When the Great Kaan had heard the King’s ambassage he was moved with pity, and sent word to that Baron of his to quit that kingdom with his army, and to carry his arms to the conquest of some other country; and as soon as this command reached them they obeyed it.  Thus it was then that this King became vassal of the Great Kaan, and paid him every year a tribute of 20 of the greatest and finest elephants that were to be found in the country.

But now we will leave that matter, and tell you other particulars about the King of Chamba.

You must know that in that kingdom no woman is allowed to marry until the King shall have seen her; if the woman pleases him then he takes her to wife; if she does not, he gives her a dowry to get her a husband withal.  In the year of Christ 1285, Messer Marco Polo was in that country, and at that time the King had, between sons and daughters, 326 children, of whom at least 150 were men fit to carry arms.[NOTE 2]

There are very great numbers of elephants in this kingdom, and they have lignaloes in great abundance.  They have also extensive forests of the wood called Bonus, which is jet-black, and of which chessmen and pen-cases are made.  But there is nought more to tell, so let us proceed.[NOTE 3]

NOTE 1.—­+The name CHAMPA is of Indian origin, like the adjoining Kamboja and many other names in Indo-China, and was probably taken from that of an ancient Hindu city and state on the Ganges, near modern Bhagalpur.  Hiuen Tsang, in the 7th century, makes mention of the Indo-Chinese state as Mahachampa (Pel.  Boudd, III. 83.)

The title of Champa down to the 15th century seems to have been applied by Western Asiatics to a kingdom which embraced the whole coast between Tong-king and Kamboja, including all that is now called Cochin China outside of Tong-king.  It was termed by the Chinese Chen-Ching.  In 1471 the King of Tong-king, Le Thanh-tong, conquered the country, and the genuine people of Champa were reduced to a small number occupying the mountains of the province of Binh Thuan at the extreme south-east of the Coch.  Chinese territory.  To this part of the coast the name Champa is often applied in maps. (See J.A. ser.  II. tom. xi. p. 31, and J. des Savans, 1822, p. 71.) The people of Champa in this restricted sense are said to exhibit Malay affinities, and they profess Mahomedanism. ["The Mussulmans of Binh-Thuan call themselves Bani or Orang Bani, ‘men mussulmans,’ probably from the Arabic beni ‘the sons,’ to distinguish them from the Chams Djat ‘of race,’ which they name also Kaphir or Akaphir, from the Arabic word kafer ‘pagans.’  These names are used in Binh-Thuan to make a distinction, but Banis and Kaphirs alike are all Chams....  In Cambodia all Chams are Mussulmans.” (E.  Aymonier, Les Tchames, p. 26.) The religion of the pagan Chams of Binh-Thuan is degenerate Brahmanism with