cisterns were defended by fortifications. -Leaving arid and rocky hills, - - “Boundless and bare - The lone and level sands stretched far away.” - -“Through these,” says Varthema, “we travelled five days and five nights. -Now you should understand all about it. It is a great level stretch of -white sand, fine as flour, and if by mischance the wind blow from the -south, all may be reckoned as dead; even with the wind in our favour -we could not see each other ten paces off. Wherefore there are wooden -boxes set on the camels, and in these the travellers sleep and eat. The -guides go on in front with compasses, even as if they were at sea. Many -died here from thirst; and very many, having dug for water and found -it, drank it until they burst; and here are mummies made.” - -It is interesting to know that, up to 1908, when the railway for the -conveyance of pilgrims from Damascus to Mecca was completed, those -of the richer sort still used the wooden protection which our author -describes. Possibly the mummies of which he speaks were merely corpses -dried in the sun; but the preservation of the dead body by embalming -was a very ancient practice in these parts. Doughty found no actual -mummies in the Nabatean temples; but he collected and brought back, -from the funeral chambers at El Khreby, resinous matters of the same -character as those found in Egyptian sarcophagi. Presently, Varthema -shall see powders for the mummification of the dead sold outside the -Mosque at Mecca. Dried human flesh was an important part of the stock -in trade of an Arabian physician whom Burton came across. But faith -in the efficacy of pulverised mummy has been by no means confined to -Arabia. In the Seventeenth Century, Sir Thomas Browne, tells us in his -“Urn Burial” that: “Mummy is become merchandise, Miriam cures wounds -and Pharaoh is sold for Balsams”; and even within the last few years -Harry de Wint found the repulsive drug on sale as a cure for cancer at -Serajevo in Bosnia. - -It so happened that the usual discomposing sounds, made by the -movements of unstable sand-hills, broke the silence of the desert just -where the Prophet had once stopped to pray. The superstitious Moslems -must have been wholly dismayed and demoralized, for even the iron nerve -of Varthema was strained; he tells us that he “passed on with great -danger, and never thought to escape.” At last, a thorn bush or two -broke the monotony of this “sea of sand,” and the travellers knew that -Medina was now only three days off. Even more pleasing than the sight -of vegetation to those pilgrims, who had “seen neither beast, bird, -reptile, no, nor insect, for fifteen days,” was the pair of turtledoves -that lodged in the branches of the thorn bush. And, most delightful of -all was the well of water which gave being to this miniature oasis. The -water-skins were refilled; and, so copious was the supply that sixteen -thousand camels were re-laden with the precious burden. Hard by, on a -mountain, dwelt a curious colony, who depended on the well for their -water. Varthema could see them in the far distance, “leaping about the -rocks like wild goats.” And one does not wonder at their excitement; -for the cistern would not fill up again until the rains should come. -Varthema learned that these people were Jews, who burned with hatred -of all Mohammedans, probably not without very just cause. “If they -catch a Moor, they flay him alive.” They had the shrill voice of a -woman, were swarthy, and went about naked. Probably their “nakedness” -really amounted to their wearing a simple loose robe or a loin-cloth -only. That they lived on goats’ flesh is not remarkable; for it is the -staple food of the Bedouin Arab. Probably they were of small stature; -but Varthema dwarfs then into comicality: he gives them but five or six -spans of height. But he only saw them from afar. That they were Jews is -no fable. In spite of the general expulsion of Jews from Arabia with -the first successes of Islam, the existence of a remnant of the Chosen -People in this district has been well authenticated by Arabian writers; -they were to be found there nearly three centuries after Varthema saw -them, and towards the close of the past century Doughty heard tradition -of them. By some accident Varthema, or more likely, his printer, -places them between Medina and Mecca; but he came across them before -he reached Medina. It is hard to account for their presence in this -isolated and desolate district; and many are the explanations which -have been offered, and varied are the legends which have grown up. -Badger thought “that their immigration occurred after the devastation -of Judea by the armies of Nebuchadnezzar, and that the colony was -enlarged by successive bands of refugees down to the destruction of -Jerusalem by Titus and the persecutions to which they were subjected -under the Emperor Hadrian.” Here is one of the many problems of History -which are “beyond conjecture and hopeful expectation.” - -Two days after this event, the pilgrims came up to another cistern of -water; they were now only four miles from Medina. Everyone thoroughly -cleansed himself thereat from all the grime and sweat of the hot, dusty -desert, and put on fresh linen, in order that he might present himself -purified before the sepulchre of the Prophet on the morrow. All around, -the land “lay barren and under the curse of God”; but, two stones’ cast -from the city there was a grove of date-trees and a refreshing conduit. - -Our traveller found Medina to be but a poor place of about 300 hearths. -Food was brought thither from Arabia Felix, Cairo and Ethiopia; first, -to a port on the Red Sea, and thence overland by caravan—a journey -which occupied four days. He found the inhabitants “scum”; a character -which all travellers of all ages agree in giving them, and which they -shared with the people of Rome and of all places whither pilgrims -and the folk of many nations were wont to congregate. The Sunnites -and Shiites there, the two great sects which divide the Moslem world -“kill each other like beasts anent their heresies.” And Varthema, the -pretended proselyte, suddenly remembers that he is writing for a -Christian world, and is careful to assure it of his own conviction that -“these (beliefs) are false—all of them.” - -“One wished to see everything,” he says, so the pilgrims passed three -days at Medina, “Some guide took each pilgrim by the hand and led him -to the place where Mohammed was buried.” Varthema gives a description -of the Mosque, than which, says Burton, nothing could be more correct. -“It is surmounted,” writes the English traveller, “by a large gilt -crescent, springing from a series of globes. The glowing imagination of -the Moslems crown this gem of the building with a pillar of heavenly -light, which directs, from three days’ distance, the pilgrim’s -steps towards El Medinah.” Varthema avers that the marvellous light -had a real matter of fact basis, being due to a cunning deception. -Whether due to trickery, or to the suggestive efficacy of faith and -expectant attention, the miracle once had a rival in the more ancient -supernatural outburst, every Eastertide, of the holy fire at the altar -of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. Neither Varthema nor his friend -the Captain of the Mamelukes was a man easy to dupe, or given to the -conjuring up of visions. “At the third hour of the night,” we read, -“ten or twelve greybeards came to our camp, which was pitched two -stones’ throw from the gate, crying, some here, some there, ‘There -is no God but God! Mohammed is the Prophet of God! O Prophet! Do -obeisance to God! Do obeisance to the Prophet! We implore forgiveness -of sin.’ Our captain and we ran out at this clamour; for we thought the -Arabs were on us to rob the caravan. We demanded why they were crying -out; for they made the same sort of din which may be heard among us -Christians when a saint works a miracle.” (Varthema cannot conceal his -sceptical temper!) “These elders answered: ‘Do ye not see the splendour -coming forth from the tomb of the Prophet?’ Our Captain replied that, -for his part, he could see nothing, and asked us if anyone had seen -anything; but we all said, ‘No.’ Then one of the old men demanded: ‘Are -you slaves?’ Which is to say, Mamelukes. Our Captain replied, ‘Yes, we -are slaves.’ To which the old man responded: ‘O, sirs, it is not given -to you to see these heavenly things; for you are not yet well grounded -in the faith.’” Now, in the morning of the same day, the Captain had -offered the Sherîf of the Mosque 3,000 ducats to see the body of the -Prophet, telling him that he had neither father nor mother, brothers -nor sisters, wife nor children, and had come thither to save his soul. -Whereupon the Sherîf had fallen into a rage and demanded how he dared -desire to behold him for whom God made the heavens and the earth. -Since the body was entombed within closed-up, solid walls, such an -audacious request marks the sceptical irreverence and haughty insolence -of the Mameluke, even before one of the most sacred temples of Islam. -The Mamaluke had declared himself ready to pluck out his own unholy -eyes for love of the Prophet, if only he might see his body first. -The Sherîf, probably in order to silence him, then said that Mohammed -had been translated to Heaven by angels. So now, the Captain shouted -contemptuously to the reverend greybeard who had told him that it was -denied him to see the vision by reason of imperfect faith: ‘You fool! -Shall I give thee three thousand ducats? By God, I will not. You dog, -son a dog!’.... The Captain thought that enough; and said so; and, -turning round to his comrades, exclaimed: ‘See where I wanted to throw -away 3,000 seraphim!’ And he mulcted the Mosque by forbidding any of -his men to visit it again. - -Varthema dispels the popular belief that Mohammed’s coffin was -suspended in mid-air by the attraction of a magnet. “I tell you -truth when I affirm that there is no coffin of iron or steel, or any -loadstone, or any loadstone mountain within four miles.” - -The journey from Medina to Mecca was at this particular time beset -with more than usual difficulty and peril. The Hejaz was nominally -a vassaldom of Cairo; really, it was under the almost absolute rule -of its own despot; and we learn from Arabian Chroniclers that the -despotism was being fought for by rival brethren. Indeed, throughout -Eastern lands, war between sons for succession to the throne rendered -vacant by the death of a father was the rule. And, in the long run, -this bloody business usually ended in the success of the most capable -competitor; so that, however horrible, it did not work out badly; -for what can be more fatal to a weak, subservient people than an -incompetent ruler? “There was a very great war,” says Varthema, “one -brother being against another; four brethren contended for the lordship -of Mecca; so that we travelled for the space of ten days; and twice -on our way we fought with 50,000 Arabs.” Probably Varthema habitually -over-estimated numbers; but there is no doubt that he had cause for -alarm before he reached the second of the two sacred goals. - -Our traveller descended one of the two passes cut through the hills -which girdle and defend Mecca, and found himself in a “very famous, -fair and well-peopled” city. The caravan from Cairo had arrived eight -days before. Joseph Pitts, the Exeter sailor, also tells us how the -“caravans do even jump all into Mecca together.” “Verily,” says -Varthema, “never did I see such a multitude gathered together in one -place as during the twenty days I stayed thereat.” He writes us at some -length, though not so minutely or correctly as Burckhardt, of the great -house of Allah and of the Ka’abah within it—a building which conserves -the form of the old heathen temple and which was a place of pilgrimage -for ages before Mohammed; but this he did not know. He speaks of the -sacred pigeons of the precincts; of the seven circuits made by the -pilgrims; of the sacred well Zemzem, in whose brackish waters the -Moslem cleanse themselves both spiritually and physically; for did not -Hagar quench the dying Ishmael’s thirst therewith? of the sacrifice of -sheep, and how the flesh was cooked over a fire made of camels’ dung; -of elaborate rituals; of the gift of what was superfluous in the feast -to the many famished poor among the pilgrims; of the ascent to Arafat, -where Gabriel taught Adam to erect an altar; and of that strange, -ancient relic of heathen times, the casting of stones at the devil. -But he says not one word of the “Black Stone” of the Ka’abah, once -the fetish of ancient Arabian worship, and kissed to-day by the Hadji -(pilgrim). We learn that Mecca, like Medina, was fed from Arabia Felix -and Africa. It was a mart as well as a place of pilgrimage. - -Now for a marvel. In an enclosure of the Mosque were two unicorns! They -were presents from an Ethiopian monarch to the Sultan of Mecca as the -finest thing that could be found in the world ... the richest treasure -ever sent. “Now, I will tell you of their make,” writes our author; -“the elder is shaped like a colt of 30 months, and he has a horn on his -forehead of about 3 arm lengths. The other is like a colt of one year, -and his horn is the length of 3 hands. The colour is dark bay; the -head like a hart’s, but no long neck; a thin short mane hangs over one -side; the legs are slender and lean, like a goat’s; the foot, a little -cloven, long, and much like a goat’s, with some hair at the back of the -legs. Truly, this monster must be a very fierce and rare animal.” - -Whatever our interpretation, this is no “traveller’s tale” of -Varthema’s making. His painstaking veracity, except in the “practical -politics” of life, has been confirmed a hundred times over. Later on -in his book, we come across a description of the structure and habits -of the elephant which is a triumph of sharp prose-vision and detailed -matter of fact. One cannot doubt that he saw a beast at Mecca which -resembled, not remotely, the Unicorn supporter of our Royal Coat of -Arms. It is remarkable that Pliny describes a similar animal, and -that Ctesias, Aristotle and Strabo speak of the Unicorn. The name -occurs nine times in the Bible; but it is commonly supposed to refer -to the Rhinoceros. Varthema’s strange beast was a very different -animal, apparently resembling the horse-like creature with a solitary -central horn which Niebuhr found repeatedly sculptured on the ruins -of Persepolis. Similar beasts have been reported from Abyssinia and -Cape Colony; and at one time the unicorn was believed in India to -inhabit that refuge of the rare, inaccessible Thibet. Yet a generation -that is still with us regarded the gorillas and pygmy men of Hanno as -Carthaginian fables, until Du Chaillu brought back carcasses of the one -and Stanley gave authentic word of the other. But scientists leave us -no hope that some happy traveller shall come across a unicorn dead or -alive. For the stumpy protuberance of the rhinoceros is an epidermal -tissue, and the true bony horns of the deer tribe are developments -which grow from, or correspond to, two frontal bones; and it would -be impossible for a bony outgrowth to proceed from the mesian line. -Varthema’s statement must be deemed by all who know anything of -comparative anatomy to be incorrect. The great Owen thought that one -of the two horns of the animal must have been broken off or remained -undeveloped. Mr. Dollman, of South Kensington Museum, whose opinion -the author sought through the kind agency of Mr. S. le Marchant Moore, -thinks the creature was an onyx, with one of its horns suppressed and -both gentlemen suggest “that Varthema saw the creature in profile, and -having ascertained as well as he could under the circumstances, the -existence of one horn, did not trouble himself much further about it: -possibly the horn might have become more or less incurved.” We must -leave the question there, until someone shall give us ocular evidence -that Varthema made not the slightest blunder: truly _his_ “horn shall -be exalted!” - -Varthema had now been signally successful in gratifying the passion to -penetrate unknown and mysterious regions which Spanish and Portuguese -discovery had aroused in him. So far as is known, he was the first -European Christian to reach the holy cities of Arabia; and since his -day no traveller ventured on the long and perilous route which he took. -At least six Europeans managed to visit Mecca in the last century; but -they all took the short route from the Red Sea. - - - - -CHAPTER IV. - -THE ESCAPE FROM THE CARAVAN - - -And now, in the spirit of Alexander sighing for new worlds to conquer, -he looked forward with dismay to the return-journey of the caravan. A -perilous surprise awaited him which, with wonted adroitness, he turned -to his purpose. “Having charge from my Captain to buy certain things, -a Moor looked me in the face, knew me and asked me ‘Where are you -from?’ I answered: ‘I am a Moslem.’ His reply was: ‘You lie.’ ‘By the -head of the Prophet,’ I said, ‘I am a Moslem’; whereto he answered: -‘Come to my house’; and I followed him thither. Then he spake to me in -Italian, telling me whence I had come that he knew me to be no Moslem; -and that he had been in Genoa and Venice; whereof he gave me proof. -When I understood this, I told him that I was a Roman, and had become a -Mameluke at Cairo (!) Whereat he rejoiced greatly, and treated me with -much honour.” Varthema now began to ask questions of his host; craftily -affecting ignorance of recent events and pretending to be very hostile -to Christians and greatly indignant at hearing of the appearance of the -Portuguese in Eastern Seas. “At this, he showed me yet greater honour, -and told me everything, point by point. So, when I was well instructed, -I said to him: ‘O friend, I beseech you in the name of the Prophet to -tell me of some way to escape from the Caravan; for I would go to those -who are the Christians’ bitterest foes. Take my word that, if they -knew what I can do, they would search me out, even as far as Mecca.’ -Then he: ‘By the faith of our Prophet, tell me, what can you do?’ I -replied that I was the most skilful artificer in large mortars in the -world. Hearing this, he exclaimed: ‘Mohammed be praised for ever, who -has sent such an one to the Moslem and God.’” Whereupon, a bargain was -struck. The Moor was ready to hide Varthema in his house, if Varthema -could induce the Captain of the Caravan to pass fifteen camels, laden -with spices, duty free. Varthema was so confident of having thoroughly -ingratiated himself with the Captain that he was ready to negotiate for -the free passage of a hundred camels, if the Moor owned so many. “And, -when he heard this, he was greatly pleased,” and gave full information -as to how to get to India. There was no difficulty about bribing the -Captain; and the day before the departure of the caravan, Varthema -stole to the Moor’s house and lay there in concealment. - -Next morning, two hours before daybreak, bands of men, as was the -usage, went through the city, sounding trumpets and other instruments, -and proclaiming death to all Mamelukes who should not mount for the -journey to Syria. “At this,” says Varthema, “my breast was mightily -troubled, and I pleaded with tears to the merchant’s wife, and I -besought God to save me.” Soon he had the relief of knowing that -the caravan was gone, and the Moorish merchant with it. He had left -instructions with his wife to send Varthema on to Jidda, on the Red -Sea, with the caravan returning to India. It was to start later than -the Syrian caravan. Varthema was a man of winning ways, and he found -no difficulty in fascinating man or woman. He was far from being as -vain as, say, Lord Herbert of Cherbury, but, like that ingenuous -gentleman, he does not neglect to inform us when he has pleased the -fair. “I cannot tell how much kindness I received from this lady, and, -in particular, from her niece of fifteen years. They promised to make -me rich if I would stay on. But I declined their offer by reason of the -pressing peril. I set out at noontide of the following day, with the -caravan, to the no small sorrow of these ladies, who made much lament.” - -In due time the caravan arrived at Jidda, which was then a very -important mart and harbour. Varthema immediately made for a mosque, -with thousands of indigent pilgrims, and stayed there a whole fortnight. - -“All day long, I lay on the ground, covered up in my garments, and -groaning as if I suffered great pain in my bowels and body. The -merchants would ask: ‘Who is that, groaning so?’ Whereto the poor -people about me would reply: ‘He is a poor Moslem who is dying.’ But -when night came I would leave the mosque to buy food. Judge of what my -appetite became when I could only get food (and that bad) once a day.” - -When the caravan had left the port, he contrived to see the master of -a ship bound for Persia who agreed to take him as a passenger; and on -the seventeenth day of hiding at Jidda, the ship put forth on the Red -Sea. To a true Moslem, the whole Eastern world as far as China was -barely more perilous than the Mediterranean was to a Christian. Those -were days when the seas teemed with pirates; but, on land, property -was better safeguarded by the despotic rulers of Asia than it was in -Europe. But the line between Eastern and Western traffic was rigidly -drawn at certain marts of exchange. Such were Aleppo and Beyrout for -commodities forwarded by way of the Persian Gulf; and still more -important were Cairo and Alexandria, the marts of Mediterranean and Red -Sea commerce. The Eastern trade was mainly in the hands of Arabs; but -it was pursued by certain Greeks, Albanians and Circassians also, who, -or their forefathers, had renounced Christianity for gain; and these -were not few. Jidda and other ports of the Red Sea, as well as those of -Somaliland, were crowded with ships, great and small, bearing spices, -drugs, dyes and other Eastern goods for the markets of Western Asia and -Europe. The Arabian coast of the Red Sea was hugged, and often, for -days together, no progress could be made at night; for the multitude -of rocks and sunken reefs rendered navigation perilous enough, even by -day, and a look-out was always kept at the mast-head. - -Varthema’s ship visited and made some stay at several ports which are -now decayed. At one place, “coming in sight of dwellings on the shore, -fourteen of us landed to buy victuals. But they were the folk called -Bedouin; there was more than a hundred of them to our fourteen; and -they greeted us with slings and stones. We fought for about an hour; -and then they fled, leaving twenty-four of their number lying slain -on the ground; for they were unclad, and the sling was their only -weapon. We took all we could find, that is to say fowls, calves, oxen -and other things for eating. But, in two or three hours time, the -turmoil increased, and so did the natives of the land—to more than six -hundred, in fact—and we were compelled to draw back to our ships.” - - - - -CHAPTER V. CERTAIN ADVENTURES IN ARABIA THE HAPPY. - - -On arriving at Aden; which was a place of call for every ship trading -with India, Persia, and Ethiopia, custom-house officers at once came on -board the ship, ascertained whence and when it had sailed, the nature -of its freight, and how many were on board. Then the masts, sails, -rudders and anchors were removed to ensure the payment of dues. On the -second day after Varthema’s arrival, a passenger or sailor on board -called him a “Christian dog, son of a dog,” the usual polished address -of the proud Moslem to one who, albeit a co-believer, had not the good -fortune to be born in the faith. This exclamation aroused a suspicion -that he was a spy; for, a year before, Portuguese had appeared for the -first time in the Arabian Sea, had captured certain vessels, and killed -many of their crews. He was seized at once and violently carried off -to the deputy of the Sultan of Yemen. Now this Sultan was an unusually -merciful man, who rarely (Varthema says never) put anyone to death; so -he was merely clapped into gaol, and his legs fettered with eighteen -pounds weight of iron. On the third day of imprisonment, some Moslem -sailors who had escaped in the warfare with the Portuguese, attacked -the prison with the intention of slaying him; and the inhabitants -were divided as to what they should do. The Emir’s deputy decided -to spare the prisoners (another suspected person would seem to have -been incarcerated with Varthema); and they languished sixty-five days -in gaol. Then a message came from the Sultan, demanding that they -should be brought before himself. So, instead of voyaging to Persia, -Varthema, still in irons, was put on a camel and taken an eight days’ -journey inland to Radâä. Ibn Abd-el Wahâb, Sultan of Yemen, was busy -marshalling a large army. In it, were three thousand horsemen, born of -Christian parents, but sold, while still children, by “Prester John,” -as the Portuguese called the King of Abyssinia. These slaves formed the -bodyguard of the Sultan. At this moment the rule of Yemen was disputed -among petty despots, and the Sultan was bent on reducing the turbulent, -rebellious tribes to his sole sway. - -Varthema is brought in to the Sultan’s presence; his life hangs on -a hair; it is as if the sharp edge of the scimitar were already at -his neck; yet he does not lose his presence of mind. “I am of the -country of Rûm, my lord,” he began; and he began with a “parliamentary -expression” for, to an Arab, Rûm meant Asia Minor, recently the -possession of _New_ Rome, _i.e._, of the Byzantine Empire. “I became a -Mohammedan at Cairo (another trifling inexactitude). I came to Medina -of the Prophet, to Mecca, and then to your country. Everyone says, sir, -that you are a sheik” (a Mohammedan priest). “Sir, I am your slave. -Sir, do you not know that I am a Moslem?” The Sultan called upon him -to repeat the formula: “‘There is no God but the God: Mohammed is the -Prophet of God.’ But, whether it was the will of God, or by reason of -fear which gat hold of me, I could not pronounce these words.” Our hero -was indeed lucky, for the merciful Sultan only ordered him to be taken -to prison and kept there under strict guard while he should be away. -For he was about to attack Sanäa, the ancient capital of Yemen. And so, -“they guarded me for three months, supplying me with a loaf of millet -each morning, and another in the evening; yet six such loaves had not -satisfied my hunger for a single day; nevertheless, if I might have had -my fill of water, I had thought myself happy.” - -In the East, the body of an insane person is believed to be occupied -by some spirit; and mad folk are therefore treated as irresponsible. -Varthema knew this, and he, two fellow-prisoners, one of whom he twice -speaks of as “my companion,” and yet another, “a Moor,” arranged -that one of the number should pretend to be mad in order to help the -others. The trick is time-honoured in the East; thereby David escaped -the hands of Achish, King of Gath. Lots were cast, and the lot fell -to Varthema. We can see him, like the Israelite King, “changing his -behaviour, scrabbling at the doors of the gate, and letting the spittle -fall down upon his beard”; he was allowed to go out, crowds of children -following him and shying stones at him. In self-defence he had to store -up a plentiful supply of like missiles in his garment and give a sharp -return. “Truly,” says he, “I never was so tired with labour and worn -out as during the first three days of my feigning.” - -Now, the prison adjoined the palace; and there remained in the palace -one of the Sultan’s three wives with her “twelve or thirteen very -comely maidens, rather more than inclining to black. This queen” (so -Varthema dubs her) “was very tender-hearted to me. She was for ever -at her lattice with her damsels, staying there throughout the day to -see me and to talk with me; and I, while many men and merchants were -jeering at me, went naked before the queen; for she took very great -pleasure in seeing me. I might not go from her sight; and she gave me -right good food to eat; so that I gained my point.” - -One of the most striking characteristics of the men of the Renaissance -is the combination of great intellectual power and lofty enthusiasm -with mediæval brutality. Now, the Sultana, in whose veins the warm -blood of the East flowed freely, suffered from the dull monotony of the -harem. She wanted excitement. She suggested to the supposed madman that -he should slay and spare not; for the fault would not be imputed to -him. He took the hint at once. He called on a fat sheep to declare its -religion, repeating the very words which the Sultan had addressed to -him: “Prove yourself a Moslem.” “The patient beast making no reply, I -took a staff and broke its legs. The queen looked on laughing, and fed -me with the flesh thereof during three days; nor do I remember to have -eaten better. Three days later, I killed an ass, which was bringing -water to the palace, in the same way; because that he would not become -a Moslem. And, in like manner, I cudgelled a Jew, so that I left him -for dead.” One of the gaolers, whom he declares to have been more mad -than he, called him “Christian dog, son of a dog.” This was enough: a -fierce battle by lapidation began—Varthema alone, on the one side; the -gaoler and children on the other. Varthema allowed himself to be badly -hit by two stones, “which I could have avoided easily; but I wanted to -give colour to my madness. So I went back to my prison, and blocked -the door up with large stones, and there I lived for the space of two -days without meat or drink. The queen and others thought I might be -dead, and caused the door to be broken open. Then these dogs brought -me pieces of marble saying, ‘eat; this is sugar;’ and others gave me -grapes filled with earth, and called it salt; but I ate the marble and -grapes and everything, all mixed up.” - -It was an enlightened custom in Mohammedan countries to examine into -the mental condition of insane people at regular intervals. Rabbi -Benjamin, of Tudela, the Spanish Jew, tells us that, in the sixth -decade of the Twelfth Century, he found Commissioners in lunacy at -Baghdad; although he also speaks of that barbarous practice of chaining -the madman which obtained in England until some centuries later. Two -Mohammedan Ascetics, who dwelt in the mountains as hermits, were -brought to the prison to determine whether Varthema might be a person -bereft of mere mundane reason through his exceptional sanctity, or -only ordinarily mad. The hermits took opposite views on this knotty -question, and spent an hour in violently contradicting one another. -The prisoner lost all patience and, anxious to be quit of them, put a -stop to the discussion by the simple device which Gulliver employed to -extinguish the conflagration at Lilliput. “Whereupon,” says he, “they -ran off crying ‘he is mad; he is no saint.’ The queen and her maidens -saw all this, for they were looking on from their casement, and burst -into laughter, vowing that ‘by God, by the head of the Prophet, there -is no one in the world like this man.’” - -Next day Varthema followed this up by laying hold of the gaoler by -those two horns or tufts of hair which were then, as now, fashionable -in Arabia, kneeling on his stomach, and so belabouring him that -he “left him for dead,” like the Jew. The queen was again vastly -entertained, and called out: “Kill those beasts.” - -But it was discovered that, all this time, Varthema’s fellow-prisoners -had been digging a hole through the prison wall, and, moreover, had -contrived to get free from their shackles. The Sultan’s deputy was -fully aware of the favour with which the Sultana regarded Varthema; and -the lady knew him to be ready to carry out her commands. She ordered -the prisoner to be kept in irons, but to be removed into a doorless -lower chamber of the palace, and to be provided with a good bed, good -food and perfumed baths. For, as the reader will guess, she had fallen -in love with the captive. Sexual love among Arabians is anything but -a refined or spiritual passion; and the harem has not been found -precisely a temple of chastity anywhere,—mainly, perhaps, because -it is a harem. And this lady possessed a temperament as sanguine -and scandalous as any Messalina or Faustina or Empress of all the -Russias. Alas! Fate doomed her to bloom unseen in Arabia, and waste her -sweetness on its desert air. At the end of a few days, she started by -bringing Varthema some dainty dish in the dead of night. He tells us -how, “coming into my chamber, she called ‘Jonah! Come. Are you hungry?’ -‘Yes, by Allah!’ I replied; and I rose to my feet and went to her in my -shirt. And she said: ‘No, no, not with your shirt on.’ I answered: ‘O -Lady, I am not mad now’; whereto she: ‘By Allah, I know you never were -mad. In the world there is no man like you.’ So, to please her, I took -off my shirt, holding it before me for the sake of decency; and thus -did she keep me for a space of two hours, gazing at me as if I had been -a nymph, and making her plaint to God in this wise: ‘O Allah! Thou hast -made this man white as the sun. Me, Thou hast made black. O Allah! O -Prophet! my husband is black; my son is black; this man is white. Would -that this man might become my husband! And while speaking thus, she -wept and sighed continuously, and kept passing her hands over me all -the time, and promising that she would make the Sultan remove my irons -when he returned.’ - -“Next night the queen came with two of her damsels, and said, ‘Come -hither, Jonah.’ I replied that I would come. ‘Would you like me to come -and stay a little while with you,’ she asked. I answered, ‘no, lady. I -am in chains; and that is enough.’ Then she said, ‘Have no fear. I take -it all on my own head. If you do not want me, I will call Gazelle, or -Tajiah, or Gulzerana to come instead.’ She spoke thus because she was -working to come herself. But I never gave way; for I had thought it all -out.” - -Varthema had no desire to remain in Yemen, even should he mount its -throne,—a far less likely event than discovery and a horrible death. -“I did not wish to lose both my soul and my body,” he writes. “I wept -all night, commending myself to God.” - -“Three days after this the Sultan returned, and straightway the queen -sent to tell me that, if I would stay with her, she would make me rich.” - -Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. Varthema is the man to -mould circumstances to his will: no web, however cunningly woven shall -hold him prisoner; his keen wit is ready to comply with the Sultana’s -request, if she will have his fetters struck off. - -The lady fell into the trap. She manifests the clever, feminine guile -of the harem in her dealings with Ibn Abd-el-Wahâb, but she is no match -for Varthema. The Sultan is a strong man and a mighty man of valour; -but he is uxorious, and as wax in her hands. She ordered the prisoner -to be brought at once before the Sultan and herself. Ibn Abd-el-Wahâb, -good easy man, asked Varthema whither he desired to go if he should -choose to release him. The mendacious Italian replied: “‘O Lord, I -have neither father nor mother; wife nor child; brother nor sister; -only Allah, the Prophet, and you. You give me food, and I am your -slave.’ And I wept without ceasing.” Then the artful Sultana reminded -the Sultan that he would have to account to God, of whose anger he -should beware, for having kept an innocent man so long time in prison. -Abd-el-Wahâb proved as unsuspicious and benevolent as history declares -him to have been; yet he was as firm and able as a ruler as he was bold -and experienced in arms. His Sultana knew how to play on his merits -and convert them into defects. He at once granted Varthema liberty to -go whithersoever he chose. “And, immediately, he had my irons struck -off; and I knelt before him; and kissed his feet and the hands of the -queen. She took me by the hand, saying: ‘Come with me, poor wight, for -I know thou art dying of hunger.’ When I was with her in her chamber, -she kissed me more than a hundred times; and then she gave me excellent -food. But I had seen her speak privily to the Sultan, and I thought -she had begged me from him for a slave. Wherefore, I said: ‘I will -not eat, unless you promise me my freedom.’ She replied: ‘Be silent, -madman. You know not what Allah will bestow. If you are good, you shall -be an Emir.’ Now, I knew what kind of lordship she desired to bestow -on me; so I answered that she should let me get into fitter condition; -for fear filled me with other than amorous thoughts. She replied: ‘By -Allah, you say well. I will give you eggs, fowls, pigeons, pepper, -cinnamon, cloves and cocoa-nuts every day.’