Sumatran Islands

5. Possi Besi Sumatra. Po-ssŭ (波斯).

Possi is above the southwestern countries. Their people are very dark skin and curly hair.

They wrap around their bodies cotton cloth with green (or blue) flowers (or spots), and wear golden circlets on each arm. They have no walled cities.

Their king holds his court in the morning, when he sits cross-legged on a divan covered with tiger skins. When withdrawing from his presence, his courtiers make their obeisance by kneeling down. When going out, the king sits in a hammock (或 兜), or rides an elephant, followed by a body-guard of over an hundred men carrying swords and shouting. The people eat cakes of rice and meat; the food is put in earthenware vessels, from which they help themselves with their hands.

6. Chapisha

Its capital is over 1,000 li square. The king wears a military robe with a golden girdle. He wears a high golden cap and black boots. His courtiers wear clothes embroidered with pearls.

This country produces a lot of gold and precious stones. The people live in houses which have as much as 7 storys. Each story houses a family.

This country is resplendent with light (光 明), for it is the place where the sun goes down.

In the evening when the sun sets, the sound of it is infinitely more terrifying than that of thunder, so every day a thousand men are placed at the gates who, as the sun goes down, mingle with the sound of the (sinking) sun that of the blowing of horns and the beating of gongs and drums.

If they did not do this, the women with child would hear the sound of the sun and would die of fright.

7. Sicily Ssŭ-kia-li-yé (斯加里耶).

The country of Ssŭ-kia-li-yé is near the frontier of Lu-mei.

It is an island (島) of the sea, a thousand li in breadth.

The clothing, customs and language (of the people) are the same as those of Lu-met.

This country has a mountain with a cavern of great depth in it; when seen from afar it is smoke in the morning and fire in the evening; when seen at a short distance it is a madly roaring fire.

When the people of the country carry up on a pole a big stone weighing five hundred or a thousand catties and throw it down into the cavern, after a little while there is an explosion and (the stone) comes out in little pieces like pumice stone.

Once in every five years fire and stones break out and flow down as far as the sea-coast, and then go back again. The trees in the woods through which (this stream) flows are not burned, but the stones it meets in its course are turned to ashes.

8. Mog-reb-el-aksa Mo-k’ie-la (默伽濕).

The king of Mo-k’ie-la reads every day the Scriptures and prays to Heaven.

He wears a turban, clothes of wool (or camel’s hair 毛 皮) ornamented in foreign fashion, and red leather boots.

The religious observances (教 度) are the same as with the Ta-shi.

Whenever the king goes forth, he rides a horse, and a copy of the Book of the Buddha of the Arabs is carried before him on the back of a camel.

Over five hundred cities are under the rule (of Mo-k’ie-la), each with walls and markets. It has an hundred myriad of soldiers who are all regularly mounted.

The people eat bread and meat; they have wheat but no rice, also cattle, sheep and camels, and fruits in very great variety. The sea (on the coast of Mo-k’ie-la) is two hundred feet deep, and the coral-tree is found in it.