are upon the seaboard; but
of those that lie in the interior I have said nothing, because that would
make too long a story.[NOTE 2]

And so now let us proceed, and I will tell you of some of the Indian
Islands. And I will begin by two Islands which are called Male and Female.

NOTE 1.--Though M. Pauthier has imagined objections there is no room for
doubt that _Kesmacoran_ is the province of Mekran, known habitually all
over the East as Kij-Makran, from the combination with the name of the
country of that of its chief town, just as we lately met with a converse
combination in _Konkan-tana_. This was pointed out to Marsden by his
illustrious friend Major Rennell. We find the term _Kij Makran_ used by
Ibn Batuta (III. 47); by the Turkish Admiral Sidi 'Ali (_J. As._, ser. I.
tom. ix. 72; and _J.A.S.B._ V. 463); by Sharifuddin (_P. de la Croix_,
I. 379, II. 417-418); in the famous Sindian Romeo-and-Juliet tale of Sassi
and Pannun (_Elliot_, I. 333); by Pietro della Valle (I. 724, II. 358); by
Sir F. Goldsmid (_J.R.A.S._, N.S., I. 38); and see for other examples,
_J.A.S.B._ VII. 298, 305, 308; VIII. 764; XIV. 158; XVII. pt. ii. 559:
XX. 262, 263.

The argument that Mekran was not a province of India only amounts to
saying that Polo has made a mistake. But the fact is that it often _was_
reckoned to belong to India, from ancient down to comparatively modern
times. Pliny says: "Many indeed do not reckon the Indus to be the western
boundary of India, but include in that term also four satrapies on this
side the river, the Gedrosi, the Arachoti, the Arii, and the Parapomisadae
(i.e. Mekran, Kandahar, Herat, and Kabul) .... whilst others class all
these together under the name of Ariana" (VI. 23). Arachosia, according to
Isidore of Charax, was termed by the Parthians "White India." Aelian calls
Gedrosia a part of India. (_Hist. Animal._ XVII. 6.) In the 6th century
the Nestorian Patriarch Jesujabus, as we have seen (supra, ch. xxii.
note 1), considered all to be India from the coast of Persia, i.e. of
Fars, beginning from near the Gulf. According to Ibn Khordadbeh, the
boundary between Persia and India was seven days' sail from Hormuz and
eight from Daibul, or less than half-way from the mouth of the Gulf to the
Indus. (_J. As._ ser. VI. tom. v. 283.) Beladhori speaks of the Arabs in
early expeditions as invading Indian territory about the Lake of Sijistan;
and Istakhri represents this latter country as bounded on the north and