[17] So, at these good words -and promises, I plucked up heart a bit. To restore me to health, I -stayed fifteen or twenty days in the palace. One day, she sent for me -and asked if I would go a-hunting with her; which offer I refused not; -and, at our return, feigned me to fall sick by reason of weakness; and -so continued for the space of eight days; during which time she was -unceasing in sending persons to visit me. One day, I sent to tell her -that I had vowed to God and Mohammed to visit a holy man at Aden, who -was reputed to work miracles.” - -We may not count meanness among the _petits défauts_ of this lady of -spacious passions. She was “well pleased” with Varthema’s suggestion, -and provided him with a camel and twenty-five golden ducats—a sum -which would go a long way in Arabia. We shall see presently to what use -he applied it. Eight days’ journeying brought him to the holy man of -Aden; and the second day after his arrival, he professed that he was -cured. He wrote to the Sultana that, since Allah had been so merciful, -he wished to see the whole of her kingdom. “This I did because the -fleet which was there could not set sail again for a month. I spoke -with a skipper in secret, and told him I wished to go to India, and -would give him a handsome present if he would take me. He replied that -he wished to touch at Persia first.” Nothing better could have fallen -in with Varthema’s wishes. Meanwhile he would explore Arabia Felix. - -So, having adroitly contrived to reject the love of the Light of the -Harem without exciting her fury, and even coming by her purse, he turns -the opportune gift to account, and fills up the month of waiting by -a zig-zag camel-ride through Southern Yemen—the first and boldest -European traveller in the district, and the one who has penetrated -it must thoroughly. With the intention of doing this in his mind, he -ends his chapters on “How the women of Arabia Felix are partial to -White Men,” and on “The liberality of the Queen.” - -His record of Southern Yemen bears witness to a shrewd observant eye -and a tenacious memory. Probably he travelled mostly with caravans. -He gives an account of the natural features of the land, its curious -domesticated animals, its wild beasts, its vegetable productions, its -trade, the colour, manners and dress of its strange natives—all borne -out by a variety of independent testimony. He visited many cities. -One, he found barbarous and poor; another, renowned for its attar of -roses. Several of these towns were flourishing centres of trade. He -even got to Sanäa, the walls whereof were so wide that “eight horses -might go abreast on the top of them.” Apparently Abd-el-Wahâb had -not yet conquered the petty chieftain, El Mansûr, who reigned there; -so Varthema found himself in the domain of the Sultan’s bitter foe. -We hear that rumour gave this ruler a mad son who would bite, and -slay, and then feed on his human victims. Varthema again tells us of -other madmen, Shiites and Sunnites, the rival sects of the Mohammedan -world, who kill each other like dogs for Religion’s sake. At Yerim, -he talked with many who asserted that they had reached their hundred -and twenty-fifth year; but, since there was no registration of birth, -we may venture to entertain our doubts. He tells us how it was the -fashion throughout Arabia to twist the hair into horns, and how the -women wore loose trousers. He came to El-Makrana, where “the Sultan -keeps more gold than a hundred camels might bear; and I say this -because I have seen it.” What became of that mighty bulk of gold? The -Arabian chroniclers tell us the firm, merciful and increasing rule of -Abd-el-Wahâb in Yemen had a tragic end: Turkish invaders captured him -and put him to death, not in the heat of warfare, but in cold blood. - -Varthema “ran some risk from the multitude of apes” (of which Niebuhr -also speaks), and from “animals like lions (hyenas?). We passed on in -very great danger from the said animals, and with no little hunting of -them. However, we killed very many with bows and slings and dogs; and -thereby passed in safety.” - -On reaching Aden he repeated the trick which had proved so successful -at Jidda. “I took shelter in a mosque,” he says, “feigning to be sick, -and there I lurked all day long; but, at night, I went forth to find -the skipper of the ship; and he smuggled me aboard.” - - - - -CHAPTER VI. EASTWARD HO! - - -For six days the wind was favourable; but it was now December of the -year 1503; and on the seventh day out, the North Eastern monsoon drove -the vessel back “with 25 others, laden with madder for the dyeing of -clothes. By dint of very great labour, we made the port of Zeila” (on -the African Coast, opposite to Aden); “and tarried there five days both -to see it and to wait for better weather.” Zeila was a great place -for traffic in gold and ivory, the law was well administered; but the -cruel slave-trade prevailed there then as, in a different form, it did -up to our own times. The Christian dominions of Abyssinian “Prester -John” were raided by Arabs; his subjects captured; and sold in Egypt, -Arabia, Persia and India. The merchants here would seem to have found -a profitable trade in beasts left with but a single horn; for Varthema -saw some, which, however, were quite different from those wonderful -unicorns at Mecca. He gives a faithful description of the black and -white Berbera sheep of Zeila. - -The weather having improved, the ship touched at Berbera, and then -sailed up the Gulf of Aden and across the Arabian Sea. Twelve days saw -her at Diu, an island to the south of the Indian Peninsula of Kathiawar -and subject to the Sultan of Gujarat. Varthema calls it the “port of -the Turks”; but by Turks we must understand Mohammedan inhabitants of -the Levant who had settled at Diu. It was an important halt for ships -trading between India and Arabia and Persia. The vessel which bore -Varthema must have been a tramp, picking up what cargo offered, and -altering her course from time to time, to dispose of it; for, after -spending two days at Diu, we find her taking a three days run up the -Gulf of Cambay to Gogo, a place “of great traffic, fat, and rich; where -all are Mohammedans.” She now recrossed the ocean to Eastern Arabia, -and put in at Julfar, on the shores of Oman. Once again she reversed -her course; and a favourable wind bore her to Muscat, a port which is -still of some importance, and which, at that time, was one of the small -independent States of Arabia. Then she tacked back, and came to New -Ormuz, a port on the island of Jeruan. - -Old Ormuz was a city on the mainland, which Marco Polo visited in the -eighth decade of the Thirteenth Century, but, shortly after his time, -almost all the population deserted the old city for the island. As in -the days of Ibn Batûta it was famous for its pearl-fisheries. “Here,” -writes Varthema, “are found the largest pearls in the world”; and hence -it is that Milton couples the wealth of Ormuz with that of India.[18] -“At three days’ voyage from this island, fishers pay out ropes, one -from either end of their little boats. To each rope, a big stone is -tied, so as to keep the boat moored; and they pay out yet another rope -to the bottom, with a stone to it, from the middle of the boat, whereby -one of these fishermen, having hung two bags round his neck and tied -a big stone to his feet, goes down fifteen paces into the water, and -stays there as long as he is able, to find those oysters wherein are -pearls. These he puts into the bag, and gets quit of the stone at his -feet, and comes up by one of the ropes aforesaid.” The pearl-diver -is not given the wholly impossible time under water which Ibn Batûta -credited him with. With customary caution our Italian is content to say -that he “stays there as long as he is able.” - -This trade and the city of Ormuz were in the hands of Arabs, who paid -tribute to the King of Persia, and were dependent for food on the -mainland. Ormuz was one of the great centres along that trade-route -between the East and the Levant, which traversed the Persian Gulf, -and made its way by Bagdad, and the Euphrates Valley and Aleppo to -the Mediterranean; just as Aden was one of the great centres of the -other route through the Red Sea and Egypt to Cairo and Alexandria. Our -traveller would pass along streets crowded with men from many nations. - -From Ormuz comes a tale of cold-blooded parricide, fratricide, and -subtle perfidy very characteristic of the dynastic families of Asia. -“At the time when I visited this land, there happened that which you -shall hear.” The Sultan of Ormuz had eleven sons, of whom the youngest -was judged to lack half his wits, and the eldest was, beyond doubt, “a -devil unchained.” This Sultan had purchased two Abyssinian children, -and brought them up as carefully as if they had been his own sons; -for it was a practice in Arabia and India to rely on the valour and -sagacity of Abyssinian slaves, to entrust them with the most important -military commands, and to consult them as closest advisers. One of -these men was named Caim; the other Mohammed. One night, when, all was -dark and silent in the palace, that “devil unchained,” the eldest son -found an opportunity to put out the eyes of his father, his mother -and all his brethren excepting those of his youngest brother; for he -supposed him to be incapable of aspiring to the throne. Not satisfied -with blinding his victims, he caused them to be burned alive within -the palace-enclosure. Next morning he proclaimed himself Sultan; and -the supposed fool fled to a mosque; for the rights of sanctuary were -to be found there, if anywhere. At first, the city was in tumult; but -the bloody deed was over and done with; and a city of trade is soon -glad to quiet down and resume business. The problem now before the -new Sultan was: how to get rid of Caim and Mohammed. Both men were -in high position: that were a small matter; but they held command of -fortresses. Somehow, he managed to get Mohammed to venture into his -presence, and, after making much of him, breathed into his ear that, -if he would slay Caim, he should be rewarded with the command of five -fortresses. Mohammed protested: “‘O Sidi, I have shared bread with him -from our childhood; for thirty years. By Allah, I cannot bring my mind -to do this thing.’ Then said the Sultan: ‘Well, let it alone.’” Having -failed in the attempt to induce Mohammed to murder Caim, the Sultan now -tried to induce Caim to murder Mohammed. Caim made not the least demur, -and straightway sought out his old friend and companion. Mohammed at -once read what had happened written in the face of his false friend, -and charged him with the fact. Caim, guilt-stricken, cast his dagger at -the feet of Mohammed, fell on his knees, and implored forgiveness of -the meditated crime. Mohammed reproached Caim in the mildest way, and -then either from magnanimity or from policy, or from both, he passed -over his treachery; but made him vow to go to the Sultan and pretend -that he had done the deed. - -“When the Sultan saw him, he demanded: ‘Hast thou slain thy friend?’ -Caim answered: ‘I have, Sidi, by Allah!’ Then the Sultan: ‘Come here’; -and Caim went close up to him; whereupon, the Sultan seized him and did -him to death with his dagger.” Three days passed, and then Mohammed -stole stealthily into the Sultan’s chamber, who, when he saw him, was -greatly perturbed, and exclaimed: ‘O dog, son of a dog, are thou still -alive?’ Mohammed replied: ‘Yea, I live, in spite of thee, and thee -will I slay, thou worse than dog or devil!’ Both men being armed, they -fought together for a space of time; but in the end, Mohammed killed -the Sultan, and put the palace into a state of defence. But, because he -was much beloved, the populace ran thither with shouts of ‘Long live -Sultan Mohammed.’ - -Mohammed was a man as prudent and experienced as he was ready and -resolute: he saw a way to do the state good service and to preserve for -himself the reality of power while maintaining the shows of legality -and removing the occasions of envy. At the end of twenty days, he call -the chief citizens together, “and spake to them in this wise: That what -he had done had been of strong necessity; that he knew he had no right -to the throne; and that he begged them to allow him to transfer his -power to the son who was supposed to be crazy. And thus the son became -Sultan; but, nevertheless Mohammed rules. The whole city said, ‘of a -surety, this man is the friend of Allah.’ For which reason, he was made -Governor of the City and of the Sultan; the Sultan being in the state -aforesaid.” - -A very narrow little strait lies between Ormuz and the mainland of -Persia. Varthema left his “tramp,” and crossed over. His itinerary -through the ancient and renowned Empire is by no means clear; but we -find him at Herat, 600 miles in a bee-line from Ormuz, and at that time -the capital of Khôrasân and the residence of its able ruler—Sultan -Hosein Mirza, a man who boasted his descent from Timour the Tartar. -Varthema speaks of Herat as being a great market for stuffs, especially -silk stuffs, and for rhubarb. Badger, commenting on this statement, -suggests that Herat lay on the direct route along which rhubarb was -conveyed between Thibet, Mongolia, and the West. Certainly exports and -imports of Persia, India, Turkestan and Afghanistan passed through -Herat. - -It strikes one as singular that, although Varthema Would seem to have -journeyed some 1,500 miles in Persia, he says very little about the -country. This may be because the Venetians were directly acquainted -with that fascinating Empire; and consequent on this, a general -knowledge of it would spread throughout Italy. For, when the great blow -was struck at Venetian trade by the Turkish capture of Constantinople -and Negroponte, and the “Queen of the Adriatic” no longer held “the -gorgeous East in fee,” she sent three separate embassies on a bold and -perilous mission. She sought to secure the alliance of Persia against -their common foe, the Ottoman Turk. Few records of travel and adventure -are more animating or fuller of interest than those of the Venetian -Ambassadors, Barbaro and Contarini.[19] Varthema must have made a bold -journey. The “Adventures of Hadji Baba of Ispahan” probably furnish as -true and vivid a picture of what life and travel in Persia were like -in the early years of the sixteenth century as they do of that which -was to be experienced in the early years of the nineteenth century, -Persia has remained in the same case of what may be called immutable -instability from the days when she was won for Islam down to the days -of the immortal Morier and to our own times. - -From Herat, he took the caravan-route back to Shiraz in Persia, a -journey of fully 700 miles. Here was a great mart for the turquoises, -rubies and other jewels of Khôrasân and Badakshan, as well as for musk -and ultramarine; and he learned something of the business capacity of -the Persian; he complains that “our musk”—that delight, with other -overpowering scents of his nation and time—“is adulterated by these -folk, who are master-hands for intellect, and misleaders beyond all -other peoples.” - -It is a problem how Varthema contrived to cover such vast distances -on what was probably a lean purse. He is silent as to his financial -resources; as we have said it is unlikely that his private means were -considerable, and it would seem that he did not trade. As a Mameluke he -would receive payment which carried him to Aden; and the money which -the enamoured Sultana furnished him with would partly, if not wholly, -give him the means to reach Persia. But he employed his infinite -power to charm; he was burthened with no weak scruple as to blinding -a newly-captured friend and using him, with wise moderation, in the -service of that central purpose which was the heart of all his being. -And thus, as we shall presently see, like Iago, he made his fool his -purse. But he is capable of appreciating the good qualities of the -generous friend whom he made his dupe; and is careful to pay tribute -to him. If he must deceive in order to use him, it is to realize his -purpose of seeing the world at first-hand and recording its wonders. - -After remarking on the tricks of Persian traders, he adds: “Yet I must -also say they are the best companions and the most generous among -men. I speak thus with knowledge; having had experience of a Persian -merchant of Herat in Khôrasân, whom I met in this city of Shiraz. He -had known me at Mecca two years before, and spoke to me thus: ‘Jonah, -what is your business here? Are you not the same man who went to Mecca -some time back?’ I replied that I was, and that to find out about the -world was the quest I was on. Then said he: ‘Allah be praised! for I -shall have a companion to make discovery with me. Do not leave me.’ -We stayed on fifteen days in this same city of Shiraz.” Varthema’s -magnetic charm was at work; and luck stood his friend in bringing him -across this old acquaintance. - -The twain set off together from Shiraz, bound for Samarkand in -Turkestan; for the merchant, whose name Was Cazazionor, insisted on -keeping Varthema with him, and presumably payed all expenses. But they -travelled through a land in turmoil. The struggle between the Ottoman -Turks established in Europe and the Turcoman dynasty of the White -Sheep established in Persia was happy indeed for the Christian world, -since it diverted the forces of Constantinople to the East at a time -when Europe lay divided and helpless, but it was disastrous for Persia -and ended by throwing her into confusion. Just now Ismail-es-Sufi, a -descendant from the Prophet, who had overthrown the forces of Bayazid, -and laid the foundations of a great Persian dynasty, which endured more -than two centuries, was consolidating a country which had been torn -by internecine strife. As is so often the case, religious differences -afforded the trumpet-call to the struggles of peoples. As in the days -of Ibn Batûta the Sunnites of the West fought the Shiites of the East -for domination; but they fought in the name of Allah and under the -banners of sectarian difference. In order to seat himself firmly on the -throne, the Great Sofi, for so Europeans called the monarch of the new, -able and powerful dynasty roused the enthusiasm of the native Shiites, -and converted the less numerous native Sunnites to his own true faith -by blood and iron. Varthema tells us that the Sofi was passing through -the land with flame and slaughter. - -Cazazionor, finding the country so disturbed, thought it wise to return -towards Herat. So delighted was he with the personality and society -of “Jonah” that he offered to give him his niece to wife. She was a -beautiful girl named Sharus, a feminine noun in Persian as in other -languages, although it signifies The Sun. Cazazionor took Varthema with -him to his own home; which was probably at Shiraz; and presented the -young lady to him. She could not have attained womanhood; for he was -allowed to see her. He feigned delight at her beauty; but he says that -his mind was “bent to other things”—probably less on wife and children -at home than on his still insatiate desire for travel. After enjoying -Cazazionor’s hospitality for eight days, he returned with his host to -Ormuz, and took ship for Sind. They were landed at Joah, a port on -the delta of the Indus, and proceeded to Cambay, an important harbour -in Gujarat, whence fifty ships, laden with cotton, sailed yearly to -different lands. - - - - -CHAPTER VII. - -THE PAGANS OF NARSINGA. - - -Before Batûta reached India, and therefore long before Varthema’s time, -Afghan chiefs had swooped down on the fertile plains of India with -the war cry of “Allah and the Prophet,” and Northern India, with the -exception of its southern and western districts, where the Rajpoots -maintained their independence, was now under the rule of various -Moslem despots. The Deccan was under the sway of a powerful Moslem -dynasty—the Brahmany Sultans; but what is now the presidency of Madras -and Mysore was divided into a number of petty kingdoms, subject to -the Hindu Râja of Narsinga. A full century of conflict had resulted -in a partial triumph of the Moslem: the sovereigns of Narsinga paid a -certain tribute to be left at peace, although the western coast was, -in a measure, protected by a wall of mountains. But Portuguese traders -had just sailed into the Arabian Sea and had established themselves -here and there at trading stations on the Malabar coast; and these they -had fortified. On his outward journey, Varthema, for obvious reasons, -showed no disposition to cultivate the acquaintance of these Christian -Europeans. - -Gujarat was under the rule of Fath Khân, whom Varthema calls Sultan -Machamuth. “You shall now hear of the manner of his life. He and all -his people are Mohammedans; and he keeps twenty thousand horsemen -always with him. When he arises in the morning, fifty elephants, each -with a man atop, come to the palace and do him reverence; and this -is all the labour they are put to.... When he eats, fifty or sixty -different kinds of music discourse; such as trumpets, different sorts -of drums, recorders and fifes, and many others; and the elephants again -do him reverence.... The Sultan’s moustachios are so long that he -ties them up over his head, as a woman doth tie her tresses; and his -beard, which is white, comes down to his girdle.” Fath Khân was greatly -dreaded by his subjects; and they believed strange things concerning -him; stories which are worthy of the Arabian Nights. These Varthema -heard and set down, as did Barbosa, who travelled in the East a few -years after the Sultan’s death. Machamuth was reputed to eat poison -daily, so that, while he himself had become