the tongue alone; for this is
covered all over with long and strong prickles [and when savage with any
one they crush him under their knees and then rasp him with their tongue].
The head resembles that of a wild boar, and they carry it ever bent
towards the ground. They delight much to abide in mire and mud. 'Tis a
passing ugly beast to look upon, and is not in the least like that which
our stories tell of as being caught in the lap of a virgin; in fact, 'tis
altogether different from what we fancied.[NOTE 5] There are also monkeys
here in great numbers and of sundry kinds; and goshawks as black as crows.
These are very large birds and capital for fowling.[NOTE 6]

I may tell you moreover that when people bring home pygmies which they
allege to come from India, 'tis all a lie and a cheat. For those little
men, as they call them, are manufactured on this Island, and I will tell
you how. You see there is on the Island a kind of monkey which is very
small, and has a face just like a man's. They take these, and pluck out
all the hair except the hair of the beard and on the breast, and then they
dry them and stuff them and daub them with saffron and other things until
they look like men. But you see it is all a cheat; for nowhere in India
nor anywhere else in the world were there ever men seen so small as these
pretended pygmies.

Now I will say no more of the kingdom of Basma, but tell you of the others
in succession.

NOTE 1.--Java the Less is the Island of SUMATRA. Here there is no
exaggeration in the dimension assigned to its circuit, which is about 2300
miles. The old Arabs of the 9th century give it a circuit of 800
parasangs, or say 2800 miles, and Barbosa reports the estimate of the
Mahomedan seamen as 2100 miles. Compare the more reasonable accuracy of
these estimates of Sumatra, which the navigators knew in its entire
compass, with the wild estimates of Java Proper, of which they knew but
the northern coast.

Polo by no means stands alone in giving the name of Java to the island now
called Sumatra. The terms _Jawa, Jawi_, were applied by the Arabs to the
islands and productions of the Archipelago generally (e.g., _Luban
jawi_, "Java frankincense," whence by corruption _Benzoin_), but also
specifically to Sumatra. Thus Sumatra is the _Jawah_ both of Abulfeda and
of Ibn Batuta, the latter of whom spent some time on the island, both in
going to China and on his return. The Java also of the Catalan Map appears
t