Henry Yule

“ At a later day Sir T. Herbert calls Odoric "travelling companion of our Sir John"; and Purchas, with most perverse injustice, whilst calling Mandeville, next to Polo, "if next, . . . the greatest Asian traveller that ever the world had," insinuates that Odoric's story was stolen from Mandeville's. Mandeville himself is crafty enough, at least in one passage, to anticipate criticism by suggesting the probability of his having travelled with Odoric (see p. 282, and below) . ”

“ The quantity of intricate climbers is less, and the uniformity of vegetation greater. Treeless spots are confined to craggy islands completely exposed to wind and weather. The general character of the vegetation is Burmese, altered by some unfavourable circumstances, principally the scarcity of running water. But there are also a number of Malayan types not found on the adjacent continent. There are no tree ferns, apparently. There are a considerable number of edible wild fruits. No indigenous coco-palms exist, though, these are so plentiful on the adjoining Cocos and Nicobars. ”

“ Much of the scenery
of the islands is very beautiful.
Animal Life.—This is greatly deficient throughout the whole group, especially as regards Mammalia, of which the species are very few. There is a small pig (S. andaman- ensis) , important to the food of the people perhaps that found on the Nicobars; a Paradoxurus; a rat with spiny hairs (Jf. andam.) ; a small frugivorous bat (Cynopterus marginatus) . A "wild cat" is alleged, but there seems doubt about it. No Quadrumana have been seen. Of birds several species seem peculiar to this group, or to the Nicobars, or to the two together ”

“ By far the greater part of these more distant travels, extending in fact from Trebizond to Ormus, India, the Indian Archipelago, and China, and back again to western Asia, has been appropriated from the narrative of Friar Odoric (written in 1330) . These passages, as served up by Mandeville, are almost always, indeed, swollen with interpolated particulars, usually of an extravagant kind, whilst in no few cases the writer has failed to understand the passages which he adopts from Odoric and professes to give as his own experiences. ”

“ Of late the natives round the colony appreciate quinine highly.
They have nothing whatever approaching to agriculture, nor does their rude shelter of leaves deserve the name of hut. Their chief food in the hot season consists of turtle, wild fruits, and honey, which they procure with great dexterity. In the rains the seeds of an Arlocarpus are a staple, and in the intermediate season the wild hog; when the hog becomes scarce, fish and turtle. They have large appetites : a man will consume 6 Ib of fish at a sitting, and soon be ready to begin again. ”

“ A young man proclaims himself a candidate for marriage by eating a special kind of fish (a species of ray) , whilst marriageable girls wear certain flowers. The young man, if a pig-hunter, abstains from pork for a year ; if a turtle-hunter, from turtle ; and during the probationary year honey is for bidden. The wife provides shelter and mats to lie on, docs the cooking (all food is cooked) , procures water and shell-fish, carries loads, shaves and paints her husband, and tends him when sick. The husband protects his wife, makes canoes, weapons, &c., and sometimes goes in search of food ”

“ Serpentine rock occurs on the east coast south of Port Blair, and on Kutland. A broad strip of indurated chloritic rock extends from Port Blair north-north-east to the east coast of Middle Andaman. Coral reef barriers gird the islands on all sides. The general dip of the rocks is to the westward, and thus the depth of sea on the east is much greater. On the west the corals are continuous and very extensive, forming patches of reef even 20 or 25 miles from shore. ”

“ It is curious that Captain A. Hamilton speaks of an adventurer known to him who made money by quicksilver obtained from these islands, but no confirmation of this has been reported. No fossils have yet been got.
Vegetation.—On the east the prevailing character is of forest trees with straight stems of 100 feet in mean height, often entirely covered with climbing plants. On the west vegetation is not so lofty. Deciduous trees are every where sporadic, and large tracts of them occur, robbing the landscape in the hot season of its tropical richness by their grey sterile aspect. ”

“ The inhabitants of these islands eat men alive. They are black, with woolly hair, and in their eyes and countenances there is some thing quite frightful They go naked, and have no boats. If they had, they would devour all who passed near them. Some times ships that are windbound, and have exhausted their provision of water, touch hero and apply to the natives for it ; in such cases the crews sometimes fall into the hands of the latter, and most of them are massacred. ”

“ Of late years the European detachment of 120 men has sometimes been without a man in hospital. [4] Cattle have been introduced in considerable numbers ; extensive gardens have been planted, embracing many thousands of valuable fruit and timber trees. Mangoes, oranges, pommeloes, pine-apples, and jack-fruit are grown with especial success. The Andaman colony obtained a tragical notoriety from the murder of the viceroy, the Earl of Mayo, by a Mohammedan convict, when on a visit to the settlement, 8th February 1872. ”

“ With both sexes all hair is shaven off, except a narrow strip from crown to nape, which is kept cut close. The men rarely have beard, and in general their eye-lashes are few. The people are neither long-lived nor healthy. ”