poison-proof, he had only -to spit at a foe and death followed within half an hour. “Every night -that he shall sleep with one of his three or four thousand women, they -shall take her up dead in the morning.” - -The Sultan was continually at war with a neighbouring Hindu Râja; and -his Kingdom of Gujarat had been taken from the Jains—“a race which -eats of nothing wherein courseth blood, and will kill nothing that hath -life. They are neither Moors nor heathens; and I believe that, if they -should be baptised, they would all be saved by their good works; for -they never do unto others what they would not that others should do -unto them. For dress, some wear a shirt; some, only a cloth round their -middle and a large red cloth on their head; and their colour is tawny. -And the aforesaid Sultan took their kingdom from them because of their -goodness.” - -These Jains, who at first, mainly differed from Buddhists in believing -that the purification of the soul resulted in a Heaven and not in -Nirvâna, and the relation of whose creed to Buddhism is far from being -clear, had built some of their remote and mysterious temples on the -heights of Gujarat, where through clouds of incense, female figures, -clothed in scarlet and gold might be seen, weaving strange figures and -chanting monotonous psalms. But these, Varthema, posing as a pious -Mohammedan, might not see; and he makes no reference to the famous -temples of Gujarat. - -From Cambay, the Persian and our Italian sailed along the coast to -Chaul; thence to a port which has disappeared but which was near -Ratnagiri, on the Concan coast; and thence to the island of Goa. “On -this island there is a fortress by the sea, kept by a Mameluke with -four hundred other Mamelukes. If the captain shall come across any -white man he gives him much wage; but first he sends for two jerkins, -made of leather, one for him and one for him that wishes to take -service; each puts on a jerkin, and they fall to. If he prove himself -a strong man, he is put among the able men; but if not, he is set to -other task than that of fighting. The captain wages great battle with -the Râja of Narsinga” (Bijayanagar the capital of the Carnatic). - -From Goa, seven days of land-travel brought the pair to “the city of -Decan” (Bîjapûr), a Mohammedan place where “the King lives in great -pride and pomp. Many of them that serve him have their very shoes -adorned with rubies, diamonds, and other jewels; so you may judge how -many garnish their fingers and ears. They wear robes or shirts of silk, -shoes and breeches after the style of sailors; and ladies go quite -veiled, as in Damascus.” - -Thence they returned to the coast, and visited ports, many of which -have decayed or disappeared. These were subject, but not always -friendly, to the Râja of Narsinga; and the Kinglet of Honawar was -friendly to the Portuguese. But in spite of incessant warfare, life and -property were respected. The journey now lies along the Malabar coast -to Cannanore: “the port to which steeds are brought from Persia, and -you must know that the levy for each horse is twenty-five ducats.... -Here we began to meet with spices.” Here, also, were Portuguese -established. - -They now turned their steps to Narsinga, where Heemrâj held his court. -Varthema calls him “King,” and indeed he ruled, for like the Frank -“Mayors of the palace,” he had gradually usurped the powers of the -real Râja, and held actual sway in the place of an ancient race which -boasted an uninterrupted succession lasting seven centuries. The city -was great and grand; the court, splendid; the revenue, enormous; the -army boasted 40,000 horsemen and 400 elephants, and was constantly -doing battle with the Moslem and neighbouring Pagan States. “The -elephant wears armour; in particular, head and trunk are armed. To -the trunk a sword of two arms’ length is fastened, and as broad as a -man’s hand.” “Seven armed men go upon the said elephant,” shielded by -a sort of castle, “And in that manner they fight.” “The King wears a -cap of cloth of gold; and a quilted garment of cotton when he goes to -the wars; over this a garment beset with gold coins; and all manner -of jewels are at the border thereof. His horse wears jewels which -are of more value than are some of our cities. When he journeys for -pleasure, three or four kings and five or six thousand horsemen attend -him. Wherefore, one may account him a most powerful prince. The common -people go naked save for a loin-cloth.... In this realm you may go -where you list in safety; but it behoves you to beware of lions on the -way.” - -Varthema was very much impressed by the singular structure and equally -singular habits of the elephant, and he speaks admiringly of its -sagacity and strength. He devotes a considerable space to this noble -beast; gives us the most accurate details; and recurs to the subject -over and over again. - -The Persian jewel-merchant and he left Narsinga after two days’ stay, -and visited places which were of much importance then, but which have -disappeared from the modern map. At last, they arrive at Calicut. - -“Having come to the place where the greatest fame of India is gathered -up” our traveller devotes the whole of his second book concerning India -to Calicut and the manners and customs of its people, as being those of -all the inhabitants of that part of the peninsula which lies between -the Malabar and Coromandel coasts. From time out of mind Calicut had -been a famous emporium; to it calico owes its name. When Islam arose, -the spread of the Mohammedan faith stimulated the enterprise of the -intrepid Arab sailor and merchant and of the renegade from Eastern -Europe and Western Asia. The activity of the hardy Arab found scope by -reason of the natural indolence of the Hindu and his dislike of the -sea. A rich and well organized traffic sprang up between Persia and -Arabia on the one side and China and the Spice Islands on the other. -Even in China, the Arab contrived to settle; and Calicut remained the -chief centre of the Eastern trade. Here, in the season of calm, might -be seen the leviathan junks of China; and, at all times, the ships -of every civilized Eastern people. But, by the time Varthema reached -Calicut, the Arab had found Malacca to be a more convenient mart for -the trade of the far-East; and Calicut, a little fallen from her high -estate, had become mainly a market for the products of Southern India -and Ceylon, and a port of call. And yet greater change was at hand. -One of those new routes had been opened up which from time to time, -abase the pride of commercial nations and transfer their wealth: the -Portuguese rounded the Cape, reached East Africa, broke across the -Ocean, and, in 1498, Vasco di Gama anchored off Calicut. The jealous -Arabs burned down the factory which the native ruler had allowed -the Portuguese to erect, and fierce seafights ensued, which were -accompanied by much brutality. The contest was between the best sailors -of Europe and the huge, but ill-built and ill-navigated fleets of the -Arab traders. The latter were unable to expel or even to discourage the -invaders, who, incensed at opposition, shewed no mercy, and suffered -from severe reprisal. While Varthema was at Calicut, the Zamorin (as -its ruler was called by those English travellers who arrived a little -later) “agreed that the Moors should slay forty-eight Portuguese, whom -I saw put to death. And for this reason the King of Portugal is always -at war, and daily kills very many; and thereby the city is ruined, for -in every way it is at war.” Our traveller arrived at Calicut at the -precise time when India, cast into a welter by Mohammedan aggression -in its lust for wealth and dominion, was confronted with the yet more -insatiate greed of European adventures for fabled gold and direct -markets. The competitors vied with one another in all the arts of -treachery, cruelty and fraud. - -Calicut was a city of mean appearance, occupying an area of about a -mile; but the “compounds” were spread over a space of six miles. It -was crowded with traders from Ethiopia, Arabia and Persia, Syria and -the Levant, Bengal and Sumatra. Varthema calculates that no less than -fifteen thousand Moors were domiciled there. He visited the palace of -the Zamorin, which was divided into chambers by wooden partitions, on -which supernatural beings were carved—beings named dêvas in the Indian -Scriptures, and taken by our Italian for devils. The flooring was a -preparation of cow-dung, used then, as it is to-day, for its antiseptic -properties. Ramna and Krishna and a demon-goddess called Mariamma were -the chief objects of worship; so we are not surprised when we read -that, in the “chapel” of the palace, the oil-lamps were set on tripods, -“on each side whereof are three devils, _in relievo_, very fearful to -behold. Such are the squires that bear lights to the King.” The chapel -was small, but its wooden door was elaborately “carven with devils. In -the middle of it is a devil seated, all in bronze; and the devil wears -a three-fold crown, like unto that of the Papacy. He has four horns and -four teeth, a huge mouth and nose, and his eyes strike terror into him -that looketh thereon. Devils are figured around the said chapel; and -on each side thereof a Satan is seated, in flaming fire, wherein are a -great number of souls. And, the said Satan has a soul to his mouth with -his right hand and with his left hand he grips a soul by its middle.” -Perchance the chapel recalled memories of pictured hells on the walls -of the Pisan Campo Santo, or of certain other mediæval frescoes at -Florence. - -He went to a great religious festival near Calicut. “Truly,” he -says, “never did I see so many gathered together save at Mecca. From -fifteen days’ journey round about came all the Nairs and Brâhmans to -sacrifice.” Passing through trees which bore lights innumerable, one -came to a tank, wherein the worshippers first bathed before entering -the temple, which stood up from the middle of the tank. It had “two -rows of columns, like San Giovanni in Fonte at Rome.” The head Brâhmans -first anointed the heads of the worshippers with oil, and then burned -incense, with elaborate ritual, and offered the sacrifice of a cock at -an altar laden with flowers. “At one end of the altar is a Satan, which -all go up to worship, and then depart, each on his own way.” - -Early in the morning, it is the duty of the Brâhman to bathe in a tank -of still water, and then to wash the idols with perfumed water; after -which he burns incense before them; nor does the Zamorin eat of food -that has not first been presented to the god. “Then the Brâhmans lie -flat on the ground, but in a secret manner, and they do roll their eyes -in a devilish way, and twist their mouths horribly for the space of a -quarter of an hour; and then the time to eat is come. And men eat of -food which has been cooked by men; but the women cook for themselves.” - -Varthema’s account of the manners and habits of Southern India -is neither so wholly accurate nor arranged with such lucidity as -Hiuen-Tsiang’s record of the region of Ganges and Jumna, written nine -centuries before. Nor does Southern India present us with such a high -civilization as does the empire of Sîlâditya. But Varthema makes few -statements that are not confirmed by other early travellers, and his -record bears ample witness to a shrewd, observant eye and honest -enquiry. He describes the Brâhmans; the Nairs, or warrior-caste; the -artizans and other castes of the Malabar Coast. We learn that no one -of the two lowest castes may approach a Brâhman within fifty paces -“unless he bid him do so”; wherefore they shout a warning as they pass -along, and take private paths through the marshes, for, should they not -cry aloud, and should any of the Nairs meet them, they may be killed by -him, and no punishment follow thereupon. - -The Nairs “eat no flesh without sanction from the Brâhmans; but other -castes eat all manner of flesh, saving that of the cow.” The lower -castes “eat mice and fish dried in the sun.” All sit on the ground at -meals; and the upper castes use the leaf of a tree to scoop up their -food from metal bowls; while the lower castes make balls of rice and -take it by the hand from a pipkin. All castes and both sexes wear a -cotton loin-cloth only. The lowest sort of people suckle their children -for three months only, and then feed them on milk night and morning. -“And when they have stuffed them therewith, they do not wash them, -but cast them into the sand, where they lie until evening. As they -are nearly black, one cannot tell whether they be little bears or -buffaloes; and they look as if they were fed by the Devil.” - -Justice was admirably administered—a characteristic of Hîndustân -noticed and praised by Greeks, Romans, Arabians, and all travellers. In -fact, life and property were fairly safe throughout all civilized Asia. -Creditors, on proof of claim, drew a circle round their debtor with a -green bough, and within this he must remain until he pay or perish. -Should he leave the circle, his life was forfeit to the Zamorin. Murder -was punished by impalement; wilful injury to another by fine. Traders -transacted business by secret negotiation under a coverlet, certain -signs being made with the fingers. - -When a man is sick, he is visited by a dozen men, “dressed like -devils,” who are accompanied by players on divers instruments. “These -physicians carry fire in their mouths,” and go about on stilts fixed -to their hands and feet; and so they go shouting and sounding the -music; so that truly they would make a hale man fall to the ground -for fear at the sight of these ugly beasts. They force ginger juice -on the sick; and, in three days, he is well again—cured in the main, -one may surmise, by workings of belief on his expectant imagination. -Abracadabra is a useful and time honoured ally to the learned -professions. The spirits which preside over the fertility of rice are -propitiated in a similar manner by the same men. “When the Nairs die, -their bodies are burned with much pomp, and some among them keep the -ashes; but common folk are buried within the house or garden.” - -Varthema tells us of certain social customs which persist to this -day in Southern India. The caste or tribe of Nairs who preponderate -there, maintain to-day the institutions of their ancestors before -history began. Marriage is acknowledged to be the least stable and -most diversified of all human institutions; but the Nairs retain -more than a trace of the matriarchate and of the polyandry which was -associated with the matriarchate. They count descent through the -children of sisters only; and marriage is with them the loosest of -ties; it involves no responsibility towards the woman or her child. -Again the worship of the snake, and, for obvious reasons, of the cobra -in particular, throughout India is a remnant of phallic worship. Let us -hear what Varthema has to tell us of a state of society which exhibits -a stage in the slow and fluctuating course of moral development from -primitive promiscuity to the high moral standard extolled, if not -completely attained, by the Christian West. There was a habit which -is still regarded in many parts of the world as the seal of amity and -the highest possible honour which a man can bestow on a friend. “The -Pagans exchange their wives.” Indeed, they bestowed them on a friend -with all the ready generosity of Cato the Censor to Hortensius. “And -when the King takes to himself a wife, he chooses among the most worthy -and honourable of the Brâhmans” him to whom shall be accorded the -_jus primae noctis_. The Brâhman affects unwillingness “and the king -must pay him four or five hundred ducats.” Here, almost for certain, -we have a vestige of old phallic worship. When the king is journeying, -he passes on his matrimonial privileges to a Brâhman. Among the -inferior castes, “one woman has five, six, and seven husbands, and even -eight.... The children go according to the word of the woman.” “The -son of one of the sisters of the late king follows him on the throne.” -As to serpent-worship, “you must know that, when the King of Calicut -has word as to the place where a nest of any of these vile animals is -to be found, he has a little house builded over it for water.[20] And, -if anyone should kill one of these animals or a cow, he would be put -to death. They say that these serpents are divine spirits; and that, -if they were not spirits, God would not have bestowed on them so great -power that, by biting a man but a little, he shall fall headlong and -straightway die.” “And when these Pagans go a journeying, it is held -for good luck to meet one of these creatures.... There are however, -great enchanters: we have seen them grasp deadly serpents.” - -The Zamorin “wore so many jewels in his ears and on his hands, arms, -legs and feet, that here was a marvel to behold.” His treasury held -the immense collection of many previous reigns, stored up for time of -need. But that recent scourge of mankind, which spread so rapidly over -the world, and which every nation called by the name of a neighbouring -nation, had already reached India; this magnificent monarch had “the -French disease in the throat.” - -When the King eats, Brâhmans, stand around him, at a space of three or -four steps distant, bending the back, and holding the hands before the -month. When the King speaks, there is silence, and much reverence is -paid to his words. - -In the warfare between the States of Southern India, an economy of -bloodshed was observed which would have done credit to those Italian -warriors of whom Machiavelli tells how the condottiere captain was -circumspect to save his men, and the foughten field remained almost as -bloodless as a chessboard. The Princes went forth to battle with great -armies of foot-soldiery and elephants (but no cavalry), armed with -swords, lances, bows and arrows, and furnished with shields. But when -battle was joined, and the armies were distant from one another as far -as two cross-bows’ shots might carry, Brâhmans were ordered by one King -to go to his royal foe, and ask that a hundred Nairs should fight on -either side. Then the selected Nairs would meet midway between the two -armies and fight by established rule—“two strokes to the head and one -at the legs; and this though they should fight for three days. And when -from four to six on either side are slain, the Brâhmans go straightway -into their midst, and make both sides return to their encampments.” -Then the kings were wont to employ the Brâhmans again to bear messages, -one to another, asking if that were enough, or more were wished for. -“The Brâhman says ‘no.’ And the enemy says the same. Thus do they do -battle together; an hundred set against an hundred.” - -Varthema tells us of the habit of betel-chewing and gives us many -other details of the life and manners of the people; of their skill as -workmen; of their wretched shipping and of their poor navigation. He -had the naturalist’s eye, and tells us much of the animals and plants -of the district. He describes the crocodile as a “kind of reptile, as -big as a boar, but with a greater head; it has four feet, and is four -cubits long. It is engendered in certain marshes. The natives say it is -without venom; but an evil beast; doing evil to folk by its bite.” - -The Persian merchant had avowed that his desire was to travel, and not -to trade, for he had enough; but all the same, he was sufficiently -eager to find good markets. “My comrade,” whose name is now spelled -somewhat differently—Cazazionor becomes Cogiazenor—“being unable to -sell his wares for that the trade of Calicut was ruined at the hands of -the King of Portugal; for the merchants that were wont to hie thither -were not there, nor did they come; we set forth, taking the way of a -river, which is the most beautiful I have ever seen, and came to a city -called Cacolon, fifty leagues distant.” This “river”-way was by the -Backwater of Cochin. - -Cacolon, like so many places visited by our traveller is not to be -found on a modern map, but was a mart of some importance in its day, -“because of pepper of the best which grows in these parts.” Here dwelt -a few native Christians “of St. Thomas, some of whom were merchants, -believing in Christ.” A little later on Varthema’s journey, he is -told of the tomb of the Apostle, “guarded by Christians.” That St. -Thomas was the first missionary to India, and that he was martyred -there is an ancient tradition. William of Malmesbury tells us in his -“Chronicles of the Kings of England” how “Alfred sent many presents -over sea to Rome and St. Thomas in India. Sighelm, bishop of Sherborne, -sent ambassadors for this purpose, who penetrated successfully into -India: a matter of astonishment even in the present time.” The legend -concerning St. Thomas is however not earlier than the Fourth Century. -Earlier tradition makes him the evangelist of Parthia; and St. Thomas -was probably confused with one Thomas, a bishop, who arrived on the -Malabar coast in the middle of the Fourth Century. The shrine of the -saint is in a suburb of Madras. Indian Christianity was an offshoot of -Syrian Gnosticism, and Indian Christians were subject to the authority -of the Nestorian Patriarch at Mesopotamia. “These Christians say,” -writes Varthema, “that a priest comes from Babylon every three years to -baptize them.” - -The next place reached by the travellers was Quilon in Travancore, the -port of a powerful little kingdom “for ever at war with others.... At -that time the king of this city was the friend of the King of Portugal, -but we did not think it well to remain there, for he was fighting -others.” The contentions of these petty sovereigns with each other gave -the Portuguese the opportunity which has always offered itself to the -invaders of India, and which they have never been slow to seize. - -From Quilon, they sailed to the south, touched at a place where there -was a pearl fishery, rounded the “head of India,” and arrived at a -port of the Carnatic, which Varthema calls Coromandel. The King of -Coromandel was also at war with a neighbour, so Cazazionor and other -merchants hired a “sampan,” or flat-bottomed boat, and, “at great -peril, by reason of many rocks and shoals,” sailed from the Coromandel -coast and reached Ceylon. - - - - -CHAPTER VIII. - -FARTHER INDIA, MALAYSIA AND THE BANDA ISLANDS. - - -Alas! the visit was of little profit. As in Ibn Batûta’s time, nearly -two centuries before, the island was divided between four kings, and -“for that they were waging fierce war with each other, we could not -tarry long time there.” Another reason for the short stay made in -Ceylon was that Cazazionor got alarmed at false information concerning -the good faith of one of the Kings to whom he was to carry his corals -and saffron. This was given him by one of the Moorish traders who were -settled in the ports of the island. This gentleman had the same kind -of goods to dispose of as Cazazionor, and contrived to hoodwink the -Persian with a commercial astuteness and subtlety worthy of a later -age. Afraid that one of the kings would contrive to “convey” his -merchandise he departed in haste, and Varthema with him. - -The latter made marvellous use of eye and ear during his few days’ stay -in Ceylon. He draws an admirable picture of the people, the climate, -the cinnamon, the rich fruits and other vegetable produce, the roses -and other flowers, the immense herds of elephants and the big rubies -of the island. He was told of the impression of Adam’s foot on a -high peak, but had no time to visit it, even had the fighting then -going on allowed of it. It shows how feeble was the authority of an -Indian overlord, and how little supreme sovereignty was concerned with -matters other than tribute, that the warring Râjas were the subjects -of the Râja of Narsinga, “because of rice, which is brought from -the mainland.” “Some have lances of cane and swords, and they fight -together with these; but they do not slaughter each other over much; -for they are cowards.” - -Three days rowing brought them to Pulicat, a town a little north of -Madras. They abode with a Moorish trader, who eagerly bought the -large store of corals, saffron, figured velvet and knives Cazazionor -had with him. “As this land was waging fierce war with the King of -Tarnassari, we were not able to stay very long. After a few days we set -sail for the city of Tarnassari, which is at a thousand miles distance -from here. And we arrived there in fourteen days.” In fact, they sailed -across the Bay of Bengal to Tenasserim, a fertile province of the Malay -Peninsula, at that time tributary to Siam. We find that the Râja “is a -most powerful lord and is for ever at war with the King of Narsinga and -the King of Bengal. He has an hundred elephants in armour, which are -the largest I have ever seen. He keeps an army of 100,000 men, part on -foot, part on horse, ready for war. They are armed with small swords -and shields, some of which are made of the shell of the tortoise and -some are like those used in Calicut; and they have store of bows and -of lances, some of which are of cane and some of wood. When they go -to war they wear a garment much stuffed with cotton.... Much silk is -made there.” As usual, the domesticated and wild animals are described. -Varthema was much surprised at the size of the cocks and hens. “In this -land we took great pleasure from some of the things which we saw, and, -in particular, at the Moorish traders making some cocks fight every -day in the streets where they dwell; and the owners will wage even to -a hundred ducats as to which will prove to fight best. And we saw two -which fought five hours on end, so that, when it was over, both of them -lay dead.” - -Tenasserim retained traces of phallic worship to an even greater degree -than Calicut did. The extreme mark of friendship, so far as the _jus -primae noctis_ was concerned, was extended to every visitor, preference -being given to white men from all lands; “for,” says Varthema of the -natives, “they are a most liberal and agreeable people.” Yet, this -obligation fulfilled, the husbands were most jealous of their wives, -and whosoever should attempt to maintain relations with them would -“put his life in jeopardy.” - -At dead of night, the corpses “of every Brâhman and of the king are -burned, with solemn sacrifice to the devil. And they keep the ashes -in vessels of earth, baked into a kind of glass, with narrow mouths. -Such a vessel, with the ashes therein, is buried within the house. The -sacrifice is made under trees, as at Calicut. And the fire is fed with -all the perfumes that can be gotten ... together with coral. And while -the body is burning, all the music in the city is sounded; and fifteen -or twenty men, who are dressed as devils, stand there, with much -rejoicing. And the wife is there, making very great lamentation; but -no other woman.” Here Varthema saw the horrible practice of Suttee. He -tells us of another custom which strangely recalls the Romantic Service -of Love in the days of Provençal minstrelsy. A passionate youth will -burn his naked arm severely to prove to his mistress “that he loves her -and that he is ready to do any great deed for her.” - -“As to the manner of refection in this city, the Pagans eat all flesh, -saving that of the ox, and eat on the ground from very beautiful -vessels of wood, without a coverlet. They drink water, sweetened if it -may be. They sleep on high beds of good cotton, with coverlets of silk -or cotton. They wear a robe, with a quilt of cotton or silk.... Their -ears are full of jewels; but of these the fingers are bare.” - -We find that the son of the King succeeded to his father’s throne -here; and not the sister’s son, as in Southern India. Deeds conveying -property were written on paper instead of palm leaves. The bodies -of Moorish traders who were unhappy enough to die here were first -embalmed, and then buried, with the head turned towards Mecca. We are -told of the flat-bottomed boat, the double canoe, and the junk; the -latter carried small boats to Malacca, where they were unshipped and -sailed on to the Spice Islands. - -Cazazionor was able to dispose of some of his goods at Tenasserim; and -then he and Varthema took ship for Bengal. Eleven days of fair wind -bore them across the Bay of Bengal to a city which the ever whirling -wheel of change has borne away, and the very site of which is indicated -only on some ancient and imperfect map. Banghella was one of the first -ports and one of the first cities of the age, situate on one of the -mouths of the treacherous Ganges—a river of shifting currents and -disappearing shores. Its Sultan was a Mohammedan, for ever at war -with the Hindu Râja of Narsinga. “Here,” says our traveller, “are the -richest traders I have ever met with. Every year, fifty ships are -laden with stuffs of cotton or silk ... and these goods go throughout -Turkey, Syria, Persia, Arabia Felix, Ethiopia, and India. Here also are -many merchants of jewels from other lands.... The stuffs aforesaid are -woven, not by women, but by men.” Like Ibn Batûta, he found Bengal the -cheapest place to live in of the whole world. - -The records of old pilgrims and travellers are a riot of surprise. Not -one of the least unsuspected of Varthema’s adventures is his dropping -here on Christian traders, who came from a Chinese city, which probably -lay north of Pekin. “They had brought silken stuffs, aloes-wood, -benzoin, and musk; and said that in their land were many Christian -lords, subject to the great Khân of Cathay”—that is to say, to the -Emperor of China. The reader will remember that the Chinese Government -pronounced Christianity to be a satisfactory faith in Hiuen-Tsiang’s -time. Fra Oderico tells us of the considerable number of Christians -in China during the early years of the Fourteenth Century. Probably -the Christian Chinese whom Varthema came across were Nestorians; -strange products of the wasted subtlety of the Greek mind during its -theological degeneracy; followers of the heretic Nestorius, who upheld -that two natures, the human and divine, were in Christ’s body, but -separate from one another. We may hope that, after so many centuries, -such problems had ceased to perplex the good Christians of far-off -Cathay. They said that their home was at Sarnau, a place probably -identical with the Sanay or Sandoy of Fra Oderico. They wore their -native silken breeches and red-cloth caps studded with jewels—a proof -of the safety of the city-street and of the highways from land to land -under Eastern despotism. - -Men are not wont to carry the bitterness of religious prejudice into -the market, where mundane profit is at stake; and Cazazionor, the -Moslem; Varthema, the Catholic renegade; and the Nestorian heretics -seem to have hobnobbed together very amicably. The latter were on -their way to Burma, and told Cazazionor that there he might exchange -some very fine branches of coral he had for rubies which would sell in -Turkey for ten times as much. They proposed that our travellers should -go on with them. So Cazazionor sold off all his merchandise, with the -exception of “corals, saffron, and two pieces of cloth of Florence -of a rose colour.... We departed from that place with the aforesaid -Christians, and voyaged towards a city which is called Pego (Pegu), -distant from Banghella some thousand miles.” - -Now the King of Burma, being at war with the King of Ava, was away with -his army. The party chartered a long dug-out canoe, and followed him; -hoping to induce him to purchase. But they were forced to return, owing -to the war; and five days afterwards the King of Burma, having gained a -victory, returned to Pegu. - -The very next day, the Chinamen, who, it would seem, had had previous -dealings with the King, visited him, and were told to return two days -later, “for that, the next day, he must sacrifice to the devil for -having triumphed. When the time named had passed, directly the King had -eaten, he sent for the aforenamed Christians and for my companion to -bring the merchandise before him.” They found the Râja magnificently -set in jewels: his head, limbs, fingers, and even all his toes sparkled -with precious stones; jewelled ear-rings dragged down the lobes of his -ears to the length of half a palm, and the rubies on him “were more -than the value of a very great city.... At night-time he shone like the -sun.” Yet this resplendent monarch was “so entirely human and homely -that a child might speak to him.” - -Then Cazazionor and other merchants who would seem to have become his -partners in this business of the corals, uncovered them. The monarch -was so unbusinesslike, or allowed himself to behave so indiscretely, -as to show enthusiasm at the sight of such magnificent coral-branches; -“and truly there were two of these the like of which had never come to -India before.” Now begins an Oriental comedy, wherein the trader shall -simulate munificence, and extract tenfold from the monarch by craftily -working on his natural generosity or regal pride. - -The King asked if the corals were for sale. The reply was that they -were at his service. The King sighed that war had emptied his treasury; -but he was willing to barter rubies for the corals. “We made him learn -through these Christians that all we desired was his friendship: -let him take the goods and do as pleased him. He answered: ‘I know -that Persians are a free-handed people; yet did I never see one so -free-handed as this man’; and he swore by God and the Devil that he -would see which should excel in generosity, he or a Persian.” So he -ordered a casket of rubies to be brought in, and commanded Cazazionor -to choose those he would like to have. “My companion answered: ‘O -sire, you show me so much benevolence that, by my faith in Mohammed, -all these things are a present, which I offer you. And understand, -sire, that I journey about the world not to gather merchandise, but -merely to see the different races of men and their ways.’ The King -replied: ‘I cannot overcome you in generosity, but take this which I -give you.’ And so he took a large handful of rubies from each of the -(six) divisions of the casket aforesaid, and gave them, saying, ‘Take -these for the generosity which you have shown towards me.’ And in like -manner, he gave two rubies each to the Christians aforesaid ... which -were worth about 1,000 ducats; and those of my companion were given a -value of 100,000 ducats.” The Chinamen were apparently content with a -commission of one per cent., for nothing is said of the vendor paying -any. “Wherefore,” Varthema continues, “by this, the King may be judged -to be the most free-handed ruler in the world; and his income is of -about a million a year in gold,” derived from lac, cotton, silk, and -valuable woods; and this he spent on his army. - -The King gave the travellers free quarters which they occupied five -days; when there came news that war had again broken out with Ava. So, -having seen the burning of two widows, and other sights of Pegu, and -found the Burmese “very fleshly,” the Chinamen, Cazazionor and Varthema -embarked for Malacca. - -It is possible that Varthema was not the very first European to visit -the city which had become the most important port in Eastern waters; -but it is certain that he was the very first European to describe it. -It had taken the place of Calicut; it was nearer the sources of supply; -the enterprising Arab had settled there and ruled the city, subject to -the payment of a tribute to the King of Siam; and the recent descent of -the Portuguese on the coast of Malabar had increased its importance. -Here were to be found the huge, unwieldy junks of China—those floating -towns, with gardens blossoming on their decks—for there was no longer -need for them to creep through the straits and take the perils of the -Indian Ocean; and the most halcyon of summer seas is never to be quite -trusted. Malacca was a cheaper market than Calicut; and hither were -sent the drugs, dyes, perfumes, and spices, the precious woods and -other productions of China, Banda, the Phillipines, Siam, the Moluccas, -Borneo, Java, and Sumatra. “Verily,” writes Varthema, “I believe that -more ships sail hither than to any other port in the world.” He remarks -on the infertility of the soil; but speaks of the wealth of Malacca -in sandal-wood and tin. The travellers were presented to the Moorish -Sultan, who had appointed a Governor to do justice; but the inhabitants -at that time were Javanese. “They take the law into their own hands; -and are the vilest race ever created on earth. When the Sultan shall -hinder, they say that they will no longer dwell on land, for that they -are sea-farers”—that is to say they were quite able and ready to make -a new settlement. “One may not go about here when it grows dark; for -folk are killed as if they were so many dogs; and all the traders who -come here sleep in their ships.” There was no market for jewels here; -and the Chinamen, who still acted as guides to our travellers, advised -them to be off. So a junk was hired, and the whole party turned back -through the Straits for Pider, on the northern coast of Sumatra. - -We are told that the natives of Sumatra were far from being a bellicose -race. They were eager traders, very friendly to foreigners, excellent -swimmers, and skilful in filigree work. “There were three crowned Pagan -Kings; and their religion, way of life, dress, and habits are the same -as at Tenasserim; moreover, the wives also are burned alive.” The -houses were roofed with the shells of gigantic sea-turtles; and the -ships were three-masted, with a prow fore and aft. Here were huge herds -of elephants, finer than any he had seen; and the land was productive -of long-pepper, benzoin, different kinds of perfumed wood and the -silk-worm. - -The Chinamen now became anxious to return to their own country; but -Cazazionor wanted to see the land of nutmeg and clove: could they -get there in safety? The Christians replied that they need fear no -robbers; but there remained the chances of the sea; the island could -not be reached in a large ship; a sampan must be bought. Two sampans -were purchased, manned, and provisioned; and then the wily Persian who -wished to keep the Christians as guides, began to work on them. “‘O -dearest friends,’ said he, ‘although we be not of your race, we are all -sons of Adam. Will you leave me and this other man, my companion, one -who was born in your faith?’ ‘In our faith? Is not your companion a -Persian?’ ‘He is a Persian now, because he was bought at Jerusalem.’” -Whether this statement was a convenient lie, told by Varthema to -Cazazionor, or was the calculated fabrication of the latter is not -apparent; but it was effective; for “the Christians, hearing the -name of Jerusalem, at once lifted up their hands towards Heaven; and -kissed the ground thrice, and asked when I was sold at Jerusalem. We -answered: ‘When I was fifteen years old.’” The Chinamen thought that -Varthema must remember his native land, and Cazazionor at once saw his -opportunity and used it. Quoth he: “‘He does indeed remember it. For -months my sole delight has been in listening to the things he told me -thereof; and he has taught me the words for the parts of the body and -for different sorts of food.’” This settled the matter. The Christians -consented to go on with them; and if Varthema would return to China -with them, he might remain a Mohommedan, and they would make a rich -man of him. “‘Nay,’ said Cazazionor, ‘I am much pleased to have your -company; but he may not remain with you: for, out of the love I bear to -him, I have given my niece to be his wife.’” A money-bargain settled -the question; in two days, the Sampan was ready. “We put many kinds of -food on board; and, in particular, the most toothsome fruits I ever -tasted; and took our course to the island of Banda.” - -Not even Marco Polo or Fra Oderico had ventured so far towards the -rising sun. Varthema was the very first of European travellers to reach -the Spice Islands. One of those who “cannot rest from travel, but must -drink life to the lees,” he might, had he been a better lettered man, -have quoted the lines of his own great countryman: - - “Ma misi me per l’alto mare aperto - Sol con un legno e con quella compagna - Picciola dalla qual non fui deserto.” - -(“I put forth on the deep open sea, in but a single ship, and with that -little band that had not deserted me.”) But if Varthema is no scholar, -is he not for ever revealing himself as a single-minded, enthusiastic -traveller; an excellent actor, and quite able to live up to his part, a -man of sound judgment, native wit, sly humour, and pronouncedly brave; -direct and unflinching of purpose; a little vainglorious, yet discrete? - -The comrades traversed the landlocked straits of Malacca and the Java -and Banda seas, and after fifteen days found themselves on an ugly, -gloomy, and flat island, where dwelt “a beastly kind of men, without -king or even governor.... The administration of justice is not needed; -for the natives are so stupid that they could not do evil if they -would. They are pagans.” Such was this specimen of the Nutmeg Islands. -Two day spent here was more than enough for our travellers; so they set -sail for the Moluccas—the Clove Islands—and found “the people even -viler than those of Banda, but whiter; and the air is a little cooler.” -We have a full description of the clove tree and are told that cloves -were sold by measure, “for they understood not weights. We were now -wishful to change to another land, in order to learn new things and -all about them.” So Borneo was steered for; and, on the voyage, the -Chinamen took delight in questioning Varthema concerning Christians -and their faith. “And when I told them of the impress of our Saviour’s -face, which is in St. Peter’s, and of the heads of St. Peter and St. -Paul and many other saints, they advised me in secret that if I would -go with them, I should be a very great lord, because I had seen these -things. But I doubted if, after I had been led thither I should ever -come to my own land again; and therefore I kept me back from going.” -Varthema does not think of his indebtedness to his generous Persian -host; he has no use for the inconvenient fidelities of friendship or -the costly coercion of gratitude; such altruistic weakness did not -afflict the men of the Renaissance; “ma per sè foro”—“they were for -themselves.” - -The temptation to visit China must have been strong for a man of -Varthema’s spirit. A few missionary friars had reached Mongolia in the -thirteenth century, a very few bold spirits had penetrated Asia as far -as China at the end of that and the beginning of the next century; and -Tartars kept up some commercial intercourse between Europe and China a -little later. But when the great Tartar Empire fell into decay, and the -Moslem recovered his grip of Central Asia, intercourse between West and -Farthest East became impossible. The few missionaries who set forth for -the Celestial Empire never returned, and China became a shadow and a -name to Christian Europe. But it would be no easy matter for Varthema -to slip away from the Persian just here and now; the difficulty of ever -returning from China, even should he reach it, would indeed prove a -formidable problem; and we may suspect, too, that the hardships of the -voyage and the heat and discomforts of the climate were beginning to -tell on Varthema’s iron nerve. - -He found the natives of Borneo to be “Pagans, and good folk.... Every -year much camphor is shipped; which they say is the gum of a tree that -grows there. I have not seen it; and therefore I do not affirm it to -be so. Here my companion hired a ship.... We directed our course to -the very beautiful island called Java; and came there, always sailing -southward, in five days.” On the voyage, the skipper pointed out the -Southern Cross; and “told us that, to the south, beyond the island -aforesaid (Java) dwell sundry other sorts of men, who steer by these -stars which are set over against ours; and, further, they made known -to us that the daylight stays but four hours in those parts, and that -it is colder there than elsewhere in the world. Whereat we were much -solaced and gratified.” - -Now, there is no inhabited land to the south of Java where the shortest -day is of four hours only; but the assertion of the Malay captain reads -as if he had visited Australia, or had gotten some true information -concerning that continent; and bold navigators of Malaysia _may_ have -ventured or been driven much farther over the Southern Ocean to a very -high latitude; or, the statement as to shortened hours of sunlight and -cold _may_ have been a mere inference from the progressive diminution -of the day and of heat in sailing south. It is said that indications of -the discovery of Australia a very little after Varthema’s time are to -be found on manuscript maps of unknown authorship. It is interesting -to find that the skipper steered by means of a compass, which was not -of Chinese make, for the magnet pointed to the north; and that he was -provided with a chart intersected by perpendicular and horizontal lines. - -Java was under the rule of several kings: “some adore idols as at -Calicut; some worship the sun; others, the moon; many, an ox; very -many, the first thing they shall meet of a morning; yet others, the -devil.” Nonetheless, “I believe the natives to be the most true dealers -in the world.... Some use pipes, from which they blow poisoned arrows -from the mouth; which bear death however little blood they may draw.... -Some eat bread made of corn; and some eat flesh of sheep or deer or -wild pigs; and some eat fish and fruits. Among the flesh-eaters, when -their fathers become so old as to be past labour, their children or -relatives put them up for sale in the market-place; and those that buy -them kill and eat them cooked. Likewise if any young man shall fall -into any dire sickness; and if those that have knowledge deem that he -shall die thereof, the father or brother of the sick one shall slay -him; and they do not wait for him to die. And, having killed him, they -sell him to be eaten of others. We, marvelling at such a business, -some traders of this land, to us: ‘O you dull Persians, why do you -leave such toothsome flesh to the worms?’ Whereupon, my companion cried -out ‘Quick, quick, to the ship; for never again shall these folk come -near me on land.’” This is a strange statement; but there is abundant -evidence as to the prevalence of cannibalism throughout Malaysia at -this period to confirm it. Yet, says Varthema, “justice was well -administered”; the natives clothed themselves in silk, camelot and -cotton garments; and traded with the gold and copper which their island -furnished abundantly, as well as the finest emeralds in the world. They -were a maritime people and fought their battles at sea. - -Varthema had lost count of time. It was now the month of June. He was -south of the equator, and had crossed the ecliptic; and, directed by -the Chinamen, he found the sun casting a shadow in a direction the -reverse of that of northern latitudes. “And thereby we learned how far -we had come from our country, and stood amazed.... Having seen the -manners of the island, we saw no great reason for remaining there; -for we had to keep watch all night, lest some scoundrel should steal -up to us, and bear us away, and eat us. Wherefore, having called the -Christians, we told them that, as soon as they were ready, we would -return to our land. Before we set off, however, my comrade bought two -emeralds ... and two little male children with their private parts -wholly cut away; for in this island there is a sort of merchants who -follow no other calling than that of buying little children, from whom -they cut all away, so that they are left as if women.” - -It is obvious that different communities, at varying stages of -civilization, inhabited Java; from “the truest dealers in the world,” -and those who administered justice well, down to bestial savages. -Tales, and perhaps evidence, of the cruel brutality of the Aborigines, -affected the imagination of Cazazionor and Varthema strongly; they -were not sure that the cannibals, finding themselves in the close -neighbourhood of “Persians,” and therefore quite unusual visitors to -Java, might not be tempted to try the flavour of a novelty; their -Chinese guides, moreover, had taken them to most of the parts of -Malaysia with which they were acquainted; the softening effect of an -equatorial climate relaxed their desire to push on into that cold and -gloomy region to the south, of which the Malay skipper had told them; -and it would seem that, out of commercial jealousy or from rude humour, -“merchants of the country” took a pleasure or sought a profit in -playing upon their fears. So they hired a junk, and sailed boldly over -the more open water, along the south-east coast of Sumatra, rounded the -northern extremity of that great island, and saw Malacca again on the -fifteenth day of voyage. - -Here they stayed three days, while Cazazionor made up a cargo of spice, -perfumes and silk; and here “our Christian companions stayed on. It -were not possible to make a short history of how they wailed and -lamented; so that, verily, had I not had a wife and children, I had -gone with them” (this is the first and last time that Varthema mentions -the relatively unimportant fact of his being a yoke-mate and father off -the chain). “And likewise, they said they would have come with us, had -they known how to travel safely.... So they stayed behind, saying that -they would return to Sarnau; and we went on in our ship to Ciromandel” -(Negropotam). Probably the Chinese would take passage in some junk of -the fleet which came to Malacca every year. - - - - -CHAPTER IX. - -SOME CUNNING MANŒUVRES. - - -Having unloaded the junk, our travellers chartered a sampan and sailed -to Quilon. Now Varthema was very silent about the Portuguese at -Cochin and Cannanore when he was on his outward voyage, and indeed he -discreetly avoided them, lest discovery of his nationality should wreck -his purpose. They must have been at Quilon, too, when he was there -before; for the Râja of the district had welcomed Pedro Alvarez Cabal -in 1503, and permitted the building of a Portuguese factory. There -were now 22 Portuguese settlers in this factory, which was fortified, -of course; and a wave of home-sickness swept over the traveller: “I -greatly desired to escape,” he says; “but I held on, because they were -few in number, and I was afraid of the Moors; for there were merchants -with us who knew that I had been to Mecca and to the tomb of the -Prophet; and I feared lest they should take it into their heads that I -would uncover their deceits; so I held me back from running away.” The -gist of this statement is that Varthema feared the Portuguese garrison -was too feeble to undertake the protection of a false hadji from the -fierce resentment which Cazazionor and the Arab traders would evince. -The excuse as to the uncovering of Mohammedan frauds is but a poor sop -to whatever Christian prejudice might remain in Italy. His work done, -he was on the look out for a really favourable opportunity of returning -to Europe. He had small dread of failure. He had not lost his nerve in -the least, this son of the Renaissance of so infinite resource, of such -invincible self-confidence and of ability to match; unshakably resolute -when confronted with any peril that was unavoidable, and deterred by -no feeble scruple when by any means it was possible to evade it; one -wholly sincere in gaining his end—a man of “_virtu_,” a manful man, as -the Italians of his day termed it. - -After a stay of twelve days at Quilon, the pair voyaged along the -Backwater of Cochin to Calicut, and arrived there in ten days. There he -found two Milanese refugees who had deserted from the Portuguese ships -in which they had arrived at Cochin. It at once occurred to his quick -brain that he might use these fellow countrymen of his. “Never had I -more joy than in beholding these two Christians. They and I were going -about naked” (i.e. girt with a loin-cloth only) “after the manner of -the country. I asked them if they were Christians. Joan Maria answered: -‘Yea, verily.’ Then Piero Antonio asked me if I were a Christian. I -answered: ‘Yea, praise be to God.’ Then he took me by the hand and led -me to his house. And when we had come thither, we began to embrace and -to kiss each other and to shed tears. In sooth, I could not speak like -a Christian; my tongue seemed to be unwieldy and hampered; for I had -been four years without speaking to (European) Christians. I spent the -night following with them; and neither they nor I could eat or sleep, -because of our great joy. You may think how we wished the night were a -whole year, that we might talk together of diverse matters.” Varthema -ascertained that these Milanese were skilled in the making of ordnance, -and had instructed the natives in their art, which had brought them -the favour of the Zamorin. Hence they feared to return to a Portuguese -settlement and, indeed to attempt to escape by land. Experience had -sharpened Varthema’s inborn ability at stratagem; and when he returned -to Cazazionor in the morning and was asked where he had spent the -night, he replied: “at the mosque, rendering thanks to Allah and to -Mohammed for the blessing of a safe return; whereat he (Cazazionor) -was much pleased. And, so that I might learn what was going on in -the land, I told him I meant to keep on sleeping at the mosque, and -that I did not hanker after riches, and that I wished to remain poor. -And, wishing to make my escape, I saw no way but by deceit; for the -Mohammedans being the most stupid of all folk, he was satisfied. And -this I did to be able to talk often with the Christians; for they had -daily word of everything from the court of the King. I began to act -out my deceit, and put on the Moorish saint, and never would partake -of flesh, excepting at the house of Joan Maria; but there we eat two -brace of fowls together every night. And I would no longer mix with the -merchants; nor did any man see me to smile; and I kept in the mosque -all day, save when he (Cazazionor) sent for me that I should go eat -with him; and he rebuked me for not eating flesh. Quoth I: ‘Eating -overmuch leads man to sin greatly.’ And so I began to be a Moorish -saint; and the man was happy who might kiss my hand, and some my knees.” - -Luck was, as usual, on Varthema’s side. A merchant, a great friend -of the Persian, falls sick, and our new _Santon_ (holy man) is asked -to visit him. He and Cazazionor go to the sick man’s house together; -and Varthema assumes the air of a skilled physician, and puts various -medical questions in the most approved manner. “Then my companion -turned to me and asked: ‘O Jonah, knowest thou of any medicine for this -my friend?’ I answered: ‘My father was a physician in my land, and what -I know is by that practice which he taught me.’” Then the Persian asked -“Jonah” to do his utmost. “‘Then’ quoth I: ‘In the name of Allah, the -Pitiful, the Compassionate One!’ and felt his pulse, and found him to -be very feverish.’” Questioning the patient in true professional style -“Jonah” found that he was suffering from some intestinal obstruction. -So our physician administered a series of clysters “which did more harm -than good”; for by a singular blunder he had used astringent herbs in -their preparation, and forgot to warm the last clyster, which put the -patient into agony. Then a scene ensued which is told with Rabelaisan -directness and is as coarsely comical as that pursuit of Monsieur -de Porceaunac by the apothecaries, which delighted the court of the -_Grande Monarque_. Jonah is a man of resource and unconquerable force -of will; he has his man hoisted by the heels, and keeps him suspended, -hands and head only touching the ground. The unhappy patient roars -for mercy: “Stop, stop; I am killed, I am killed”; and Cazazionor -exclaims: “O Jonah, is it your practice to do thus in your land?” -Varthema preserves the assurance of the orthodox physician who cannot -err; he asserts that it is no error, and goes on when the sick man -is at the point of death. This last remedy is efficacious, however, -though it leaves the patient in a painful condition; and Jonah, who -was by no means without some grains of human compassion, ordered him -some excellent remedies and gave him still better advice. The story -which is told with a strong sense of humour, ends with a prescription -worthy of the famous Abernethy. The patient is restricted to two meals -a day; and is to take a mile of exercise before each of them; “for -these folk eat eight or ten times a day. This order seemed to him to -be without ruth. However, in the end he was wholly cured ; and thus my -hypocrisy gat me great reputation. They said that I was the friend of -Allah. This merchant would have me to take ten ducats; but I would take -nothing. I even gave three ducats which I had to the poor; and this I -did openly, so that they might know that I had no desire for gold or -gear. Henceforward, happy was the man who might give me to eat at his -house; happy he who kissed my hands and feet; and, when anyone kissed -my hands, I played my part, letting him know that, being a saint, he -gave me my desert. But my companion gat me most credit; for he also had -faith in me, and said that I eat no flesh, and that he had seen me at -Mecca and before the body of Mohammed, that I had always journeyed with -him, that he knew my ways, that I was in verity a saint, and that, -knowing me to be holy and devout, he had given me one of his nieces to -wife. Thus, all men were my well wishers; and every night I went in -secret to the Christians.” - -At last, the Milanese told Varthema that there was word of twelve -Portuguese vessels having arrived at Cannanore, and advised him to try -to get there by land. He confesses that his courage failed him for an -enterprise so hazardous; “for I might be killed by the Moors, I being -white and they black.” The news was confirmed by two Persian traders -who arrived from Cannanore, and who were immediately invited by the -hospitable Cazazionor to sit down and eat with him and Varthema, who -was with him at the time. The traders said that the Portuguese were -building a strong fort at Cannanore: “What kind of people may these -Portuguese be?” asked Cazazionor of Jonah. “I answered: ‘Do not speak -of such a people; for they are robbers and sea-thieves one and all. -Would I could see them all of our Mohammedan faith!’ Whereat he became -very filled with malice; and, privily, I rejoiced.” - -Next day, the Mohammedan traders, fully alive to the fact that the firm -establishment of the Portuguese in India meant the ruin of their trade, -flocked to prayers at the Mosque, and took Varthema with them. None but -so holy a man should be _imam_ and lead the prayers on such a grave -occasion. So we find him solemnly reciting the Koran. - -During the next few days, he pretended to be very ill, and, in answer -to Cazazionor’s anxious enquiries, said he thought that the air of -Calicut did not agree with him. The attachment of the Persian to -Varthema was sincere and deep, and he was not in the least suspicious. -He urged the new-found saint to go to Cannanore until they should be -able to return to Persia together; he had a friend there who would -give him hospitality. Varthema affected to hesitate “because of those -Christians.” Cazazionor replied that there was no need to fear; he -should remain within the city. “In the end, having paid good heed to -the fleet which was being made ready at Calicut, and the army which had -been mustered against the Christians, I set out to give them word of -it, and to save me from the hands of dogs.” - -But first he came to a final understanding with the Milanese. Then -there were two dozen Persian, Syrian, and Turkish merchants with -whom he was friendly at Calicut. Which would be the better course: -to take leave of them, and so, possibly, to set them talking, and -arouse suspicion; or to slip away, and so, if some ill-chance should -stop him, to condemn himself by having observed secrecy? He decided -to be off without speaking about it to any one except Cazazionor and -his two friends who were about to return to Cannanore. So, early one -morning, he set out in a boat with these two Persian merchants who -kept silence about their journey because they were trying to evade the -export-duties levied by the Zamorin. But their little bark had only -got a bow-shot from the shore, when Nairs shouted to the skipper to -return at once. They demanded by what right he was carrying Varthema -off without sanction. “The Persians answered: ‘this man is a Moorish -saint; and we are going to Cannanore.’ ‘We know full well that he is -a Moorish saint,’ replied the Nairs; ‘but he understands the tongue -of the Portuguese, and will tell them of all that we are doing; for a -great fleet is being made ready;’ and they laid strict command on the -captain of the ship that he should not give me passage; and he went -by it. We stayed on the beach; and the Nairs went back to the King’s -house. One of the Persians said: ‘Let us go to our lodging,’ that is, -to Calicut. I said ‘Do not go back; for you will lose these fine pieces -of cloth, seeing that you have not paid dues to the King.’ The other -Persian said, ‘O sir, what shall we do?’ I answered ‘Let us go along -the shore until we shall find a _prau_,’ which is to say, a small bark; -and they fell in with this; and we went twelve miles of march, laden -with the goods aforesaid. You can figure to yourself how my heart beat -at finding me in so great danger. At last, we found a _prau_, which -bore us to Cannanore.” - -He immediately went to Cazazionor’s friend with his letter of -introduction, wherein was a request that “Jonah,” who was a saint, and -about to become a relation, should be entertained as if he were the -writer, until such time as he should arrive. The merchant laid the -letter on his head, and vowed that he would answer for his guest with -that organ. A feast was prepared; but, alas! the ascetic saint, however -resourceful and however hungry after the journey and its perils, must -keep to his rôle, and could only look on—a Tantalus of the Sixteenth -Century. The repast finished, the company took a little walk by the -sea, and Varthema marked where the fortress of the Portuguese was a -building, and resolved to try for liberty the very next day. - -He was up early in the morning, and expressed a desire to stroll -about. The Persians said: “Go where you please”; but they went with -him. He contrived to lead them in the direction of the fort and to -get a little ahead of them. Happening to come across two Portuguese, -he declared himself to be an escaped Christian; and one of them -immediately hastened back to the fort, taking Varthema with him. -Lorenzo de Almeyda, son of the Viceroy and Commandant of the fort -was at breakfast. Varthema cast himself on his knees before him and -besought protection. Just at this instant, the hubbub at Cannanore, -which arose on the discovery of Varthema’s escape, dinned in their -ears. The artillerymen made ready; but everything quieted down; and -Varthema revealed the preparations for war which were being made at -Calicut. Lorenzo de Almeyda sent him to his father Don Francisco, -the Viceroy, who was at Cochin, where the Portuguese had supported a -revolting tributary, and made themselves masters of a little State. - -The Viceroy, delighted at getting accurate word of the designs in -progress at Calicut, gave a very favourable audience to the refugee. - -Varthema was quite sensible of the generous hospitality and sincere -affection which Cazazionor had bestowed on him. He not merely mentions, -but reiterates the fact. Yet he exhibits not the smallest compunction -at having tricked and deserted him. All moral obligation was as a -feather, when weighed against the achievement of personal freedom and -that self-fulfilment which was the goal of the Italian of his period. -One wonders what were the sentiments of that deluded and forsaken -friend. As for Varthema, once more among Europeans, and those Europeans -of a cognate race, he absorbs their prejudice against Orientals and -“Moslem dogs”; and one realizes how deeper even than to-day, and how -impassable, was the gulf which separated East from West. It is to his -credit that he faithfully fulfilled his promise to Joan Maria and -Piero Antonio; he obtained a pardon and safe-conduct for them from the -Viceroy, and a promise as to their safety from all officials who might -put an obstacle in the way. To induce the Viceroy to grant a pardon -was easy; for that dignitary was aware that he was likely to deprive -the foe of two artillerymen and add them to his own forces; moreover -he would learn much from the intermediary messengers who were to be -sent to them. On Varthema’s return to Cannanore, he found a serviceable -Hindu, whom he sent five times to the two Milanese, holding his wife -and children as a pledge of faithful service. The Milanese were -instructed to say not one single word to their wives, who were natives, -or to their slaves; but to leave these behind them, and steal off, at -dead of night, with what money and valuable jewels they could bring -with them. All was arranged; but a slave had been stealthily watching -his master’s doings; he went to the Zamorin, and told his tale. The -Zamorin refused to credit it; but put a guard over the Milanese. The -slave, who probably was filled with a spirit of revenge, for which he -may have had good cause, next went to the Moorish Cadi. The enraged -traders, when the secret doings of the Milanese were made known to -them, collected a hundred ducats and sent this to the “King of the -Yogis,” or ascetic Fakirs. Presently, the homes of the Christians were -surrounded by a mob of Hindu devotees, sounding horns, and yelling for -alms. “They want more than alms,” said the unhappy men. The fanatics -rushed the houses; and, although the two Europeans fought desperately -for their lives, they were slaughtered; yet not before six Yogis lay -dead at their feet, and forty were wounded. It was reported that the -infuriated Hindus cut their throats when they had overwhelmed them and -drank their blood. - -Somehow, the native wife of Joan Maria contrived to escape from -Calicut, and made her way to Cannanore, bringing her little son with -her. Varthema, although he had left his Persian benefactor without -a sigh, was touched at the condition of the little half-caste. He -remembered the aid which the Milanese had given him and the pleasant -nights they had spent together; and the tragedy which had ensued on -their intercourse pierced his feelings. He became the guardian of his -friend’s son, purchasing him for eight ducats in gold, and getting him -duly baptized. But the little fellow was fatally infected with the new -scourge, which it would seem the Portuguese had brought with them to -the East, and he died exactly a year after baptism. “I have seen this -scath three thousand miles beyond Calicut,” says Varthema; “and it is -said that it began about seventeen years aforetime; and that it is far -worse than ours.” - - - - -CHAPTER X. - -WAR BY LAND AND SEA - - -Albeit sheltered by a cognate Latin people, our traveller had by no -means found a haven of perfect safety. In a few days, we find him -taking his part in a great sea-fight between the Portuguese fleet -of eleven ships (of which two were galleons and one a brigantine), -commanded by Don Francisco de Almeyda, and the great Indian fleet -of two hundred and nine sail, which had gathered together from all -those parts of the Malabar coast which remained in the hands of the -Mohammedan traders. But only eighty-four ships of the Mohammedan fleet -were large sail; the rest being _praus_, mainly propelled by the oar. -Nor were they all meant to fight: many of them were traders under -convoy. As they approached, “it was as if one looked on a very big -wood.” Varthema, restored to western civilization and Christianity, -is borne away by the inexorable spirit of the Portuguese sea-dogs. -Never saw he braver men and he is with them in their prayers to God -“to confound the heathen faith.” He tells us how the Admiral incited -his men, by the passion of Christ, to thrust at these dogs; for this -is the day which shall cleanse them from their sins; and how the -Spiritual Father, crucifix in hand, exhorted them in language so -beautiful that the graceless men shed tears. All received absolution, -and then the Admiral sailed past two galleons of the foe, firing -broadsides into them to find out of what mettle they were. Nothing -further happened that day; and next morning, the Moorish Admiral made -certain overtures to be allowed to pass by in peace. “Sail by if you -can,” was the reply of the Portuguese Admiral; “but first learn what -manner of men we Christians be.” “Mohammed is our trust against you -Christians,” retorted the Moors, and then they crowded all sail and -plied the oar. Don Francisco de Almeyda let them come on until they -were immediately off Cannanore; “‘for he wished the ruler of the city -to see what stuff Christians were made of’.... And when the time to eat -had come, the wind freshened somewhat and our Captain said: ‘now, up, -my brothers; now is the time,’ and sailed for the two biggest ships.” -The Moorish fleet struck up all kinds of weird, inspiriting music while -the fleets met. Thrice did Almeyda’s men cast their grappling-irons on -the largest galleon, and thrice they failed; but the fourth attempt -was a success. The retaliatory cruelties of the Moors at Calicut -were remembered, and not one of the six hundred crew was suffered to -escape. Another Moorish vessel was boarded, and five hundred Moors -were slaughtered. But the enemy still fought desperately and well, and -managed to divide the Portuguese fleet. The galley commanded by João -Serrão, who had taken Varthema from Cannanore to Cochin was surrounded -by fifty vessels, great and small; and the brigantine was boarded by -fifteen Moors, who drove its crew to the poop. But the captain, one -Simon Martin, called aloud to Jesus Christ for victory, smote off -half a dozen Moorish heads with his own hands, and cast such fear -into the surviving boarders, that they threw themselves into the sea -for safety. Four other Moorish vessels now drew on; but Martin saved -the situation by seizing an empty barrel and making as if it were a -mortar; and seeing this, the attackers turned back. Don Francisco -de Almeyda then sailed into the very midst of the convoyed traders, -captured seven of them, laden with spice and other goods, and sank -nine or ten more by gun-fire, amongst which was one with a cargo of -elephants. The Moors fled, and the pursuit was kept up by ships’ boats, -to prevent any attempt at swimming ashore. About two hundred swam -twenty miles and escaped; but cross-bow and lance put an end to most. -Next morning all the corpses that could be recovered from the waves, or -the shore, or from captured ships, were counted: they numbered three -thousand six hundred; but, “by God’s grace, no Christian was killed -on galley or other ship; but many were wounded during the long day of -battle.” The Moors were a match for the Portuguese in battle, but not -in artillery, ships or seamanship. This sea-fight took place in March, -1506, and three months later the Viceroy rewarded Varthema’s services, -by making him head-factor of the Portuguese warehouses. A man with so -much knowledge of Mohammedan and Hindu customs and method, speaking -Arabic, and with some smattering of the native tongue; a man, withal, -with such experience of the ways of the world, so diplomatic, and so -masterful, would be invaluable. A little later, he was sent from Cochin -to Cannanore to get behind the curtain of certain frauds; for traders -from Calicut had got safe-conducts there by passing themselves off as -residents of Cannanore. About this time the Râja of Cannanore died; and -the new sovereign was no friend to the Portuguese. He got artillery -from the Zamorin, and, from the 27th April until the 17th August there -was open war, begun by Moorish traders, who attacked the Christians -when they were going to a well to draw water. The latter retired to -the fort, in good order; and Varthema and 200 men held it, under the -captaincy of a certain Lorenzo de Britto. They had nothing to eat but -nuts, rice and sugar. Water they had to draw from a well a bow-shot -off, after fighting for it all the way. The investing force had more -than 140 cannons; but, although it consisted of thousands of men, they -were mainly armed with bows and arrows, spears, swords and shields. -This host would rush on with fury, inspired by musical instruments of -many kinds and the splutter of fireworks; but they never got within two -stones’ cast of the fort; and every day half of a score of them were -killed and the rest fled. “They said we kept the devil with us for our -defence.” - -At last, up came the Portuguese fleet under Tristão da Cunha, of -unperished name, and his three hundred knights in shining steel, who -were dissuaded with difficulty from burning Cannanore to the ground. -The ocean, up to now the auxiliary and defence of the Peninsula and its -Moorish traders, had become a highway for the enterprise of the armed -fleets of Europe. On the arrival of this strong force, the Râja and the -Moorish traders sued for peace, which the Viceroy had the foresight to -grant. For, whatever victories the Portuguese might win, and at however -small a cost, their position in the East was precarious. The Mohammedan -world was weak as against Europe for the same reason that Europe was -weak as against Constantinople: it was divided. Should the spirit of -resistance once become so strong as to overcome local jealousies, with -the whole Mohammedan world set aflame in Europe, Africa and Asia, and -with the countless hosts of the Far East at the call of the Mohammedan -trader, where had the Portuguese—nay where had Europe been? - -Varthema, once again a devout Catholic, tells us how he spent leisure -hours when there was peace with the natives, in trying to convert some -of his old acquaintance among the traders of Cannanore to Christianity. -He professes great disdain for the simplicity and ignorance of these -Pagans! and the arguments he used were not precisely scrupulous, and -were far from skilful. - -In November, 1507, at the request of the Viceroy, Varthema accompanied -him and Tristão da Cunha to the assault on Ponani, a port to the south -of Calicut. He tells us how, after the customary prayers and spiritual -monitions, “a little before break of day, we opened war to the death -on these dogs, who were eight thousand; and we, about six hundred.” -Native troops have never had a chance against European arms and -discipline. The disproportion of the opposing troops was about the same -as at Plassey, two centuries and a half later; and if all De Almeyda’s -troops were Europeans, as Clive’s were not, the latter were all led by -European officers and trained in European methods. And if, opposed to -Clive and the famous Thirty-ninth _primus in Indis_ there were a few -French auxiliaries, opposed to De Almeyda and Da Cunha were 64 Moors -vowed to victory or death, “for each one of them was master of a ship.” -“But God gave us His help, so that none of our folk were slain here; -yet we killed 140; and of these, with my own eyes, I saw Don Lorenzo -slay six; and he got two wounds; and many others were wounded also. For -a little while the battle was most fiercely fought. But our galleys -neared the shore; and then these dogs began to give way: and for that -the water (of the river at Ponani) began to fall, we followed them no -farther. But these dogs began to swell their numbers; so we set fire to -their ships, burning thirteen thereof, most of them newly builded and -big. And then the Viceroy withdrew all his troops to the headland; and -here he made some knights; and of these, of his grace he made me one; -and that most valiant leader, Tristão da Cunha, was my sponsor.” And -then they all embarked for Cannanore. - - - - -CHAPTER XI. - -THE NEW WAY ROUND THE CAPE. - - -The home-bound fleet was now loading. Varthema had given the Portuguese -a year and a half of faithful service; he tells us that he was anxious -to return to Europe; he had had fully five years of perilous wanderings -through Moslem and Pagan lands to where no European foot hitherto had -pressed the soil; and he was urged “by the affection and kindly feeling -I bore my country, and my desire to carry thither and place upon record -news concerning a great part of the world.” The grace demanded was -freely given to one who had worked and fought so well; and on December -6th, 1506, a fortnight after the last great fight, he went on board, -and the San Vicenzo and other great ships set sail. - -A long voyage across the ocean brought the fleet to the coast of what -is British East Africa to-day. Malinda, Mombasa and the island of -Pemba were touched at during the voyage along the eastern coast; then, -Kiloa, the extreme limit of Ibn Batûta’s voyage, a German port not -so long ago; then, the Comoro islands, together with several other -trading-places which the Portuguese had seized and fortified. All this -part of the “Dark Continent” had been long peacefully penetrated by -Arab traders and had profited by commercial intercourse with them; -and the natives were incited to expel the intruder. The appearance -of a rival had infuriated the Moslem trader, and the natives caught -something of his spirit in resisting the new comers. They were now -beginning to experience the tender mercies of the Christian. The -Portuguese spread their faith among the palm groves of the South after -the fashion of the Teutonic knights over the heaths of Prussia. They -used the sword mercilessly; they burned towns and wrought every horror -that can be inflicted by the passions of men released from discipline -and from the restraints