A curious question has been raised regarding the ananas, similar to that discussed under [CUSTARD-APPLE], as in the existence of the pine-apple to the Old World, before the days of Columbus.
In Prof. Rawlinson's Ancient Monarchies (i. 578), it is stated in reference to ancient Assyria: "Fruits ... were highly prized; amongst those of most repute were pomegranates, grapes, citrons, and apparently pine-apples." A foot-note adds: "The representation is so exact that I can hardly doubt the pine-apple being intended. Mr Layard expresses himself on this point with some hesitation (Nineveh and Babylon, p. 338)." The cut given is something like the conventional figure of a pine-apple, though it seems to us by no means very exact as such. Again, in Winter Jones's tr. of Conti (c. 1430) in India in the 15th Century, the traveller, speaking of a place called Panconia (read Pauconia apparently Pegu) is made to say: "they have pine-apples, oranges, chestnuts, melons, but small and green, white sandal-wood and camphor."
We cannot believe that in either place the object intended was the Ananas, which has carried that American name with it round the world. Whatever the Assyrian representation was intended for, Conti seems to have stated, in the words pinus habent (as it runs in Poggio's Latin) merely that they had pine-trees. We do not understand on what ground the translator introduced pine-apples. If indeed any fruit was meant, it might have been that of the screw-pine, which though not eaten might perhaps have been seen in the bazars of Pegu, as it is used for some economical purposes. But pinus does not mean a fruit at all. 'Pine-cones' even would have been expressed by pineas or the like. [A reference to Mr L. W. King was thus answered: "The identity of the tree with the date-palm is, I believe, acknowledged by all naturalists who have studied the trees on the Assyrian monuments, and the 'cones' held by the winged figures have obviously some connection with the trees. I think it was Prof. Tylor of Oxford (see Academy, June 8, 1886, p. 283) who first identified the ceremony with the fertilization of the palm, and there is much to be said for his suggestion. The date-palm was of very great use to the Babylonians and Assyrians, for it furnished them with food, drink, and building materials, and this fact would explain the frequent repetition on the Assyrian monuments of the ceremony of fertilisation. On the other hand, there is no evidence, so far as I know, that the pine-apple was extensively grown in Assyria." Also see Maspero, Dawn of Civ. 556 seq.; on the use of the pine-cone in Greece, Fraser, Pausanias, iii. 65.]
ANCHEDIVA, ANJEDIVA, n.p. A small island off the W. coast of India, a little S. of Carwar, which is the subject of frequent and interesting mention in the early narratives. The name is interpreted by Malayālim as añju-dīvu, 'Five Islands,' and if this is correct belongs to the whole group. This may, however, be only an endeavour to interpret an old name, which is perhaps traceable in Αἰγιδίων Νῆσος of Ptolemy. It is a remarkable example of the slovenliness of English professional map-making that Keith Johnston's Royal Atlas map of India contains no indication of this famous island. [The Times Atlas and Constable's Hand Atlas also ignore it.] It has, between land surveys and sea-charts, been omitted altogether by the compilers. But it is plain enough in the Admiralty charts; and the way Mr Birch speaks of it in his translation of Alboquerque as an "Indian seaport, no longer marked on the maps," is odd (ii. 168).
c. 1345.—Ibn Batuta gives no name, but Anjediva is certainly the island of which he thus speaks: "We left behind us the island (of Sindābūr or Goa), passing close to it, and cast anchor by a small island near the mainland, where there was a temple, with a grove and a reservoir of water. When we had landed on this little island we found there a Jogi leaning against the wall of a Budkhānah or house of idols."—Ibn Batuta, iv. 63.
The like may be said of the Roteiro of V. da Gama's voyage, which likewise gives no name, but describes in wonderful correspondence with Ibn Batuta; as does Correa, even to the Jogi, still there after 150 years!
1498.—"So the Captain-Major ordered Nicolas Coello to go in an armed boat, and see where the water was; and he found in the same island a building, a church of great ashlar-work, which had been destroyed by the Moors, as the country people said, only the chapel had been covered with straw, and they used to make their prayers to three black stones in the midst of the body of the chapel. Moreover they found, just beyond the church, a tanque of wrought ashlar, in which we took as much water as we wanted; and at the top of the whole island stood a great tanque of the depth of 4 fathoms, and moreover we found in front of the church a beach where we careened the ship."—Roteiro, 95.
1510.—"I quitted this place, and went to another island which is called Anzediva.... There is an excellent port between the island and the mainland, and very good water is found in the said island."—Varthema, 120.
c. 1552.—"Dom Francesco de Almeida arriving at the Island of Anchediva, the first thing he did was to send João Homem with letters to the factors of Cananor, Cochin, and Coulão...."—Barros, I. viii. 9.
c. 1561.—"They went and put in at Angediva, where they enjoyed themselves much; there were good water springs, and there was in the upper part of the island a tank built with stone, with very good water, and much wood; ... there were no inhabitants, only a beggar man whom they called Joguedes...."—Correa, Hak. Soc. 239.