Volume II Part 48 (1/2)

NOTE 7.--Fa-hian writes of the alms-pot at Peshawar, that poor people could fill it with a few flowers, whilst a rich man should not be able to do so with 100, nay, with 1000 or 10,000 bushels of rice; a parable doubtless originally carrying a lesson, like Our Lord's remark on the widow's mite, but which hardened eventually into some foolish story like that in the text.

The modern Mussulman story at Kandahar is that the alms-pot will contain any quant.i.ty of liquor without overflowing.

This _Patra_ is the Holy Grail of Buddhism. Mystical powers of nourishment are ascribed also to the Grail in the European legends. German scholars have traced in the romances of the Grail remarkable indications of Oriental origin. It is not impossible that the alms-pot of Buddha was the prime source of them. Read the prophetic history of the _Patra_ as Fa-hian heard it in India (p. 161); its mysterious wanderings over Asia till it is taken up into the heaven _Tus.h.i.+ta_ where Maitreya the Future Buddha dwells. When it has disappeared from earth the Law gradually perishes, and violence and wickedness more and more prevail:

--”What is it?

The phantom of a cup that comes and goes?

* * * * * If a man Could touch or see it, he was heal'd at once, By faith, of all his ills. But then the times Grew to such evil that the holy cup Was caught away to Heaven, and disappear'd.”

--_Tennyson's Holy Grail_

[1] _Apollonia_ (of Macedonia) is made _Bolina_; so _Bolinas_ = Apollonius (Tyanaeus).

[2] In 1870 I saw in the Libary at Monte Ca.s.sino a long French poem on the story, in a MS. of our traveller's age. This is perhaps one referred to by Migne, as cited in _Hist. Litt. de la France_, XV. 484. [It ”has even been published in the Spanish dialect used in the Philippine Islands!” (_Rhys Davids, Jataka Tales_, p. x.x.xvii.) In a MS. note, Yule says: ”Is not this a mistake?”--H.C.]

[3] Imprynted at London in Flete Strete at the sygne of the Sonne, by Wynkyn de Worde (1527).

[4] The first Life is thus ent.i.tled: [Greek: Bios ka Politeia tou Hosiou Patrs haemon ka Isapostolon Ioasaph tou Basileos taes Indias].

Professor Muller says all the Greek copies have _Ioasaph_. I have access to no copy in the ancient Greek.

[5] Also _Migne's Dict. Legendes_, quoting a letter of C.L. Struve, Director of Konigsberg Gymnasium, to the _Journal General de l'Inst.

Publ._, says that ”an earlier story is entirely reproduced in the Barlaam,” but without saying what story.

[6] The well-known Kanhari Caves. (See _Handbook for India_, p. 306.)

[7] The quotation and the cut are from an old German version of Barlaam and Josaphat printed by Zainer at Augsburg, circa 1477. (B.M., Grenv. Lib., No. 11,766.)

[8] Ed. 1554, fol. xci. _v_. So also I find in _A. Tostati Hisp. Comment.

in primam ptem. Exodi_, Ven. 1695, pp. 295-296: ”Idola autem sculpta in Aegypto primo inventa sunt per _Syrophenem_ primum Idolotrarum; ante hoc enim pura elementa ut dii colebantur.” I cannot trace the tale.

CHAPTER XVI.

CONCERNING THE GREAT PROVINCE OF MAABAR, WHICH IS CALLED INDIA THE GREATER, AND IS ON THE MAINLAND.

When you leave the Island of Seilan and sail westward about 60 miles, you come to the great province of MAABAR which is styled INDIA THE GREATER; it is best of all the Indies and is on the mainland.

You must know that in this province there are five kings, who are own brothers. I will tell you about each in turn. The Province is the finest and n.o.blest in the world.

At this end of the Province reigns one of those five Royal Brothers, who is a crowned King, and his name is SONDER BANDI DAVAR. In his kingdom they find very fine and great pearls; and I will tell you how they are got.[NOTE 1]

You must know that the sea here forms a gulf between the Island of Seilan and the mainland. And all round this gulf the water has a depth of no more than 10 or 12 fathoms, and in some places no more than two fathoms. The pearl-fishers take their vessels, great and small, and proceed into this gulf, where they stop from the beginning of April till the middle of May.

They go first to a place called BETTELAR, and (then) go 60 miles into the gulf. Here they cast anchor and s.h.i.+ft from their large vessels into small boats. You must know that the many merchants who go divide into various companies, and each of these must engage a number of men on wages, hiring them for April and half of May. Of all the produce they have first to pay the King, as his royalty, the tenth part. And they must also pay those men who charm the great fishes, to prevent them from injuring the divers whilst engaged in seeking pearls under water, one twentieth part of all that they take. These fish-charmers are termed _Abraiaman_; and their charm holds good for that day only, for at night they dissolve the charm so that the fishes can work mischief at their will. These Abraiaman know also how to charm beasts and birds and every living thing. When the men have got into the small boats they jump into the water and dive to the bottom, which may be at a depth of from 4 to 12 fathoms, and there they remain as long as they are able. And there they find the sh.e.l.ls that contain the pearls [and these they put into a net bag tied round the waist, and mount up to the surface with them, and then dive anew. When they can't hold their breath any longer they come up again, and after a little down they go once more, and so they go on all day].[NOTE 2] The sh.e.l.ls are in fas.h.i.+on like oysters or sea-hoods. And in these sh.e.l.ls are found pearls, great and small, of every kind, sticking in the flesh of the sh.e.l.l-fish.

In this manner pearls are fished in great quant.i.ties, for thence in fact come the pearls which are spread all over the world. And I can tell you the King of that State hath a very great receipt and treasure from his dues upon those pearls.

As soon as the middle of May is past, no more of those pearl-sh.e.l.ls are found there. It is true, however, that a long way from that spot, some 300 miles distant, they are also found; but that is in September and the first half of October.

NOTE 1.--MAABAR (_Ma'bar_) was the name given by the Mahomedans at this time (13th and 14th centuries) to a tract corresponding in a general way to what we call the Coromandel Coast. The word in Arabic signifies the Pa.s.sage or Ferry, and may have referred either to the communication with Ceylon, or, as is more probable, to its being in that age the coast most frequented by travellers from Arabia and the Gulf.[1] The name does not appear in Edrisi, nor, I believe, in any of the older geographers, and the earliest use of it that I am aware of is in Abdallatif's account of Egypt, a work written about 1203-1204. (_De Sacy, Rel. de l'Egypte_, p. 31.) Abulfeda distinctly names Cape Comorin as the point where Malabar ended and Ma'bar began, and other authority to be quoted presently informs us that it extended to _Nilawar_, i.e. Nellore.