of a long voyage—men stimulating each other to -brutality by mutual example, and infected with that mad fury which is -apt to possess any excited gang. But Varthema tells us of the pleasure -he felt at the successes of the Portuguese and the spread of Catholic -truth. He found Pagans were baptized daily in Africa, as in India. -“From what I have seen of India and Ethiopia,” he writes, “methinks -the King of Portugal, should it please God, and his victories go on, -will become the richest King on earth ... he is the means whereby the -Christian faith is spread daily; wherefore it may be credited that God -hath given him victory and will continue to prosper him.” - -We must not accuse our whilom Mameluke of any grave insincerity in -writing thus. No doubt he had an eye to the good will of Julius II., -and the Catholic public; but every son of the church was expected to -express himself in this way, and every son of the Renaissance was ready -to do so. As has been said, the Italian of the age was not burthened by -any undue sense of sin or overvexed about religion. These high matters -were the care of a special profession—the clergy—and of an organized -institution—the Church. The direst lapses into iniquity were “bad -shots,” as sins were called by the Greeks—mere unfortunate glancings -aside from the bull’s eye—and absolution was easily obtained. The main -thing was to aim at making life a full, rich, and splendid success. -None the less, the Rock of St. Peter was at once the emblem of European -Civilization and the foundation on which in theory it rested: The -Church and European civilization must be spread, to put an end to -Mohammedanism, that enduring peril, and the Paganism from which it -drew its recruits and no small measure of its wealth and power. This -is what lies at the bottom of Varthema’s mind. The King of Portugal is -destined to become the wealthiest and most powerful of rulers; and the -possession of wealth and the unrestricted exercise of power of every -kind, mental and moral and physical was the ideal of the age and the -reward of its _virtu_. - -At Moçambique, an island off what is still Portuguese East Africa, -the fleet remained fifteen days to take in provisions, and Varthema -crossed to the mainland. He tells us of the blackness of the natives; -of their woolly hair, thick lips, and “teeth white as snow”; of how -the men wore bark and the women leaves as a loin-cloth; and of the -clicking of their speech, like the noises, made by tongue and palate, -with which the muleteers of Sicily urge on their steeds. (So probably -at some time Varthema had visited Sicily). Finding these negroes -“few and vile,” he and five or six others armed themselves, engaged -a guide, and went on an excursion. They saw great herds of elephants -roaming about; but by collecting dry wood, and setting fire to it, -they scared the great beasts away. Yet, in the end, they were chased -by three she-elephants who had their calves with them, and had to make -for a hill in all haste. They escaped with difficulty, and doubtless -had not done so but for the mothers of the herd being hampered by the -calves they found themselves called upon to protect. The party crossed -some ten miles over the ridge and came to cave-dwellers, of whom they -purchased fifteen cows for a little rubbish of European manufacture. -When on the way back to the ship, they heard a great uproar. It came -from the caves, and greatly alarmed them, until they understood from -the signs made by two negroes, who were driving the cows, that they -need have no fear; and their guide assured them that these people were -only quarrelling as to which of them should be the possessor of that -rare treasure, a little bell. - -Sailing from Moçambique between the mainland and San Lorenzo (as -Madagascar was then called), our traveller remarks that in his belief -“the King of Portugal will soon be lord thereof; for two places there -have already been seized and put to fire and flame.” After the Cape -was rounded the fleet encountered terrific storms. The ships were -dispersed by their violence, nor did they sight each other again during -the remainder of the voyage. - -Off St. Helena, the voyagers on Varthema’s ship were scared by the -appearance of whales. “We saw two fishes, each as great as a great -house, which, when on the surface, raise a kind of vizor, I should -say of the width of three strides, and let it down when they go under -again. We were so alarmed at the power of these fishes in swimming -that we let off all our artillery.” He next describes the boobies of -Ascension: birds “so simple and foolish that they let themselves be -caught by the hand ... and, before they Were caught, they looked on us -as at a miracle.... On this island are only water and fish and these -birds.” A few days later, they saw the North Star on the horizon. They -touched at the Azores, and at last reached the beautiful estuary of the -Tagus, and anchored off the “noble city of Lisbon.” - -And now we find our traveller, of whom it might, by the alteration -of a pronoun be said as of the Egyptian Queen: “Nought could excel -his infinite variety,” turned courtier. Don Emanuel, “the Fortunate,” -was staying at his palace opposite the city, and Varthema crossed the -Tagus to kiss the royal hand. So interesting a traveller with so much -to relate was most graciously received and kept at court for some -days. When he conceived himself to be sufficiently established there, -he seized an opportune moment, presented the patent of Knighthood -which the Viceroy had given him, and asked the monarch to confirm it. -It was his majesty’s pleasure to order a diploma of knighthood to be -drawn up on parchment, and then to sign it with his august hand. This -document was impressed with the royal seal, and Varthema having seen it -registered, took his leave, returned to Italy, and “came to the city of -Rome.” - -Julius II. sat on the throne of the Fisherman. That old warrior was -the very man to appreciate the resolution, the resourcefulness, and the -exploit of Varthema. _Papa plusquam Papa_, he had been a mighty man -of valour from his youth upwards; his will of iron was unbroken, and -he retained in full the ardour of earlier years. A man of _virtu_, he -aspired to control and guide the restive Powers of Europe to his own -ends; and to make Rome the centre of the Arts, as well as the political -Mistress of the Western World. If he was Head-bishop of the Western -Church, claiming supreme authority over the Christian world, he was -also a Temporal Prince, a patron of letters and enlightenment. At this -very time, Michael Angelo was busy, by Papal command, adorning the -Sistine Chapel with stupendous fresco and endowing sculpture with all -his own redundant energy and life. Raphael was employed in painting -delicate poems on the walls of the Papal _Stanze_. It was intended -that Rome should become the world’s magnificent capital—a temple to -strike awe and submission into the beholder; its only defect, that -perchance it might shelter an empty shrine. There was as yet little -hint of the terrific revolt of priest and scholar, _lanzknecht_ and -trader, which was preparing beyond the Alps; a revolt which tore away -half the Empire of the Papacy. Little did Theodosius dream of the -overthrow of the sacred city, “urbs æquæva polo,” as Claudian sings by -the barbarians of the North; and as little did Julius deem that it was -destined soon to be sacked by the same rude race. It was nothing to -Julius that Varthema had posed as a renegade: here was a man after his -own heart. Nor were most of the Cardinals indifferent to the discovery -of memorable matters. If an alien faith had been successfully professed -for a laudable purpose so full of commercial possibilities, a few -aves and paternosters, or a slight penance, made amends in that lax -age. Julius gave mandate by word of mouth that Varthema’s account of -his adventures should be duly licensed, and Raphael, Cardinal of St. -George, “Chamberlain of our Most Holy Lord the Pope of the Holy Roman -Church,” “being advised thereto by many other Most Reverend Cardinals -of the Apostolic See,” gave the necessary licence. “Holding the work -worthy, not only of commendation, but of ample reward,” he granted -that the author and his heirs should hold copyright for a space of ten -years. The Cardinal did this on the ground, as he explicitly states -that Varthema had, in his seven years of travel, corrected many of the -errors of ancient geographers, and that the “public use and study” of -his volume would be of service. Such a decision had been impossible -after the Reformation, the Counter-Reformation, and the Council of -Trent. It were hard, even in our days of more single purpose, severely -to censure the sanction to publish the work of a Christian who had -posed as a Mohammedan only to “promote,” as the cardinal says, “such -studies as have always been held in the highest honour.” Varthema had -fully described the products of the East and the localities whence -they came; and such information was not only to the advancement of -knowledge but to the commercial advantage of his time. Had the Papal -Court decided otherwise, the world had lost a priceless record of -virile purpose fulfilled and of remote regions hitherto hardly known or -wholly unknown. The world is indebted to Julius II. and his Cardinals -for their action, whether it be called broad-minded toleration or -latitudinarian indifference. Probably the copyright was no unimportant -matter to the returned wanderer. As has been remarked, we hear nothing -of his having made money by trade in the countries he visited. He was -no vulgar gainer of gold, but one who set out to behold the splendour -of God on the earth and the amazing manners of that prodigy, man. He -dedicated his _Itinerario_ to Agnesina Colonna, a daughter of the -illustrious house of Montefeltro, mother of that Vittoria Colonna whom -Michael Angelo and her own pen have made famous, and the fourth of five -distinguished women in whom learning and ability descended from mother -to daughter. It appeared in 1510.[21] The Dedication informs us that I, -Varthema, “having gone over some parts of the countries and islands of -the east, south and west, am of fixed mind, should it please God, to -make enquiry into those of the north. And so, since I do not perceive -that I am fitted for any other undertaking, to employ what remains to -me of my fleeting days in this honourable task.” Clearly, seven years -of peril by land and sea, the greater part of the time being spent in -tropical heat, had not satiated the curiosity or abated the audacity -of the born-traveller. But no new _Itinerario_ came to tell us of Laps -driving their teams of rein-deer, of the splendours of the Northern -Lights, or of the marvel of the Midnight Sun. - -The _Itinerario_ of 1510 was reprinted more than once in Rome, Venice -and Milan during the following fifty years. In 1515 it was translated -into German; in 1520, it appeared in Spanish; in 1556, in French; and -in 1563, in Dutch. In 1577, Richard Eden gave a truncated and corrupt -form of the work, which he had translated from a Latin version into -English. It was incorporated with his “History of Travayle in the -West and East Indies,” and reprinted for private circulation by the -Aungerville Society in 1884. But twenty-one years before this last -date, the Hakluyt Society had printed a translation from the original -Italian edition by the Rev. Geo. Percy Badger. The modern translation -is faithful and eminently readable; Mr. Badger’s annotations are -invaluable; and John Winter Jones supplied a preface which is a -bibliography. But Richard Eden’s imperfect work necessarily conveys -more of the vigorous diction and quaint archaicisms of the original -because the English style of Elizabeth’s time more closely resembled -that of ordinary Italian prose in the days of Julius II. Yet, readable -and delightful as Mr. Badger’s translation is, Varthema remains known -only to the specialized student; to the general reader, together with -many another ancient worthy of heroic mould, he is unknown, even by -name. - - - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[1] _Mémoires sur les contrées occidentales_, par Hiouen-Thoang, tr. du -chinois par S. Julien, 2 t., 1857–8. - -_Si-yu-ki._ Tr. from the Chinese of Hieuen Tsiang by S. Beal. 2 v. -(Trübners Oriental Series) 1884. - -_Hist. de la vie de Hiouen Thsang et de ses voyages dans l’Inde_ A.D. -629–45, par Hoei-Li et Yen-Thsong. Tr. du Chinois par S. Julien. -Imprim. Impér. 1853. - -_The Life of Hiuen-Tsiang._ Tr. by S. Beal. (Trübner’s Oriental Series) -1878. - -The spelling of Oriental names of persons and places varies widely -in English, as well as in other European languages, according to the -system of transliteration employed. - -[2] The Author possesses a picture of the source of the Ganges, painted -on panel, on the spot, by the late W. Simpson. Fakirs, at least in his -time, were wont, when the end of life drew near, to ascend the glacier, -and terminate the illusions of existence on the snow-mountains above -it. Simpson saw a Fakir climbing up a snow-slope for this purpose. Now, -as well as one can judge from this panel, the lower end of the glacier -from which the infant Ganges is seen flowing would be about as broad as -Hiuen-Tsiang states the source of the river to be. - -[3] Beal’s translation of _Si-yu-ki_ vol. i., p. 70. - -[4] J. Talboy Wheeler, “_History of India_,” London, 1874, vol. iii, p. -261. - -[5] W. H. Johnson, who was the first European to visit Khotan for 260 -years, heard of these cities buried in the sand (1865). - -[6] For recent travels in Eastern Turkestan, see Prjevalsky, N. _From -Kulja across the Thian Shan to Lob-Nor_, tr. E. D. Morgan, 1879. - -[7] A measure which varies in different provinces. It is the Chinese -foot-measure, always shorter than ours. - -[8] The Latin text is printed with a translation by Brownlow, by the -Palestine Pilgrims Text Society. 1892. - -[9] _Memoirs of the Emperor Johangueir_, by himself. Tr. from Persian -by D. Price. Oriental Translation Fund. 1829. pp. 96–104. - -[10] Chaucer, _Man of Lawe’s Tale. Part I., st. i, l. 4_. The -derivation of Satin is obvious. - -[11] Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research, vol. iv. p. 405. - -[12] P’u Sung-ling finished his work A.D. 1679, and saw the trick when -he was a boy. - -[13] Part of the illusion described by Ibn Batûta, known as the Indian -Rope Trick, was seen by the late Professor Middleton, of the South -Kensington Museum, in Morocco, and is fully described by Wilfred -Scawen Blount’s _Diaries_, 1888–1900, p. 86, sqq. The trick has been -much discussed during the last few years, and conjurers confess that -it perplexes them. (“_Baffled magicians_,” _Times_, Feb. 6th, 1919). -Mr. C. R. Sanderson, Librarian to the National Liberal Club, kindly -drew my attention to certain articles and correspondence in popular -journals (_Strand Magazine_, April, 1919; _Daily Mail_, Jan. 7th, 1913, -and a discussion in the same newspaper, beginning Jan. 8th, 1919, and -ending Feb. 19th, 1919). It is a common belief among English residents -in India that some of these illusions are due to hypnotism; but, as a -rule, only people who are capable of great concentration of mind, or -who are in the habit of obeying commands are readily hypnotized, and -then only by direct suggestion, and not, so say the best authorities, -by will-power. Cases of hypnosis at a distance have been recorded; but -the subjects had already been hypnotized by the operator; and, if these -accounts should be proved veridical, telepathy might possibly explain -them. The instance photographed by Lieut. F. W. Holmes, V.C., is a -degenerate form of the trick. If a cinematograph record of a really -fine exhibition of this illusion could be taken, probably the problem -would be solved conclusively. - -[14] A translation of an abbreviated copy of Batûta’s travels was made -by the Revd. S. Lee, and published by the Oriental Translation Fund -in 1829. Since that date the French advance in Algeria led to the -discovery of several copies of the unabridged work; and the “_Voyages -d’Ibn Batoutah_,” translated into French by C. Defrémery and Dr. B. -R. Sanguinette, with the original Arabic text under the translation, -appeared in Paris in 1853, at the hands of the _Société Asiatique_. -There are several examples of the original MS. extant, which slightly -vary from each other, and often differ considerably from the -abbreviation as to matter of fact. - -[15] B and V are to be found controvertible both in old Italian and in -old Spanish. Bartema instead of Varthema is on the title page of more -than one edition of the _Itinerario_. - -[16] Dante, Inferno, ix, 76, 77. - -[17] Varthema gives all the words of the queen in Arabic, phonetically -written, followed by a rendering in Italian. He had learned to speak -Arabic, none too perfectly, but not to write it. - -[18] - -“High on a throne of royal state, which far Outshone the wealth of -Ormuz and of Ind, Or where the gorgeous East with richest hand Showers -on her kings barbaric pearl and gold, Satan exalted sat.”—_Paradise -Lost_, ii. 1–5. - - -[19] Giosafat Barbaro & A. Contarini. Travels to Tana and Persia. Tr. -by W. Thomas, Clerk of the Council to Edward VI., and by S. A. Roy. -8vo. 1873. - -[20] Should not Varthema have written milk? - -[21] A copy, rebound in red velvet, is one of the treasures of the -Library in the British Museum. - - -THE END. - - -FOX, JONES & CO., High Street, Oxford, Great Britain. FOOTNOTES: - - - - - TRUBNER’S - - ORIENTAL SERIES - -_TRUBNER’S ORIENTAL SERIES_ - -POPULAR RE-ISSUE AT A UNIFORM PRICE - -_Demy 8vo, dark green cloth, gilt._ - - - ALBERUNI: =India=. An Account of the Religion, Philosophy, - Literature, Geography, Chronology, Astronomy, Customs, Laws, and - Astrology of India, about A.D. 1030. BY DR. EDWARD C. SACHAU. - - ARNOLD (Sir E.): =Indian Poetry and Indian Idylls=. Containing - ‘The Indian Song of Songs,’ from the Sanskrit of the Gita Govinda - of Jayadeva; Two Books from ‘The Iliad of India’ (Mahabharata): - ‘Proverbial Wisdom,’ from the Shlokas of the Hitopadesa, and other - Oriental Poems. - - BARTH (Dr. A.): =The Religions of India=. Authorised Translation by - Rev. J. WOOD. - - BIGANDET (B. P.): =Life or Legend of Guadama, the Buddha of the - Burmese=; With Annotations, the Ways to Neibban, and Notice on the - Phongyies or Burmese Monks. - - BEAL (Prof. S.): =Life of Hiuen-Tsiang=. By the Shamans HWUI LI and - YEN-TSUNG. With a Preface containing an Account of the Works of - I-Tsing. - - BEAL (Prof. S.): =Si-Yu-Ki=: Buddhist Records of the Western World. - Translated from the Chinese of Hiuen-Tsiang. - - COWELL (Prof. E. B.): =Sarva-Darsana-Samgraha=; or, Review of the - Different Systems of Hindu Philosophy. BY MADHAVA ACHARYA. Translated - by Prof. E. B. COWELL, M.A., and Prof. A. E. GOUGH, M.A. - - DOWSON (Prof. J.): =Classical Dictionary of Hindu Mythology and - Religion, Geography, History, and Literature=. - - EDKINS (Dr. J.): =Chinese Buddhism=: A Volume of Sketches, Historical - and Critical. New and Revised Edition. - - ROCKHILL (W. W.): =The Life of the Buddha and the Early History - of his Order=. Derived from Tibetan works in the Bkah-hgyur and - Bstan-hgyur. Followed by notices on the early history of Tibet and - Khoten. - - HAUG (Dr. M.): =Essays on the Sacred Language, Writings, and Religion - of the Parsis=. - - WEBER (Dr. A.): =History of Indian Literature=. 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