n, and at the same time to get as
much air as possible in the great heat which prevails in that region. Not
that everybody does this, but only the nobles and great folks, for the
others sleep on the streets.[NOTE 19]]

Now I have told you about this kingdom of the province of Maabar, and I
must pass on to the other kingdoms of the same province, for I have much
to tell of their peculiarities.

NOTE 1.--The non-existence of tailors is not a mere figure of speech.
Sundry learned pundits have been of opinion that the ancient Hindu knew no
needle-made clothing, and Colonel Meadows Taylor has alleged that they had
not even a word for the tailor's craft in their language. These opinions
have been patriotically refuted by Babu Rajendralal Mitra. (_Proc. Ass.
Soc. B._ 1871, p. 100.)

Ibn Batuta describes the King of Calicut, the great "Zamorin," coming down
to the beach to see the wreck of certain Junks;--"his clothing consisted
of a great piece of white stuff rolled about him from the navel to the
knees, and a little scrap of a turban on his head; his feet were bare, and
a young slave carried an umbrella over him." (IV. 97.)

NOTE 2.--The necklace taken from the neck of the Hindu King Jaipal,
captured by Mahmud in A.D. 1001, was composed of large pearls, rubies,
etc., and was valued at 200,000 _dinars_, or a good deal more than
100,000_l._ (_Elliot_, II. 26.) Compare Correa's account of the King of
Calicut, in _Stanley's V. da Gama_, 194.

NOTE 3.--The word is printed in Ramusio _Pacauca_, but no doubt _Pacauta_
is the true reading. Dr. Caldwell has favoured me with a note on this:
"The word ... was probably _Bagava_ or _Pagava_, the Tamil form of the
vocative of _Bhagavata_, 'Lord,' pronounced in the Tamil manner. This word
is frequently repeated by Hindus of all sects in the utterance of their
sacred formulae, especially by Vaishnava devotees, some of whom go about
repeating this one word alone. When I mentioned Marco Polo's word to two
learned Hindus at different times, they said, 'No doubt he meant
_Bagava_.'[3] The Saiva Rosary contains 32 beads; the doubled form of the
same, sometimes used, contains 64; the Vaishnava Rosary contains 108.
Possibly the latter may have been meant by Marco." [Captain Gill (_River
of Golden Sand_, II. p. 341) at Yung-Ch'ang, speaking of the beads of a
necklace, writes: "One hundred and eight is the regulation number, no one
venturing to wear a necklace, with one bead more or less."]