ich were prevailed on to send tribute (or
presents) to Kublai in 1286, we find _Sumutala_. The chief of this state
is called in the Chinese record _Tu-'han-pa-ti_, which seems to be just the
Malay words _Tuan Pati_, "Lord Ruler." No doubt this was the rising state
of Sumatra, of which we have been speaking; for it will be observed that
Marco says the people of that state called themselves the Kaan's subjects.
Rashiduddin makes the same statement regarding the people of Java (i.e. the
island of Sumatra), and even of Nicobar: "They are all subject to the
Kaan." It is curious to find just the same kind of statements about the
princes of the Malay Islands acknowledging themselves subjects of Charles
V., in the report of the surviving commander of Magellan's ship to that
emperor (printed by Baldelli-Boni, I. lxvii.). Pauthier has curious Chinese
extracts containing a notable passage respecting the disappearance of
Sumatra Proper from history: "In the years _Wen-chi_ (1573-1615), the
Kingdom of Sumatra divided in two, and the new state took the name of Achi
(Achin). After that Sumatra was no more heard of." (_Gaubil_, 205; _De
Mailla_, IX. 429; _Elliot_, I. 71; _Pauthier_, pp. 605 and 567.)

NOTE 2.--"_Vos di que la Tramontaine ne part. Et encore vos di que
l'estoilles dou Meistre ne aparent ne pou ne grant_" (G.T.). The
_Tramontaine_ is the Pole star:--

"De nostre Pere l'Apostoille
Volsisse qu'il semblast l'estoile
Qui ne se muet ...
Par cele estoile vont et viennent
Et lor sen et lor voie tiennent
Il l'apelent la _tres montaigne_."
--_La Bible Guiot de Provins_ in _Barbazan_, by _Meon_, II. 377.

The _Meistre_ is explained by Pauthier to be Arcturus; but this makes
Polo's error greater than it is. Brunetto Latini says: "Devers la
tramontane en a il i. autre (vent) plus debonaire, qui a non _Chorus_.
Cestui apelent li marinier MAISTRE _por vij. estoiles qui sont en celui
meisme leu_," etc. (_Li Tresors_, p. 122). _Magister_ or _Magistra_ in
mediaeval Latin, _La Maistre_ in old French, signifies "the beam of a
plough." Possibly this accounts for the application of _Maistre_ to the
Great Bear, or _Plough_. But on the other hand the pilot's art is called in
old French _maistrance_. Hence this constellation may have had the name as
the pilot's guide,--like our _Lode-star_. The name was probably given to
the N.W. point under a latitude in which the Great Bear sets in that
quarter. In this way many of the po