NOTE 14.—­This custom is described in much the same way by the Arabo-Persian Zakariah Kazwini, by Ludovico Varthema, and by Alexander Hamilton.  Kazwini ascribes it to Ceylon.  “If a debtor does not pay, the King sends to him a person who draws a line round him, wheresoever he chance to be; and beyond that circle he dares not to move until he shall have paid what he owes, or come to an agreement with his creditor.  For if he should pass the circle the King fines him three times the amount of his debt; one-third of this fine goes to the creditor and two-thirds to the King.”  Pere Bouchet describes the strict regard paid to the arrest, but does not notice the symbolic circle. (Gildem. 197; Varthema, 147; Ham. I. 318; Lett.  Edif. XIV. 370.)

“The custom undoubtedly prevailed in this part of India at a former time.  It is said that it still survives amongst the poorer classes in out-of-the-way parts of the country, but it is kept up by schoolboys in a serio-comic spirit as vigorously as ever.  Marco does not mention a very essential part of the ceremony.  The person who draws a circle round another imprecates upon him the name of a particular divinity, whose curse is to fall upon him if he breaks through the circle without satisfying the claim.” (MS. Note by the Rev. Dr. Caldwell.)

NOTE 15.—­The statement about the only rains falling in June, July, and August is perplexing.  “It is entirely inapplicable to every part of the Coromandel coast, to which alone the name Ma’bar seems to have been given, but it is quite true of the western coast generally.” (Rev. Dr. C.) One can only suppose that Polo inadvertently applied to Maabar that which he knew to be true of the regions both west of it and east of it.  The Coromandel coast derives its chief supply of rain from the north-east monsoon, beginning in October, whereas both eastern and western India have theirs from the south-west monsoon, between June and September.

NOTE 16.—­Abraham Roger says of the Hindus of the Coromandel coast:  “They judge of lucky hours and moments also by trivial accidents, to which they pay great heed.  Thus ’tis held to be a good omen to everybody when the bird Garuda (which is a red hawk with a white ring round its neck) or the bird Pala flies across the road in front of the person from right to left; but as regards other birds they have just the opposite notion....  If they are in a house anywhere, and have moved to go, and then any one should sneeze, they will go in again, regarding it as an ill omen,” etc. (Abr.  Roger, pp. 75-76.)

NOTE 17.—­Quoth Wassaf:  “It is a strange thing that when these horses arrive there, instead of giving them raw barley, they give them roasted barley and grain dressed with butter, and boiled cow’s milk to drink:—­

  “Who gives sugar to an owl or a crow? 
  Or who feeds a parrot with a carcase? 
  A crow should be fed with carrion,
  And a parrot with candy and sugar. 
  Who loads jewels on the back of an ass? 
  Or who would approve of giving dressed almonds to a cow?”
      —­Elliot, III. 33.