[72] Cherun or Chairun was one of the three kingdoms contained in South India; the other two were Sholum (Tanjore) and Pundium (Madura).
[73] We know not which to admire or to pity the more: this wonderful old traveller’s accuracy and truthfulness, or the hard fate which gave him the nickname of Messer Marco Milioni. Tardy justice, however, has been done to his memory, and a learned Italian Orientalist, M. Romagnosi, now asserts, that from his adventurous wanderings “scaturirono tutte le speculazioni e teorie che condussero finalmente alla scoperta del Nuovo Mondo.”
[74] Paolino observes, that the term Malabar ought not to be deduced from the Arabic mala, a mountain, and bahr, a coast. And Paolino is right; neither of those vocables are Arabic at all. The word is of Sanscrit origin, derived from malya (मल्य a mountain generally, but particularly the ranges called by us the Western Ghauts), and var (वार, a multitude). The Persian word بار (bar), used in compounds, as Zang-bar, the region of blacks, or Zanguebar, is palpably a corruption of the said var. Thus the original Sanscrit term malaya-desha, the mountain land, became in Persian and Arabic Malbar, or Malibar, and hence our Malabar. A late editor of Marco Polo’s travels might have been more cautious than to assert that “the very term is Arabic.”
[75] Anciently described to be pepper, ivory, timber, and pearls. The three former articles are still produced in great abundance.
We may here notice that Vincent translates ξυλα σαγαλινα, “sandalwood,” and supposes the word to have been originally written σανδαλινα. He is wrong: the tectona grandis, or teak, called throughout Western India sag (σαγ), or sagwan, is alluded to. So also φαλαγγες σησαμηναι is rendered “ebony in large sticks,” and in a note we are informed that it is a corrupt reading, that wood of some sort is meant, but that sesamum is a herb. The σησαμ of the Greeks is manifestly the Indian sisam, or black tree.
[76] It is variously and incorrectly written Dely, Delly, D’illi, and Dilla. The mountain derives its present name from a celebrated Moslem fakir, Mahommed of Delhi, who died there, and is invoked by the sea-faring people of the coast. Its Hindoo appellation is Yeymullay. No stress therefore should be laid upon the resemblance between Mount Delhi and the Ela Barake of the Periplus. The identity of the two places rests, however, on good local evidence.
[77] Varying from eighty to one hundred and thirty-five inches per annum.
[78] Unhappily the banyan has been selected, a tree which, though sufficiently shady when its root-like branches are allowed to reach the ground, is comparatively valueless as a protection against the sun, when planted by a roadside. Also, it is easily overthrown by high winds, for, after a time, the long and tenacious roots that uphold it rot off, and the thin branches of young shoots that cling round the parent stem have not the power to support its weight. A third disadvantage in the banyan is, that in many places the boughs grow low, and a horseman’s head is in perpetual danger.
[79] The usual ferry-boat is a platform of planks lashed to two canoes, and generally railed round. We know not a more disagreeable predicament than half an hour’s trip upon one of these vessels, with a couple of biting and kicking nags on board.
[80] The botanical name of this tree is derived from the Malayalim adeka, a betel nut. The English “jackfruit” is the Portuguese “jacka,” a corruption of the native name chukka.