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But on this and a few other similar occasions in the narrative of Marco, it is always proper to notice carefully what he says on his own knowledge, and what he only gives on the report of others. This obscure expression seems to imply, that Aster was one of the four kings in Moabar, or the Carnatic. Now called Betel, and still universally used in India in the same manner.
I have heard from mariners and skilful pilots, much versant in the Indian seas, and have seen in their writings, that these seas contain 12,700 islands, inhabited or desert. In the Greater India, which is between Moabar or the Coromandel coast on the east, round to Chesmacoran on the north-west, there are thirteen kingdoms.
Of a Strange Idol, and of certain Customs and Ceremonies. In the kingdom of Moabar there is a wonderful idol in the shape of a man, all of pure and polished gold, as large as our image of St Christopher; and there hangs about its neck a string of most rich and precious stones, some of which are singly more valuable than the riches of an entire kingdom.
Of the Kingdom of Murfili, and the Diamond Mines, and some other Countries of India. Murfili or Monsul , is five hundred miles northwards from Moabar, and is inhabited by idolaters. In the mountains of this country there are diamonds, which the people search for after the great rains.
This Pinkerton calls Moabar on the margin, and Nachabar in the text, of his dissertation on the Trevigi edition of Marco Polo, very justly observing that it refers to Coromandel, or the Carnatic below the gauts. Harris erroneously substitutes Malabar. Moabar and Madura may have a similar origin, as may Nachabar and Nega-patnam.
By India Minor he obviously means what is usually called farther India, or India beyond the Ganges, from the frontiers of China to Moabar, or the north part of the Coromandel coast, including the islands. Abyssinia, here taken in the most extended sense, including all the western coast of the Red Sea, and Eastern Africa. This paragraph obviously alludes to the Tartar kingdom of Siberia.
Coulam may possibly be Cochin or Calicut, on the Malabar coast as being south-west from Moabar or Coromandel, and having Jews and Christians; as the original trade from the Red Sea to India was on this coast. Camari or Comati, and Delai or Orbai, are obviously the names of towns and districts on the Malabar coast going north from Coulain. Yet Comari may refer to the country about Cape Comorin.
Sixty miles to the west of Ceylon is Moabar . This is no island, but lies on the firm continent, which may be called the greater India. In it there are four kings, the principal one of whom is Sinder Candi, in whose kingdom they fish for pearls, between Ceylon and Moabar, in a bay where the sea does not exceed ten or twelve fathoms deep.
This prince, and the other kings of Moabar, buy their horses from Ormus and other parts, as their country produces none, or if any happen to be bred there, they are ugly and useless . Condemned persons often offer themselves to die in honour of a particular idol; on which the devotee puts himself to death with twelve knives, giving himself twelve deep wounds in various parts of his body, calling out aloud on the infliction of each, that he does this in honour of such or such an idol; and the last of all is through his own heart, after which his body is burned by his kindred.
Hakluyt has explained Moabar on the margin by Maliassour or Meliassour. The country here indicated is obviously the Carnatic, or kingdom of Arcot of modern times, from the circumstance of containing the shrine of St Thomas. The idols mentioned by Oderic, as filling the church of St Thomas, were probably Nestorian images; not sanctioned by the Roman ritual.
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