Volume II Part 167 (2/2)

In Malay Pulo Condor is called Pulau Kundur (Pumpkin Island) and in Cambodian, Koh Tralach. See PELLIOT, _Deux Itineraires_, pp. 218-220.

Fulat = _ful_ (Malay _pule_) + Persian plural suffix _-at_. _Cundur fulat_ means Pumpkin Island. FERRAND, _Textes_, pp. ix., 2.

VII., p. 277.

LOCAC.

According to W. Tomaschek (_Die topographischen Capitel des Indischen Seespiegels Mohit_, Vienna, 1897, Map XXIII.) it should be read _Losak_ = The _Lochac_ of the G.T. ”It is _Lankac.o.ka_ of the Tanjore inscription of 1030, the _Ling ya ssi kia_ of the _Chu-fan-ch_ of Chau Ju-kua, the _Lenkasuka_ of the _Nagarakretagama_, the _Lang-saka_ of Sulayman al Mahri, situated on the eastern side of the Malay Peninsula.” (G. FERRAND, _Malaka, le Malayu et Malayur_, _J. As._, July-Aug, 1918, p. 91.) On the situation of this place which has been erroneously identified with Tena.s.serim, see Ibid., pp. 134-145 M. Ferrand places it in the region of Ligor.

VII., pp. 278-279.

LAWaKI.

_Lawaki_ comes from Lovek, a former capital of Cambodia; referring to the aloes-wood called _Lawaki_ in the _Ain-i-Akbari_ written in the 16th century, FERRAND, _Textes_, I., p. 285 n., remarks: ”On vient de voir que Ibn-al-Baytar a emprunte ce nom a Avicenne (980-1037) qui ecrivit son _Canon de la Medecine_ dans les premieres annees du XI'e siecle. _Lawak_ ou Lowak nous est donc atteste sous le forme _Lawaki_ ou _Lowaki_ des le X'e siecle, puis qu'il est mentionne, au debut du XI'e, par Avicenne qui residait alors a Djurdjan, sur la Caspienne.”

VIII., pp. 280-3.

OF THE ISLAND CALLED PENTAM, AND THE CITY MALAIUR.

The late Col. G.E. Gerini published in the _J.R.A.S._, July, 1905, pp.

485-511, a paper on the _Nagarakretagama_, a Javanese poem composed by a native bard named Prapanca, in honour of his sovereign Hayam Wuruk (1350-1389), the greatest ruler of Maj.a.pahit. He upsets all the theories accepted hitherto regarding _Panten_. The southernmost portion of the Malay Peninsula is known as the _Malaya_ or _Malayu_ country (Tanah-Malayu) = Chinese _Ma-li-yu-erh = Malayur = Maluir_ of Marco Polo, witness the river _Malayu_ (_Sungei Malayu_) still so called, and the village _Bentan_, both lying there (ignored by all Col. Gerini's predecessors) on the northern sh.o.r.e of the Old Singapore Strait. Col. Gerini writes (p. 509): ”There exists to this day a village _Bentam_ on the mainland side of Singapore Strait, right opposite the mouth of the Sungei Selitar, on the northern sh.o.r.e of Singapore Island, it is not likely that both travellers [Polo and Odoric] mistook the coast of the Malay Peninsula for an island. The island of _Pentam_, _Paten_, or _Pantem_ must therefore be the _Be-Tumah_ (Island) of the Arab Navigators, the _Tamasak_ Island of the Malays; and, in short, the Singapore Island of our day.” He adds: ”The island of _Pentam_ cannot be either Batang or Bitang, the latter of which is likewise mentioned by Marco Polo under the same name of _Pentam_, but 60 + 30 = 90 miles before reaching the former. Batang, girt all round by dangerous reefs, is inaccessible except to small boats. So is Bintang, with the exception of its south-western side, where is now Riau, and where, a little further towards the north, was the settlement at which the chief of the island resided in the fourteenth century. There was no reason for Marco Polo's junk to take that roundabout way in order to call at such, doubtlessly insignificant place. And the channel (i.e. Rhio Strait) has far more than four paces' depth of water, whereas there are no more than two fathoms at the western entrance to the Old Singapore Strait.”

Marco Polo says (II., p. 280): ”Throughout this distance [from Pentam]

there is but four paces' depth of water, so that great s.h.i.+ps in pa.s.sing this channel have to lift their rudders, for they draw nearly as much water as that.” Gerini remarks that it is unmistakably the _Old Singapore Strait_, and that there is no channel so shallow throughout all those parts except among reefs. ”The _Old Strait_ or _Selat Tebrau_, says N.B.

Dennys, _Descriptive Dict. of British Malaya_, separating Singapore from Joh.o.r.e. Before the settlement of the former, this was the only known route to China; it is generally about a mile broad, but in some parts little more than three furlongs. Crawford went through it in a s.h.i.+p of 400 tons, and found the pa.s.sage tedious but safe.” Most of Sinologists, Beal, Chavannes, Pelliot, _Bul. Ecole Ext. Orient._, IV., 1904, pp. 321-2, 323-4, 332-3, 341, 347, place the Malaiur of Marco Polo at Palembang in Sumatra.

VIII., pp. 281, n. 283 n.

TANA-MALAYU.

”On a traduit _Tanah Malayu_ par 'Pays des Malais,' mais cette traduction n'est pas rigoureus.e.m.e.nt exacte. Pour prendre une expression parallele, _Tanah Djawa_ signifie 'Pays de Java,' mais non 'Pays des Javanais.'

”En realite, _tanah_ 'terre, sol, pays, contree' s'emploie seulement avec un toponyme qui doit etre rendu par un toponyme equivalent. Le nom des habitants du pays s'exprime, en malais, en ajoutant _oran_ 'homme, personne, gens, numeral des etres humains' au nom du pays: '_oran Malayu_' Malais, litt. 'gens de Malayu'; _oran Djawa_ Javanais, litt.

'gens de Java.' _Tanah Malayu_ a done tres nettement le sens de 'pays de Malayu'; cf. l'expression kawi correspondante dans le _Nagarakretugama: tanah ri Malayu_ 'pays de Malayu' ou chaque mot francais recouvre exactement le substantif, la preposition et le toponyme de l'expression kawi. Le _tana Malayo_ de Barros s'applique donc a un pays determine du nom de Malayu qui, d'apres l'auteur des _Decades_, etait situe entre Djambi et Palemban. Nous savons, d'autre part, que le pays en question avait sa capitale dans l'interieur de l'ile, mais qu'il s'etendait dans l'Est jusqu'a la mer et que la cote orientale a ete designee par les textes chinois du VII'e siecle sous le nom de _Mo-lo-yeou, Mo-lo-yu = Malayu_, c'est-a-dire par le nom de l'Etat ou royaume dont elle faisait partie.” (G. FERRAND, _J. As._, July-Aug., 1918, pp. 72-73.)

VIII., p. 282.

MALACCA.

See G. FERRAND, _Malaka, le Malayu et Malayur, J.As._, 1918. Besides Malayu of Sumatra, there was a city of Malayur which M. Ferrand thinks is Malacca.

VIII., p. 282 n. ”This informs us that Malacca first acknowledged itself as tributary to the Empire in 1405, the king being _Sili-ju-eul-sula_(?).”

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