Among the Indian states which were prevailed on to send tribute (or presents) to Kublai in 1286, we find Sumutala.  The chief of this state is called in the Chinese record Tu-’han-pa-ti, which seems to be just the Malay words Tuan Pati, “Lord Ruler.”  No doubt this was the rising state of Sumatra, of which we have been speaking; for it will be observed that Marco says the people of that state called themselves the Kaan’s subjects.  Rashiduddin makes the same statement regarding the people of Java (i.e. the island of Sumatra), and even of Nicobar:  “They are all subject to the Kaan.”  It is curious to find just the same kind of statements about the princes of the Malay Islands acknowledging themselves subjects of Charles V., in the report of the surviving commander of Magellan’s ship to that emperor (printed by Baldelli-Boni, I. lxvii.).  Pauthier has curious Chinese extracts containing a notable passage respecting the disappearance of Sumatra Proper from history:  “In the years Wen-chi (1573-1615), the Kingdom of Sumatra divided in two, and the new state took the name of Achi (Achin).  After that Sumatra was no more heard of.” (Gaubil, 205; De Mailla, IX. 429; Elliot, I. 71; Pauthier, pp. 605 and 567.)

NOTE 2.—­“Vos di que la Tramontaine ne part.  Et encore vos di que l’estoilles dou Meistre ne aparent ne pou ne grant” (G.T.).  The Tramontaine is the Pole star:—­

  “De nostre Pere l’Apostoille
  Volsisse qu’il semblast l’estoile
  Qui ne se muet ... 
  Par cele estoile vont et viennent
  Et lor sen et lor voie tiennent
  Il l’apelent la tres montaigne.”
      —­La Bible Guiot de Provins in Barbazan, by Meon, II. 377.

The Meistre is explained by Pauthier to be Arcturus; but this makes Polo’s error greater than it is.  Brunetto Latini says:  “Devers la tramontane en a il i. autre (vent) plus debonaire, qui a non Chorus.  Cestui apelent li marinier MAISTRE por vij. estoiles qui sont en celui meisme leu,” etc. (Li Tresors, p. 122). Magister or Magistra in mediaeval Latin, La Maistre in old French, signifies “the beam of a plough.”  Possibly this accounts for the application of Maistre to the Great Bear, or Plough.  But on the other hand the pilot’s art is called in old French maistrance.  Hence this constellation may have had the name as the pilot’s guide,—­like our Lode-star.  The name was probably given to the N.W. point under a latitude in which the Great Bear sets in that quarter.  In this way many of the points of the old Arabian Rose des Vents were named from the rising or setting of certain constellations. (See Reinaud’s Abulfeda, Introd. pp. cxcix.-cci.)