Island Nations

Andaman (Yentoman)

When sailing from Lan-wu-li to silan, ships might be driven to Andaman if the wind is not fair.

It is made up of 2 islands:

• one large which is 70 li around
• one small and uninhabited.

Its people are black skinned and eat men alive*. This is why sailors do not anchor here.

This island does not have any iron. So they use conch-shell with ground edges instead of knives.

On this island is a sacred relic, a corpse on a bed of rolling gold (聖跡輦金床).

This body has been there for generations without decaying, and there is always a huge snake guarding it, on whose body hair has grown to the length of two feet.

Nobody dares come near it.

Nearby is a spring, the water of which overflows twice a year and runs into the sea.

The gravel over which it passes, after it has been covered by this water, all turns into gold.

The islanders offer sacrifice to this spring. If copper, lead, iron, or tin is heated red hot and then put in this water, it is changed into gold.

There is an old story told of a trading-ship which got wrecked. The sailors drifted on a bamboo raft to this island.

Having heard of this sacred water, they secretly filled some bamboo tubes with it, then got on a raft.

They were driven by the current of the sea to the country of Nan-p’i, where they presented the water to the king of the country.

Having tested its power, the king of Nan-p’i raised an army to conquer that island.

But before his fleet could arrive there, it met with a violent storm. The ships with all on board were thrown on the shore of this island.

All the men were eaten up by the islanders.

For on this island is the «Strange man of the golden bed» (金床異人), which is silently guarded by the spirit, and no man may come near the place.

ISLANDS OF PEMBAAKD MADAGASCAR K’un-lun-ts’ung-ki (崑崙層期)

This country is in the sea to the south-west and is adjacent to a large island.

It had great p’êng (鵬) birds which so mask the sun in their flight that the shade on the sun-dial is shifted (飛薨日移晷).

If the great p’êng finds a wild camel it swallows it.

• Its feather can turned into a water-butt after cutting off the hollow quill.

The products of the country are big elephants’ tusks and rhinoceros horns.

In the West, there is an island in the sea with many savages.

• Their bodies are as black as lacquer and with frizzed hair (蟠髮).
• They are enticed by offers of food and then caught and carried off for slaves to the Ta-shĭ countries, where they fetch a high price.

They are used for gatekeepers. It is said that they do not long for their kinsfolk.

Malay, Men of the Sea (Orang-laut) Sha-hua-kung (沙華公)

The Sha-hua-kung are pirates and plunderers of the high seas. They sell their prisoners to Java.

Southeast from this country are islands inhabited by savage robbers called Malonu.

When traders are driven to this country, these savages assemble in large crowds. They catch the shipwrecked, roast them over a fire with large bamboo pinchers and eat them.

The chiefs of these robbers bore their teeth and plate them with yellow gold. They use human skulls as vessels for drinking and eating.

The more one penetrates these islands, the worse the robbers are.

4. Country of Women in Southeast Asia

Still farther to the southeast is a country of women. Here, the water constantly flows east, and once overflows, or flows out.

This country has lotus seeds over 1 foot long and peach stones two feet long. The people who get them present them to the queen.

In the olden days, whenever a ship was wrecked by a typhoon there, the women would take the men home with them. But they were all dead within a few days. A cunning fellow stole a boat at night and fled and told the story.

The women of this country conceive by exposing themselves naked to the full force of the south wind and give birth to female children.

4b. Country of Women in the Indian Ocean

In the Western Sea, there is also a country of women governed by a queen where only 3 females go to every 5 males.

All civil offices are in the hands of women. Men handle all the military duties.

Noble women have several male servants. But the men may not have female attendants.

Children get their name from the mother. The climate is usually cold. Hunting with bow and arrows is their main occupation.

They barter with the Iraqis and with Ta-ts*in and T’ien-chu and make several hundred percent in profits.