“ The names mentioned by Mandeville appear to represent those of the fourth and sixth of the eight, viz., El-Malik el-Ṣáliḥ 'Imádu-d-din, and El-Malik el-Muẓaffar Zainu-d-dín Hájj; and these the statements of Mandeville do not fit.
Among particulars which seem to suggest personal knowledge may be instanced the very good description of the Bedouins (p. 64) , starting from that of Boldensele, but largely and accurately expanded; the use of carrier pigeons in Syria (p. 118) ; the intimation that the Red Sea was frequented by Venetian merchants trading with India (p. 140) . ”

“ The skin is of a lustrous black ; the people, especially the men, are often robust and vigorous, though their stature is low seldom 5 feet, and generally much less. In this respect they can look down on the Cape Bosehmen alone. The general resemblance of countenance ascribed to the people in some accounts is entirely denied by those who have become familiar with them. ”

“ In referring to this passage it is only fair to recognize that the description (though the suggestion of the greatest part exists in Odoric) displays a good deal of imaginative power; and there is much in the account of Christian's passage through the Valley of the Shadow of Death, in Bunyan's famous allegory, which indicates a possibility that John Bunyan may have read and remembered this episode either in Mandeville or in Hakluyt's Odoric. ”

“ A family of three living children is rare. If an adult dies, he is quickly buried, and the tribe migrates 8 or 10 miles for about a month. Some months later the bones, as they dry, are taken up, and these, the skull especially, arc carried about by the kinsfolk for how long we are not told. ”

“ The people, as a rule, are absolutely devoid of clothing. The men s nearest approach to it is to twist a few fibres round the forehead or neck, or below the knee ; the women sometimes make a slight attempt at decent covering with leaves or tails of plaited fibre the last appear ing to be only a modern innovation, and the result of partial contact with our settlement. ”

“ Many fabulous stories again of monsters, such as cyclopes, sciapodes, hippopodes, monoscelides, anthropophagi, and men whose heads did grow beneath their shoulders, of the phoenix and the weeping crocodile, such as Pliny has collected, are introduced here and there, derived no doubt from the popular versions of Solinus. ”

“ Ibn Batuta informs us that a rich silk texture made here was called Zaitûniya; and there can be little doubt that this is the real origin of our word Satin,—Zettani in mediæval Italian, Aceytuni in Spanish. ”

“ This is, in its original form, apparently founded on real experiences of Odoric viewed through a haze of excitement and superstition. Mandeville, whilst swelling the wonders of the tale with a variety of extravagant touches, appears to safeguard himself from the reader's possible discovery that the tale was stolen by the interpolation: "And some of our fellows accorded to enter, and some not. So there were with us two worthy men, Friars Minor, that were of Lombardy, who said that if any man would enter they would go in with us. ”

“ They are said to have no idea of a God or future state, though Colonel Symes in his narrative gives a different account, and per haps information on this point is still too imperfect. We find reference made to their belief that evil spirits cause disease, and to their dread of the ghosts of the dead. ”

“ Indeed, few are believed to pass forty. They suffer especially from fevers, colds, and lung complications ; but also from bowel complaints, headache, tooth ache, abscesses, and rheumatism. The malarious influence of newly cleared jungle affects them as violently as Europeans. ”

“ They arc very fearless, and are formidable archers, shooting strongly and truly with a bow between 5 and 6 feet long, of tough wood, hard to bend. They shoot and harpoon fish with skill, and catch it also by hand ”

“ Vogels, "Das Verhältniss der italienischen Version der Reisebeschreihung Mandeville's zur französischen" in a Festschrift, dem Gymnasium zu Moers zur Feier seines 300jahrigen Bestehens gewidmet vom Lehrer-Collegium des Crefelder Gymnasiums, Bonn, 1882, and his forthcoming "Handschriftliche Untersuchungen über Mandeville's Reisebeschribung," in Vollmöller's Romanische Forschungen; also for the bibliography of editions and translations, up to 1867, Tobler's Bibliographia geographica Palæstinæ. ”

“ Chap. xxii. The court and splendour of the khan, his paper-money, &c. (from Odoric) . Chap. xxiii. Customs of the Tartars, &c. (chiefly from Piano Carpini) . Chap. xxiv. Countries of Asia shortly described (from Hayton) . Chap. xxvi. The lamb-plant (from Odoric) , with much added about Alexander and the shut-up nations, griffins, and other monsters. Chap. xxvii. The royal estate of Prester John (chiefly from the "Letter" of Prester John, with something from Hayton) ; the Old Man of the Mountain (from Odoric) . ”

“ Egypt and Babylon of Egypt; the Sinai desert and convent (these two chapters on the lines of Boldensele; succession of Ayubite and Mameluke sultans from Hayton) . Chaps, v.-x. Palestine and the holy places (the most original part of the work, but based occasionally on Boldensele) . Chap. xi. Syria, various routes from Western Europe; description of Tartary (the steppe country about the Volga,—very good, though expressly not from personal experience) . Chap. xii. On the Saracens and their religion, Mohammed, &c. (partly based on Boldensele) . Chap. xiii. Countries of Asia and Africa ”